*1965 HERFST for organ solo

HERFST (‘AUTUMN’) 1965, is a complete revision of an earlier work for organ solo I wrote, called ‘Terrasses Inondées’ (inundated terasses). It received the Schnittger Organ Prize soon after and enjoyed a number of performances by various organists. Its construction is very simple and straightforward: it develops from a single tone that becomes ‘unstable’ and is slowly generating different ingredients which gradually get stuck in a cluster on a massive crescendo. At its climax the cluster, in turn, becomes unstable and branches out into a three-part polyphony whose progression is subject to constant changes of registration that take it slowly to the work’s next climax: a whirlwind running up and down the expanse of the organ’s reaches and petering out rather quickly until it ’empties’ on a single note again. Because Herfst was written for the beautiful Schnittger Organ in Zwolle (The Netherlands) with its mechanical action, I made extensive use of an effect which is created by slowly pulling out and pushing back stops.