Greenleaves

A Baroque organ inspired 3 part fugue, marked Maestoso ma accademico, this piece demonstrates various contrapuntal techniques such as augmentation, diminution, retrograde, retrograde inversion and inversion.
The fugue subject is derived from first phase of the very corny Whittier College Alma Mater put to the Hawaiian song, Ua Like No A Like, or Sweet Constancy the exciting final stretto, featuring a completely new phrase in the pedalier quoting elsewhere from the original Polynesian tune, builds to the collegiate climax. The title Greenleaves is a reference to the middle name of the famous poet, the eponym of the college. The subtitle echoes back to that the song was played by the chapel bells at high noon. A student at the school, Richard dedicated the work to his favorite, greatest teacher of music composition, theory and form: Dr. Orpha Ochse, organist extraordinaire!