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Marian Sawa (1937-2005) was a Polish composer, organist, improviser, musicologist and pedagogue. He studied organ and composition at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, where after graduating he became organist at the Military Church. From 1966, he taught organ improvisation, harmony, counterpoint and liturgical accompaniment at many of the top musical establishments in Warsaw and was awarded numerous prizes and state decorations (including First Prize at the Young Composers Competition) for his impressive compositional output as well as his outstanding contributions to education and culture.

Sawa composed hundreds of pieces, including instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental works, though he is best known as a prolific composer of organ music (five organ concerts, sonatas, fantasies, preludes, toccatas, passacaglias). He also toured extensively as a soloist and accompanist and made many recordings. His works often resulted from religious inspiration and his music builds on the Polish post-Romantic tradition involving Gregorian chant, Polish church songs and folklore, sometimes combining them in one piece. Sawa’s personal and individual voice makes his music very recognizable and though little known in the West to date, he can be considered perhaps the greatest Eastern European organ composer of the 20th Century. The pieces on this album, composed between 1971 and 2005, demonstrate vividly the range, variety and often enormous power of his compositions. Highlights include the spectacular opening Dies irae, an ethereal Aria, three lively Dances in Old Style, and the majestic Sequence II ‘Victimae paschali laudes’.

The music is wonderfully played by American Carson Cooman, an exceptional composer himself of works ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, orchestral works and hymn tunes. As a concert organist, he specializes in contemporary music and over 300 new works have been composed for him by over 100 composers from around the world. This recording of the exquisite Fleiter organ (2014) at St. Ludgerus, Billerbeck, was made using the Hauptwerk remote digital access system.