| dc.description.abstract | The Afrika Hymnus cycle, three expansive concert works for solo organ by the eminent
South African composer Stefans Grové (1922–2014), is a peerless achievement
in the organ repertoire. Although the composer worked as an organist throughout
his life, he wrote little for the instrument initially, and it seems that it was only his
late-career ‘conversion’ to a style incorporating African elements into his music that
sparked an interest in composing for the organ on a large scale. Despite its originality
and undisputed quality, the Afrika Hymnus cycle remains neglected by performers,
because the demands of these works are such that most may regard them as beyond
their abilities. This article sets out to challenge this notion by highlighting a movement
from each work in the cycle that should be within the reach of many organists at a
technical level – that is, in terms of simply playing the notes. However, even interested
performers may subsequently face what they perceive to be the limitations of their
instruments, since the works seem to require the type of instrument that may be inaccessible
to them. Furthermore, they may also puzzle over some aspects of the scores.
For example, one of the movements has subtle but troublesome textural problems
in need of resolving, while another provides limited and sometimes inconsistent details
about registration. But with the composer’s knowledge of the instrument beyond
doubt, there is nothing in the works beyond what is achievable. The aim of this article
is thus to provide information that could help performers at a very practical level,
and hopefully encourage them to take on the movements in question. For each piece,
some background information is given, including discussion of the instrument for which
it was conceived. Potential obstacles are identified, followed by suggestions for how
to overcome them. Some of these suggestions may seem counterintuitive, even contentious,
such as altering registration or redistributing parts of the score (the latter
of which may seem to go against the composer’s ideas about idiomatic writing), but
there are grounds to argue for their legitimacy. Ultimately, these are solutions and
tools of which all competent organists should maintain a working knowledge. For one
of the pieces, a full registration scheme is provided, and this may be compared to a
recorded performance using that exact registration. | en_US |
