Nicholas Jackson
(1934)
Organ works
Nicholas Jackson was born in London in 1934. His family assumed that he
would become an architect, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Sir
T.G. Jackson, who had designed many of the famous landmarks in Oxford, such as
the Bridge of Sighs, during the late nineteenth Century. Accordingly, he was
taken abroad to study architecture, and while a boy at Radley College won a
competition with a design for a theatre. Despite having begun the piano at the
late age of fourteen, upon leaving school he switched his attention to music
and became Organ Scholar at Wadham College, Oxford, where he studied musical
theory under Edmund Rubbra. His father was a good amateur violinist who, as
well as being an authority on French history, loved French music. This
enthusiasm was passed on to his son, and was to be a major influence in his
future work as a composer.
It may seem strange that Nicholas Jackson did not begin composing until
he was over thirty, but by then he was able to incorporate into his writing the
complicated techniques used in the French organ music that he performed, such
as the reconstructed improvisations of Tournemire, which often require one hand
to play on two keyboards simultaneously. His first published composition, Mass
for a Saint's Day, was recorded by the choir of Winchester Cathedral and
continues to be sung all over the English-speaking world.
Nicholas Jackson used to haunt the Paris organ lofts of Notre Dame, St
Clothilde and St Sulpice, sitting beside organists such as Pierre Cochereau,
André Marchal, Marcel Dupré and Jean Langlais while they improvised for
services. His 1985 Organ Sonata was inspired by memories of watching
Dupré improvise shortly before the latter's death in 1971. This influence is particularly
evident in the chorale-like melody accompanied by running sixths with which the
work begins, and which reappears triumphantly in the major key during the Finale.
His Variations on 'Praise to the Lord, the Almighty' also aim to
capture something of an improvisation by Cochereau or Dupré, displaying all the
tonal resources of a large instrument. Sometimes, as in Variations 7 and 8, a
canon at the sixth between the outer parts does not quite work, but is then
successful when played at the octave in the repeated section. The work consists
of an Introduction and ten Variations and concludes with a short Fugato and
Toccata. It was composed in 1998 and was first performed in the presence
of Yehudi Menuhin.
It was at an organ recital at Notre Dame in 1971 that Nicholas Jackson
met the French girl who was later to become his wife. His Four Images were
written for her, and were given their first performance by the composer at a
recital in Notre Dame in the following year. The Elevation and Toccata
which appear on the present recording comprise two of the Images, and
are intended to precede and conclude the composer's Mass for a Saint's Day. The
Toccata is in fact based upon the figuration that accompanies a unison
tune in the Gloria of the Mass.
When the Church updated the Liturgy, Jackson wrote his Missa Cum
Jubilo, setting the new words and incorporating into it plainchant as is
heard in the works of Duruflé. He then arranged it as the Organ Mass which
he performed at St Clothilde in Paris, in Chartres and at the Royal Festival
Hall in London. The work was published in 1984, and is dedicated to Jean
Langlais, who had himself written a work for Nicholas Jackson after hearing him
give a recital for Les amis de l'orgue.
Nicholas Jackson began his performing career as a harpsichordist,
playing Bach's harpsichord concertos with his own chamber orchestra. His
interest in early music has continued, and when composing his suite The
Reluctant Highwayman, for trumpet and organ, he fused his two musical
worlds and wrote it in a neo-baroque style. The work was originally performed
by the composer and Maurice Murphy during their tour of Spain in 1985, and also
exists in versions for orchestra and for brass quintet. The material forms the
basis of Jackson's opera of the same name, which had its première at Broomhill
in 1995. The opera is based on the short, sinful life of a 'black sheep' of the
composer's own family, who was hanged as a highwayman in 1751. The libretto was
written by a Colonel from the Ministry of Defence whom Jackson met at a dinner
party, and the opera was completed within the following year. The Colonel later
became Major-General Adrian Lyons, and the short fanfare A Flourish for
Rosemary was written for his wedding.
Nicholas Jackson's Wedding March was composed in the early 1970s
during his time as an organist at St James' Piccadilly, which was then a
fashionable church for weddings. On one occasion a couple were totally unable
to decide upon the music which they would walk out to. In desperation Jackson
played them his own march, deceitfully telling them it was written by Louis
Vierne. To his astonishment they immediately decided this was the piece they
wanted, and so it was as the "Vierne Wedding March" that it received
its first performance.
Jackson's Toccata in G minor forms part of the larger work
Divertissement for Organ, which was commissioned by the 1984 Cardiff
Festival and was first performed there. Of a performance at the International
Organ Festival in Majorca, a critic wrote of it, "Divertissement is
a work with a contemporary accent, brilliant yet sensitive and contrasted. The
rhythmic and audacious March was topped by the Toccata. A true
dissertation of technique and ingenuity".
The influence of French baroque music is also evident in Jackson's Four
Pieces for Trumpet & Organ. The short Prelude, which bears
allusions to a French Overture, precedes a Fugue based upon a
twelve-note row, but which does not restrict itself strictly to serial
disciplines. The Soliloquy is an interlude taken from Jackson's opera The
Reluctant Highwayman, while the Caprice is a short, vigorous
three-part invention composed especially for this recording.
Written for the 1989 Santes Creus Festival in Spain, the Sonata da
Chiesa is a work in three movements, scored for two trumpets and organ. It
opens calmly with a chant for the Kyrie eleison. There follows a
resolute Allegro which then leads into a development section with the
organ playing vigorous semiquavers, above which the trumpets repeat the Kyries
at different pitches and with increasing fervour and intensity. After a
bridging passage the movement concludes with a recapitulation. The second
movement is a setting of the beautiful plainsong hymn Ave maris stella, which
is first played on a flügelhorn and then repeated in canon, with the trumpet
playing an octave higher. The Finale is an extended fanfare which is
also published as the second movement of Jackson's Divertissement for Organ.