Johann Georg Meister, Mit vollem Werk (opus 11 nr 5)

Johann Georg Meister (1793 – 1870) was a German organist and composer. He was organist in the Stadtkirche in Hildburghausen. His opus 11 is available as a digital copy in the Saxon State and University Library Dresden. I already published five works from Meister’s opus 11. The only one missing until now is number 5 of the collection. The complete title is “Mit vollem Werk und abwechselnden schwachem Manual” (for full organ and alternating soft manual). It is the longest of the six works, and the most ambitious one. The title aptly describes its construction: episodes for full organ alternate with soft sections. The piece opens with a stately introduction, which later is only repeated on the soft manual. After the introduction the piece roughly consists of three parts. The first contains material that is repeated in the last. Like a classic sonata the material has a tonic dominant relation, though it’s actually in the paralel minor tonality. The middle part builds a fugue (though not more than an exposition) on the material of the first part. The sections for full organ contain the musical material that make up the structure of the piece. The sections for soft manual act like the glue that holds these structural sections together. All in all a nice piece.

After the summer holidays I’ll bring all six pieces together in one edition.

The recording was done on the sample set of the Volkmann organ in the St. Augustine’s church in Lipiny by Piotr Grabowski for Hauptwerk.

Score
Meister, Mit vollem Werk und abwechselnden schwachem Manual

Performance

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