Vernon Hoyle has written prolifically for a number of years now, one of a number of composers providing well-crafted and musicianly organ works of fairly modest technical difficulty for (mainly) liturgical use. All but one of the works reviewed here has its roots in hymnody of one sort or another. Any organist who has set foot in a church where liturgy is of the more traditional kind will know how useful such pieces can be – but nothing precludes their use for other purposes.
Hoyle’s musical language is firmly tonal, with a leaning towards periodic phrase structures. He writes fluently within this traditional idiom. Everything is in the best sense pragmatic, and this grasp of realistic practical musicianship extends to the demands he makes on the player. Suggestions for tone colour and manual changes, too, are informed by insight into the tonal resources generally available to the players for whom the music is intended. Most instruments of two manuals and pedals, with around 15–20 stops, will be able to supply what is needed. This is a sensible strategy, and even where specific timbres are requested nothing is beyond adaptation and reinterpretation.
Sortie Joyeuse is the one work where the availability of a characteristic timbre – an arresting solo reed – might be regarded as a necessity. Dedicated to Christopher Wren (not that one), it’s an exuberant march which channels some of the famous trumpet and tuba tunes of the repertoire to good effect. The opening fanfare, based around C major triads, is succeeded by a cleverly moulded melody for the solo stop. The work proceeds essentially by call and response, where the response is sometimes slightly modified. One passing excursion to A flat major apart, the tonalities used remain close to the home key. It’s an effective piece, and the phrase structures allow for easy abbreviation and extension in the heat of the moment – a considerable practical virtue.
Improvisation on ‘Amazing Grace’ is unsurprisingly a more sedate affair, but is again a canny bit of writing. An introduction exploring some key motifs of the melody sets the stage for a statement of the complete melody; the introduction is repeated before a fairly precipitate modulation to B flat (the kind of device you either love or hate) and a more impassioned statement of the theme. A return to the home key, and a recast return of the opening material, is followed by a reflective coda. It’s easy to imagine it being very effective in a funeral or memorial context.
Similarly titled and similarly constructed, Improvisation on ‘Aurelia’ (usually sung to ‘The church’s one foundation’) alternates fluently spun material derived from the melody with complete statements of its individual phrases. The tune seems a bit more recessed here, as the free material occupies more of the piece than the tune itself; but again, it’s all very neatly turned and harmonically cogent.
Prelude on ‘Pange lingua’, based on the great Passiontide plainsong hymn, inevitably introduces a bit of metrical fluidity into the mix, to good effect. Perhaps the junction between tonal and modal approaches to harmonisation isn’t quite negotiated with consistent ease here; the free material opening the piece seems not quite to settle on an identity somehow, and this slight unease continues when the theme arrives. Structurally, too, the work seems more episodic than others in this selection (although it works to a similar template) – but the ending, with its solo statement of the theme, is undeniably effective.
Prelude on the Old 104th has some stiff competition; Parry wrote a magnificent prelude on the tune. Hoyle opts for a more lyrical approach than Parry, using the introduction – thematic statement – varied recapitulation – coda template. There’s a bit more going on in terms of technical demand here – the pedal line is considerably more active and prospective performers need to be on a higher level of technical confidence.
The Festive Postlude on ‘Wir pflügen’ (‘We plough the fields and scatter’) rounds things off, in a sense, where we began, with a march and a solo reed fanfare. There are clear thematic resemblances to Sortie Joyeuse and, like that work, it has a clear sense of the needs of the musicians for whom it is intended.
All of this music is worth investigation by organists in search of useful liturgical repertoire.
VERNON HOYLE: SORTIE JOYEUSE, IMPROVISATION ON ‘AMAZING GRACE’, IMPROVISATION ON ‘AURELIA’, PRELUDE ON ‘PANGE LINGUA’, PRELUDE ON THE ‘OLD 104TH’, FESTIVE POSTLUDE ON ‘WIR PFLÜGEN’
Solo organ
Banks Music Publications
£4.50–£5.50
