REVIEW: Gijs Boelen: Organ Dance

Gijs Boelen: Organ Dance

Gijs Boelen Plays the Späth Organ of the Katholische Kirche St. Josef

Following the earlier disc of his own compositions for organ, Gijs Boelen has now produced a second CD recorded playing a different instrument (this time the Späth Organ of the Katholische Kirsche St. Josef, Oberhausen-Buschhausen in Germany) and including considerable new material. The opening track, however, you may have heard on Boelen’s earlier CD, where it bore the title Hop Jig, but here it is simply Jig. There are therefore interesting comparisons to be made  between the instruments, and I suspect those with greater expertise on organ music will be better placed to analyse this than I may be. That said, I will admit to marginally preferring the earlier release of this particular number, on account of the fact that the organ in Brielle on the first CD has to my ear a lighter timbre that lends itself to the composer’s folk inflected idiom here. It is entirely possible, however, that others will prefer the more full bodied tone of the German organ. The Jig itself is the first movement of Boelen’s Dance Suite and boasts an immediately memorable central theme, which seems to bear hints of English folk dance, cast in a minor mode over open 5ths, though the harmony fills out considerably as the piece develops. The following Walzer is an interesting and effective movement and, while the title (and booklet illustrations) might hint at Viennese dances of the 19th century, the movement itself has perhaps more in common with the second waltz in Shostakovich’s Suite For Variety Orchestra. It is notable also just how effective it is to hear a waltz on this instrument. Boelen is a fine conjuror of mental images, and this movement quickly reminds us of a carousel or barrel organ, illustrating the composer’s assertion that Light Music has become more and more associated with music for theme parks. The suite concludes with the lively España, with which Boelen clearly relishes the passionate flamenco touches. The echo of the recording venue possibly favours these crisp rhythms a little less kindly, but Boelen is consistently clear and articulate in his playing. It is a highly entertaining conclusion to a suite that would not seem at all out of place orchestrated in a Light Music concert!

In the first of the two (of five) Arabic Sketches included here, the Moorish influence on European music is perhaps more evident than more overtly Arabic influences, but this is possibly so obvious here on account of placing the first next to the Spanish dance that closed the suite. The second work of the two Veil takes a major mode, with the emphasis, as is quite often the case in certain non-Western music, on the linear development of a pleasing melody over a relatively static harmony. The effect of these works being played on the organ demonstrates the composer’s willingness to welcome all musical cultures, perhaps to free the organ from being associated entirely with one religion and region.