Music from the "Southern Cross Collection"

Ruminations – Paul Paviour

Marche Héroïque – Christopher J. Luke

These two pieces make an interesting pair in the Southern Cross Collection.  Both composers reflect the English tradition.

Paul Paviour is one of Australia’s most distinguished composers.  After training in London at the Royal College of Music, Paviour emigrated to Australia where he settled in Bathurst in 1969.  His long career includes appointments as Director of Music at Bathurst Cathedral, and as Director of the Goulbourn Conservatorium.  Paviour considers himself to be an all-round composer rather than a specialist: among his list of works there are seven symphonies, and many works for orchestra, and other combinations.

Paviour’s Ruminations on an Anglican Chant by Edward Elgar reflects the composer’s widely-acclaimed gift for improvisation, and one gets the feeling that this is where the origins of the piece lie.  One could put Ruminations in the same line as Basil Harwood’s Three Preludes on Anglican Chants, which have a similar improvisatory feel about them.  The chant which forms the basis of the piece is quoted in full at the top of the score: Ruminations commences in the same key – D Major – but turns to the tonic minor around the halfway point.  Given the richness and intensity of the harmonic language, this piece could almost be adorned with a second subtitle: “ways to walk around D.”  It makes for a scenic hike, or a fascinating study of musical thinking.

The performance directions call for a flexible approach, with generous indications for tempo rubato.  A pastoral atmosphere is evoked by Paviour’s call for a solo oboe.  Rapid build-ups around bars 32 and 44 make for an exciting peak-point to the piece, before the final melting-away in the final page.

The liturgical usefulness of Ruminations is considerable, a testament to the extraordinary craftsmanship on display.  Given the relationship to Anglican chant, one could always have the choir sing the original Elgar chant and use Paviour’s response as an interlude, prelude or quiet postlude.  Furthermore, anyone interested in the art of improvisation would do well to give this piece serious study.

Born and trained in Melbourne, Christopher J. Luke was organist at that Anglo-Catholic shrine, St Mark’s, Fitzroy, for ten years.  Under his able leadership the parish established a choral scholarship program, and acquired the splendid 1938 Harrison & Harrison organ from a redundant church in Oxford, UK.  Luke is well-established as a composer, arranger and clarinettist.  In 2009, Luke took up the position as Head of Music at the Hutchins School, Hobart.  Moreover, Luke has recorded CDs of his own compositions, as well as music sung by the choir of St Mark’s.  The Marche Héroïque was one of the joint second prize winners in the competition.

Luke’s Marche is dedicated to Father Philip Murphy, the Vicar of Fitzroy at the time of Luke’s appointment to Hobart.  The piece follows the familiar structure for a march, which is a simple ternary form where the outer sections exploit the bolder colours of the organ and the middle section contains a contrasting theme painted in softer tints.  This is such a well-established form that will be familiar to devotees of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches, or Herbert Brewer’s Marche Héroïque.  Luke clearly assumes the availability of a large instrument with tubas, although I heard him perform the Marche quite satisfactorily on the organ at Fitzroy shortly after the results of the New Organ Music Awards were announced in late-2008.  The confident craftsmanship on display in this piece means that this sort of reduction of performance means is not only possible, but potentially illuminating.  A useful piece for any grand occasion.

The Southern Cross Collection can be ordered here.