Adagio in E Major

The "Adagio in E Major" is the second of the "Three Pieces for Organ." It is certainly Bridge's most popular organ piece, and the work is performed quite often.

The first section appears to show the composer's affinity with writing for strings. It is easy to imagine these passages played by a string quartet.

The music builds continually before reaching a great climax. The work begins to melt down over a long dominant pedal, before the opening material returns. The Viola da Gamba of the Solo organ, played in the tenor register, gets a brief chance before the lovely final cadence with it's effective resolution of G major moving to a final chord of E major, played on the Swell strings with 32' in the pedal.

This piece is often used in England as an "examination piece," testing the organist's ability to manage the many changes in registration. At least I had to play it for an exam... ;-)

All of Bridge's organ works are recital pieces, and are not church music. His works are readily available and are well worth the effort in preparing them.