Dear friends of classical organ music,
the pipe organ continues to be a very fascinosum among musical instruments. And you can see a continuous change in its esthetic standards in past, today and – I believe – in future too. The violin, the piano, horn, guitar, flute and most of other instruments reached a certain definitive level in construction. But pipe organs in all centuries are unique personalities, not produced in factories, but created by artists – or at least ‘handmade’, in German by the Handwerksmeister, a very traditionel kind of producing in Germany til our days. And if you read in any information “Andreas Arand is a german organist”, I can assure, I’m very proud to be a musician, who plays such marvellous instruments called organs.
And famous compositions have been created for the organ., this biggest and most expensive of the instruments. And moreover: none of any other instrument possesses such an enormous, very demanded repertoire from the 14th to the 21th century! In our region of Europe it is just one of the greatest artists in history of music, Philippe de Vitry, who opened the gate to europeen classical music in 14th century. He created the new style ‘Ars nova’, that means the condition, the prerequisite for the polyphonic style. It’s impossible to imagine Josquin des Prés, Bach, Beethoven, Reger, Schönberg without that achivement of the highest cultural standard in the age of “franko-flämische Schule’. All this happened in the same europeen region (northern France today), which created the gothic cathedrales! The two motets created by Philippe de Vitry are the earliest instrumental compositions in classical music, and they are created for the pipe organ, a so called ‘Orgeltabulatur’. And now a look at the other end of the development. I name John Cage and his composition ORGAN2/ASLSP, dedicated the german organist Gerd Zacher, and actually performed in the german town Halberstadt, a location with very old organ tradition.
S e v e n centuries classical music of the highest level!
For each organist it is an extremly attractive task – and urgent demand – to acquire and practice this splendid repertoire.
…and for the listeners get to know and to hear this music, realized in exemplary interpretations (I very hope it for you!).
Best greetings til next time!
Andreas Arand