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Use: Easter, Christmas
Required Resources: Organ
Noël nouvelet is a traditional French carol tune from the turn of the 16th century.
Its Dorian mode melody borrows the first five notes from the 9th century Marian chant, Ave maris stella.
Although its origins lie in a Christmas carol, "Sing We Now of Christmas," the tune is more often now sung with the Easter text, "Now the Green Blade Riseth."
This text, written in 1928 by Anglican priest John MacLeod Campbell, likens Christ's Resurrection to the natural phenomenon of a grain of wheat "dying" and germinating in the earth to produce a stalk of wheat.
Talented teenage composer Jacob Perkowski is the Sacred Music Intern at Saint James Catholic Church in Charles Town, West Virginia.
He has many years of trumpet and guitar experience behind him, and has recently begun playing organ and recorder, as well as flexing his conducting muscles with great aplomb.
His Improvisation is rather meditative, with a M.M. of 60, exploring a series of variations in e minor (Dorian) mode.
A short G Major section leads to a modulation to f# minor (Dorian).
The work closes quietly as it began.
Not overly difficult, this Improvisation could work equally well during Eastertide or Christmastide (owing to the tune's original roots).
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