Improvisation on the Gregorian Sequence "Laetabundus" (Come Rejoicing)

Everett Titcomb (1884-1968) spent his entire career in the greater Boston Massachusetts area. He was born in Amesbury, and studied organ and composition with Samuel Whitney, organist and choirmaster of The Church of The Advent, Boston. Titcomb’s compositional inclinations lean strongly toward the music of High Church ritualism (Anglo-Catholic), and beginning in 1910 he was able to give full vent to them. That year he was appointed to The Church of St. John the Evangelist, Beacon Hill,
and The New England Conservatory of Music. He served St. John’s until he died in 1968.

"Improvisation on the Gregorian Sequence 'Laetabundus' " (Come Rejoicing) is very typical of Titcomb's final period of composition. Like many of his pieces, the music is based upon a Gregorian chant melody, which is clearly heard in the softer "middle" section of the piece.

This piece is what the title says - an "improvisation," and that is the why I played it. I thought it would come out best if, rather than working out complex registrations, I set 2 generals, and did the rest with divisionals. This was the 3rd take, and I did it "differently" each time.

The piece, which was published by Harold Flammer, Inc. in 1961, is dedicated to Theodore Marier (1912-2001) who was a church musician, educator, arranger and scholar of Gregorian Chant. He founded the St. Paul's Choir School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, and served as the second president of the Church Music Association of America.

The Salisbury Willis is MUCH grander than anything Titcomb played, and it really serves the music very well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!