Jusqu’à peu

For four manuals organ played with four hands (and four feet) – 2022, ca. 18′
Edition Peters

Dedicated to Susanne Kujala & Eckhard Manz

Premiere: 25 june 2022, Bishopchurch St-Martin, Kassel, opening concert of the festival Brandneu 2022, Susanne Kujala & Eckhard Manz.

Program Note:
Adverbial locutions in French, which I often use as titles, often have the wonderful characteristic of containing several meanings. Jusqu’à peu means both until recently and until barely or until a little. The piece is indeed a crisis composition: covid crisis, midlife crisis, Ukrainian crisis, climate crisis. All these crises, which have been lining up in a new pace for the last few years, have comparable characteristics: They emerge slowly, without being expected, and then explode in an uncontrolled way, often leaving a bitter and disillusioning aftertaste, if not despair, death and destruction. The climate crisis will perhaps be the last of these crises, challenging notions of human progress and perhaps leading to ultimate extinction. Written for one of the most sophisticated instruments in human music, the piece remains on the symbolic level of these different crises, but follows the form and spirit of this emergence and decline.

2. Techniques & principles used in the piece and ideas for adaptation on other organs
– The piece was written for the Rieger four-manual organ of the of St. Martin episcopal church in Kassel. The piece can be adapted for other organs, under certain conditions.
– It is written for two musicians on two systems (Mus. A, Mus. B).
– Score written as sounding, which means that the clef with the octava helps to understand where it sounds, but the note on the stave indictates where to play.
– The organ of St. Martin has four manuals and a pedalboard.
– The Recit II (SW.II-Schwellwerk II) has an upper quarter tone keyboard. The quarter tones are indicated in the score by diamonds, which sound a quarter tone higher.Ignore in a organ without quarter-tone
– In the piu presto of part A (meas. 54), played entirely on the register stops, an alternation between right and left hand is required. The alternation is organised logically, so that it is sufficient to move the hands up and down on the different stops. The written stops are those for the Martinkirche organ: adapted for another organ, even if the octaves and sometimes the harmonic notes are different.

Explication for each part, with possibility of adaptation:
– For the part A, one weight/manual is required to press key. The instrumentists play exclusively on the register stops.
– In the piu presto of part A (meas. 54), played entirely on the register stops, an alternation between right and left hand is required. The alternation is organised logically, so that it is sufficient to move the hands up and down on the different stops. The written stops are those for the Martinkirche organ: adapted for another organ, even if the octaves and sometimes the harmonic notes are different.

Techniques & principles used in the piece and ideas for adaptation on other organs
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