Augsburg Fortress

When I was asked to write a set of pieces for the Easter season, a few specific suggestions from Norma Aamodt-Nelson stirred my imagination. She envisioned a 3-sectioned piece that would begin with dark foreboding reminiscent of Herbert Howells’s writing, a transitional middle section, and a final, triumphant setting of “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today.” Those ideas lead to the first piece in the collection, An Easter Triptych. She also suggested a set of variations on NOËL NOUVELET (“Now the Green Blade Rises”) that would be more accessible to the average organist than the famous but daunting work by Marcel Dupre. Other pieces in the collection were drawn from familiar and less familiar Easter hymns from various traditions. The title piece, "Glory of the Easter Feast," is a jubilant development of an original theme which expresses wonder and awe at the resurrection of Christ and triumph over death. The rising melody with angular upward skips mirror the glory of Christ's ascension to heaven. My hope is that these compositions will prove useful as preludes, processionals, and postludes both for Easter services and for other celebratory occasions.