Beschreibung
This work was written in 1992 for Joseph Nolan, an organist described by the composer as the only person he then knew who could make an organ recital both enjoyable and exciting.
Although only in two movements, it is intended to have the same seriousness of effect of the eighteenth-century sonata da chiesa, and therefore does not contain any of the satire often found in the composer’s music when he writes using formal constructions of the past.
The first movement is meditative, the second restless and full of contradiction, but both have an underlying conflict between tonality and atonality, which is in both movements resolved in favour of tonality in the form of triumphant melodies, which a believer may interpret as the overcoming of doubt by faith.
The sound sample is the 2nd movement, performed by Ronald Frost
Recordings of the complete organ music of Colin Bayliss, performed by Ronald Frost, is available on itunes at
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/colin-bayliss-complete-organ/id585282515