Shadows  
for organ  

This piece was commissioned by Martin Jean and Valparaiso University, Indiana, for the Rededication Series of the newly restored and completed Reddel Memorial Organ. In 1996, this instrument was retrofitted with a MIDI controller, a device that allows one to record sequences and play them back in real time. Hence, I wrote a "second" organ part to the primary part, much like a work for two pianos.

Shadows is based on the hymn St. Anne (Our God, Our Help in Ages Past). All of the harmonic and melodic figuration comes from the reordering of the pitches found in the four phrases of the hymn. Bach's famous E-flat Prelude and Fugue (St. Anne) also figures prominently in the form and structure of this work-the number three, the use of the Golden Mean as an important formal device, etc. Specifically, it is the intervallic sequence up P4-down M2-up P4 that constitutes much of the structural voice leading. The title came as an idea I had about the function of the organist (the object), the MIDI sequencer (the second organ part, or the first "shadow"), and the MIDI sound module (the computer part, or the second "shadow", heard through the speakers). I wanted to create a sense of depth by casting shadows, where the object is stationary, but the sound sources project "shadows" before and after, over time.

The work is in four sections-an Introduction, leading to the principal melodic statement, followed by two fast sections containing canonic devices, and finally leading to the broad and powerful statements based on my own reordering of the St. Anne hymn. The work ends quietly in a meditative mood, with hints of shadow material originally heard at the beginning.