Introduzione Maestoso & Allegro (Prélude et Fugue)

With Hanukkah coming, I was actively looking for some Jewish organ music. There is very little, except by 20th century composes like Adler, Berlinski, and so forth.

Finally I found some! The music of Théophile Stern (1803-1886), who was "Organiste au Temple Neuf de Strasbourg." I was so pleased...

Then I did more research... :-(

Stern was a Lutheran, the Temple Neuf de Strasbourg is a major Luterhan church there.

To be honest, I judged him to be Jewish because of his name, and because he played in a "temple," and was wrong on both accounts.

This proves that you should NOT stereotype doesn't it?

Still I decided to upload the 2 pieces that I did by him, and I hope that you like them. They both "feel" like music written by an organist, but in a lot of ways they don't. This was another thing that made think he was probably organist of a large synagogue, which have an active, but "different" role for the organ.

"Introduzione Maestoso & Allegro (Prélude et Fugue)" is written in the key of E-flat major, and the "Prélude" begins with a declamatory unison passage. Several pedal points build up dramatically to the start of the Fugue.

The subject of the "Fugue sur un thème de C. Berg," is a nice one, and it's very fine and uplifting to listen to, although it's quite "square and academic" the way Stern develops it. It's not really very fugal.

It ends with a tonic pedal point with a "how dry I am cadence" (!), and a final octave unison.

All of this music is available free for download here: http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Stern,_Théophile