A native of Belgium, Guy Weitz (1883–1970) studied in Paris with Guilmant, Widor and Vincent d’Indy and went on to become Professor of Organ at Liège. In 1914 the outbreak of war caused him to move to England, and after a few years’ association with the music of Westminster Cathedral, in 1917 he became organist of the Jesuit Church, Farm Street in London’s Mayfair, a post he held for some fifty years. His
Grand chœur ‘Benedicamus Domino’, written in 1939, is based on a fifth-mode melody. Fanfare-like chords are prominent in the opening section, and a brisk, one-in-a-bar fugue leads by way of a dominant pedal to the brilliant, toccata-like writing with which the work concludes.
from notes by Relf Clark © 2009
