GUILFORD — Friends of Music at Guilford (FOMAG) presents its sixth annual Spring Organ Recital at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 25, in the Organ Barn at idyllic Tree Frog Farm in the Guilford countryside.
For this Memorial Day Weekend recital, Ken Olsson has chosen a singularly appropriate program: music by 19th-century Americans. Not only does it suit this national holiday, it also reflects FOMAG's continuing interest in American composers, specifically those associated with New England.
Olsson says it also suits the organization's Guilford Chamber Organ, with a console dating back to the late 19th century, when it was installed in a church in Maine.
The chosen composers are key figures in the history of American music.
Connecticut-born Dudley Buck (1839-1909), one of the first significant American organists, studied in Europe in the 1850s, opened a teaching studio in Hartford in 1867, and in 1869 moved to Chicago. The great Chicago fire destroyed his church, his studio, and his musical library. He moved to Boston, then New York and Brooklyn. His variations on the “Star-Spangled Banner” reflect the exuberant patriotism of the young nation before the Civil War.
W. Eugene Thayer (1838-1889) also studied abroad and taught in Boston and New York. He edited journals for organists, published a comprehensive course of organ study, composed prolifically, and performed frequently as a recitalist.
The next three composers represent the so-called “New England School” at the turn of the 20th century:
Horatio Parker (1863-1919) was one of the most admired American composers of his time, especially for his choral works. As professor of music at Yale, he taught the young Charles Ives, who bridled at Parker's academic strictures.
George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931) was influenced by the “Realist” movement in the arts; his works show the beginnings of a style we can recognize as distinctly American, often drawing on folk sources and indigenous subject matter.
Arthur Foote (1853-1937) became organist at First Church in Boston in 1878 and stayed there for 32 years. A founder of the American Guild of Organists, he was the first major American composer to be trained entirely in the United States. His style, though, is largely European-influenced Romanticism, akin to Wagner and Brahms. He is best-known today for his chamber works.
After the concert, enjoy a traditional barbecue feast before heading away well-fed and with the evening ahead of you.
Tree Frog Farm is on Kopkind Drive off Packer Corners Road in Guilford, approximately 9 miles from the Guilford Country Store.