Compositions

Syöjätär sometimes referred to as an "ogress", is a character in Finnish folklore.  I have first visited Musiikkitalo in 2021, when its main pipe organ was still in its planning phase. A year later, when I saw its rich specifications that included a quarter-tone division and a wind-regulating mechanism, I decided that I would write something for this instrument. A vague desire leaped into action only when I saw the first digital renderings of the  new organ on the International Kaija Saariaho Organ  Composition Competition’s website. I immediately started working out some ideas, deriving them directly from the organ’s evocative visual design and eclectic specification. The silvery wind ducts, like futuristic roots of a tree, creep up a black box reminded me of the Syöjätär, the character from Kalewala. The tangling pipes, the mystery of a black box filled with pipes, inspired me to compose a visceral, mystical, yet very energetic piece. The special effects, quarter-tone division, and the wind regulation on each division are all essential building blocks in my composition.  I am please that it has received the price of the Finnish Association of Composers as well as the top prize of the competition in the chamber orchestra and organ category. The premiere will take place at the Musiikkitalo in March 2024.

I composed my “Kodály Triptych” for the composition competition organized by the Hungarian Philharmonia, to commemorate the 140^th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2022. Each movement is based on a Hungarian folk song.  The first movement uses the two melodies associated with the Marian hymn “Ah, where are Thou, shining star of Hungary”. The text is a prayer to the Blessed Virgin and King Saint Stephen to protect Hungarians. The second movement is a night prayer of a refugee for shelter and safe return home. The last movement is a canonic fanfare based on “Felszállott a Páva,” the folk song Kodály used in his Peacock Variations for orchestra. This colorful movement  begins with a triple canon, followed by a trumpet fanfare in five-eight meter and toccata-like repeated notes in canonic imitations. The quiet section presents the theme in a free, imitative section with the Vox Coelestis, Flute and the pedal. The five-eight fanfare returns at the end of the work on the full organ. This movement has been selected the winner of the competition by an international jury that included Cameron Carpenter.

My Four Preludes of fugues on B-A-C-H were commissioned by Martin Schmeding for the 2022 Boston Bach International Organ Competition. The candidates are required to play one of them for the semifinals on the Fisk organ at Old West Church in Boston.

These short pieces are loosely based on miscellaneous preludes and fugues of the Well-Tempered Clavier and are in a succession of tonalities that are also based on Bach’s four letters. I have used the theme in different permutations: No. 1 Bb uses the classic B-A-C-H motive, whereas No. 2 in A is based on A-C-H-B, No. 3 on C-H-B-A and No. 4 on H-B-A-C.

The four pieces provide stylistic variety and may be played in a succession as a suite or separately, but I strongly recommend playing them staggered in a mixed program. My registration markings are suggestions only and should be adapted to any given instrument.

No. 1 in Bb

No. 2 in A

No. 3 in C

A rousing toccata and fugue. medium to difficult.

An exciting toccata for solo organ. Difficult.

Organ Book No. 1 is a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach, following the blueprints of his most typical genres for the organ: the Italian concerto, Chorale Prelude, Prelude and Fugue, Passacaglia and Trio Sonata. I conceived these works for historic organs; however, they can be equally well performed on any organ with a quick, responsive action and lively voicing.

The choices of registrations are up to the performer and is expected to vary depending on the instrument. My indications are not to be taken more than suggestions. I personally prefer combination of stops that are fewer in number but rich in color and have a singing quality. These pieces should be played with a lively, speech-like articulation and appropriate tempi to fit the instrument and room.

I composed this four movement symphony as a commission by the Wind Symphony at Concordia River Forest in Chicago for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Each movement is based on a Lutheran Chorale:
I. A Mighty Fortress
II. All Glory to be on God on High
III. With Peace and Joy
IV. O How Brightly Shines the Morningstar
The premier took place at Saint Peter's on April 14, 2019 by the Southern New Hampshire University Wind Ensamble, under the baton of Richard Cook. There was no recording made, so here are some MIDI excerpts:

A three movement concertino for organ and baroque ensemble. It might be played on a small organ without pedals, even on a positive organ. The inspiration came from Handel's brilliant organ concerti. The third movement is Bartokian, quoting the Microcosmos' "Bulgarian Rhythm" No. 6
I. Vivace
II. Air
III. Prestissimo

A three-movement suite that introduces some of the exotic sounds of Turkish and Arabic music: I Azaan, II Meditation, III Sama. Medium to Difficult.

The first movement is called Azaan, a call to worship, recited five times a day in Islamic cultures. The root of the word is derived from adhina meaning to listen, to hear, be informed about. The opening is a call on the solo trumpet stop, reminiscent of the highly ornamented chanting style of the Azaans. It is followed by a rhythmic section and an ornamented middle section on the Cornet stop. The initial Azaan melody returns at the climactic closing section.

The second movement is inspired by improvised instrumental music that accompanies the meditations of the whirling Dervishes of Rumi, or the Melevi. Mevlevi believe in performing their devotional prayers in the form of a dance and musical ceremony known as the Sama which involves whirling. Whirling evokes the circling movement of celestial objects, thus actively partaking in the movement whole creation. The third movement, Sama represents a mystical journey of one’s spiritual ascent through mind and love through deserting one’s ego.

The Arabic Suite should ideally be performed n a three-manual organ with a swell box, preferably with an electric combination system. The opening call is best performed on an assertive solo reed such as an Antiphonal Trumpet, Trompette en Chamade or similar. In the absence of such reed, a bright Gt. Trumpet with or without a Cornet stop can be used, however a darker, high pressure reed would not be ideal. The second movement should be improvisatory with the exception of the middle section. The solo flute of the Great and that of the Swell should be almost indistinguishable in color, but contrasting in volume, resulting in an echo effect. The last movement should be very powerful and rhythmic from beginning to end.

It is perfectly possible to perform the movements separately. Programming the Arabic Suite in a space with long acoustic delay is especially rewarding for the second and third movements.

The Double Concerto for Organ, Percussion and Strings composed in 2016 is, by the composer’s own admission, a pair to Francis Poulenc’s (1899– 1963) Organ Concerto in G minor. Consisting of one single long movement but clearly divided into sections, this composition engages in an intensive dialogue with the musical past: it quotes not only Poulenc’s piece (literally at the end of the work), but makes reference to Witold Lutosławski’s (1913–1994) Concerto for Orchestra, and Béla Bartók’s (1881–1945) Concerto for Orchestra may also have been one of the sources of inspiration. The piece starts as tone-colour music, with open fifths humming on the organ and vibraphone. Gradually in the strings a melody takes shape, which starts a dialogue with the organ, which in turn starts an aggressive solo. Through a series of varied characters and tone colours we arrive at an extremely virtuoso pedal solo, to which the timpani provide a counterpoint, we hear the first two bars of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, there are shreds of themes heard earlier in the movement, and finally a strangely mixed fortissimo chord of seven notes concludes the piece.
Gergely Fazekas (Existentia CD Booklet, Hungaroton, 2019)

A three-movement symphony for solo organ, based on the chorale in Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra.
I. Variations
II. Slow Movement
III. Toccata

[audio mp3="https://karosi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Organ-Symphony-1.mp3"][/audio]

A cantata for solo tenor, organ, percussion, violin and harp, on a poem by Czeslaw Milosz

I composed Orpheus's Harp in the autumn of 2009, at the commission of the Hungarian National Concert Hall. Miłosz' Second Space English poetry book came to my attention in the summer, and after reading the book "Orpheus and Eurydice", I knew that this was what I needed to write music for. Unfortunately, there was no Hungarian translator, but since the Polish-born poet lived in the United States, I decided to set the poem in its original English. I commissioned the first Hungarian translation of Miłosz' poem for this performance.

A mü leírása Magyarul

My composition was inspired by today's concert for many reasons. First and foremost, my inspiration came from Szabolcs Brickner's voice, who is my long-time friend and with whom we started our clarinet studies in elementary school. Szabolcs' bel canto singing style inspired the melodic lines in this composition. Secondly, the organ of the Mupa, whose Sostenuto function plays an important role in my work. When this feature is turned on, the organ keeps on dropping sounds, resulting in wonderful sounds. Thirdly, Miłos' poem is a bit different from my own and that of other musicians. Orpheus is the first recorded musician to bring happiness to the underworld with his music.

In the early stages of my work, the violin plays Eurydice. The voice of the violin encourages Orpheus to enter Hades' gate. We will accompany him in the underworld, the realm of the dark souls, where "pine is the darkness of the fold". Here, Orpheus meets a multitude of dead souls and recognizes many faces of his own past. The organ registers, the bass drum and timpani paint this environment. With his harp, Orpheus sings the " Song of the Earth" against the emptiness of the dark souls. This is at the heart of the work, Orpheus' life-affirming song, evocative of earthly happiness, after which Persephone releases Eurydice under the well-known conditions. The “Song of the Earth” is followed by a rhythmic section, where the xylophone and the violin solo evoke Eurydice's footsteps, which are repeatedly interrupted by Orpheus' listening and finally his turning back. The loss of Eurydice in this verse comes after a somewhat unexpected turn: Orpheus turns around and, as he waited, sees nobody.

The concluding chapter of “Second Space” by the Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Czeszlaw Milosz describes Orpheus' journey in a contemporary setting thus speaking to us directly. Milos' "Second Space" is a dimension where the poet opens a small window and where known things appear unknown to us. The alternation of mysticism, religiosity, light and shadow characterizes Milos' individual poetry, that is echoed in my own twist of tonal musical language and modern instrumentation. The basic mood of the poem is sad: Orpheus (humanity) loses faith in the resurrection, and thus Eurydice (salvation).

To put it simply, the voice of Eurydice is the violin, and the harp is Orpheus’ own instrument. The percussion instruments and the organ together paint the diverse landscapes of the underworld. The tenor narrates through to the end of the composition, mainly as a narrator, but occasionally as Orpheus or Persephone. Special attention is paid to the vibraphone and the crotales line at the beginning of my work, as well as to the use of the organ’s enclosed divisions (Positiv and Schwellerwerk). This sound effect was brought to my attention by my colleague Laszlo Fassang at the completion of the Mupa organ

I wrote this piece in memory of my clarinet teacher, Thomas Friedli who died in a tragic mountaineering accident that year. In this recording, I play the clarinet part and Christa Rakich plays the Richards & Fowkes organ at First Lutheran in Boston.

This piece has been selected as the compulsory piece for the 2020  AGO National Young Artist Competition in Atlanta, GA. It is inspired by the music of Béla Bartók, especially his percussive Piano Sonata. I originally planned to compose two or three additional movements to have a complete sonata, but I abandoned the project. My Symphony on a Chorale by Béla Bartók (2012), however, has three movements.

This piece was commissioned by Laszlo Fassang for the opening season of the new organ at the Bartók Béla National Concert Hall in Budapest in 2007. The work has three movements, the first is a Ligeti-esque soundscape where the organ plays an integral part of the orchestra, opening with the lowest, 32' pipes of the organ along with Tuba, contrabassoon and contrabass clarinet. It was broadcast on American Public Media's Pipedreams in 2008. The show can be listened here.

Consonances is a concerto for organ and symphonic orchestra. I need to say this, because many people refer to it wrongly as my organ concerto. It was composed for a solo recital in the national concert hall in Budapest in the summer of 2007. I penned the first sketches in September 2006 and finished my orchestration in May 2007, one month before the concert, not having learned the organ part yet. The piece is twenty-five minutes long, in three movements that are divided with organ cadenzas.

The title consonances, as opposed to the lack of dissonances rather describes the blend, the “together-sounding” between the organ and the orchestra. In the first movement the organ is completely diluted in the massive orchestral sound, sometimes almost remains unnoticed. During his movement which is in fact a big crescendo, all the instruments are playing at the same time. The inspiration came from Ligeti’s requiem from the Kyrie movement, but rather than imitating the techniques of the recently died great Hungarian composer, I assigned each groups of instruments distinct motives to create the desired chaos-effect. In my orchestration I used instruments that match the sound of the new Muhlhausen organ at the symphony hall: right at the beginning of the piece the lowest pipes of the organ (bombard and open diaphason 32, and other 16’ reed pipes) play a dialogue with the muted tuba, contrabassoon, and the rarely used contra-bass clarinet. You might as well catch the bass drum tremolo and the timpani roll. The whole first movement ends with an organ cadenza with flute and clarinet registration in dialogue with the muted trumpet.

The second movement, or second type of consonances, can be described as chamber music in three sections, in a classical A B A variant form. The first and third sections are rhythmical and virtuosic scherzi where the organ is a part of a smaller chamber ensemble of percussion, strings and woodwinds. The texture is much more transparent than in the first movement, even though I use similar motives throughout the whol piece.. The B section is a calm and noble chorale fantasy based on the chorale “Christ Lag in Todesbanden” that appears as a slowly paced fanfare on the trumpets. You might not catch the melody, for the priority between the musical layers are not set by the composer: the listener is to choose what to listen to.

The beginning of the third movement presents the organ as a solo instrument for the first time. An improvised, virtuosic organ cadenza introduces a new pedal ostinato that is taken by the orchestra and driven to an orchestral climax. A new theme is then developed by the organ, bassoons and trombones over a rhythmic section on the kongo and tom-tom drums which leeds to a huge orchestral crescendo with various orchestral effects while the organ and the brass section are taking the lead. The climax result in repeated unison fifths played by the whole orchestra, with organ ornamentation above it. It is purely minimal music, which gives the whole piece a tonal definition, an archaic reference. The themes and the ambiance of the choral fantasy of the second movement come in mind in a reconciliation of themes, in consonances.

I wrote this challenging piece for the 2002 Dublin International Organ Competition, where I won the first and audience prize. I also played my "Toccata on a Hungarian Folk Tune," which Guy Bovet loved, who was in the jury.

One of my earliest organ pieces, based on a Hungarian folk melody. I actually prepared this as an improvisation for a concert at the Conservatoire de Genève and later wrote it down from the recording.