New Solo Organ Work: Let Down the Scale of Music from the Sky

Let Down the Scale of Music from the Sky is a major new work for solo organ commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for the 2023 Ronald G. Pogorzelski and Lester D. Yankee Annual Competition, written to be premiered on the Pogorzelski/Yankee organ at Indiana University Pennsylvania.

The work borrows music from Henry Purcell’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, the composer’s so-called “Evening Service,” written for mixed chorus. The beginning of the organ work presents two short and plaintive phrases, drawn from the Purcell, which together form a gently descending scale. This gesture is used as a sort of repeating refrain in the piece, a “ground.” The work’s title is taken from an encomium by poet John Dryden, written in 1695, entitled An Ode, On the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell:

The Heav’ly Choir, who heard his Notes from high,
Let down the Scale of Music from the Sky.