Organ Works - Leoš Janáček / ed. Jan Hora
Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) was growing up with organs present in his life since his early youth. According to his contemporaries, Janáček was an excellent organist and an outstanding improvisor from the very beginning of his career as a musician.
His first composition for solo organ are Three Compositions (Overture, Varyto and Choral Phantasy) from the time when he studied at the organist school in Prague. They were composed in 1875.
Compositions for organ No. 1 and 2 were published by Janáček himself on a printing machine of the Benedictine monastery in Rajhrad in 1884.
In the seventh part of cantata “Glagolitic Mass“ on a text from a mess in Church Slavonic for solos, mixed choir and orchestra from 1926, the composer used the solo organ sound in the third part “Glory“ and in the seventh part “I believe“. In the seventh part the organ performs on its own and it creates a link between the mystical “Man of God“ and the final orchestral “Intrada“. Janáček called it “Organ Solo“.
This edition strictly follows Janáček’s manuscript and his distinctive way of notation. It does not rewrite the enharmonic notation, nor does it change composer’s stylization of instruments. Only in Organ Solo from the Glagolitic Mass it suggests the change of the position of the first chord in measures 72, 77 and 90 where the pedal and once also the manual in the lower position is notated beyond the organ register. The details can be found in Editorial note.
Other compositions by Leoš Janáček published in Czech Radio:
Symphonic Fantasy from Opera Jenůfa (instr. Iša Krejčí)