Passacaglia on a Bach Chorale
The Passacaglia, was composed in December, 1963, and is dedicated to the memory of President John F. Kennedy. It was played first on the first anniversary of the President's assassination, November, 1964, by The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Walter Susskind. It has since been performed by many orchestras in Canada, the United States and Europe.
The theme of the Passacaglia consists of the first four bars of the "Passion Chorale" Herzlich thut, a tune originally by Hassler but adapted as a chorale melody and used extensively by Bach in the St. Matthew Passion. One of the several Bach settings for this work is to the words "Be with me Lord when dying,
O part not Thou from me." It is this line that Morawetz had in mind when composing the work. This fragment of the chorale undergoes fifteen variations which are joined so smoothly that the listener feels only two main sections: variations 1 to 8, where the extended melodic lines over the bass are mostly based on the theme itself, and, starting with variation 9, the chorale is combined with fragments of Bach's Three Part Invention in C minor. From there, a crescendo which achieves quite dramatic proportions through many other contrapuntal devices and grows in tension and content until the last bar.
This work holds a unique place among Morawetz's compositions inasmuch as he
intentionally wrote it in the style of Bach's time, though using all the
colouristic resources of the full orchestra. About this stylistic approach he
says,
"Though many famous composers (Schönberg, Webern) and conductors (Beecham, Stokowski) have orchestrated works by Bach and his contemporaries, not too many musicians have been happy due to the stylistic contradiction between the original and the 'arrangement', no matter how colourful. Therefore, I found it much more fascinating to write my own
original work, where I adhered strictly to the harmonies and contrapuntal devices of the baroque period, but inject my own personality as far as orchestral colour and content are concerned. This approach gave me immediately in the opening bars, the possibility to state the chorale very majestically with the trombones, tam-tam and big drum without a 'guilty conscience' that this colour might have been unthinkable for Bach.
"I used to be quite hurt when after practically every performance of this work, members of the orchestra and other professional musicians kept asking me, 'Which cantata or organ work by Bach did you choose for your orchestration?' I am not offended any more; by their innocent question they pay me one of the highest compliments."
