PHOENIX Processional
for organ
by
Dan Locklair (b. 1949)
Program Note
PHOENIX Processional for solo organ comes from a larger composition entitled PHOENIX Fanfare and Processional for organ, brass quartet and percussion. The original three minute PHOENIX Fanfare was commissioned in 1979 by Union Theological Seminary in New York City for the 3 February 1980 reopening and dedication of Union’s renovated James Memorial Chapel. It was conceived of as an antiphonal composition, with the original brass sextet placed at the rear of the Chapel and the organ and percussion at the front of the Chapel. In August of 1985, the scoring of PHOENIX Fanfare was reduced to brass quartet and joined with a newly composed processional to become PHOENIX Fanfare and Processional. It was first performed at the September, 1985, Opening Convocation of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where I serve as Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music. Though the composition has had many performances in its full version (including use for many years at graduation exercises of The Juilliard School in New York City), many organists wrote to ask me if I might consider creating a solo organ version of the processional. In 1996 I did so. Now both versions, the original organ/brass/percussion one and the solo organ version of the processional only, are published. The complete PHOENIX Fanfare and Processional is published by Subito Music Publishing and the solo organ PHOENIX Processional is published by Ricordi (Hal Leonard, distributors). In both versions, Processional is quite similar. Its primary melodic material – a stately melodic line – is regularly passed back and forth between the organ and the brass. After eventually culminating in a climatic section, a middle section for organ and glockenspiel emerges. In the solo organ version, organ chimes (when available) are joined with the registration to produce an affect similar to the full version. The opening part of the processional soon returns and the piece ultimately ends with the power of full organ.
Dan Locklair
Winston-Salem, North Carolina