Organ - Level 5 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.890713
Composed by John Pitts. Baroque,Christian,Contemporary,Sacred. Score. 20 pages. Intensely Pleasant Music #3424723. Published by Intensely Pleasant Music (A0.890713).
Passacaglia (2000-2012) for Organ - 6 minutes
This piece exists in versions for organ (this one - the original version in 2000) and orchestra (performed by Bristol University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of John Pickard in 2001), and finally a piano duet version completed in 2012.
The theme is based on the ground bass from Bach’s stonking Passacaglia in C minor for organ. However, the implied harmonies of Bach’s original ground bass are treated to some twisted harmonies – where each chord is altered using a system of harmonic substitution - swapping each chord implication for a newly chosen one (Cm=C, Fm=F#, G=A, Dm=A¨, Eb=F and on it goes around the 12 chromatic notes).
Each key therefore has a ‘dominant’ and ‘subdominant’ that are not the actual chords V and IV in that key, so the traditional cadences and chord relationships are supplanted by 12 individual 3-chord relationships – one set of three chords for each of the 12 (now almost exclusively major) keys. In an attempt to recreate the pulls of the traditional tonic-dominant-subdominant relationships, each key then also has a particular mode/scale with particular added notes that are designed to recreate the sense of moving away from and back towards the home chord of that key. This results in a lot of rich added harmonies and some idiomatic voice-leading.
Bach’s original theme in Cm is:
C G - E¨ F - G A¨ - F G - D E¨ - B C - F G - C,
and in the opening statement of the ground bass this has become:
C A - E F# - A B¨ - F# A - D# E - C# C - F# A - C.
There are then 21 variations which modulate through a range of keys, during which the ground bass is constantly re-adjusted to fit the new harmonic areas. It starts in C major, then goes through ‘closely’ related keys (eg A major and A¨ major), and then back to C in variations 6, 9 and 11. This kind of arch then happens again but going through more distant keys before returning to C in variations 18, 19 and the final climactic variation 21.
Leaving aside the structural and tonal nuts and bolts, my aim was to compose a piece that attempts to recapture some of the nobility and beauty of Bach's Passacaglia, with rich added note harmonies, and exuding an exuberant joy.
