What are you doing with ye old organ? (1999)

Burkhard Mohr (b. 1955) — What are you doing with ye old organ? (1999) for organ

1) One minute for ye old organ
2) Two minutes for ye old organ
3) Voluntary with Hymn

“What are you doing with ye old organ?” (1999) is a suite of three movements for positive organ, originally written for organist Rainer Noll for premiere on the 1594 Mayer organ of the Schlosskirche in Wilhelmsburg in Schmalkalden, Germany. The basic material (a 12-note set) is heard at the outset of the first movement. The piece’s whimsical English title reflects the free development to which this material is subjected via transformation, aggregation, and juxtaposition. In the middle of the final movement is heard “Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein,” one of Martin Luther’s most important chorales (1523).

German composer Burkhard Mohr (b. 1955) was born in Gambach/Oberhessen and was educated in Frankfurt where he studied music and theology. He also attended the Darmstadt new music courses with Stockhausen, Kagel, Ligeti, and Xenakis. He has worked as a church musician in Frankfurt-Höchst and Wiesbaden and also taught music for many years at the technical university in Frankfurt. Mohr has composed numerous musical works in many genres, including several operas and orchestral works along with much chamber music and music for choir and organ. Mohr’s music usually concerns itself with the blurry boundaries and connections between atonal (12-tone) and tonal (triadic) materials and with the unexpected (or traditionally extended) formal designs that can result from teasing out these connections.