AMAZING GRACE – Organ Works by Grimoaldo Macchia
M° Giorgio Parolini – Organo Bonato (2013), chiesa Parrocchiale Sant’Anastasia, Villasanta

This recording project was birthed due to my belief in the need to ‘give a voice’ to contemporary composers, as well as preserving and passing on what has been left to us over the past centuries. The tracks on the CD are linked to each other in order to weave a kind of plot that supports what is offered to the listener. Each piece is composed on a theme: there are ‘secular’ themes (B.A.C.H., Cielito Lindo) and ‘sacred’ themes (all other pieces); within the ‘sacred’ themes are Gregorian Chants – typical of Catholicism – and themes of chorales and hymns that are standard in Protestant and Anglican Liturgy. In addition, all the pieces composed on sacred themes tend to cover the entire Liturgical Year. Two criteria led to the final decision on this programme: The works presented here were composed over a period of about 6/7 years, which is a fairly long time; the variety of forms and language that influenced the composition and how it would be received by the listener: Here we have pieces with a complex and articulated structure and language, but there are also those for which a simpler language and structure have been used, and they are immediately accessible and understandable, so that this project can reach everyone. It is ‘Für Kenner und Liebhaber’ (‘for connoisseurs and enthusiasts’) as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach says, and so it can be a small tool to introduce new listeners to the organ world.

Giorgio Parolini
(Translation: Sabine Rodgers Seifert)