Fountain Melody | John Arthur Meale (1880–1932) | 1925 Steinmeyer, Berlin (Hauptwerk)

Описание: "A scenic tone-picture of an illuminated fountain, the placid play of which is reflected in the flowing opening music. Presently the display becomes more intense, the kaleidoscopic colours being admirably suggested by the ever-changing tonality of the music. This subsides, the reflected lights grow dim, and the fountain ceases in the darkness of night."
So wrote John Arthur Meale in the score of his Fountain Melody, published by Paxton in 1910 and dedicated "To my friend, E. Stanley Roper."

This weekend marks the Third Sunday of Lent, and the lectionary readings are saturated with water. In Exodus 17, Moses strikes the rock at Horeb and water pours forth for a thirsty, desperate people. In John 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well and offers her living water, "a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Even Psalm 95's great cry, "Harden not your hearts as at Meribah," reaches back to that same desert moment at the waters of testing. Water runs through this entire Sunday like an underground stream, and Meale's shimmering, luminous tone-picture seemed the perfect companion for it.

Meale was born in Slaithwaite, near Huddersfield, on December 18, 1880. He served as organist at the Congregational Church in Marsden, then the Wesleyan Church in Selby, and then the Queen's Hall Mission in Hull before being appointed the first Musical Director of Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, in 1912. He remained there for the rest of his life, giving over six hundred Wednesday recitals and many Saturday Popular Concerts on the Hall's fine Hill organ. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, a noted exponent of the "orchestral" school of organ playing, and a recitalist much in demand across England. His compositions include a striking variety of organ tone-pictures: The Mighty Andes, In Peril on the Sea, At Sunrise, Impressions sur la Belgique, A Night at Sea, and the remarkable pedal study The Magic Harp, among others. He also composed anthems and songs. He died in Hendon on December 9, 1932, at the age of 51.

The Central Hall organ that Meale inaugurated was later played by Dr. William Lloyd Webber, father of Andrew and Julian, who served as Musical Director there for over twenty-five years. The tradition Meale founded continues to this day under Gerard Brooks.

The dedicatee, Edgar Stanley Roper (1878-1953), was organist of the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace and a significant figure in London's musical life. He held the FRCO and a BA from Corpus Christi College. Beyond the organ loft, Roper co-founded the Bach Cantata Club in 1926 alongside Charles Kennedy Scott and Hubert J. Foss, a society dedicated to performing Bach's cantatas with historically appropriate forces. Albert Schweitzer served as Vice-President and occasionally played organ at the Club's concerts. Roper also directed the Elizabethan Madrigal Society and led the Chapel Royal choir at important occasions, including the 1924 memorial service for William Byrd at Stondon Massey. He was known as an editor for Oxford University Press, producing fine arrangements of earlier English church music, including works by Maurice Greene. The friendship between Meale and Roper, two men at the heart of London's early twentieth-century musical world, one at the great Methodist concert hall and the other at the Chapel Royal, is a window into a rich and closely connected musical community.

Performed on the virtual 1925 G.F. Steinmeyer organ, Op. 1400, of Ss. Corpus Christi Church, Berlin, a 71-stop post-romantic instrument sampled by OrganArt Media for Hauptwerk. This completely original Steinmeyer, designed by the Berlin concert organist Otto Dunkelberg, survived both the Second World War and the neo-baroque movement intact. It was extensively restored and reinaugurated in 2018. Its orchestral colours, lush strings, and expressive swells make it a natural home for Meale's tone-picture writing.

More information about the sample set: https://www.organartmedia.com/en/1925...

Score: https://www.banksmusicpublications.co...

Third Sunday of Lent, Year A
Readings: Exodus 17:3-7 / Psalm 95 / Romans 5:1-2, 5-8 / John 4:5-42
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