I've not been able
to find much out about James Cook aside
from what is in the liner notes for
this release. He has three other discs
worth of material, all on Divine Art/Diversions,
two of which feature choral works. The
most recently released before this disc
is a collection of organ music.
Regarding this disc,
I was intrigued by the harp/organ combination,
which isn't heard often. I don't have
such a duo in my collection and thought
I'd give this a try. Once I got the
CD, the names of the movements for the
Organ Symphony of 2005 had me clutching
for the liner-notes and various online
dictionaries.
The piece follows a
sort of programme, beginning with Tripudium,
a liturgical dance step of three forward
steps followed by one backwards step,
which the piece replicates in its chord
progression. Liner-notes by the composer
indicate that this work "began as an
attempt to fuse music for organ and
for harp in a convincing and effective
way", but over its course, the two instruments
play together but rarely, even in the
two movements of the six where they
play antiphonally as much as they play
simultaneously.
Following the Tripudium
is the Prolegomenon, or "preliminary
discussion introducing a work of considerable
length or complexity" for harp alone,
which is a rather pleasant movement,
though I found it interesting that the
introduction to the piece formed the
second movement of the symphony. This
is followed by the for-organ-only Noyade,
the definition of which I learned in
research is a "drowning of many persons
at once" which was an innovation developed
by Jean-Baptiste Carrier in France at
Nantes during the Reign of Terror. How
interesting that someone named after
John the Baptist would come up with
such a thing. The piece begins forcefully
and dissonantly but quietens down with
sections using the right-hand for a
narrative line as the left and pedal
provide chordal support. It is during
this movement especially that the unappealing
sound of the organ at Girton College
Chapel makes itself most apparent. The
movement switches between the first
motivic statement to the more quiet
second with not much development or
variation, giving somewhat of a similarity
between this piece and the sometimes
uninspired organ accompaniment to silent
films, with the changing of motivic
material dictated not by musical need,
but by the cuts to different characters.
The harp takes the
helm with Trisagion, which is
found to be the term for an abbreviated
memorial service. The piece serves as
a bit of sunshine before we plunge into
the never-ending Empyreum, which
continues what we've heard for quite
some time with the organ part, the right
hand playing the narrative, with simple
chordal support in the left hand and
pedal. The piece varies little in this
style, which gets to be a bit wearisome
over the 37-minute playing time. Much
of it strikes me as sounding more like
pre-service music than anything else,
and little comes to light as the piece
ends, with rather clichéd harp
arpeggios sweeping things up to the
clouds.
To a somewhat lesser
extent, this same uniformity plagues
the Trilogy for organ and harp,
written over the course of eleven months
between April 2004 and March 2005. The
harp and organ work more as an ensemble
here, but little comes of the material.
The piece tends to fall back into the
"harp or organ" rut and the chord progressions
lack surprise or interest.
Cook fares better on
his smaller-scale works, three of which
are on the disc. The two songs are appealing
and ably performed by Tacye Phillipson
and Jennifer Clark. Voces Oxonienses,
an amateur student choir, are sensitive
and engaging in their performance of
the short choral work, In Heaven
Shall All be Love.
Overall, the performances
are good, and the songs are enjoyable,
but the larger pieces have little variety
in approach or writing style. This,
and the occasionally irritating sound
of the organ both count against a recommendation.
David Blomenberg
Other James Cook
reviews on MusicWeb International
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Jan07/Cook_Exequy_21206.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Apr04/Cook_Heaven.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Cook_Organ_symphony_25031.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Sep05/cook_organ_25031.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/July05/Cook_Heaven_25027.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Apr04/Cook.Heaven.htm
Samuel Hudson (organ) 
