Gary and Elbé's Love Song (2007)
for organ
Dedicated to Gary and Elbé Roberts on their wedding day
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE 953
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Live Recording
Première
First performance: Saturday 24 November 2007; Chapel of St John’s College, Johannesburg, South Africa; Cameron Upchurch organ
Further performances:
1 March 2026; Feather Market Hall, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Herman Jordaan
Programme note
I wrote this short organ solo for the wedding of my good friends Gary and Elbé Roberts on 27 November 2007 in the Chapel of St John’s College, Johannesburg. It is perhaps a microcosm of some of my compositional concerns: Xhosa harmony, asymmetrical rhythmic patterning, falling melodic figuration – but unusually a heptatonic scale. The suggested registration of reeds and strings takes note of Gary and Elbé’s own instruments: oboe and violin respectively. Two tiny quotes from my ‘Piano Concerto No 1 (Rain Dancing)’ towards the end recognise Gary’s instrumental role, so to speak, in mounting its world premiere with the Johannesburg Philharmonic earlier in 2007 when he was artistic director.
for organ
Dedicated to Gary and Elbé Roberts on their wedding day
Publisher: Bardic Edition
Score BDE 953
Available from Goodmusic Publishing
Live Recording
Première
First performance: Saturday 24 November 2007; Chapel of St John’s College, Johannesburg, South Africa; Cameron Upchurch organ
Further performances:
1 March 2026; Feather Market Hall, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Herman Jordaan
Programme note
I wrote this short organ solo for the wedding of my good friends Gary and Elbé Roberts on 27 November 2007 in the Chapel of St John’s College, Johannesburg. It is perhaps a microcosm of some of my compositional concerns: Xhosa harmony, asymmetrical rhythmic patterning, falling melodic figuration – but unusually a heptatonic scale. The suggested registration of reeds and strings takes note of Gary and Elbé’s own instruments: oboe and violin respectively. Two tiny quotes from my ‘Piano Concerto No 1 (Rain Dancing)’ towards the end recognise Gary’s instrumental role, so to speak, in mounting its world premiere with the Johannesburg Philharmonic earlier in 2007 when he was artistic director.
