13 - Theme and Variations for Organ and Orchestra

Premiere: 22 May 2013
Organist Rachel Griffiths-Hughes
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Hamish McKeich
Auckland Town Hall

Programme Note

13 was inspired by the Renaissance art I saw while studying and travelling in Italy in 2009–10. I was taken with the bold depictions of martyrs with the attributes of their lives and deaths.

13 is a set of thirteen variations on a theme first presented by the organ. Each variation is based on one of the thirteen present at the Last Supper and aspects of their life journeys and martyrdom. The details of their lives are often sketchy, and sometimes sit somewhere between fact and legend. The order is as follows:

Theme
Var. I St Simon Zealotes
Revolutionary; went to Armenia and Persia; sawn in half.
Var. II St Thomas
Doubted Christ’s wounds; went to India; pierced with lance.
Var. III St Philip
Sober-minded; went to Greece and Phrygia; crucified upside-down.
Var. IV St Bartholomew
Honest; went to Armenia; flayed alive.
Var. V St Jude Thaddeus
Farmer; went to Syria and Armenia; clubbed to death.
Var. VI Judas Escariot
The betrayer; eternally punished; hung himself.
Var. VII St James the Great
Fiery temper; ‘Son of Thunder’; Judaea; beheaded.
Var. VIII St James the Less
Brother of Christ; Jerusalem and went to Egypt; thrown off temple.
Var. IX St Matthew
Tax collector; accompanied by an angel; Ethiopia and Persia; martyr.
Var. X St Andrew
The first-called; went to Ukraine and Black Sea; crucified on saltire.
Var. XI St John
Author of Revelations; ‘Son of Thunder’; went to Asia Minor; died of old-age.
Var. XII St Peter
Holder of the keys to the Gates of Heaven; went to Rome; crucified upside-down.
Var. XIII Apotheosis

Developed as part of the APO Composer Workshop 2012 for works for organ and orchestra.

Audio

Video recording on Sounz website.