Sarabande (in modum benedictionem) Carson Cooman op. 1127 Gregory Hamilton, Organ

Sarabande (in modum benedictionem)
Carson Cooman Op. 1127 (2015)
For Ross Wood.
Gregory Hamilton, Organ.
Carson Cooman (b. 1982) is an American composer with a catalog of hundreds of works in many forms-from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. His music has been performed on all six inhabited continents in venues that range from the stage of Carnegie Hall to the basket of a hot air balloon. Cooman’s music appears on over forty recordings, including more than twenty complete CDs on the Naxos, Albany, Artek, Gothic, Divine Art, Métier, Diversions, Convivium, Altarus, MSR Classics, Raven, and Zimbel labels. Cooman’s primary composition studies were with Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher, and James Willey. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes in the performance of contemporary music. Over 300 new compositions by more than 100 international composers have been written for him, and his organ performances can be heard on a number of CD releases and more than 2,000 recordings available online. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He serves as an active consultant on music business matters to composers and performing organizations, specializing particularly in the area of composer estates and archives. For more information, visit www.carsoncooman.com.
Art by Georges Henri Rouault 1871 - 1958). Rouault was a French painter, draughtsman, and printer, whose work is often associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. His art is distinctive even among the great body of French twentieth - century artists. His style, other employing stark colors, strong forms and a kind of sophisticated primitivism, makes a strong effect on the human emotions. Indeed, his work seems calculated to reach the emotional psyche.
Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family. His mother encouraged his love for the arts, and in 1885 the fourteen-year-old Rouault embarked on an apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer, which lasted until 1890. This early experience as a glass painter has been suggested as a likely source of the heavy black contouring and glowing colours, likened to leaded glass, which characterize Rouault's mature painting style.
His use of stark contrasts and emotionality is credited to the influence of Vincent van Gogh. His characterizations of overemphasized grotesque personalities inspired the expressionist painters.
n 1907, Rouault commenced a series of paintings dedicated to courts, clowns and prostitutes. Although not unique as subject matter, Rouault’s depictions of people on the edge of society shows a desire to evoke their inherent dignity. This may be possibly related to his Christian faith, which from 1917 informed his work, sometime subtly and sometimes explicitly, as in the many series he produced on Theological and biblical themes. The Christian faith informed his work in his search for inspiration and marks him out as perhaps the most passionate Christian artist of the 20th century: first of all, in the theme of the passion of Christ. The face of Jesus and the cries of the women at the feet of the cross are symbols of the pain of the world, which for Rouault was relieved by belief in resurrection.
The final work in this video: The "Portrait of the Director of the Paris Theatre" is from the collection of the performer, Gregory Hamilton. www.gregoryhamilton.org.