Elegy

Elegy (1957)
Don't settle back and think this is all very soft as there are some sudden outbursts of full organ.

The Gregorian melody 'In paradism' is heard in the middle section. It has for centruies been sung at the conclusion of the Burial Office.
'May the Angels lead thee into Paradise;
and the Martyrs recieve thee at thy coming and bring thee into the holy city of Jerusalem.
May the choirs of Angels recieve thee, and mayest thou, with Lazarus once poor, have everlastig rest'.

All the organ music by Titcomb is on ISMLP

The music of Everett Titcomb (1884-1968) occupies a unique niche in the catalogue of sacred organ and choral works by 20th-century Anglican composers in the United States. His compositional voice was clearly influenced by the Bostonian giants of his youth (Eugene Thayer, Dudley Buck, George Chadwick, Horatio Parker--who's mother once had Titcomb as a border) as well as his affinity for French music; yet at the same time his work is informed by his vast knowledge and understanding of plainchant and the polyphonic style of the 15th and 16th century Italians. An Anglo-Catholic who spent fifty years nearly to the day (1910-1960) as organist and choirmaster at Boston's Church of St. John the Evangelist in Bowdoin Street, his best organ works are based on plainchant tunes making them of more value to the Roman Catholic organist of the time than to the majority of Episcopalian ones and some of his best polyphony is in the form of Latin motets which while used at St. John's and other Anglo-Catholic parishes were perfectly at home sung at a Roman Mass.
Notes by Agnus_Dei