DESCRIPTION:
Fuge, Kanzone, und Epilog (Op. 85, No. 3): Credo in vitam venturi
Composer: Sigfrid Karg-Elert (November 21, 1877 -- April 9, 1933)

Organ: Larry Schipull
Violin: Linda Laderach
Choir: Mount Holyoke College Chamber Singers 2010
Conductor: Miguel Felipe

Introduction: 0:00-0:15
Fuge (fugue): 0:16-3:55
Kanzone (canzona/song): 3:56-6:46
Epilog (epilogue): 6:47-10:53

Credo in vitam venturi saeculi. Amen.

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877--1933) succeeded Max Reger as Professor of Composition at the Leipzig Conservatorium in 1919. Years earlier, he had been a student there under Jadassohn and Reinecke, two very conservative masters with whom Frederick Delius also had studied. Like Delius, Karg-Elert had a natural gift for harmony and was encouraged to compose by Grieg. Although he left music for a variety of media, he is best remembered as a composer of organ music. His Three Symphonic Canzonas were composed in 1910. The basis of the third, which in its Epilogue adds violin and four-part female chorus to the organ, is the plainsong phrase "Credo in unum Deo; credo
in vitam venturi saeculi." In a self-revealing letter to his English friend Godfrey Sceats, Karg-Elert, son of a Catholic father and Protestant mother, wrote: 'I love this piece tenderly; it was written, frankly, in a vein of exaltation, and savours of holy water and consecrated candles... that is the Catholic side of me, which cannot readily be recon-
ciled with Lutheranism.'

The work is in F-sharp major, a favorite key of Karg-Elert's. After a solemn presentation of the motto-theme, the Fugue begins, Sostenuto e misterioso, growing gradually in strength until the plainsong fragment, introduced at intervals like a choral above the fugal texture, builds up the main climax of the work. The central Canzona, based again on the motto-theme, also builds up to a powerful climax, and is linked to the Epilogue by the entry of the solo violin. After the voices have sung the phrase "Credo in vitam venturi saeculi" in unison, the violin plays an expressive melody in the high register, a self-quotation from an earlier work. This serves as a prelude to a polyphonic four-part Amen sung by the distant chorus beneath the violin's high held F-sharp. After one final "Credo in vitam venturi saeculi" by the choir, the organ steals in to support the final Amens, while the violin relinquishes its high inverted pedal point to wreath a final arabesque to the hushed ending.
—Felix Aprahamian