Already as a pupil Florian Wilkes studied Joseph Fux’s theory of the counter point, as well as the theories of composition of Felix Salzer, Paul Hindemith, Franz Schreker and Ernst Krenek. At the Berlin University of the Arts he studied with Helmut Barbe, a student of Ernst Pepping. Since 1980 he has written compositions for various instruments and has done numerous transcriptions for organ, choir and organ plus.
Organ Symphony in A ´Für einen Widerstandskämpfer´
(´For a Resistance Fighter´) (discography)
The piece, which comprises five movements, is dedicated to Bernhard Lichtenberg, provost at the St. Hedwig's Cathedral Berlin, and to the great protestant theologian and resistance fighter Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Both of them openly opposed the Nazi regime in Germany. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is honored all over the world. Bernhard Lichtenberg was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Berlin in 1996.
Mr. Wilkes' motive for composing the Organ Symphony in A is based on his admiration, dating back to his childhood days, for the resistance fighters of July 20th and all resistance fighters of the so-called 'Third Reich', especially the Christian ones. These two courageous men opposed an unjust government, embodied in the violent acts of Adolf Hitler and his national socialists. The piece describes the heroes' paths through personal and political challenges (Fantasie) to their sacrificing their lives for right and truth (Passus). It culminates in an encouraging Finale, in which a French chorale on the resurrection of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ is cited. Boldness, determination, quailing, depressed resignation, and rising up anew in a borderline situation is expressed in this symphony. To achieve this, Wilkes deliberately chooses a conventional tonal language.
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Organ Symphony in F minor
“Florian Wilkes presented his ´Second Organ Symphony in F minor´. Its five movements sounded nearly tonal despite recurrent dissonances and bold harmonies. They demonstrated how intensively the composer, especially in the first movement, has studied master Bach. Delightful also the beseeching ´Adagio sospirando´, which Wilkes himself entitled ´Forgive´, the tripartite scherzo and the ´Moderato placido´, in which the bells of St Hedwig (Wilkes’s Berliner home cathedral) chimed. The organist used the carillon very effectively also in the final movement in contrast to the vigorous culmination of his symphony, which was build up through several runs.” (Neue Westfälische)
Kolenda - Sonata (discography)
Original arrangement for wind quintet Transcriptions for organ and soprano saxophone, and alternatively clarinet.
An American String Quartet (9/11) For the time of Penitence
“This work will be written large in the history of music” (a listener at the first performance in 2002)
“An American String Quartet – For the time of Penitence” is meant for the ´time of Lent´, which begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with the blaze of the Easter fire and the sunrise on the morning of Easter.
Ist movement
´Hudson Sunrise´ forms the beginning of the quartet: the unsuspecting, awakening, vibrant, fresh metropolis. Structured like a fugue, the opening theme rushes forward, interrupted by concertante syncopation and exuberant solos. The opening theme is subject to numerous transformations in the subsequent movements until it eventually leads energetically to the finale.
IInd movement
´Burning Towers´ – the burning towers stand on swaying feet. Many can escape or are rescued, many fall to their deaths. The themes of salvation and destruction stand in sharp contrast to each other.
IIIrd movement
The central movement ´Ashes and Dust´ (´ashes´ referring here also to ´mortal remains´), written in twelve tone counterpoint, atomises in successive prolonged rests the dust which remains of the collapsing ´Burning Towers´ and which is scattered to the four corners of the earth with the Atlantic wind.
IVth movement
´Abide With Me´, after Henry Francis Lyte’s text of 1847 and William Henry Monk’s melody of 1861, represents the prayers of the threatened, the frightened, the injured, the dying and the sympathetic. It does so however not in a musically annihilated space, but in condensed, harmonic space. Beginning con sordino, the voices of bicinium expand via trio und quartet to the treble development in coloration and in contrapunctus floridus.
Vth movement
´I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door´ is the last sentence of Emma Lazarus’s poem engraved into the Statue of Liberty with the seven rays on her head. The religious context of the call across the seven seas is obvious: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”, derived from the Bible: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” The concluding vivace grows, consequently, into a swirling, hopeful and heaven-aspiring dance, so that the thousandfold death be not in vain.
The sunrise; the fire in the towers; the remains of the fire: ashes and dust; ´O stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ´ for the sun wants to set; ´I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door´ – a hymn of the fire, a hymn of the sun for four strings, dedicated to the land of freedom, with faith in America’s true religion.
Three chorale preludes for trumpet and organ (discography)
´Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme´ (´Sleepers, Wake´)
´Wie schön leucht´ uns der Morgenstern´ (´How Beautifully the Morning Star Shines´)
“cannot be surpassed in its celestial-seeming, potent power”
´Es ist ein Ros´entsprungen´ (´Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming´)
“reveals undreamt-of mystic insights into the depths. Spiritual, internalised dedication and enchanting splendour merge in indescribably beautiful timbres.”
Solo Sonata for Violoncello (discography)
First performance and recording on CD: Rowena Spearritt-Dodds
I. Vivace (The inner struggle of the political person Bernhard Lichtenberg)
II. Andante (The evening prayer in the penal institution Tegel)
III. Presto agitato (The train for Dachau)
Accordion - organ concert
This concert, which is based on the hymn for Whitsun, is in international demand by experts in the arrangement for one accordion and organ as well as for two accordions and organ.
Transcriptions Richard Wagner’s ´Tannhäuser Ouvertüre´
“A surprise was the transcription of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser Ouvertüre. Florian Wilkes had arranged the mighty orchestral music of this opera about love and guilt, atonement and forgiveness for the organ. Masterfully, he dressed the well-known themes and melodies in new, perfectly suitable, sounds.” (Neue Westfälische Zeitung)
Franz Liszt’s ´Consolation No. 3´
“an adaptation which was unusual but had assured taste (...) and was surprisingly contemplative and free of kitsch” (Bergsträsser Anzeiger)
Antonin Dvorák’s 9th Symphony (discography)
“Florian Wilkes’s version was able to impress. (...) Thus appears the result of this transposition: like a painting, which depicts the same subject and is painted in almost the same colours but with a different technique.” (Rheinpfalz)
“Dvorák’s master piece, played single-handedly on the bombastic Sauer-organ of the Cathedral of Berlin - an existential listening experience.” (Berliner Tagesspiegel)
´Bernhard Lichtenberg chorale´ (discography)
Florian Wilkes wrote this chorale, which was approved in 1995 by the Archbishop of Berlin Georg Kardinal Sterzinsky, for the beatification of Bernhard Lichtenberg in 1996.
and many more
Organist and attorney Florian Wilkes (Berlin)