Walking through Vilnius Cathedral before my harmony class and hearing enchanting viola music...10/8/2019 I went to Vilnius Cathedral last Saturday and heard a fine violist playing. He played also Lithuanian National Anthem. I life-streamed a little bit of his playing:
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Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra V: Let’s start episode 503, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Maureen. And she writes: Vidas and Ausra, My three dreams are these. I would love to be able to play Widor’s Toccata, Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D minor and to be a very good organ player for Mass including the Mass music and hymns. Thank you, Maureen V: What’s the deal with Widor’s Toccata? Why people want to play Widor’s Toccata? A: I guess this is probably the most known organ piece besides Bach’s D Minor Toccata and Fugue. V: But she doesn’t want play Bach’s Toccata in D Minor. She wants to play Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D Minor. Which one? A: I don’t know. I guess she might mean Toccata... V: Toccata, right? A: and Fugue in D minor. Because there is really not such a famous D Minor Prelude and Fugue by J.S. Bach as his Toccata. V: Mmm-mmm. A: I guess what that might mean maybe people who like these two pieces, it’s okay. It’s sort of common way. V: Imagine what would happen—she will learn to play Widor’s Toccata and Bach’s D Minor Toccata, and become a very good player for Mass including music for Mass and hymns, right? She can play the hymns and everything else that is required for Mass, plus Widor’s Toccata and Bach’s D Minor Prelude and Fugue. So imagine she will play Bach’s D Minor Prelude and Fugue for the beginning and then Widor’s Toccata at the end. And then hymns and other Mass music in the middle. How would that sound? A: Well, after a few Sundays of these I think… V: Right! A: people will get tired. Because even the best piece doesn’t have to be played all the time, over and over again. V: Yeah. I think there is such a variety of organ music, vast variety that people don’t even, not only know about but don’t even, are not aware of them, right? You cannot know if you like those pieces because you even don’t know they exists. A: True, that’s true. And while talking about Widor’s Toccata, well, if you would listen other great French masters, and their toccata’s, such masters and Duruflé, Vierne, well, then might this Widor’s Toccata wouldn’t seem to nice to you. Because, honestly, what I think about for me, it sounds quite primitive. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And the same over and over again. V: True. It’s the most popular organ toccata, obviously, besides D Minor Toccata by Bach, but not the most artistically interesting, I would say. A: True. V: Mulet Carillon Sortie is much more interesting to me. As you say Dureflé’s Toccata is such a fantastic piece. But all of them require at least intermediate organ skills. A: True, and you should know really one thing—when you are picking up and playing the piece that the whole world knows by heart, such as Widor’s Toccata and Bach’s Toccata, you need to be brilliant in it. Otherwise it will be just a filler. V: Yeah, it will be a joke. A: True. Because in our school we have all these, such concerts, its traditional concerts. It takes place each year before Christmas break. It’s called Viva La Musica. And we have big competition because everybody wants to participate in it, and what teachers do, they select very well-known pieces for various instruments. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And I stopped going to that concert because then you are picking up really popular repertoire that everybody knows. You need to do it on the highest level. V: Yeah. I just remember this summer, I think, was one concert at the cathedral where one organist played something really recognizable to general audience, and there were two tourists from Russia. And Russian tourists are generally musically quite… A: Advanced, you mean, yes? V: Yes, advanced, and they have… A: Knowledgable. V: Yes, knowledgable, and they have good taste in music because of Russian music education obviously. A: And organ recitals are very popular in Russia because we don’t have organs in churches, obviously… V: Yes. A: because of the Orthodox of traditions. So they know that this concert repertoire. V: So this organist played the D Minor Toccata, and… A: And she was really sloppy. V: and very, very sloppy. Was it a lady or a man, do you remember? A: A lady. V: Lady. Okay. So then those two tourists left in the middle of the recital. A: True. V: Right? I’m not saying Maureen will play those pieces at the recital, perhaps not yet at least, but if you ever want to play them in church, then consider raising your skill level at least to the intermediate level. Basically before playing Widor’s Toccata, you need to be able to play in public, at the good level, easier toccata’s, like Gigout Toccata, Dubois Toccata, Boellmann’s Toccata. A: That’s right, yes. V: And before playing Bach’s D Minor Toccata and Fugue, consider playing in public at the good level, easier Bach’s free works, easier preludes and fugues. Maybe not even Bach’s, but maybe Eight Little Preludes and Fugues, and progressing through a little bit longer preludes and fugues, 533, 535, maybe Fugue in G minor 578, something like that. And then you might be ready for BWV 565, D Minor Toccata and Fugue. Right? But since Maureen has a dream besides those two big pieces to become a good, very good organ playing for Mass and play hymns, it means that she’s not there yet, right? So she needs to focus first on the hymns and easier organ music which could be played during Mass, as preludes, postludes, offertories and communions. A: True. And by expanding that easier repertoire, she can start to practice some harder organ works. And another thing that struck me, always strikes when people mention Bach’s Toccata in D Minor—it’s so funny because it’s possible that it’s not a Bach’s piece. V: Yes, it is possible. A: Because it’s so bizarre… V: It might be… A: comparing to his other pieces, other toccatas. V: It might be his youthful work, right? His student time work when he was maybe 16 years old. What kind of masterpiece is this? A: I know, so even while comparing Bach with his other works, I don’t think D Minor Toccata is the greatest piece, that… V: Yeah. A: J.S. Bach has written. V: It was made popular from 1940’s, Walt Disney Fantasia, when it was arranged for the organ and performed as a soundtrack of the movie. Hollywood made it famous, so it’s not Bach’s masterpiece that, not Bach’s genius that made it famous. A: I know because when you are thinking about pieces like E Minor Prelude and Fugue which, or Eb Major Prelude and Fugue from Clavierubung Part 3 and other great works, I think it’s, you cannot even compare those. They are so different. V: And Bach would have thought of this piece as a masterpiece. He would surely have... A: Published it. V: preserved and published for future generations, like Clavierubung. And we have Eb Major Prelude and Fugue from this collection. So. And the last thing that is missing from Maureen’s answer to me, I usually ask people about their dream in organ playing and challenges that they have to overcome in order to reach their dream. And she didn’t write anything about the challenges. A: True. V: And that’s what is the most important thing. We might talk for hours, right, about what she needs to do, but we don’t know anything about her. A: Mmm-hmm. V: What’s stopping her? Why she cannot play hymns now? So, guys, please be more—I wouldn’t say more specific, but be more honest, right? And tell us everything that you want to, that you want to say. Tell us everything that you wouldn’t say to anybody else, because we might know your situation then better and be able to recommend some things for you. Otherwise it’s just theoretical talking which may or may not help. Okay. This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen! Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries. We have selected the following winners.
Have you ever wanted to start to practice on the organ but found yourself sidetracked after a few days? Apparently your inner motivation wasn't enough.
I know how you feel. I also was stuck many times. What helped me was to find some external motivation as well. In order for you to advance your organ playing skills and help you motivate to practice, my wife Ausra - @laputis and I invite you to join in a contest to submit your organ music and win some Steem. Are you an experienced organist? You can participate easily. Are you a beginner? No problem. This contest is open to every organ music loving Steemian. Here are the rules
Vidas: So I'm here with Auke Jongbloed, an organist from the Netherlands, talking over the internet. I'm in my church and Auke is my friend from the Steem platform. We got to know each other from his participation in our weekly Secrets of Organ Playing Contest. And I was so surprised and delighted to hear North German and a little bit of Dutch oriented organ music on Steem, 17th century, even older probably. And he has a business of transcribing old manuscripts into modern notation which is called Partitura Organum. So thank you so much and welcome to the show!
Listen to entire conversation To find out more about Auke Jongbloed and his work, please visit: Partitura Organum Auke's profile on Steem Auke's channel on Contrebombarde Auke's channel on YouTube Today in the morning I spend a lot of time practicing Toccata by Paul Ayres in my church. I stopped at every quarter note and did it 3 times. Then sight-read through some music by Ad Wammes and Tore Bjorn Larsen.
After a while composer Kristina Vasiliauskaitė came to the organ balcony and I helped her to sort out her PayPal earnings from the royalties of her compositions and taught her to use her new tablet. She has sold 15000 copies of her Agnus Dei for choir since 1999! I found it quite remarkable. She needs to have her own online store like I have though because now she is not in control of her inventory. She gave me a 70 percent chocolate bar for my work and also her 4 Christmas carols for the organ from 1992. I sight-read through them when she left and went to make a copy. Audiences would love this piece. I thought such music would be quite successful in the US because there is a need of quality liturgical music which also sounds good to the average listener. But for this she needs to continue to create. For lunch I met Ausra at the university cafeteria and we ate chicken cutlet and vegetable soup with tea. Of course, we shared half of that chocolate bar! When Ausra left to continue teaching at school I went to work at church at the computer. Submitted my request to play organ duet or improvisation recital to Holy Rosary Cathedral Concert Series in Canada. We'll see if this proposal will be interesting to the organizers. At home I prepared for our next harmony class by typing 6 hymn tunes with an empty bass line for students to fill out tomorrow. My Fitbit device notified me about 10000 steps taken today. Then talked for 93 minutes on the phone with a friend. Finished the day by writing and reading the diary of David Sedaris. This morning after I practiced the 1st page of the Toccata by Paul Ayres, an organist Grazina Petrauskaite came to practice for her upcoming Saturday's recital. During this time I went to central administration building to check if her poster is already hanging and then came back to the church. Then I walked around the church and its chapels and recorded this video while Grazina played two pieces on the organ. This was Praeludium in G Minor, BuxWV 149 and Chorale partita Aus der tiefe ruf ich zu dir, BWV 745. I was amazed at the beauty of the church, music and organ sounds. Hope you give it a listen. Today like yesterday I went to the cultural connection training session at the university. The warm up included each of us leading exercises from the most significant physical actions that we did in the summer. I chose pull-ups and dips.
Then from last week survey we identified many reasons why people are feeling part of the university community and many reasons - why they are not. One of the main positives was the sense of common purpose and the negative - strong hierarchy. Then we categorized all of them into broader areas and next week we will start to devise an action plan about creating an activity that fosters our strengths and diminishes the weaknesses. I actually think this list we made today is a perfect sample of statistical data that the university could look into more seriously about what matters to the people from their community and how to go forward. I also submitted a letter of intent for participating at the organ festival in Rokiskis next year. The plan is to play our organ duet. After lunch @laputis and I went to the cafe near our church and had some coffee and desert after which we had our Unda Maris organ studio rehearsal. 10 or even more people where present. Not all of them had time to play but @laputis asked each of them a question if they consider themselves a part of the university community and to explain the reasoning behind yes or no. This survey was supposed to be my homework from last week but I forgot about it. Then @laputis and I went to the cinema to see the French comedy "French Wedding 2". It was hillarious and displayed many cultural stereotipes the French have about immigrants and vice versa. Finished the day by watching "Bones" on TV about an investigation of the death of an astronaut who got minced by an airplane propeller. Oh, and I read a bit of David Sedaris' diary before sleep. It makes me wonder how he notices such remarkable things in his day... Today I was supposed to have an organ demonstration for a group of art students but it got postponed to Tuesday. Instead, I practiced the 1st page of Toccata for Eric by Paul Ayres 10 times. Then came Grazina Petrauskaite to practice in the church for her Saturday recital. I went downstairs and lifestreamed a couple of her pieces while walking around the church. Since I didn't have much to do while she practiced, I went to the Music Academy to hang a poster. When I came back, I shared the video I made earlier.
After lunch I had a podcast conversation with Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, my organ professor at Eastern Michigan University back in 2001-2002. I met her a year ago in Paslek, Poland at the organ festival there. We talked about improvisation, playing carrilon, composition and lifting up marginalized voices with music. Bought "Contrastes" by Denis Bedard on his website cheldar.com. Wrote 3 emails inviting 3 composers to be my guests on the Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast - Carson Cooman, Paul Ayres and Denis Bedard. Cooman agreed at once. We have scheduled it for November the 1st. Wrote a message to the Dominican brothers here in Vilnius asking for information whom to contact if I wanted to take a look and try out their carillon with our Unda Maris studio. Received an answer with a contact less than an hour later. Will write to him tomorrow. In the evening I colored one of the Pinky and Spiky comics I drew during lunch and watched "Bones" on TV about an investigation of the murder of a girl who had aging disease. Finished the day by writing about it and reading David Sedaris' diary. Would you like to learn Non troppo lento in E Major from L'Organiste by Cesar Franck? I hope you'll enjoy playing this piece yourself from my PDF score. Thanks to Jeremy Owens for his meticulous transcription from the slow motion video. What will you get? PDF score with complete fingering written in which will save you many hours of work. Basic Level. 1 page. Let me know how your practice goes. This score is free for Total Organist students. Check it out here |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
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