Angelus, Op. 27 No.5b

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933) was born Siegfried Theodor Karg in Oberndorf am Neckar, Germany, the youngest of twelve children. The family finally settled in Leipzig in 1882, where he received his first musical training and private piano instruction. At a gathering of composers in Leipzig, he presented his first attempts at composition to the composer Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek, who arranged a three-year tuition-free scholarship at the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with Jadassohn, Reinecke, Reisenauer and Teichmüller.

Having returned to Leipzig, he started devoting himself to composition, primarily for the piano (encouraged by Grieg). He soon began writing of the harmonium, and his first original organ works (1909) were the, 66 Chorale Improvisations, Op. 65.

Shunned and neglected in Germany, he accepted an invitation for an organ concert tour of America in the spring of 1932. The tour proved to be a disastrous mistake. He was suffering from the diabetes which would soon kill him, and his limited powers as an organist compared unfavorably to the virtuoso standard of organ performance to which American audiences had grown accustomed.

After his return to Leipzig, his health started deteriorating rapidly. He died there in April 1933, only 55 years old.

The Angelus is a Catholic devotion commemorating the Incarnation.

This sweet "Angelus" is taken "aus dem Sammlung Aquarellen" which Google translates "from the Watercolor Collection."

It does indeed have the quality of a delicate painting, as the colors shimmer with soft light. The sounds and moods alternate between brightness and darkness. I think this is to indicate the brightness of God / Virgin Mary in our otherwise dark life.

The registrations I've used are by no means "excessive," but I think they are very successful in painting the watercolor impression that the composer intended.

The score is attached below, as well as two photos of Karg-Elert, as well as Millet's painting of the "angelus."