Program
DR. KRISTINA RIZZOTTO
Concert Organist & Composer
November 16, Sunday, 2 PM
Dallas, TX
PROGRAM NOTES
José de Torres y Martínez Bravo (1670-1738)
Batalla de Torres
Organist, composer, theorist, pedagogue, and the founder of Spain’s first music printing press, José de Torres y Martínez Bravo served as maestro de capilla at the Royal Chapel in Madrid and left an enduring imprint on Iberian keyboard culture. His recognition in Spain as an accomplished contrapuntist, a continuator of the Spanish tradition while open to the innovations of Italian practice, transcended borders, and his work spread to Portugal, Italy, Great Britain, and throughout the Spanish Empire. Many of his compositions are preserved in the archive of Guatemala Cathedral.
Batalla de Torres is a dazzling example of the tiento de batalla or batalla genre, a tradition beloved by Iberian organists since the Renaissance. These “battle pieces” were musical depictions of combat, full of fanfare-like flourishes, trumpet calls, and rhythmic energy meant to evoke the sound and spirit of warfare – musical pageantry at its most vivid.
Hymn: 384b. Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Please sing after the chorale prelude: Hyfrydol sur La Canarie by Kristina Ziema Rizzotto
Verse 1. All
Verse 2. Sopranos and altos
Verse 3. Tenors and basses
Verse 4. All
Hyfrydol sur La Canarie combines the tune to Love Divine, All Loves Excelling with La Canarie, a dance original to the Canary Islands which was brought to Spain in the sixteenth century, and whose choreography features jumps, leaps, and percussive footwork. This melody was famously included in Michael Praetorius’ Terpsichore, a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances published in 1612.
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707)
Praeludium in C, BuxWV 137
Dietrich Buxtehude composed nineteen organ praeludia (or preludes), which form the core of his work and are ultimately considered his most important contributions to the music literature of the seventeenth century. These preludes, together with pieces by Nicolaus Bruhns, represent the highest point in the evolution of the north German organ prelude, and the so-called stylus fantasticus. This style is related to improvisation but is characterized by the use of short contrasting episodes and a free form, just like a classical fantasia. Buxtehude’s preludes were undoubtedly among the influences of his student J. S. Bach, whose organ preludes, toccatas and fugues frequently employ similar techniques. Praeludium in C, BuxWV 137, follows the usual form, alternating between free improvisation and strict counterpoint, with heavy use of the pedal, culminating in a chaconne.
Kristina Rizzotto (b. 1989)
Six Chorale Preludes
I. Morning Has Broken
II. Lobt Gott den Herrn, ihr Heiden all
III. It Is Well with My Soul
IV. Trio on Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
V. Londonderry Air
VI. Puer Nobis
Chorale preludes are liturgical compositions for organ using a chorale tune (a hymn melody) as its basis. The long and rich history of chorale preludes in the Protestant tradition inspired me to start composing my own. All my preludes are created as Gebrauchsmusik, “music for use” in concert or church service, serving both as hymn introductions or solo pieces.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
The Great Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542
Few organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach match the dramatic scope and emotional intensity of the Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542. Known as “The Great” (to distinguish it from the shorter Fugue in G Minor, BWV 578), this monumental pair stands among Bach’s most powerful creations for the organ.
The Prelude likely dates from Bach’s Weimar period (1708-1717), when his organ style was expanding in both technical and harmonic scope. Its sectional design recalls the stylus phantasticus of North German models – particularly Buxtehude and Bruhns – yet Bach’s treatment is more integrated and architectonic. The opening toccata-like gestures alternate with fugal and quasi-improvisatory passages, unified by a persistent rhythmic vitality and an audacious harmonic vocabulary.
The Fugue originated later. He performed this work in Hamburg, where the post of organist at St. Jacob’s Church became vacant in 1720. During a recital lasting over two hours, he demonstrated his skills as an organist and struck his audience dumb. One member of that audience was the former organist Reincken, the eminence grise of the Hamburg music scene, who praised Bach’s improvisational art as follows: ‘I thought this skill had died out, but I see it lives on in you’.
Contemporary reports suggest that the fugue subject, a distinctive, syncopated Dutch melody, “Ik ben gegroet van”, was given to Bach as an improvisational challenge. His resulting treatment transforms this folk-like tune into a contrapuntal monument. The original Ik ben gegroet van follows:
~ Intermission ~
Kristina Rizzotto
Three wedding marches for my siblings:
Şənlik (Jubilation)
Lūgšana (Prayer)
Coronation March
I had the joy of composing the wedding marches for my five younger siblings and their spouses, each thoughtfully crafted taking their personalities and attributes into consideration. They all got to hear them for the very first times as the brides walked down the aisle.
Şənlik (pronounced SHAN-lick) is the Azerbaijani word meaning jubilation, feast, celebration. My brother Augusto’s now wife Rumiyya is Azerbaijani and their wedding took place in their capital city Baku earlier this year. They celebrated it in traditional national style, so I decided to study the characteristics of Azerbaijani folk and classical music to create a piece that could reflect her beautiful heritage. The mother of the bride later informed me that she thought the piece was written by a native, having captured the essence and many of the typical elements. Success!
Lūgšana means prayer in Latvian. My sister Laila Māra has lived in Latvia for about a decade, and she was married in Rīga to her husband Nicholas.
I dedicated Coronation March to my dear sister Smaida Māra and her husband Daniel Massatt on their wedding day, June 20, 2020. The name “coronation” is a play on words – it was the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, queen of heaven, and, the composer couldn’t miss the opportunity for a good corona pun during the pandemic…
Kate Ockleston-Lippa (1855-1940)
Canzonetta, Op. 25
Kate Ockleston-Lippa (1855-1940) was born in Cheshire, UK, and died in Pennsylvania, USA, at the age of 85. She studied music in Leipzig, Germany, but little else is known of her life. She married Henry Lippa and at some point after 1892 moved to the USA, where all her music, which included piano, vocal, and sacred works, was published. Canzonetta, Op. 25, was published in 1911. The opening’s right-hand melody, accompanied by a dancing “oom-pah-pah’, suggests a nonchalant mood, but the music’s tonal journey gathers volume and animation in the middle section and again at the end.
Johann Sebastian Bach
Prelude and Fugue in D Major, BWV 532
J. S. Bach was hired in 1709 by the ruling duke of Weimar, Wilhelm Ernst, as an organist and member of the court orchestra. He was particularly encouraged by the duke to make use of his unique talents with the organ. Indeed, his fame as an organist grew during that period, and he was visited by many students eager to hear him play and learn from his technique. He composed the Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532, during his tenure in Weimar, circa 1710. The Prelude consists of a brilliant and wide-ranging introduction, a contrapuntal Alla breve in Italian style with slowly shifting harmonies, and a slow section that ends with recitative-like passages in preparation for the fugue. The fugue subject shows Bach’s fascinating inventiveness in shaping something extraordinary out of repetitions and sequences (the same material at a different pitch). He was clearly fascinated by this remarkable subject because he reused it in his Toccata in D major, BWV 912, which may date from around the same time.
Kristina Rizzotto
Fantasia
Fantasia came together as a compilation of joyful melodies which kept dancing inside of my head in recent years. I wrote it as it came to me, and the result was an orchestral dance with Slavic flavors, with crisp strings, shepherd’s flutes, a pizzicato waltz with mellow cellos and a singing oboe, culminating in a triumphant gallop of the cellos and basses, when the brass and piccolo gradually join in for a final display of fireworks. Can you hear it all? Also, once more, my Latvian roots made an unplanned appearance after the waltz, as the folk song Kur tad tu nu biji, āzīti manu (Where have you been, my little goat?) spontaneously found its way into this musical extravaganza when the pedal line began to dance.
All my compositions are available as PDF music scores on kristinarizzotto.com/compositions
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