S O L O

TOCCATA E FUGA

2004

For Organ

For Alexandra Fol

Completed: 12.08.2004

Duration c.a. 9 min.

World premiere: 07.02.2009, with Alexandra Fol - Organ

Location: Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Canada

Programme Note

(from the Premiere performance in 2009)

Toccata and Fugue exploresan opposition that is central to the reality of our present day. Machine like Toccata is based on calculative principles and develops a total order of pitch rows and rhythmic algorithms. However, an error appears and due to the strictness of machine’s internal laws, this error multiplies in an equally logical way. Trying to escape from the consequences of the error, the machine is readjusting its algorithms to bypass it, but as a result, the error becomes engraved in its basic principles and gets further multiplied. The algorithmic cycles become shorter and the shorter and the harder the machine works to readjust and avoid the next error, the sooner it causes it. Thus led by its ubiquitous laws, the global machine finally freezes in a terrifying scream. Who is going to hear it if everyone is a gear in the mechanism???  …

After the scream is cut off by some unknown and invisible force, a single note remains to sound. This simplest and most beautiful element of music becomes the theme of the Fugue. Although being a rejection of the machine, the Fugue develops all its lines on the same pitch rows as the Toccata and is an equally organized example of order. However it presents a totally different voice. Following the overall structure of Lord’s Prayer, it is a human escape from the imposed laws of the global machine. A prayer for peace...

Martin Georgiev