The Solo Organ Works of Jon Laukvik

Abstract

Jon Laukvik (b. 1952) has an international reputation as a performer, teacher, juror, editor, and author. He is perhaps most well known for his three-volume organ literature textbook entitled Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing. The first volume has become a standard text throughout Europe and Asia and is widely used in the United States as well. In recent years, he has also emerged as a composer. Compositions involving organ include the following: eleven organ solo works, three pieces for organ four-hand, ten works for organ and solo instrument, and three works for organ and voice or choir. Laukvik developed a unique sound that is influenced by Renaissance and Baroque music, the works of later French composers, and jazz idioms. In addition to the contributions coming from these sources, he further employed techniques such as bitonality and chromatic alterations as central features of his style. There is a very limited body of scholarly writing about his music. He accepted a request to be interviewed for this study, which proved to be invaluable. Together with this interview, an intensive study of his works, and a comparison between his compositions and the works of other composers have served as primary sources for this lecture-recital. The purpose of this study is to illuminate these stylistic features of his organ music in the hope that this might bring further attention to a composer whose voice deserves to be heard in the contemporary organ world.