Kleine Präludien und Intermezzi op. 9, Maestoso

HERMANN SCHROEDER was a major force in music for the Catholic Church in
Germany after World War II. Like so many of his contemporaries, the immense
destruction of the war drove Schroeder back into more historic forms of organ music.
Yet he was not as severe as some other organ composers of this time like Flor Peeters
and his followers. Schroeder’s compositional style is inspired by the work of Paul
Hindemith and Max Reger. The work written just before the ‘Kleine Praeludien’ was
an immense Prelude and Fugue on the hymn, “Christ lag in Todesbanden’. In that
work, the influence of Reger is strong with pages and pages filled with black ink! He
relents a bit with these smaller works which are more closely related to Hindemith.
Each is a gem in itself and they make a very lovely set.
Borrowed from some excellent notes from Thomas Clark-Jones.
I thought these pieces would be the perfect demonstration of this wonderful new sample set from Pipeloops. Showing colour & flexing muscles a little, but be assured that there is much to come!
I first came across these when a teenager as they were favourite of my teacher. They left a mark on me & it has been a delight to revisit them.
I hope you will enjoy this enough to look out for movement 2.