Andante

A charming and interesting Andante by Edouard Silas (22 August 1827 – 8 February 1909), a Dutch composer and organist who was born in Amsterdam and died in London.

He studied music at Mannheim, in Frankfurt with Louis Lacombe, and then in Paris with Friedrich Kalkbrenner, François Benoist and Jacques Fromental Halévy. He lived in London from 1850. Silas was organist at the Catholic Chapel of Kingston upon Thames and Professor of Harmony at the Guildhall School of Music.
He was a composer of symphonies, piano concertos, string quartets and organ works. He composed a Mass for four voices and organ for which he won a Belgian competition for sacred music in 1866.
Silas was a teacher of harmony at the Guildhall School of Music and wrote an unpublished Treatise on Musical Notation.

This romantic Andante starts slow and soft, but this calm atmosphere is interrupted by a forte movement. The ending is again (very) quiet.

Enjoy!

Marco