De Profundis

Description

Organ — The De Profundis Op. 16, for solo organ, was commissioned by David Friddle, who gave the work its world premiere.xa0 The score was finished in October 1985.The title De Profundis was in fact chosen well after the initial sketches for the piece had already been written, and therefore, although it is certainly appropriate, is, in its specificity of association, somewhat arbitrarily applied.xa0 In settling upon this title as much thinking of Wilde’s De Profundis as to the biblical reference which his use of it referred.xa0 Thus I am using the title not in any narrow programmatic sense, but rather an indication of the piece’s general mood – that of a meditation of profoundly sorrowful nature. Transparent neoromatic writing on three staves. With this work and the piano NOCTURNE (above), Lowell Liebermann joins the Presser catalog. 8 min. For churches, recital. Medium.