Prelude on Pange Lingua

Musically, this is a rather interesting piece with harmonic language that is more advanced than one might normally use in services, but here one can allways follow the hymn tune. The registration is highly colorful, using at 16′ Quintaton played an octave higher, or substituting an 8′ and 2 2/3′. As in the chorale preludes mentioned earlier, this work, too, creates a continuing crescendo to the end. Harmonically, this work makes use of some interesting ideas—mirroring short sections of the hymn tune as a motivic device, short canonic imitation, etc. Technically, it is fairly easy reading until about halfway, when close attention must be paid to accidentals. The last page will require some working of fingering in the right hand to maintain the legato sense of the phrase.
The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians
March 2006