Hindemith: Concerto for Organ 1962

Image from York Symphony Orchestra archives.
HINDEMITH: CONCERTO FOR ORGAN, 1962
(1st public performance, Lincoln Centre, New York 1962, Conductor: Hindemith. 1st public performance in U.K., York Minster, 13th May 1972, Conductor: Frances Jackson)


I

Crescendo

It is quiet today in New York
Flowers bloom in New York today
The air is still
waiting
The sounds of war
are distant
We who hear you now
know
here in York in '72
for the first living time in public
the crescendo builds
Did they
in New York in '62
know too ?
And yourself
as Jackson now
the Minster reverberating
with the sounds
of your becoming epitaph
The seal is set
it cannot now be broken
The movement will come
to an end
It lies still

II

(Allegro)

It goes on
Your breakfast is served
Life retains its hum-drum reality
But there's a stirring in the air
Ah Hindemith they knew you well
those who perceive
the chords in the air
not yet cut
not yet surmised
No awareness of scissors
the sharpness is an octave higher
There's life in the magic still
Who knows where it leads ?
Beneath the city
the subway carries its herd
of commuters
The traffic
sits waiting
for the red to change to green
as amber flashes
There can be nothing pedestrian
here
The movement is leading home

III

Canzonetta in triads and two ritornelli

The music is written
There are no words to be said
And yet
can even the tongue
cease its quest ?
The quiet rumblings
are soon enough heard
The words cannot be stopped
The music is not all that is written

IV

Phantasy on "Veni Creator Spiritus"

The time has come
Hindemith
You knew
you old devil you
You knew
the spirit was not created
only for you
But you took it
Yet it took you too
and you left
leaving us this
this your fantasy
You are gone from New York
You are gone too from York
Play it out
orchestra and organ
your musical orgasm
It is coming for you
It is coming for us
None of us can escape
You have left us this
It was all you had
And we needed it
This you couldn't take
We thank you
for leaving us
our own fantasy
All creation
ends in creation
Only the dust is lost
O Master Musician
go now
depart in peace
We send you flowers
but no tears
We will bury you as befits
The flowers will bloom
tomorrow on your grave
You are done with us
But we are not done with you

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: York, 13th May 1972

Publications

1975 North York Poetry (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
2007 MIND AND BODY (York, Fighting Cock Press)

*****
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Caedmon Never Had It As Good

CAEDMON NEVER HAD IT AS GOOD

Caedmon never had it as good
Talk about the lonely goatherd,
he was a cowherd man
Looked after his beasts
up on the moors
all night
while the monks
at Stroenschall
got their four hours
of meagre sleep
on a hard, stone bench
in a drear, dank, draughty cell
No sleep for him
watching the herd
What he didn't know
about Love
Did he know
about Love ?
The Love of the Lord ?
He loved them cows
God was in those cows
as he was in the abbey
as he was in the sea
that pounded nightly
at the cliffs
Caedmon had no Latin
in him
He was a cowherd
not a cleric
But he could sing
He could praise the Lord
He did it too
In his own way
He did his thing
No Latin canticle for him
No Te Deum In Gloriam
but Caedmon's Song of Praise,
Caedmon's Metrical Paraphrase of Parts of the Holy Scripture
They've given it a name now
but he just sang it
in his dark Northumbrian tongue
Yorkshire's first poet,
the birth of dialect literature

Caedmon never had it as good
He only loved his cows
He only loved life
He only loved St.Hilda
He only loved God
He only loved the word of God
He spoke his truth
as he only knew how
He'd never had it at all
Who wanted it ?
Who needed it ?
Caedmon never had it as good

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 16th June 1971

Publications

1973 York Poetry (UK)
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1991 Ore (UK)

Note: The version published in Ore was modified at the request of Eric Ratcliffe, omitting the final stanza and reducing the title to CAEDMON.