This Sunday+

What a glorious day for joyful music! Before each service today, we’ll hear Palestrina’s Easter anthem, Haec est dies (“This is the day”), originally for unaccompanied 8-part choir, arranged for brass quartet and organ. As for our Closing Organ Voluntary, Widor’s famous Toccata, one important question … how fast? This exciting piece is loved by many, all over the world, and for good reason. Widor himself gave the first performance of the entire Symphonie V in 1879 in Paris, on the organ of the Palais du Trocadéro (which used to sit atop the hill opposite the Eiffel Tower). Very soon after the premiere of this piece (and when other organists began playing it), Widor grew extremely disappointed, as it was being played too fast. He intended it to be played at a grand and stately tempo, one which would allow the very detailed indications of articulation (accents, staccatos, etc.) to be heard. The controversy continues, 146 years later!