Poulenc’s organ concerto in G minor starts off with a bang. The clash of the organs and strings is simply dazzling. There's a little bit of dissonance and each chord at the beginning of the piece. Followed by the strings is the organ pronouncing the chords on the lower end. The strings echo the cord in the higher end of the texture. Poulenc explores both Romantic-era stylings along with those in the twentieth century neoclassical term of harmony. I certainly call this the greatest piece of organ music for the 20th century. It's complete with all the skills that you need from the G minor to the B-flat major and beyond.
It discovers the new keys by going to the F minor tonality. Then goes the texture to C minor and then to C major with an added D and B making this a C seven nine chord. My students would sure love all the organ clashes in here and how they meet up with the strings after they clash.
Then the texture goes into a certain fugue-like style. They use a different register in the organ that is slightly softer for this. It’s in the upper keyboard of the organ. The strings follow the melodic pattern that is set by the organ
In works such as the organ concerto for organ and strings, you don’t need a bigger orchestra to accentuate or fill out the instrumentation. All you need is a big cathedral organ with impressive sound and then let her rip. Strings and the organ together are a mighty force to be reckoned with.
Further on down the line, we have more string and orchestral action that is simply hair-raising. There are the diminished chords with the clash paired along with the higher strings really screeching at the top of their registers. It sounds almost like a horror film. Go take a listen or two. Get it in your ears. You will never view Poulenc the same way again.
Poulenc has a knack for very interesting harmonies paired with Bach like melodic passages that are reminiscent of the baroque and classical stylings. Honegger does the same thing. He loved flashy melodies over the top of stable harmonies that were either consonant or dissonant that resolve later.Then, he strips the texture completely and starts with just the organ doing an episode of melodic counterpoint. It’s really a rollercoaster of a work that is a staple of all organ repertoire.
