"Augenblicke ... vergangen". In memoriam Manfred Kluge

I had an idea last year about a very niche theme for recital material I’d like to present, and I began working on the pieces. I’ve selected pieces from three California based composers who all had Fulbrights to Europe and their European compositional mentors. Furthermore, I narrowed down the list of instruments I would play these works on to just two. The works of the CA composers themselves will be played on the San Diego, CA Blackinton, as it contains all the necessary bells and whistles that the pieces call for, and the CA composers are all influenced by such organs and sounds throughout their lives and careers. The works by their European mentors will be played on the Chico State University organ, which I think has a very California-style approach to European Baroque instruments. There is a huge streak of independence running through that instrument.

The first CA composer I’ve already featured on the Blackinton is Dr. Pamela Decker, who was educated at Stanford, earning two doctorates, and completed a Fulbright to Lübeck, Germany. While there, one of her mentors was the composer/organist Roland Ploeger. When I did my Fulbright and was in Lübeck for some of it in 2004, I got to meet him shortly before he passed. In that brief meeting, you already knew that he was gentle, warm, and compassionate person. He gave me a copy of his “Werke in Auswahl, Bd. II: Musik fuer Orgel.” This upload includes a cycle from it entitled “Augenblicke … vergangen.” In memoriam Manfred Kluge. It has six short movements:

I. Eingedenk …
II. Spiegelung
III. Such nach …
IV. Und niemand weiß …
V. Entschluß
VI. Aquis submersus 27. 02. 1971