When asked to write a piece celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mendelssohn's birth, for a premier on 31st October at St. Johanneskirche Harburg in Germany, I couldn't resist the composer's particular connection to that special day (Reformation Day in the Lutheran calendar): he called his 5th symphony "The Reformation" and incorporated within it the traditional hymn "Ein' feste Burg ist Unser Gott."  In taking this Homage for my own, using the hymn to create my own work (see words and translation below), I paid homage to a homage!  In addition to that, the 31st happens to be my birthday, and the next day was the birthday of the conductor, Rainer Schmitz.  What a celebration!

Homage to Mendelssohn

The Sphinxes are the silent pieces in Schumann’s wonderful piano solo cycle Carnaval.  Should they be played softly, or not at all?  My response is a piece about silence, using the notes Schumann suggested.  It can be played alone, or within his great masterpiece.

Sphinxes

These are the voices Robert Schumann heard in his head. This Passage makes a connection between two of his works: Carnaval and Ghost Variations. Seemingly chaotic flurries represent his manic state of mind.

Voices - Caroline Oltmanns, Piano

This bridge connects Schumann's Ghost Variations to Chopin's Fantasy Impromptu. A mosaic is created of gradually shifting harmonic progressions through which the melodies appear and disappear like drops of memories.

Ghost - Fantasy - Caroline Oltmanns, Piano

A mysterious foreboding intensifies and then fades away, quoting the variations that Brahms wrote on the theme from Schumann's Ghost Variations.

Rising Subconscious - Caroline Oltmanns, Piano

People Gathering is an image of a busy colorful market, or a family reunion, or a religious ceremony. It takes place anywhere in the world, in any place that any person calls home. The people I visualize in this movement are related to all of us, are one family.

Homeland Portraits I. People Gathering

Fire is inspired by the homely warmth of the living-room fireside, or the adventure of the summer campfire, or the frightening rage of a bush-fire. But most of all, it is a portrait of the fire within: the creative spirit that lifts all of us.

Homeland Portraits III. Fire

Open Plain depicts the stillness of a broad landscape, a calm beauty stretching to the horizon, and clouds always changing shape. It is a tribute to the magnificent places on our planet, places reflected by the awe and wonder in the eyes of every person speaking of his or her home.

Homeland Portraits II. Open Plain

Meditation on the Holy Spirit was written for the opening worship service of the 2017 American Guild of Organists Great Lakes Regional Convention.  Nelson Mandela was the inspiration for the work, in particular his commitment to serving the good and his strength in the face of adversity. The form is ABAB, where the A sections are areas that build powerful structures (strength against adversity), and the B sections are meditative responses (submitting the self to the greater good). Just as a meditation involves a long period of clearing the mind and controlling the thoughts, so this composition contains large areas of unchanged or gradually changing states, from ecstasy to peace.

The piece opens with tentative brass fragments over barely audible organ murmurs, suggesting the awakening of black consciousness in South Africa’s hinterlands.  Three times this gradually develops into expressions of power at 1:16, 2:22, and 3:44, as Mandela’s brave spirit beats against the injustices of apartheid.  The music cuts dramatically to silence (4:20) and the contemplative organ is left alone to paint a brief picture of a small prison cell.  Calm instrumental melodies begin to project themselves over soft organ chords (4:53); this is the endlessness of time, as the unjustly imprisoned man watches years go past.  Hope is restored by a peaceful five-part chorale for the brass instruments (6:28).  The original fragments and murmurs begin again (8:01), as the new hope begins to dismantle the old order.  This time the music builds even more gradually, eventually to triumphant ecstasy (10:46), with Mandela rising victorious from the ashes of the crumbling regime.  After another dramatic silence (11:55), the organ weaves a final web of tranquility, into which the other instruments momentarily join and then depart.  The person who had every reason to seek revenge when released from prison, comes out instead with a message of peace and mercy.

Meditation On The Holy Spirit

The third movement of Piano Sonata No. 3, The Stopped Clocks, inspired by the W.H. Auden poem 'Stop All The Clocks,' is so slow that a dance of the mind can take place between the notes. When clocks stop, bleak emptiness is unraveled. Each slow chord is a mangled major triad, mangled with an added note, or a seventh, or even a polychord (two different triads together). Somewhere in the middle of the movement the dancers can move to a little bit more motion. Now the clocks almost remember how it felt to be running again, and we think of the days before time started to stand still. But by the end, the eternal stoppage of time is complete. The final chord, the most consonant sounding B major triad, is subtly caressed by a very high A-sharp and C-sharp, and these soft dissonances extend eternally.

Pictures

The Stopped Clocks

Praised by the Cape Times as ‘highly original,’ South African composer James Wilding’s mastery of structure and lyricism, and his use of ethnic instruments, folk tunes, connections to art, photography, literature, and stories, capture audiences in the US and abroad.  Projects for this season include music for the Escher String Quartet performed at the opening concert of Tuesday Musical’s main stage, and a piece for the TEMPO ensemble at California State University Northridge.  Recently he toured South Africa with his concept show Crumb Kaleidoscope, which was commissioned by the Bayerischer Rundfunk.  His work has been championed in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Senegal, Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland, Britain, Canada, South Africa, and the USA, published and broadcast internationally, and achieving considerable acclaim.  A dedicated teacher, committed to sharing his knowledge, Wilding is Professor of Instruction and Co-Chair in Composition and Theory at the University of Akron, where he also directs the New Music Series.  He studied at the University of Cape Town, Youngstown State University, and Kent State University.  His musical mentors were Neil Solomon, Stewart Young, Peter Klatzow, and Thomas Janson.