Concert Repertoire & Programming Flashcards

When an AGO recitalist programs a work by Jehan Alain, which stylistic feature should they be prepared to communicate to the audience?

Answer: Modal harmonies, ostinato rhythms, and mystical, non-Western influences

Jehan Alain's music, especially 'Litanies' and 'Trois Danses,' features modal scales, driving ostinati, and influences from Arabic and Gregorian music.

A recitalist wants to program Max Reger's 'Introduktion, Passacaglia und Fuge, Op. 127.' What should they know about this work's demands?

Answer: It is one of the most technically and interpretively demanding works in the organ literature

Reger's Op. 127 is among the most challenging works in the organ canon, demanding exceptional technique, endurance, and interpretive depth.

Which of the following is an example of a chorale fantasia, a genre important in North German Baroque organ programming?

Answer: Buxtehude's 'Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,' BuxWV 184

Buxtehude's setting of 'Ein feste Burg' is a chorale fantasia—an extended, sectionalized elaboration of a Lutheran chorale melody.

In programming a recital on a tracker-action organ, which repertoire would best exploit the instrument's characteristic touch response?

Answer: Baroque and early Classical works by Bach, Buxtehude, and their contemporaries

Tracker-action organs offer direct key-to-pipe mechanical response ideally suited to the articulation demands of Baroque and early Classical repertoire.

The organ works of Marcel Dupré are characterized by which compositional feature that makes them particularly challenging to program?

Answer: Virtuosic pedal writing requiring high technical facility

Dupré's organ works, such as the 'Variations sur un Noël' and 'Symphonie-Passion,' feature demanding pedal solos and complex pedal-manual coordination.

Which consideration is most important when programming organ music for a venue with a very long reverberation time (5+ seconds)?

Answer: Select works with clear phrase structure, slower tempos, and less dense textures

In highly reverberant acoustics, slower tempos and less dense textures allow harmonic changes to clear before new material arrives, preserving musical clarity.

Sigfrid Karg-Elert's 'Chaconne and Fugue on BACH' exemplifies which 20th-century Germanic trend in organ programming?

Answer: Continuation of the Romantic virtuoso tradition with late-Romantic harmonic language

Karg-Elert continued the tradition of late-Romantic German organ music, employing rich harmonies and virtuosic writing characteristic of that school.