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Great Organ-isers: The Art of Transcription

‘I often joke that I made this transcription of Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony in case the orchestra couldn’t make it to the hall for the concert … It looks like that moment has arrived!’

Jonathan Scott

Organists have been capturing the imagination of audiences outside churches and cathedrals since the 19th century. Mendelssohn helped initiate a popular civic concert tradition at Birmingham Town Hall that continues to this day through a succession of long-serving civic organists from G. D. Cunningham and Sir George Thalben-Ball to Thomas Trotter, the current incumbent. As organist-in-residence at St George’s Hall, Liverpool, W. T. Best (1826–97) thrilled audiences with original compositions and arrangements of all kinds of music; appointed to the Royal Albert Hall, he inaugurated the Great Organ in 1871. The Anglo-American virtuoso Edwin H. Lemare (1865–1934) – in his time the highest-paid organist in the world – was famous for bringing important orchestral works from Europe to mid-sized American towns that lacked their own symphony orchestra: his transcriptions of Elgar, and particularly Wagner, are still performed by today’s finest players.

One might think that the advent of unlimited recorded music, and the trend away from symphonic organs towards neo-Classical instruments in the post-war period, might have seen off the orchestral transcription. But far from it – there is great enjoyment to be had from appreciating the skill with which today’s performers distil orchestral works both familiar and unfamiliar, and realise them with only two hands and two feet at their disposal. Jonathan Scott joins their ranks as a prolific exponent of this venerable tradition.

‘I’ve always transcribed for the organ,’ says Scott, ‘from simple arrangements for weddings and funerals to choral accompaniments and, as for this Prom, concert pieces from the great orchestral and operatic repertoire. So far I’ve completed around 400 transcriptions, which I perform in concert alongside the standard organ repertoire.

‘Edwin Lemare published over 200 transcriptions and I spent many years playing a huge amount of these in concert. The ingenious ideas, and solutions to problems contained in them, can all be found in my own transcriptions, such as how to play on multiple keyboards, how to recreate pizzicato, percussive effects and the manipulation of the registrations to create orchestral sonorities.’

For Scott, the organ of the Royal Albert Hall is the ultimate example of the British concert organ: ‘Any organist who has ever played it is in awe, not only of the sheer power and dynamic range of the instrument, but the staggering range of sounds and colours available.’ Its orchestral allusions are clear from the stop list, with an entire division named ‘Orchestral’ – it contains imitative stops named Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, French Horn, Trumpet, Cor Anglais, Clarinet, Tuba and Trombone, as well as a fully independent imitative String division of nearly 800 pipes. The organ also contains real percussion in the form of a carillon, tubular bells and a bass drum, all of which will make an appearance in tonight’s Prom.

‘This concert is essentially the manipulation of 9,997 pipes, 147 stops, four keyboards, a full pedalboard, dozens of thumb and toe pistons to aid stop changes, and three expression pedals – all with two hands and two feet. The aim with all of this is the creation of amazing music in the ultimate sonic experience.’

1 Adagio – Allegro moderato –
2 Poco adagio
3 Allegro moderato – Presto –
4 Maestoso – Allegro – Più allegro – Molto allegro

The 1880s formed something of a career peak for the French musical prodigy Camille Saint-Saëns. Into his final symphony, No. 3 in C minor, it was as if the organist, composer and symphonist had poured all the elements of his career to date into what would become known as the ‘Organ’ Symphony – although only two of its four sections involve the organ.

‘I gave everything to it I was able to give,’ Saint-Saëns declared. ‘What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.’ Its plainsong-derived themes are transformed and woven into the fabric of the piece in the manner of Franz Liszt, who is memorialised as the work’s dedicatee.

Jonathan Scott’s remarkable arrangement achieves the difficult task, on the organ, of replicating the filigree textures of the symphony’s many virtuoso passages originally given to the orchestral piano, not least in the section after the explosion of organ sound which is the grand finale.

^{Introduction and programme notes © Graeme Kay Graeme Kay is a former editor of ‘Classical Music’, ‘Opera Now’ and ‘Â鶹ԼÅÄ Music’ magazines. He contributes a personal column, news and features to ‘Choir & Organ’ magazine and is a digital platforms producer for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radios 3 and 4.}