The Organ Music of James Hotchkiss Rogers and its Connection to WWI, Anthems of Allied Powers

Charles Echols
Crown Center Sheraton Hotel - FREMONT

The emphasis of this presentation will be the application of principles of the performance practice of Rogers’ time to his organ music. His connection to World War One includes the International Fantasy, organ settings of the national anthems of the Allied Powers. Rogers (1857-1940) was a leading American composer of organ music. His early training was in the Chicago area, followed by studies in Berlin and Paris. He had a fifty-year career in Cleveland, Ohio as organist, choral director, pianist, teacher, publisher, editor, arranger, and music critic. His melodies, traditional harmonies, and command of formal design combine to make his compositional style appealing to the average listener. The forty pieces of his organ music exhibit a wide variety of forms: three sonatas, two suites, a “miniature” suite, several toccatas, many character pieces, a fugue, a passacaglia, and concert pieces. The complete organ works of Rogers are in process of publication (Wayne Leupold Editions; edited by Echols. Volume 1 (the three organ sonatas) was published in 2016. Volume 2 will be published in 2017, Volume 3 in 2018, and Volume 4 in 2019. The monograph, James H. Rogers: The Keynote of His Life was Harmony, (Leupold Editions early 2017) combines a biographical study with suggestions for performance of the organ works. A compact disc of Echols performing the three organ sonatas is available (Raven Records 2016).

Thursday, July 5
9:00 – 9:45am