Alun Hoddinott: Intrada for organ 1967

In my accumulation of organ music, I have two volumes of Oxford University Press’s Easy Modern Organ Music. I remember buying them in a Glasgow store about fifty-years ago. I wanted to impress my friends with something a little “spikier” than the Henry Smart and Caleb Simper scores that always were lying around the organ loft. There was only one number I could get my feet and fingers round - and that was Alun Hoddinott’s Intrada. And here was a piece of organ music that sounded impressive – even on the small two manual church organ that I regarded as my own! I tried it out at an evening service - and no one was really impressed: “A bit too long-haired for our time of life, laddie.”

Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008) was a Welsh composer and teacher, known for his significant contributions to classical music. Born in Bargoed, Glamorganshire, he studied at University College, Cardiff, and later took private lessons with Arthur Benjamin. His first major success came with the premiere of his Clarinet Concerto at the Cheltenham Festival in 1954. Hoddinott was a prolific composer, producing symphonies, concertos, operas, and chamber works. His music is characterised by lyrical intensity and complex rhythms. He was also a teacher and served as Professor of Music at Cardiff University, where he helped expand the music department. His contributions to his discipline were recognised with several awards, including a CBE in 1981 and the Glyndwr Award for outstanding contribution to the arts in Wales in 1997.

The Intrada, op.37 no.2 was written in 1966. It was a commission from OUP for the first of the two volumes, which was duly published in 1967. Other works in this album included Kenneth Leighton’s Fanfare, William Mathias’s Chorale, Christopher Brown’s Nocturne, John McCabe’s Pastorale sostenuto and Arnold Cooke’s Impromptu.

Intrada was first performed at Cambridge on 15 July 1967. The organist of the day is not known. It does not appear to have been recorded.

Of added interest is op.37 no.1, which was a Toccata alla Giga, written in 1964 and published in Modern Organ Music, Book 1, in 1965. For details of this work see this blog, here.

Intrada is a noun that means a musical introduction or prelude, especially popular in the 16th and 17th century. The word comes from the Italian word intrata, which means "entrance" or "introduction". The earliest evidence of the word "intrada" in English is from 1664.

Hoddinott’s piece is straightforward in its construction. The opening two bars contains virtually all the material used in the entire work. It proceeds with contrasting panels of sound: reeds, string tone, flutes, and lastly reeds. Various imaginative stop registrations add colour to the limited melodic and harmonic texture. It can be played on a two manual organ, if there is a reed stop on the Great and the Swell. The composer calls for a “soft 8ft” stop on the pedal, but this could be faked with a pedal coupler.

In a review of Easy Modern Organ Music printed in the American Music Teacher (February/March 1968), E.J. Hilty pointed out that “All of these compositions have one thing in common: dissonance! Dissonance can be fun if you will not give up at first trial.”

Listen to Alun Hoddinott’s Intrada, op.37 no.2 on YouTube, here. Zach Neufeld is playing the organ of St. John's Cathedral, Los Angeles.