Kiyo Watanabe Award-winning organist and respected composer Kiyo Watanabe is acclaimed as a performer throughout the U.S., Europe and abroad for his comprehensive musicianship, technical prowess and skilled interpretations. A native of Tokyo, Japan, he has received the 1990 Claire Coci Award and the 1991 Bronson Ragan Award from Manhattan School of Music. In addition, he is a respected, published composer of music for organ, flute, piano, handbells, and choir. Kiyo holds a bachelor’s degree in organ performance from Baylor University and a master’s degree in organ performance and a doctor of musical arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. Kiyo has served as the organist at First United Methodist Church (FUMC) in Wichita Falls since November 1996 and as artistic director of the Prothro Organ Concert Series at FUMC since its inception in 2004.

Although Franck composed traditional church music, he gained early recognition for his organ improvisations, played mostly following church services; the great Romantic Hungarian pianist and composer Franz Liszt compared one of Franck’s improvisation-based pieces to Bach’s keyboard masterpieces. Franck died at age 68 after colliding with the pole of a horse omnibus in Paris. Franck’s organ works are symphonic in structure and color, combine Classic forms with stylistic elements of the Romantic era, and clearly are predecessors of the symphonic works of Vierne and Marcel Dupré. As Franck broadened the keyboard repertoire, he did not hesitate to make full use of the 19th century organ, which, by then, had evolved into a massive instrument. In addition to his organ works, Franck wrote for symphony, solo piano, piano quintet, and ballet. The three chorales (Trois Chorals) were completed in 1891 and published posthumously. Freely conceived fantasias featuring noble themes, they were Franck’s last testament, a culmination of his life as a composer. Chorale No. 3 in A minor is a brilliant melding of Bach’s chorales and preludes, Liszt’s virtuosity, and Wagner’s lyricism. The opening toccata-like allegro is juxtaposed with statements of the chorale theme, then a new theme enters and is passed from key to key and register to register. Opening flourishes reappear, and the piece builds in intensity as the chorale theme rises, carrying the work to a majestic conclusion.

Thou art the Rock

Kiyo Watanabe, Organ Friday, January 15, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

First United Methodist Church • Wichita Falls, Texas

Thursday,October 6, 2011Cameron Carpenter

Thursday,October 14, 2010

John andMarianne Weaver

E l i z A b E t hP E r K i N s

P r o t h r oOrgan Concert Series

U P C o M i N G

Sunday, March 28, 2010 • 3:00 p.m.13th Annual Palm sunday organ Concert

organ solo/Duet ConcertFloral Heights United Methodist Church

Wichita Falls, Texas

Sunday, April 18, 2010 • 3:00 p.m.organ solo/Duet Concert

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic ChurchGarland, Texas

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 • 11:30 a.m.lunchtime organ Concert

organ solo/Duet ConcertIzumi Hall

Osaka, Japan

by Kiyo & Chiemi Watanabe

OrganistAbout the

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TRIM .75 (3/4 inch down) FROM BOTTOM OF THE BORDER OF UPCOMING ELIZABETH PERKINS PROTHRO CONCERTS

“tu es petra” (from Esquisses Byzantines) Henri Mulet Born in Montmartre, a section of Paris, henri Mulet (1878-1967) was accepted at the age of 12 into the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied, cello, organ, composition and orchestration. Upon graduation, he performed widely throughout France and Belgium. He wrote for organ, symphony, chamber ensembles, and voice; influences included his favorite composer César Franck, organist Charles-Marie Widor, and the acclaimed organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Mulet was regarded a recluse. His social retreat manifested first in 1902, and for the rest of his life, he maintained professional associations, but cultivated few friends, although he did marry in 1910. His wife had no interest in music and, in 1911, convinced him to open a real estate office, which was dismal failure. Described by a fellow musician as “very reserved and mystical,” Mulet not surprisingly began encountering problems securing performance and publishing opportunities. In 1913, Mulet was appointed a professor at Ecole Niedermeyer and, later, at the Schola Cantorum. He disdained modern organ styles and, in 1921, addressed the General Congress of Sacred Music in Strausbourg, Germany, on “The Harmful and Anti-religious Tendencies of the Organ,” attacking the tremolo and the “cinema-organ-orchestra, the organ of the Antichrist.” He especially detested the playing of Marcel Dupré. (Mulet probably would be mortified to learn his Carillon Sortie is the theme for “Pipedreams,” an NPR program that airs weekly.) Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Mulet continued teaching, but his bitterness and feelings of failure increased. In 1937, at the age of 59, Mulet was fired from his

organ position for refusing to play “modern works.” He reportedly burned his manuscripts before leaving Paris for Draguignan in Provence. There, he lived with his wife mostly in seclusion in a convent, although he served as the organist at the local cathedral until 1958. Only about 30 of his compositions are known to have survived. Esquisses Byzantines (Byzantine Sketches) is a collection often pieces completed in 1919 and published in 1920. The scoreis inscribed En m’moire de la Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre,1914-1919. Mulet’s father was choirmaster at the Sacré Coeur, a

white basilica in Roman-Byzantine style that dominates Paris from a northern hilltop in Montmartre, and Mulet no doubt spent many hours at the church as a child. The last piece tu es petra is subtitled: “Thou art the rock and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against thee.” This showpiece Toccata begins with urgent, pulsating chords, while a sturdy theme stalks below in the pedals. The ensuing chromatic motif and bravura suggestive of Franz Liszt carries the work to its brilliant conclusion.

two Choral Preludes J. S. Bach 1) sleepers, Awake! A Voice is Calling 2) Now thank We All our God

Johann sebastian bach (1685-1750) learned to play violin and harpsichord under the tutelage of his father, a court trumpeter. When orphaned at age 10, Bach went to live with his recently married older brother, a successful organist who continued young Johann’s musical training. Bach was named to his first organ position in 1703 at Neue Kirche in Arnstadt, Germany. There, he continually aggravated the church council by shirking his responsibilities, preferring instead to practice the organ. Politics between Bach’s patron and city officials contributed

to the demise of his next secure post, that of organmaster and conductor of the orchestra for the Duke of Sachsen-Weimar. The Duke was so angry that Bach dared ask permission to accept another post, the Kappelmeister at the church in Cöthern, that he had Bach imprisoned for a month in 1717. In 1723, Bach left Cöthern and was named director of music for the city of Leipzig, a post that placed him over the music in four major churches. The same year, he also was appointed Kantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, and, in 1736, accepted the position of music director at the Dresdsen Court, in the service of Frederick Augustus II; Bach held the latter two positions until his death from diabetes in 1785. During his lifetime, Bach was acclaimed more as a virtuoso organist than as a composer—few of his works were published during his lifetime—although his use of counterpoint was brilliant and innovative. Recycling was commonplace even in the 1700s, as composers frequently built new works on older tunes. Bach’s cantata Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140 (“sleepers, Awake!”) was composed in 1731 for the 27th Sunday after Trinity Sunday and was based on an old hymn written by Philipp Nicolai after he survived the Black Death in the late 1500s. Nun Danket Alle Gott (“Now thank We All our God”) is derived from the great hymn tune written in 1685 by Johann Crüger (with text written in 1636 by Martin Rinckart) and is part of a collection known as the Leipzig Chorales.

Prelude and Fugue in G Minor Marcel Dupré Surrounded by parents, a grandfather and an aunt who all were professional musicians, Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) was destined to perform; his 15th birthday was celebrated with the performance in the family’s large music room of a cantata he

composed for the occasion. He was barely 20 when, in 1906, Charles-Marie Widor at Saint-Sulpice church appointed Dupré assistant organmaster by, a position he was to hold for 28 years. Dupré first came to public notice as a winner of the coveted Prix de Rome in 1914. Declared physically unfit for military duty in World War I, Dupré served as temporary organist of Notre-Dame from 1916 to 1922, during the time organmaster Louis Vierne recovered from a lengthy illness. Upon Widor’s retirement from Saint-Sulpice church in 1934, Dupré assumed the Titulaire post, a position he

held until 1971. Dupré performed 2,178 recitals during his career, taught 30 years at the Conservatoire de Paris, and wrote twelve theoretical textbooks and 21 minutely annotated volumes of teaching editions of the organ works of the great masters. Written in 1912, the Prelude and Fugue in G Minor, op. 7, No. 3, exemplifies the unleashed power possible in organs of the day. Of special interest are its double pedal tones, a technique in which each foot plays two notes at the same time by simultaneously pressing the heel and the toe on different pedals. The piece was premiered by the composer in 1917 at Salle Gaveau church in Paris.

Prelude and Fugue on the Name of AlAiN Maurice Duruflé Today’s audiences know Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) primarily as a composer, but during his lifetime, he was acclaimed as an organ recitalist and teacher. He studied with Charles Tournemire and Louis Vierne, who named Duruflé his assistant organist at Notre-Dame in 1927. Two years later, Duruflé was named titular organist ofSt. Étienne-du-Mont in Paris, a position he held the remainder of his life. In 1942, Duruflé was named professor of harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he taught until 1970. He and his wife, Marie-Madeleine, were severely injured in a car

accident in 1975, and he died near Paris in 1986. Duruflé composed Prelude and Fugue on the Name of AlAiN in 1942 in tribute to Jehan Alain, a brilliant young French organist and composer who had died two years prior at the age of 29 in an encounter with German soldiers at Le Petit-Puy. In his short life, Jehan Alain produced more than 140 works, including 52 piano pieces, 36 organ pieces, two melodies, ten motets for soloists or mixed choirs, three masses, and 18 pieces for chamber music. His last name ALAIN becomes, in musical terms, ADAAF,

and exemplifies Duruflé’s interest in Gregorian chant and works of J.S. Bach.

londonderry Air arr. Darwin Wolford Darwin Wolford (1936- ) has written for choir, orchestra, organ, piano and other instruments; his more than 350 works have been published by Harold Flammer, Shawnee Press, and other leading publishers. Wolford was director of organ studies at Brigham Young University-Idaho (formerly Ricks College) from 1967 to 2004. He served many years on the both the Latter-Day Saints Church’s General Music Committee and the committee that oversaw publication of Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1985). In addition, he served as a music critic for the Post-Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho. A 1960 graduate of Utah State University in Logan, Wolford received a master of music degree in 1963 and a Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of Utah in organ and composition, with a minor in philosophy. He studied organ with Robert Cundick and Alexander Schreiner and composition with Le Roy Robertson and Pulitzer Prize winners John LaMontaine and Ned Rorem. The Irish anthem londonderry Air appeared in print first in 1855, in Ancient Music of Ireland, published by the early collector George Petrie. The untitled melody was supplied to Petrie by Jane Ross of Limavady, County Londonderry, who claimed to have taken it down from the playing of an itinerant piper. The title refers to Derry, an area of Northern Ireland colonized by English settlers in the early 17th century. More than 100 lyrics have been set to the haunting melody; the most familiar to Americans is that of “Danny Boy.”

Chorale No. 3 in A minor César Franck Belgian by birth, César Franck (1822-1890) is considered an important force in French music in the late 19th century. Born in Liege, he attended the Liege Conservatoire at age 8 and was presenting concert tours by age 11. From 1837 until

1842, he attended the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with a student of Berlioz and emerged as a accomplished organist and composer. In 1851, Franck was appointed organist at the Church of Saint-Jean-Saint-Francois, which boasted an organ built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, arguably the most important organ designer in France at the time. Less than 10 years later, Franck became an artist representative for Cavaillé-Coll. In 1858, Franck was appointed organist at Saint Clotilde Basilica, a position he held the remainder of his life. In 1872, Franck returned to the Paris

Conservatoire as a member of the organ faculty; his students included Louis Vierne, later appointed organmaster at Notre Dame. (Continued on back outside panel)