Intonations

--Steve Pilkington

Review
"This publication is Volume XVI in a series of hymn intonations, harmonizations and preludes by different composers. Volume XVI containts twenty-two intonations by Steve Pilkington, associate professor of Sacred Music at Westminster Choir College. Although the publisher suggests that they may be used as free harmonizations or short solo items, most pieces in this volume are clearly designed as hymn introductions. Most of them present the entire tune once through, sometimes ornamented. Your personal preferences and style of hymn playing will determine how useful this volume will be. I am drawn to the more straightforward settings, such as a completely diatonic setting of BEACH SPRING with a flowing accompaniment evoking springs of water in the left hand, a sprightly setting of DIX featuring the melody on a pedal reed with a filigree of scales and trills above, and a quasi-mediaeval setting of O FILII ET FILIAE with an abundance of parallel fourths and an alternation between three and four beats per bar. I wonder how sure the congregation's entrance would be after the more adventurous preludes, such as LLANFAIR or FOUNDATION, but that depends on your congregation and hymn-playing style. There is an impressive diversity of style and texture including a fughetta, a bicinium, a musette, a Langlais-esque setting of ITALIAN HYMN, a boogie-woogie setting of HOLY MANNA, and a meditative setting of WOODWORTH with a free flute descant over chors in the strings that makes me think of 'smooth jazz.' " -- AAM Journal, November 2012