A Mystic In the Making
– Music of Olivier Messiaen

Gail Archer, organ

Meyer Media

Ms. Archer's second solo album, A Mystic In The Making was recorded on the Aeolian-Skinner Pipe Organ at Columbia University’s St. Paul Chapel, produced and engineered by Grammy Award winner Andreas K. Meyer and features L’Ascension and Les Corps Glorieux by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992). Read reviews

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The Orpheus of Amsterdam

Sweelinck and his Pupils

Gail Archer, organ

Cala Records (CACD88043)

Ms. Archer's solo debut album was recorded on the Fisk organ at Wellesley College and it features music by Sweelinck, Scheidt and Scheidemann.  Read reviews

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Words of Albert Schweitzer and the Music of Bach
Gail Archer, Organ

Thurston Moore created this musical dramatization using the philosophical writings of Albert Schweitzer (organ theorist, organist, physician, philosopher, editor of Bach's  organ works, 1952 Nobel Peace Prize laureate) interspersed with Bach organ works and 276 images viewed by the audience. On this CD, Robert Thurman speaks the text and Gail Archer performs the seven organ works. 

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BACH: Toccata in d, BWV 565
Savior of the Nations, Come, BWV 659
Blessed Jesus, We Are Here, BWV 731
By the Waters of Babylon, BWV 653
Kyrie, God Holy Ghost, BWV 671
Sonata (Andante), BWV 527
Triple Fugue in E-flat, BWV 552

Live in Concert

The artist plays four great American organs, the Fisk at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, the Fritts at the University of Arizona, Tempe, the Taylor and Boody at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA and the Aeolian-Skinner at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, New York City. A complimentary copy available upon recital request. Email booking@sozomedia.com.

The College of the Holy Cross, Worchester, MA (Taylor & Boody)

Fantasia super Komm Heiliger Geist (mp3)- JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH

Schücke dich, o liebe Seele - BACH

Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (Fisk Organ)

Magnificat VII. Toni - HEINRICH SCHEIDEMANN

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (Paul Fritts Organ)

Ciacona in E Minor - DIETRICH BUXTEHUDE

L’Organo Piccolo Spoleto, St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Charleston, SC (Austin Organ)

Sonata VI - FELIX MENDELSSOHN

Vater unser in Himmelreich: chorale variations, Chorale in a minor - CESAR FRANCK

L’Ascension - II. Alleluias sereins d’une ami qui desire le ciel - OLIVIER MESSAIEN

L’Ascension - III. Transports de joie d’une ame devant la gloire du Christ (mp3)- OLIVIER MESSAIEN

Barbara Strozzi, Cantate, Ariete a Una, Due e Tre Voci
w/ accompanying CD: Barnard Strozzi, Arias & Duets
Edited by Gail Archer

Barbara Strozzi, a unique, feminine figure in a compositional field dominated by such contemporaries as Giacomo Carissimi, Luigi Rossi, Marc’ Antonio Cesti, and Mario Savioni, stands out for the high quality of her vocal publications: seven volumes of secular works and one of sacred music. Compared with Carissimi and Rossi, who published about three percent of their output, Strozzi supervised the publication of just over one hundred works herself, more than any other seventeenth-century composer. Further, she occupied a singularly fortunate social position as the adopted (and very likely illegitimate) daughter of the distinguished Venetian playwright and poet Giulio Strozzi (1583-1652). His intellectual milieu was the Accademia degli Incogniti, a group of philosophers, poets, historians, and clergy who published widely and were a major political and cultural force in Venice. Cantate, ariete una due et tre voci, Op. 3, published by Gardano in 1654, contains eleven cantatas: six solo cantatas for soprano, one duet for soprano and bass, two duets for soprano and alto, and two trios for soprano, alto, and bass. The texts may have been written by the founder of the Incogniti, Giovanni Francesco Loredano.

The process of making the modern edition included transcribing the music from seventeenth-century notation and clefs to modern graphic symbols, correcting errors in accidentals, adding regular bar lines, as well as translating the poetry from Italian to English and making decisions about the placement of the original Italian text syllables under specific notes.