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About.Toccata
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1989-05-17
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Toccata for Harmonium by Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877,1933)
Realised for electric keyboards by David L. Quinlan
18 Godfrey Avenue, Roseland, NJ 07068
201-226-1169
This piece is, to the best of my knowledge, in the
Public Domain.
Original copyright by Carl Simon Musikverlag
Berlin W 35, copyright 1913.
Sigfrid Karg-Elert was a German composer, now known mostly
for his organ compositions. However he was prolific and
composed in all genres execpt opera. A large portion of his
works were written for the harmonium, or more precisely,
the Kunstharmonium. This was a far cry from the parlor
organ of the late 19th century. The Kunstharmonium was
one of the early attempts to provide a player at a single
five octave keyboard with a large variety of tone colours
including percussive sounds and the means to control
the dynamics in a highly flexible manner. The instrument
has virtually disappeared. I have not been able to trace
a single Kunstharmonium in North America, and even in Germany,
in recordings in which a Kunstharmonium is called for by the
score, a substitution is often made. Like, would you believe,
a Hammond B3?
The Kunstharmonium was called for in scores by Schreker,
Berg, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Webern and all those guys.
At any rate, the electronic keyboards seem a good medium
on which to realise the music of this highly expressive
lost instrument with its large range of colours. The "New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians" has a fine article
on "Harmonium".
This "Toccata" is the third movement of "Second Sonata in B
flat minor" for harmonium opus 46. It contains a myriad of
stop changes which I could not include, due that we all play
different axes, you dig? That's one problem that MIDI can't
solve yet (ever?). So feel free to color it up as you will.
The division into channels 1 & 2 was purely a matter of
convienience for me and they both should be directed to
channel 1. An organ-like, or sustaining tone is, of course,
the foundation of the piece. I entered all the music in
real-time (not step-time) from a DX7 at about 1/2 tempo,
and used several overlays in some places to produce the
finished piece. A polyphonic capacity of at least 8 voices
is recommended. This was my first attempt to use Music-X
and, candidly, I love it.
That's All Ffolks:
Dave.
March, 23, 1989