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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Need Easy Organ Pieces? Try This Little-Known Composer

Keven Smith · August 2, 2022

T’S A STRUGGLE that every church organist knows all too well: you want to glorify God and provide beauty to your congregation by playing new repertoire regularly. But you haven’t had adequate practice time since college. You probably have a day job and a family. And easier organ music often doesn’t seem worth playing, musically speaking.

What to do? You could spend hours searching the internet for those rare interesting-yet-playable gems. Or you could head straight to IMSLP and look up Gaël Liardon.

Who Is Gaël Liardon?

Gaël Liardon was a brilliant composer and keyboard player who died in 2018 just two months shy of 45 years old. In terms of digital footprint, he’s a mysterious figure; his Wikipedia page contains only seven sentences and offers no details on his tragic death. Fortunately for us all, this brilliant Swiss musician left behind several dozen fine organ compositions on IMSLP.

On the day Liardon died, his friend and fellow Swiss keyboardist Benjamin Righetti went to St. Francois in Lausanne (where he is the titular organist) and recorded Liardon’s O heiliger Geist, o heiliger Gott. This trio is my favorite of Liardon’s organ works and an excellent introduction to his compositional style:

Finding Liardon’s Music

As I mentioned, many of Liardon’s compositions are available on IMSLP. (The usual warnings about copyrights apply.) He wrote beautiful, sophisticated pieces on many famous hymn tunes. Even as an advanced beginner, I’ve found some of them quite accessible. There are fuguettes that don’t even require pedals.

My organ teacher sent me a link to the trio above just days after Liardon died. It was a poignant experience to “meet” such an impressive composer from my generation yet realize that he had already passed into eternity. I’m puzzled that Benjamin Righetti’s performance has only garnered 11,000 views, especially considering that I’m responsible for several hundred of those.

Keep this talented man’s music alive—and breathe new life into your repertoire—by exploring Gaël Liardon’s compositions today.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: organ, organ repertoire Last Updated: August 2, 2022

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About Keven Smith

Keven Smith, music director at St. Stephen the First Martyr, lives in Sacramento with his wife and five musical children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

For the Upcoming Choir Season!

Last week, I posted an SATB choral setting of the SANCTUS in a ‘contemporary’ style. You might want to consider this piece for two reasons: (1) It’s extremely brief; (2) Free rehearsal videos are available for each individual part. The piece is by Father Lhoumeau.

—Jeff Ostrowski
PDF Download • “Sunday Vespers” (22 pages)

When an organist accompanies Vespers, there is no time to think. It’s one thing after another: Bam – Bam – Bam. And that’s what makes Vespers difficult to accompany; there’s hardly even time to check the key signature for each piece! Therefore, although it’s far from perfect, I’m releasing this 22-page booklet:

PDF Download • SUNDAY VESPERS ACCOMPANIMENT

As time goes on, I will explain why I believe this booklet is important, my hopes for it, and why I selected the official edition, directly from the Vesperale Romanum. In spite of its imperfections, creating this (draft) booklet required much more effort than I had anticipated.

—Jeff Ostrowski
11 July 2022 • FEEDBACK

Someone who heard the CCW plainsong recordings with NOH accompaniment says: “For years I have travelled the continents and crossed the oceans of Gregorian chant in search of a composition and interpretation as sublime as this. The text and the melody are interwoven in a game of mirrors with the interpreters, the singer and the instrumentalist, so as to confer delicacy on the jubilation. The organ is soft, humble. This is what we hear from the singer. These artists have come together to produce beauty. In 1903, Pope Pius X, by motu proprio, restored Gregorian chant in the Latin Church. In his words: Sacred music must possess, to an eminent degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, and notably the sanctity and delicacy of form, whence another characteristic spontaneously results, universality. I stress: the holiness and delicacy of forms result in universality, time and place. That is to say, sometimes the beauty of human hands gently caresses the face of the Eternal.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Far from dreading an encounter with the Iroquois, Fr. Garnier often told us he would be quite content to fall into their hands and remain their prisoner if—while they were torturing him—he at least had a chance of instructing them as long as his torments lasted. If they allowed him to live, it would afford him a golden opportunity to work for their conversion, which was now impossible, since the gateway to their country was closed as long as they were our enemies.

— Father Ragueneau (Jesuit Relations)

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