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Garth C. Edmundson (b. 11 Apr 1892, Pennsylvania; d. 2 Apr 1971, New Castle, Pennsylvania) was an American organist, composer, music director, and music teacher.
Edmundson studied music in Pittsburgh, New York, London, Paris, and at the Leipzig Conservatory. His instructors were Harvey Gaul, Lynnwood Farnam, Joseph Bonnet, and Isidor Philipp.
Edmundson was an organist, music teacher, and director of music in several churches and schools in western Pennsylvania. Edmundson began his career as church organist and minister of music at First Presbyterian Church in New Castle and played special masses at St. Mary Church. He composed hundreds of compositions for organ, including:
Edmundson was a member of ASCAP and Trinity Episcopal Church. He also was a 32nd Degree Mason.
Johann Pachelbel was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.
Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor was a French organist, composer and teacher of the late Romantic era. As a composer he is known for his ten organ symphonies, especially the toccata of his fifth organ symphony, which is frequently played as recessional music at weddings and other celebrations.
Maurice Gustave Duruflé was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher.
Harold Edwin Darke was an English composer and organist. He is particularly known for his choral compositions, which are an established part of the repertoire of Anglican church music. Darke had a fifty-year association with the church of St Michael, Cornhill, in the City of London.
The Orgelbüchlein BWV 599−644 is a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ — one of them is given in two versions — by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three were written between 1708 and 1717 when Bach served as organist to the ducal court in Weimar; the remainder and a short two-bar fragment came no earlier than 1726, after the composer’s appointment as cantor at the Thomasschule in Leipzig.
Kevin John Bowyer is an English organist, known for his prolific recording and recital career and his performances of modern and extremely difficult compositions.
Josef Seger was a Czech organist, composer, and educator. After graduating in philosophy from the Charles University in Prague and studying music under Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, Jan Zach, and others, Seger became organist of two churches in Prague and remained there until his death.
Hendrik Franciscus Andriessen was a Dutch composer and organist. He is remembered most of all for his improvisation at the organ and for the renewal of Catholic liturgical music in the Netherlands. Andriessen composed in a musical idiom that revealed strong French influences. He was the brother of pianist and composer Willem Andriessen and the father of the composers Jurriaan Andriessen and Louis Andriessen and of the flautist Heleen Andriessen.
Walter Kraft was a German organist and composer, best known for his remarkably long tenure (1929–72) at the Marienkirche, Lübeck.
François Daniel Roth is a French organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He was titular organist of the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, from 1985 to 2023, and is currently the emeritus titular organist.
Andreas Nicolaus Vetter was a German organist and composer.
The Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes, BWV 651–668, are a set of chorale preludes for organ prepared by Johann Sebastian Bach in Leipzig in his final decade (1740–1750), from earlier works composed in Weimar, where he was court organist. The works form an encyclopedic collection of large-scale chorale preludes, in a variety of styles harking back to the previous century, that Bach gradually perfected during his career. Together with the Orgelbüchlein, the Schübler Chorales, the third book of the Clavier-Übung and the Canonic Variations, they represent the summit of Bach's sacred music for solo organ.
The Canonic Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch da komm' ich her", BWV 769, are a set of five variations in canon for organ with two manuals and pedals by Johann Sebastian Bach on the Christmas hymn by Martin Luther of the same name. The variations were prepared as a showpiece for Bach's entry as fourteenth member of Mizler's Music Society in Leipzig in 1747. The original printed edition of 1747, in which only one line of the canon was marked in the first three variations, was published by Balthasar Schmid in Nuremberg. Another version BWV 769a appears in the later autograph manuscript P 271, which also contains the six trio sonatas for organ BWV 525–530 and the Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes BWV 651–668. In this later version Bach modified the order of the variations, moving the fifth variation into a central position, and wrote out all the parts in full, with some minor revisions to the score.
These [variations] are full of passionate vitality and poetical feeling. The heavenly hosts soar up and down, their lovely song sounding out over the cradle of the Infant Christ, while the multitude of the redeemed "join the sweet song with joyful hearts." But the experiences of a fruitful life of sixty years have interwoven themselves with the emotions which possessed him in earlier years ... The work has an element of solemn thankfulness, like the gaze of an old man who watches his grandchildren standing round their Christmas tree, and is reminded of his own childhood.
The brilliant scale passages not only represent the ascending and descending angels, but sound joyous peals from many belfries ringing in the Saviour's birth.
Gottfried Ernst Pestel originally Bestel(Berka 1654-1732) was a German composer and organist at Weida, Thuringia and Altenburg south of Leipzig. He was princely organist in the castle church from 1686-1732, after which he was succeeded by Christian Lorenz.
"Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her" is a hymn text relating to the Nativity of Jesus, written by Martin Luther in 1534. The hymn is most often sung to the melody, Zahn No. 346, which first appeared in a 1539 songbook and was probably also composed by Luther. This classic Christmas carol remains popular and has inspired many choral and organ works by other composers.
Camil Anton Johan Van Hulse was a Belgian-American pianist, organist, teacher, and composer.
Gereon Krahforst is a German composer, concert organist, pianist, harpsichordist, and church musician.
Mildred Elizabeth Thomson Souers was an American composer who wrote music for ballets and ballet studios, as well as for chamber ensembles, piano, and voice.
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