Category: Organ / Sacred Music
Movements: CATHEDRAL ORGANIST FRANZ-JOSEF STOIBER (REGENSBURG CATHEDRAL) plays:
1: INVOCATIO „VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS“
2: COLOMBA DELLO SPIRITO SANTO
3: L’AQUA DELLA VITA (Adagio sopra „Komm Heilger Geist“)
4: TOCCATA: TEMPESTA DI FUOCO
Duration: 21 minutes
Publisher of notes/sheet music: Schott Music GmbH , ED 21226 , 2011
Instrumentation: Organ with at least three manuals
Solo instruments: Orgel
Introduction: 1st movement: A powerful invocation using the Gregorian Pentecostal hymn "Veni, Creator Spiritus / mentes tuorum visita: / imple superna gratia, / quae tu creasti pectora", with origins in the ninth Century and attributed to Hrabanus Maurus.
2nd movement: The white dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, representing gentleness and love. When Noah sent out a dove it represented the hope of finding land; also present at the baptism of Jesus, the dove is an emblem of peace and reconciliation.
3rd movement: Water is the "fons vivus" (living fountain) of all life, used since the baptism of Jesus to represent the Holy Spirit. In the Apocalypse of John spring water and flowing water stand for the new Church and the renewal of mankind. Flowing figures on the organ frame the quasi-Gregorian variations on the melody of „Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott“ (Ebersberg c. 1480), inspired by the 11th Century antiphon „Veni Sancte Spiritus“.
4th movement: Breath, air and wind have been used as images of the spirit of God ever since the story of the Creation. At Pentecost they come together in a conflagration. Acts of the Apostles 2, 2-4: "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance./ Et factus est repente de caelo sonus tamquam advenientis spiritus vehementis et replevit totam domum ubi erant sedentes; et apparuerunt illis dispertiae linguae tamquam ignis seditque supra singulos eorum et replenti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto." This "Tempesta di fuoco" begins with hovering tonality (over a twelve-note motif) with bright and shrill harmonies, but then leads into the tonic key as the Pentecostal hymn "Veni, Creator Spiritus" shines through - a programmatic credo for the twelve Organ Symphonies, asserting a universal awareness of tonality.
Dedication: Warmly dedicated to the Regensburg Cathedral organist Franz Josef Stoiber
Additional remarks: This Organ Symphony is the last of the 12 organ symphonies, which were composed in the French organ tradition for cathedral and great church organs.
World premiere: 04.07.2012, Regensburg Cathedral
Performers at world premiere: Franz Josef Stoiber plays the Rieger Organ of the Regensburg Cathedral
Records: 2016
