Divine Art Records

Artist: Carson Cooman

  • Companions: Contemporary Organ Music

    Companions: Contemporary Organ Music

    A new album of ten contemporary organ works from nine composers representing six countries.

    Carson Cooman presents a program of contemporary music for organ recorded on the remarkable post-romantic Thomas Gaida organ of the Pauluskirche in Ulm, Germany. The music varies widely in character and scope, from smaller character pieces and meditations to several dramatic, large-scale works. The final piece is the grand 15th organ symphony of English composer Bernard Heyes. Some like David Lasky’s ‘Peace Prayer No. 1’ have a special resonance in today’s world.

  • Marian Sawa: Music for Organ

    Marian Sawa: Music for Organ

    Marian Sawa (1937-2005) began serious studies at the age of 14 at the Salesian Organ School, Przemyšl, Poland. He toured actively as an organ performer and from 1966 taught organ at several prestigious schools. As a composer he wrote about 800 pieces in various genres, centred round his music for organ. His music builds on the Polish post-Romantic tradition, knitting fragments from folk tunes and hymns into his work, drawing strongly on Gregorian chant and traditional Polish material.

    Sawa’s personal and individual voice makes his music very recognizable and though little known outside Poland to date, he can be considered perhaps the greatest Eastern European organ composer of the 20th century.

    The pieces on this album, composed between 1971 and 2005, demonstrate vividly the range, variety and often enormous power of his compositions. This recording of the exquisite Fleiter organ (2014) at St. Ludgerus, Billerbeck, was made using the Hauptwerk remote digital access system.

  • Women of History – organ music by Carlotta Ferrari

    Women of History – organ music by Carlotta Ferrari

    The five compositions on this album are inspired by the lives and works of five women from history. Carlotta Ferrari has composed numerous pieces inspired by historical figures as well as pieces inspired by literature and works of art. Several of these directions are brought together in the five compositions on this album, which celebrate three religious figures, an artist, and a writer. In Ferrari’s distinctive modal style, she creates expressive musical portraits of these women.

    Beautifully performed by Carson Cooman, this album features the exquisite sounds of the Main Organ (Marcussen & Son, 1973) of the Laurenskerk, Rotterdam, captured through the Hauptwerk system.

  • Schächer & Willscher – Organ works

    Schächer & Willscher – Organ works

    This recording features music by two German composers: Raimund Schächer (b.1960) and Andreas Willscher (b.1955). Each composer is represented by three varied, yet characteristic, pieces. Raimund Schächer’s years of work as an editor of late medieval and early Renaissance keyboard music show in the free modality and early-influenced forms of his compositions. Andreas Willscher’s deep interest in French romanticism and eclectic musical interests (drawing on both classical and non-classical sources) are displayed in his pieces.

    Carson Cooman (b.1982) is an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms—ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His music has been performed on all six inhabited continents. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new works have been composed for him by composers from around the world, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of recordings of which this is his third for Divine Art.

    The recording was made on the Mathias Orgelbau instrument of 1997/2006 in the Pfarrkirche St. Peter-und-Paul, Görlitz, Germany, in a live performance using the Hauptwerk system.

  • Willscher: Organ Symphonies 19 & 20

    Willscher: Organ Symphonies 19 & 20

    German composer Andreas Willscher has won many awards for his compositions, which range widely from symphonic forms and oratorio to cabaret jazz and rock. His organ works are especially fine and varied – involving often a mélange of post-tonal modernism, minimalism, and jazz and rock elements. Willscher is also an active writer of literary and scientific articles and as a collector and preserver of ‘lost’ and forgotten music of the past.

    Organ Symphony Nos 19 and 20 were both composed in 2017 so are truly contemporary. They are lively, thrilling works with great rhythmic vitality. The third work is a suite – The Beatitudes – composed in 1974 at the beginning of the composer’s career.

    Carson Cooman is organist of the Memorial Church at Harvard University and also a most prolific composer, writer and teacher.
    His works have appeared in many recordings and have been played in every inhabited continent. This is his second recording of Willscher’s music for Divine Art as performer (the first was of Symphony No. 5), and the label has already released thirteen CDs of Cooman compositions with many more planned.

    The recording was made on the Schulze organ (1868) in St. Bartholomew, Armley, Leeds in a live performance using the Hauptwerk system.

  • Andreas Willscher: Organ Symphony No. 5

    Andreas Willscher: Organ Symphony No. 5

    German composer Andreas Willscher has won many awards for his compositions, which range widely from symphonic forms and oratorio to cabaret jazz and rock. His organ works are especially fine and varied – involving often a mélange of post-tonal modernism, minimalism, and jazz and rock elements. Willscher is also an active writer of literary and scientific articles and as a collector and preserver of ‘lost’ and forgotten music of the past.

    Organ Symphony No. 5 is on a grand scale but is mostly quiet peaceful and meditative with only two fast and louder sections; the symphony is subtitled “Of Francis’ Preaching about Holy Poverty” and is a reflection on the life and teaching of St. Francis of Asissi.

    Carson Cooman is organist of the Memorial Church at Harvard University and also a most prolific composer, writer and teacher. His works have appeared in many recordings and have been played in every inhabited continent. This is his first recording for Divine Art as performer, but the label has already released thirteen CDs of Cooman compositions with more planned.

    Organ of Laurenskerk, Rotterdam (recorded via Hauptwerk)

    More Willscher here and here