Expressions: 27

Naji Hakim was born in 1955 in Lebanon. He studied at the Conservatory in Paris, being one of Jean Langlais' pupils. Hakim followed Daniel Roth as organist of Sacre-Coeur in 1985 and then at la Trinite in 1993, succeeding Olivier Messiaen.

Jean Langlais was approached to write a music book containing pieces in that were relatively easy for use in both catholic and protestant church services. He agreed and wrote 15 works. He chose his student, Naji Hakim to also write 15 works.

Langlais' works are relatively easy and characteristic of his style. Someone should have told Hakim about the need to be playable...

The pieces were designed to lead into the next, allowing an organist to play for as long or as short as needed. They were written "in an impressionistic/twentieth century harmonic style" (Publisher's forward).

Hakim's pieces are definitely far more complex than Langlais'. This is one of the easier pieces from the book, but even so, it is two pages of accidentals and swell markings everywhere. I learned this as a technical exercise rather than for the music. To my ears it is an interesting piece, but no where near as musical or useful for service playing as any of the Langlais pieces in the book.

Hope you enjoy.
John