Description

• Composer: Naji Hakim (1955-)
• Instrumentation: Organ
• Work: Fiorella (Variations on Ave maris stella) (2024)
• Binding:
• ISMN: 9790224424478
• Size: 9.1 x 12.0 inches
• Pages: None

Description

The title FIORELLA pays tribute to the memory of the organist and composer Fiorella Benetti Brazzale, in whose honor this work was composed. It consists of four variations on the Marian Gregorian chant Ave maris stella, a theme already explored by Naji Hakim in his Ave maris stella for choir and organ, as well as in his Three Paraphrases on Ave maris stella, also published by U.M.P. The first variation, Allegro moderato, is ornamental, light, and dance-like, evoking the graceful sway of a waltz. The next variation, L’istesso tempo, is a bicinium: the theme appears in the left hand on the cromorne, accompanied by an arpeggiated harmonic structure that maintains the lightness of the first variation over an E-flat polarity. An expressive variation follows, Andante, constructed in five voices, with the Gregorian theme in the pedal in long note values, in the key of F-sharp. The final variation, Allegro, is the most expansive and joyful, presenting a modulatory tonal journey through B, D, F, A-flat, E, F, G, A, and B. The work concludes with a prolonged pulsed tonic pedal, over which a modulating march unfolds, with increasingly intense ornamentation of the theme.