Drei Freie Orgelstücke

Friedrich Zipp (1914–1997)
Drei Freie Orgelstücke from Freie Orgelstücke, Heft I (1959)

0:00 Praeludium/Postludium
3:12 Canzona
5:31 Tokkata

Seven pieces. Numerous possible combinations. And music designed from the beginning to adapt to the needs of the working church organist.

Friedrich Zipp explains in the preface to Freie Orgelstücke, Heft I that these works grew out of his own church-music practice and were intended to help fill a need for suitable contemporary organ music in worship. “Free” here has its traditional German meaning: freie Orgelmusik, music not bound to a chorale, in contrast to choralgebundene Orgelmusik.

But the collection is also remarkably flexible. Individual pieces can be shortened or expanded, sections may be omitted, and Zipp explicitly suggests that several pieces may be combined into larger cyclic groupings. The organist is given considerable freedom in registration as well.

That makes the Gallery Schlicker at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles an especially natural partner. Zipp specifically writes for the contrast of independent Werke, or divisions, one of the fundamental ideas behind this kind of twentieth-century organ design. Multiple moving lines remain sharply differentiated, while changes of division become part of the musical architecture.

The result is music conceived not simply as fixed concert repertoire, but as adaptable material for a living liturgical practice: section, piece, or larger sequence according to need.

Organ: Gallery Organ, First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
Builder: Schlicker Organ Company
Virtual instrument: Evensong