Gustaf Adolph Mankell (1812 - 1880) worked as an organist at St James' Church in Stockholm from 1836 until the end of his life, was a member of the Swedish Academy of Music and was appointed professor there in 1859 as a respected organ teacher. Mankell's efforts to raise musical standards resulted in the introduction of the École d'Orgue by Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens (1823-1881) in Swedish translation as a textbook for the conservatoire. At a mature age, Mankell composed twelve large organ sonatas within a short period of time (from August 1874 to December 1877), which can easily be regarded as his opus summum. [...] With regard to the overall structure of the sonatas, there is a very clear, classical basic pattern, which Mankell varies undogmatically. The first movement is basically in sonata form. The main theme is more of a motoric style and contrasts with a lyrical secondary movement, which is also to be played on a second manual with a weaker register. Mankell always writes a fugue (on another theme) as the final group. [...] This is followed by a development section and finally the recapitulation with the ‘classical’ key sequences — the fugue in the final group is also newly conceived in each case and not simply a transposition of the fugue from the exposition, creating a coda effect. In the other movements, Mankell uses almost everything that could find a place in an organ sonata at the time: Adagio, minuet with trio, scherzo with trio, chorale variations, solo pieces for certain organ stops (see above) etc. There are also ‘pedal etudes’ and ‘pedal solos’ (some with four-part pedal writing!). An allegro finale in the form of an ‘introduction and fugue’ concludes each sonata.
From the Foreword by Siegfried Mangold
