Description

Find a distinctive work for organ by Christopher Maxim. The Invocation exploits dynamics and color while the Paean is energetic and rhythmic.

Invocation & Paean [2006] covers 12 pages and opens with an angular, unsettled, atonal solo for Krummhorn or Cornet adagio con rubato molto. Dynamics and tempi fluctuate between extremes (full swell, Voix Celestes) before the contrasting Paean with its dancing rhythms, solo trumpet stop and spicy added-note chords. Various keys are explored before a fughetta over a long-held dominant pedal, and the final celebratory section which concludes virtuosically (about grade 8) in a definite A major. […]

Both these works [Invocation & Paean and Prelude & Fugue] display an individual voice; ideas are developed well, giving a sense of purposeful direction; the harmonic language is spicy by accessible.
Michael Overbury (Organists’ Review)