Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra V: Let’s start episode 500, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. A: Wow! We made it—500! Can you believe it? V: Yeah, we can stop now. A: No! Now we have to reach 1000. V: Do you believe we can reach it? A: I don’t know. When we just started it I thought, ‘oh, maybe we will do fifty of them or maybe one-hundred. But we reached 500 so… V: Our horizon is always moving further away. A: True. And because of all your wonderful questions. V: Yes. In this episode today, we wanted to give a little bit of overview of what we’ve been talking about over those few years. Obviously, in our website, you will find all of them and also on our Soundcloud channel as well. But to make a long story short, I started those podcasts as interviews with organ experts and organ builders and organists from around the world, maybe three years ago, I believe. But then, started another podcast called AskVidasAndAusra. Remember, Ausra? A: Yes, I remember. I think you started your interview podcast earlier than three years ago. V: Earlier, right? A: Probably. V: I will just quickly check when was the first episode published on Soundcloud. Yeah very easy to check—number one was four years ago. A: I told you it was more than three years. V: With Gene Bedient on historically inspired organ building. And then number two was George Ritchie on playing Bach’s organ music. And number three was Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra on improvisation in the Bach’s style. And number four was Jan Karman about writing organ fugues on the melodies of the Geneval Psalter. Number five was Mary Murrell and Quentin Falkner on Bach’s organ world. So basically those first maybe ten people that were from our early circle with the exception of perhaps of Hans-Ola Ericsson who visited the Vilnius and gave a masters class and played a recital here. And it was really exciting. Before we started, or I started those podcast interviews, it was always a thought in my mind, ‘will I have enough people to talk about from around the world’, because some organists are difficult to reach. You write a message to them and some reply and some don’t. And since we’re now at 500 apparently, we haven’t stopped. A: Well, but remember that now we talk with each a lot... V: Yeah. A: answering questions. V: For a while I had two podcasts in parallel of each other—one was Secrets of Organ Playing podcasts with experts and organists and guests, and the other was our talks with Ausra answering your questions. And we basically called it AskVidasandAusra, remember perhaps. But then, for a while, I stopped interviewing people from other countries and only we talked… A: With each other. V: with each other. A: So why have you stopped them? Was it too hard for you or too time consuming or too stressful? V: It was not stressful obviously but time consuming, chasing those experts and following them up and looking for good material to talk about, editing, doing research about them and it seemed like it was a lot on my plate to do two podcasts together. A: But now you have renewed doing it. V: Yeah. Starting from this summer I think… A: Yeah. V: A few months ago I renewed. And the reason was that because I no longer work at school. I have much more free time and can interview guests much more easily this way. A: So, what do you remember most out of those four years? V: Each and every one was really unique, those guests you mean, right? A: Yes. V: Mmm-hmm. Those guests probably, not all of them on the same level. Sometimes we interviewed our students, sometimes colleagues, sometimes really experts which are hard to reach. Like for example, at number forty-three, yeah, Guy Bovet on the future of organ art. We talked on the phone with him because he couldn’t connect his video camera. And it still worked, you know, it was wonderful. But I was really afraid to talk with such a master, right? And then sometimes people who knew previously, like Sarah Schott from our Grace Lutheran church. She talked about working with bell choirs and Alain Truche who was our colleague at Lincoln, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He is living now in Asia. And there were many other people who I really enjoyed talking to. Some people visited Vilnius with recitals like Charles Spanner, for example, and he shared his own experience with trying out different organs. I remember four years ago, was exactly the time when the last international organist competition of Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis happened in Vilnius, so I interviewed two jury members - Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin from Paris, and also Michael Bauer from University of Kansas. We were sitting in the hotel lobby. It was really interesting to talk to them but also at the same time to hear the background noises of the kitchen. There were other guests and other very interesting organists, like Peter Sykes and Gavin Black, and Nico Declerck who has organ radio project now called Organ Roxx. And we talked with James D. Hicks who visited Vilnius with his Nordic Journey project. He actually even climbed the bell tower of St. John’s church. It was really a fabulous experience. I even interviewed one organist who is also a pianist on a cruise ship. So it was really interesting to hear his different perspective. Carson Cooman obviously organists in residence from the Harvard University—very prolific composer of new organ music. Lydia Vroegindeveij and Erin Scheessele about OrgelKids, you know this little project that you can educate young people how the organ is constructed by building the organ in front of them and deconstructing and reconstructing them. They have organ positiv design for that too. A: So this is amazing how many people you have interviewed… V: Mmm-hmm. A: and what sorts of variety you find on your podcasts. V: Jean-Paul Imbert for example on lessons from the great masters. We just recently met him in Vilnius… A: True. This summer. V: but because of this podcast he invited us to perform at... A: Alpe d'Huez. V: Exactly. In the French Alps. You know, all kinds of doors started opening to us. Tore Bjorn-Larsen for example was an example on podcast number seventy-nine. And he is a composer in Denmark in Svendborg. And afterwards he also invited us to play in his church—St. Nicolai church, which we played just a few... A: Last summer yes. V: Yeah. A: This summer. V: A few months ago. A: Wasn’t a few months. It was July 31st and now it’s September, so it’s not a few months. V: One and a half months. A: Yes. V: Excellent! Interesting, for example, I interviewed sometimes people who were not organists, actually, but from different professions. But they had some sort of connection with the organ world, through restoration, for example. This was with Robin Gullbrandsson who visited Casparini organ in Vilnius here and we talked about that. And then what, two years ago, we started this AskVidasandAusra podcast. And the first episode was about how to keep a steady tempo when you play the organ. Remember Ausra, why we started talking about that? About talking with each other, in addition to interviewing the guests? A: I think because this is one of the major problems that many organists encounter. V: Mmm-hmm. We wanted to help you grow and to answer your questions on the podcast. Yeah. So those episodes were also numerous, and we sometimes kept going in parallel with Secrets of Organ Playing interviews. But then as I said earlier, I found it too difficult to continue and only started talking with Ausra. But now we merged two podcasts into one and only have Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast, and today, is episode number 500. A: Amazing! V: Yes. We hope you guys find value out of our conversations and continue asking questions, giving feedback, because I recently started doing those interviews with guests, so I hope you will find those interviews also useful. Please let us know and please let our guests know and feel appreciated because it’s really important for them to know if their interview has resonated or not with the audience from around the world, from eighty-nine countries. It’s amazing. A: Do you know what I remember the most? V: No, Ausra. A: One organist by name of Ugochukwu. V: Ugochukwu. A: There was a time when he just kept sending us a questions and we kept answering them. But then he was disappointed because he could not get answers right away. And he stopped actually, I think, following us. V: Uh-huh. A: But it’s so funny because it’s such a remarkable name, Ugochukwu. And I wasn’t sure if I’m pronouncing it right. V: He’s African, I think. A: So after even when he stopped asking us questions I would still remember his name. And each time when Vidas would tell me that this question was sent by somebody, I would, in my mind I would keep telling myself, by Ugochukwu. V: (Laughs). And sometimes we really had funny situations while talking with Ausra. A recording beginning of podcasts were especially funny sometimes, and tricky, when I announce this is the opening episode of number, let’s say, three hundred or two hundred and something, and then I have to announce the question. And sometimes by reading this question I get stuck and you have to do it again and again and again. I remember one episode we started laughing hysterically, right Ausra? A: Yes. I guess we were just so tired, and, yeah. V: I even saved this podcast which was as a hysterical laugh, so maybe when the time comes, we can laugh together again. A: Let’s hope so. V: Yeah. Listening together. A: And of course there were questions like sent by Michael, where he asked a lot of things and suggested various topics for our podcast. And we haven’t answered him yet, but maybe someday we will come back to that question and… V: Yeah. A: we’ll explore more. V: It was like a list of ten or fifteen questions like… A: True. V: like a true master class, one week long. A: That’s right. V: It’s not for ten minute conversation obviously. So thank you guys. Please continue sending us your questions. We love helping you grow. And it’s really amazing to be on this journey and we hope to reach 1000. A: Let’s do it. V: This was Vidas. A: And Ausra. V: And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen!
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Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 492 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ruth, who is our Total Organist student. She wrote: “I wonder what are the best ways for teaching new hymns. I am also the pastor. So, I have had some choice in the hymns. I wonder, though, how others teach new hymns. And, which ones have been loved by your congregations? Have some choices been a surprise?” I guess it would be wonderful for our community to jump in and leave some feedback about hymns; how they teach new hymns, and what the communities/congregations love the most. A: I think this is, in general, a very important question, and I think it touches many church musicians, because it’s a number one issue, about how to choose hymns, how to sing hymns, how to teach new hymns. V: I had an experience in teaching new hymns at our St. John’s Church, but a long time ago, when we were both regular organists. You would play the organ… A. True. And you would conduct the congregation from downstairs. V: It’s a two person work, then, like a teamwork. A: But, if you know you don’t have such a large church building as ours and as St. Johns’, and maybe you have some sort of keyboard downstairs. You could use it. I think that would be an idea. Maybe your organ is upstairs, but maybe your piano is downstairs. V: Yes. And the piano, maybe, is in the visible place where people could see you. Some places you could even move the piano closer to the center during the rehearsal. I just had this podcast conversation with Andreas Spahn, organist from Germany. He is a church musician. But, as I understood, he has these organ or choir rehearsals with the congregation, but they’re not long. They are just three or five minutes long, before the service starts. I thought, “Why is he doing them so short? Why not 15 minutes, like we would do.” It appears that people are gathering at the church at the last moment, and there are not many people 15 minutes before the service. A: Sure, time is money, so… everybody is counting. V: Everybody is making money on Sunday morning. A: Well… V: Yeah… well, hopefully, this approach is really applicable for a lot of situations. Not only for new hymns, but maybe old hymns that have been forgotten and need to be resurrected. How would you, Ausra, conduct this rehearsal, if you had to choose. A: Well, I would just go through each line. V: How many hymns? A: Well, I think for such a rehearsal you may do only one thing. So, basically, if you are leading a service, I wouldn’t choose all new hymns. You can only introduce one new hymn per service. V: Why not two? A: It might be too difficult—too much new information. V: You’re right. Does it matter where this new hymn comes in the service? In the beginning? Middle? End? A: I don’t think it’s so important. But, of course, if you just rehearse before the rehearsal, then it really would be an opening hymn, right from the rehearsal to performance. V: Is it okay if I did a rehearsal when I first sang the first verse, and then asked them to repeat phrase by phrase, line by line? A: Yes, I think it’s nice. It should work. But, I think it’s also important that you would sing all verses that you are intending to sing during the service, because for me, the biggest problem is to do the second, the third and the other verses. Because usually, what you have in some hymnals, at least in Lithuania, is that you have the first verse written underneath the score, and it’s very convenient, because you see the music and the words together. But other verses, they are written below the page after the score is finished. So, it’s not so comfortable to do it, because you have to still look at the music, especially if you are accompanying yourself, and then to be able to follow the words. V: You’re right. I think in Western hymnals, they have three or four verses written under the notes. A: But still, it’s not as comfortable to see them, to follow them as the first verse. V: Yeah. That’s right. So, basically, go through each verse, and then this melody will sing by itself, probably, into their memory. A: True! Plus, I think a lot of success also depends on the meter of the hymn. If it has a regular meter, strong beats in every measure, then it makes life easier. But if you choose something based on Gregorian chant, or sort of modal, also based on modes, that might not be as easy to sing for a congregation, because I think rhythm is crucial for congregational singing. So I would suggest maybe just to avoid such hymns. V: I think this might work, too. A: You also need to include your choir into your rehearsals. That might be a big help for you and for your congregation. And I remember that what else you could do, of course, the choir might show an example of that unfamiliar hymn for a congregation, but later on during the service, you might spread your choir throughout your congregation. Let’s say you have 20 choir members, and you have a hundred rows in the church. You might divide your choir members between those rows, that you might help your congregation to sing better. I think this might work, too. V: This is really a clever idea, and it has been done before, and usually the congregation feels more confident when there are people around them singing with confidence. A: So you might try that, as well. V: Do choir members have to be dressed like civilians or in robes? A: I don’t think it’s important. It’s up to the tradition, so… V: Concealed! They have to conceal themselves. A: Not necessarily, I think. V: If they are members of the congregation, people will recognize them, anyway. A: But anyway, I think it’s a wise solution to listen to the service from downstairs, even for an organist or music director, because that way, you might notice and listen to members of your congregation who sing very well, and that might be a possibility to choose new members of the choir. So, anyway… V: Good idea. Ok guys, we hope this was useful to you. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen.
Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 496, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Delphine. And she wrote an answer to my question when I asked her ‘what are some things you are struggling with’. She writes: My touch My fingering Pedals Motivation V: Well, in those four keywords, Ausra, where would you like to start with? A: Well… V: Motivation? A: Motivation probably. Cause if you will not find your motivation then you will not find the right touch or good fingering or pedaling. But I think the motivation is the thing that the person, her or himself, needs to find. Because if you will not want to find it, nobody will help you. V: That’s right. Ausra, did you have motivation to practice yesterday? A: Well, yes! I was glad that I had free time and could go to church and practice. V: I said yesterday because today is early in the morning and we were recording this podcast first thing in the morning so obviously we haven’t had the chance to practice. But yesterday you had. A: Yes. Because, I think that practice is a privilege and after you realize it you won’t have a motivation problem. Because if you are not motivated enough to practice it means that you don’t understand that, really, practice is a privilege. And the privilege being able to sit down on the organ bench—it’s a big thing. That means that you are healthy enough to be able to practice at all. Think about all those people with disabilities that cannot move, sit in a wheel chair, and if you are sitting on the organ bench it means you are healthy enough to be able to use your legs and your arms and your brain too. So sometimes even thinking about it should be enough for you to motivate you to practice. V: For me also yesterday was a boost of motivation because I knew that in, in what, in ten days we have an organ duet recital coming up. So if we wouldn’t practice every day now, people who will come to our recital will be deeply disappointed. A: True. And this is another aspect of motivation that if you are performing and not necessarily during a recital but maybe during church service, you help people to uplift them, to inspire them, to make them to feel better. So I think it’s another aspect of being motivated to practice organ. And if you are, for example, a religious person, then there is another aspect for you to be motivated and to practice the organ. Because so much of organ repertoire is based on the religious god. V: So you glorify the God. A: True. And I think for religious person this must be also that motivation. V: Then practice is like a prayer. A: True. V: In some sorts. Prayers can be multi-faceted—have multiple angles of emotions. A: Plus also if you are sort of physically active person then it should be for you a privilege to practice organ too. Because I don’t any other instrument that you would be moving your arms and legs at the same time. So it’s kind of physical activity too, playing organ. V: Mmm-hmm. Of course. But please take frequent breaks. Before you get tired you have to get up and start moving again. A: Yes. Yesterday we have practiced only half of our program. So today we are, will be working on the second half. V: Yeah. And let’s talk now about her touch. How to learn the correct touch on the organ. A: Well, the best teacher of the right touch is actually the clavichord. But what to do if you don’t have it, then maybe Vidas can help you. V: Vidas! Why Vidas? A: Because I saw in your eyes that you want to talk about. V: Because I’m the smart one. A: True. V: Okay. Thank you for the compliment. I think that the touch on the organ is a different one from the piano. Because piano responds on the strengths of your depression of the keys or pedals. But on the organ we try to use as little force as possible, and try to keep the fingers with the contact, in contact with the keys at all times, if possible, whenever possible. At the beginning if it’s not very difficult piece, I think it’s one hundred percent possible. So even those fingers who are not playing at the moment should not be lifted up in the air, but should be gently resting on the keys, not depressing them but resting. Okay, that’s about finger position. And touch should be light. Just think about mezzo-piano, I would say. Pianissimo might be to soft to even depress the keys—not enough force, not enough weight. But mezzo-piano would be probably enough for most of instruments. A: I agree. V: Unless you are playing a heavily mechanical instrument with very heavy couplers, like we have at St. Johns. But we don’t use them too often. Okay? Then there is a touch question about different repertoire, different historical periods. In general speaking, in music composed before 19th Century, we use articulate legato touch with small articulation between each and every note, but not too choppy. And for later music we use general touch legato, with some exceptions. A: Yes. Such as the end of phrasing or repeated notes. V: Right. So that’s what she has to know for starters about touch. What about fingering? How to learn correct fingering on the organ? Can you learn it overnight. A: No. I think it comes with experience, but it also depends on what kind of repertoire you are playing. Because in Baroque time, one fingering was appropriate and later on it changed quite a bit. V: Mmm-hmm. A: But of course the easiest way to get the correct fingering would be to get some fingers course for starters. V: I was just thinking about that, going to suggest that, we have hundreds of scores prepared for you... A: True. V: to save you time for starting. And even better, recently, I have been uploading hundreds of videos along with those scores, so you can see my hands and sometimes even my feet, when I play, from above. And whenever I play in a slow motion those pieces, and if you have the scores in front of you, you can compare my fingering with the scores, with the hand position. And Jeremy who actually is on the team who transcribes those scores for us, he mentioned that it’s actually very interesting to see those videos and compare with his own choices. So I guess it’s a learning experience for him too—educational. You can use those as educational resources to learn how to figure out fingering and pedaling for yourself. A: Yes, this question by Delphine, I think that fingering and pedals question is actually the same question, because... V: Mmm-hmm. A: It relates to the same topic. V: Yeah. For early pedaling we use only toes. A: And for later you add heels as well. V: Right. There is some systems of course and we teach them in Pedal Virtuoso Master course, based on scales and arpeggios if you want to get deeper into this subject. Alright guys. But I hope motivation question is paramount here, that we started talking about in the beginning. A: Yes, and the last think I could add about motivation would be that, think about it. It’s a privilege you are playing the king of instruments. V: Yes. A: The organ is the king of instruments, so. V: Even Mozart would be very glad that you are doing this. A: That’s right. V: Mozart’s father. A: That’s right. V: Because Mozart wrote his letter to his father about the queen of instruments because actually, in German… A: That’s because of German, yes. V: German… A: language. V: "Die Orgel" is feminine in German so he used queen. And actually this is a joke then later used by pianists because they say piano is a king of instruments, not organ, because organ is a queen of instruments. But don’t never believe pianists. A: True. V: Alright. See you guys. Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen! SOPP497: I am just playing around now and try not to shed any tears about what might have been9/19/2019
Vidas: Hi guys! This is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 497 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ariane. And she’s our Total Organist student. And on Basecamp communication channel, she writes a few thoughts about her situation. So I’m going just to read some of her thoughts to you: Dear Vidas, Thank you so much for your kind words. Maybe it’s just a sign to play on the level I have reached and not to aim for something that is beyond my ability. I am just playing around now and try not to shed any tears about what might have been. I am glad to be part of Total Organist, though. And she is mentioning probably behind the lines that, between the lines, that she doesn’t have enough time to practice now because of the time constraints that her current job demands of her. So I wrote to her: Thanks, Ariane. You will still need short term and long term goals in organ playing. Otherwise, your motivation to practice may diminish if you just play around. One thing that I cannot recommend highly enough is to participate in our weekly Secrets of Organ Playing contests. James Flores, who recently joined our Total Organist community, can testify that it has worked miracles for him. So then, James jumped in and said, Yes, I can recommend participating in the contest. It’s for all abilities. The idea is about sharing and growing your portfolio of recordings, not necessarily about winning. That’s a bonus! You will see my entry on the message board for this week. P.S. I don’t always record long pieces. This week was an exception. And Ariane replied, Thank you, James. I will certainly think about it. What keeps me from entering the contest is that I have so much stress at work already. And the music contest would just add more. But maybe one day. I like your recordings, though. I wrote: I have a feeling that having a hobby like organ playing for contest would actually reduce stress from your work, because this will be something you can look forward to. It’s like for Ausra. She has a pretty hectic schedule at work with lots of stressful situations when dealing with students, parents, and colleagues. However, drawing her own Pinky and Spiky comics for Art Storm contest on Steem is a tremendous creative outlet for her, and actually therapeutic. And Ariane said, I will think about it. Promise. And then I asked Ausra, Am I correct? And then Ariane asked, What chance will I have against you two? meaning James, probably, and Ausra and me. And James wrote, Ariane, for me, it’s not about winning. I really couldn’t care less. I just love the process of having a record of what I’ve done. I was through these contests that I repurposed some of my recordings to make a CD. You can see it here. And he gives a link to his Silver Celebration CD. I’m not always playing big Bach works, in fact, I think I’ve only played two of them for the contest. I will share the history of my entries, and they are quite varied. I started off playing the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues. Ausra jumped in: Yes, most of the time it’s a habit now. So, Ausra, you sort of, were the last person to comment. Can you go deeper into this detail? A: Well, yes, if you know you will make something for let’s say a few weeks in a row, it will become a habit. And then when you cannot do it, you will miss it, and you go back and start doing it again. V: Is that how you feel about your comics? A: Yes, it is. V: You’ve missed them? A: Yes. V: Sometimes, you were, you don’t have time or energy. A: Sure, sure. V: And you missed the next day? A: It was right. But I would like to explore maybe a little bit more that thought that when you take part in some sort of competition, like I’m taking part in the drawing competition. But I would like to talk more about organ competition. V: Mm hm. A: That really, you will improve much faster while preparing for it, and that winning is not as important, truly. V: As participating. A: That’s right. Because if you will think only about, “Oh, I wish to win,” then you will put a lot of pressure on yourself and it won’t work. V: Because it doesn’t basically depend on your skills entirely. On your level of recording. Sometimes you can play very badly, but you can win. Depending on who participates. A: Yes, plus another thing is that playing big pieces and hard pieces of music will not make you a winner all the time. And I don’t know, maybe James was very disappointed, I’m not sure about it, when he played this big prelude, E flat major, by J.S. Bach, and we didn’t give him a prize for it. V: Mm hm. A: I think that might be a little disappointing. But the thing is that, sometimes it’s better to play a piece which is 8 measures long but to play it really well. V: We simply had more entrants which were better performed… A: Yes, at that time. True. V: Yes. It doesn’t mean that he played badly. A: But I believe that he might enter with the same piece in maybe a few weeks and he will win. V: Absolutely. A: Because by that time it will be finished. V: Absolutely. A: So, I think it’s, quality is the most important thing. V: Maybe he will enter with the fugue, too. A: I hope so. I love that fugue. V: But it takes even more time than the prelude, I think. Or not. A: Well, I found that prelude is harder for me to play, like the whole, the unity piece, than the fugue. But yes. The first fugue has hard spots for me, couple of hard spots. Then the middle fugue is sort of fun to play - it’s only for manuals. And I love the third fugue which combines the first and second and then the whole piece. V: I think James will not have any trouble with the second fugue, because it’s for manuals only, and he has a great manual technique. A: Well, but you know, the trouble with this fugue is not so much, like how to play from the technical point of view, but, for example, how to make, to pick up the right tempo. And do you need to keep the same tempo throughout the piece, or to change it with each fugue. So there are lots of things to think about. V: And you won’t reveal your preferences? A: No, I won’t. V: (Laughs) Let them find out for themselves! Excellent! So, closing ideas for Ariane. Obviously, I think people who are in her shoes, it’s a Catch 22 situation. You have a lot of stress, and you feel exhausted after work coming home, and you don’t have enough energy to do anything else which might be a hobby for you, right? But, if you did that hobby for yourself, let’s say you recorded organ piece, then you would receive energy boost just from doing it. So, as I say always, the most important, the most hardest thing in organ playing is to sit down on the organ bench. Not to play it, but just to sit down. And Ariane knows this. And probably participating in something external like Secrets of Organ Playing Contest, would solve all those motivational problems, because you would have external deadline, like we have with our organ duet recital in 10 days. A: True. And now, guys, you see with whom I live, how pushy and insisting he is. V: Is that a bad thing? A: Well.. (laughs) no, I think it’s a good thing. V: For some people I have to be pushy, because they will not push themselves. A: Like, who made you… V: Master? A: Master, yes. V: I picked myself, that’s my motto. Pick yourself, guys! Always. Because if you wait, nobody will give you that chance. A: Yes, I think you are right. Because if you will live all your life and not do things that you might have done, you might have regret after, at the end of it. V: Life is short. A: So it’s better to do more than less. V: And, but then there comes a point in life where you feel, maybe I’m doing too much, right? You have to also find some balance. Sometimes you have to relax; sometimes you have to do a little more. It’s different from person to person, I think, right? Not everyone is like me. A: True. V: I wouldn’t count on Ariane, for example, to record three videos per day, like I did yesterday. You know? A: Yes. V: All right, guys. This was Vidas, A: And Ausra. V: Please keep sending us your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice and share in the right places… A: Miracles happen.
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 486 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ariane, and she wrote on BaseCamp: “I was on a one week boat trip and could not practice at all. Instead I fell from the ship and almost broke my back!!! Thank God I just got badly bruised.” V: So, this was a discussion that other members of Total Organist jumped in. For example, Ruth wrote, “Hello! I am very sorry to hear about your back injury. Please take good care of yourself so that you can return to playing the organ, again.” And Ariane responded, “Thanks a lot! I am back on the organ bench already. What a stupid accident that was!” Laurie wrote, “Wow! I'm glad it's not broken. Hope you're getting around and sleeping ok.” And Vidas wrote, “This is scary! Did you fall into the sea?” And I think she responded that it was an accident in the lake. So she first fell onto the deck, and then into the lake, somehow this way. But now she’s ok. What do you make out of this, Ausra… out of this discussion? A: You know, I think it has a happy ending, because the worst scenario might have been that Ariane might have drowned, and the second worst scenario is that she might break her back. V: But isn’t that nice, that people are responding and commenting and supporting her. A: Yes, very nice. I think it’s important at such a moment to receive the support. V: Yeah, you are not alone in this accident—at least it feels like this. So, Ausra, did you have any boat accidents in your life? A: No, so serious. Never. V: Maybe a bike accidents? A: Yes, I have had bike accidents, of course. V: Me, too. One of the most common ones is like you put your foot where the wheel is, and it gets jammed, I think. Right? A: Well, yes, I had something similar, and I had a more serious accident when I was a child, but do you not want to hear about it? V: I see. A: Well, I couldn’t walk for some time after that accident, so… V: My only bad accident was in the childhood, probably, worth remembering, is that I got in the way of two guys fighting in the middle, and one of them threw a knife at the other guy, and I was in the middle, and it hurt my eye. Not the eyeball, but somewhere next to the eyelid. So, I was taken to the hospital, and I remember my grandmother nursed me while my mom went back home from school. Yeah, it was an accident, but it wasn’t a sharp knife. It was like a pocket knife with the blade not drawn, so it was OK. A: You got lucky, I guess! V: Yes! But it still hurts when I try to remember it. A: Well have you ever hurt yourself sitting on the organ bench? Have you had any injuries from playing the organ? V: Not that I remember. I know you have been hurt in Sweden. Right? A: Yes. V: Tell us more. A: Well, that organ was a four manual organ and has an organ bench which you cannot regulate. It’s a historically based organ bench, so if I wanted to play on the fourth manual and the pedals at the same time, since I’m really short, I had real trouble. And I was reaching really high, really bad with my right foot, and suddenly I felt like this lightning going throughout my body. V: Needles? A: Yes. V: It struck a nerve. A: Yes, it struck a nerve. So later on, I could not sit for like a month, and it was a really bad time, and I had trouble walking, too, because I could feel this electricity going up and down my body for like a month or even longer. V: Can you feel the side effects of this even today? A: Well, sometimes, yes, after sitting for a long time. V: Yeah, too bad. I think my only injury while playing an instrument was piano. I played “Scriabin Étude,” I think, in high school, and…. A: Wasn’t that in the Academy of Music? V: Maybe… no it wasn’t. A: So you were playing Scriabin at school already? V: Maybe not Scriabin. Maybe Rachmaninoff. It was something Russian, and something with big chords. Could be Scriabin. I think it might have been Scriabin, a short one; the easy one, if there are easy ones in Scriabin’s output. But I played it stupidly, and hurt my little finger of the right hand, so then I had to practice with only my left hand for an entire semester. A: Impressive! You must have developed your left hand technique pretty well after this semester. V: No, I was just lazy. A: Ok. V: No, I’m not Dupré. Dupré...remember how he hurt his wrist of one hand, he practiced left had and pedals with a vengeance, and developed perfect pedal technique…. A: Excellent. V: ...in his childhood. Excellent. So, what’s your final advice to Ariane and others who might have suffered some injuries recently? A: Well, take things easy, and take care of yourself. V: And to avoid injuries on the organ bench, always take a rest before you feel tired. Then you will never get tired, like me. A: Yeah. V: Alright. Thank you guys for listening. Please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen. SOPP481: What level of harmony I need to follow the course "Prelude Improvisation Formula"?9/17/2019
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 481 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Massimo, and he writes: “Hi Vidas! I have a question about prelude improvisation formula. 1. What level of harmony I need to follow the course? 2. How many hours a day I need to have a good results? Thanks Massimo” V: Remember, Ausra, how I created this course in our summer cottage? A: Yes, I remember it. V: It was quite a few years ago, I think, when Ausra and I were having a nice time relaxing in our summer cottage. We no longer own that summer cottage, but the video of me talking about this prelude improvisation formula in front of a curtain of flowers that Ausra’s mom was growing at the time still is online. So, this prelude improvisation formula is based on my DMA Dissertation. Right, Ausra? A: Yes. V: About improvising keyboard preludes based on the examples of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Klavierbüchlein. A: That’s right. V: So, I made a course out of that after my, basically, DMA studies. And for the best results, what do you think, Ausra? Do they need to know any chords, any harmony, or not? I have my own opinion. A: Well, if you intuitively are a good musician, then probably not, but overall, I think you have to have sort of a basic level of harmony, understanding of basic chords. V: I wrote to Massimo privately, that knowledge of three note, four note chords would be great—Tonic, Dominant, Subdominant—those chords, and their inversions, of course. Of course, Baroque harmony is probably a different one from Classical harmony. Right? But this foundation wouldn’t hurt for Massimo and any other interested person who wants to learn to improvise keyboard preludes based on the models that J.S. Bach wrote to his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. And then, he asks about how many hours a day. What do you think, Ausra? A: Well, I think this kind of question is partly unanswerable, because it depends on what level you are, and in general what kind of character you are, and how fast can you improve and make progress. So, it might be very different from person to person. V: Yes, it’s like prescribing medicine. A: But anyway, I think if you are doing something, it would be nice to spend at least an hour a day, probably. V: I wrote to him, “Two hours a day,” just to feel safe, that he will see results. After two hours, I think anybody will see results. So it might be, as you say, one hour might be enough, but for some people, they might need two hours. A: So, if you are spending one hour a day for, let’s say a week, and you see that you are making no progress, then try to spend more time, because maybe one hour is maybe not enough for you. V: Yes, and it’s important to master those exercises, and not go through them too quickly. Spend time with them. Maybe some people won’t be able to master them in one week, you know, but maybe they need two or three or more weeks. And that’s ok. They can choose their own speed. What do you think? A: Yes, that’s, I think, what is right. V: Unless we are in a group setting, I don’t think we have to hurry and strive for very fast learning here. Better to feel enjoyment from your practice than a stress that you are not meeting a deadline. A: That’s right. V: Right. So guys, if you are curious about Prelude Improvisation Formula, check it out in our Secrets of Organ Playing store. And of course, our Total Organist students receive this course for free, like anything else we create, without any additional cost. Alright! Thanks, guys, 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.
Vidas: Hi guys! This is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 494 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Sally. And she’s our Total Organist student. And she wrote: I made it to the piano after work today. Spent 1.5 hours working on choir music for the fall, both accompaniment and choir parts. Open score for choir parts is always a challenge. I hope to make it to the organ tomorrow for prelude and postlude work. V: So I guess we could focus a little bit in our conversation, Ausra, on studying open scores. A: Yes, it’s really fun. And it’s often a challenge for pianists, especially. I remember when I was back at school [National School of Arts] and one of my accompanists could not read from an open score. So actually my teacher forced me to write down everything into a regular staff. V: Interesting. This is a shortcut. A: It is. But it would take hours for me to do it. To write in all the music. V: Is it helpful or not? A: Well, for what - for me? V: Uh huh. A: Maybe yes, because I could learn each voice, because we would have to memorize all the voices of, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, and to be able to sing them from memory. So in that way, I think it helped me. But I’m sure it did not help that accompanist to improve and to polish her skills, because I think it’s, you know, a useful skill to be able to read from an open score. And I think it’s probably a necessary skill if you’re dealing with choirs, either as conductor or accompanist or as an organist. V: I guess the first months really suck and you’re feeling dead terribly, when you get to play from an open score right away, from four-voice notation. A: But look, we are an organist, and it’s easier for us than for others, because we already are using three lines at a time, most of the time, yes? Because we have right hand, left hand, and we have pedals. So three independent lines. Now here, you just have additional. V: Mm hm. A: So that’s it. V: But I still remember myself struggling with it at the beginning of my studies at the Art Gymnasium, back in Klaipeda so I guess a more systematic approach would be easier for a student, and less stressful. What if a person took not four-part notation, but let’s say one-part notation, and only played one line - right hand, left hand - and then let’s say after a week or a month, they would do two parts: soprano/alto; soprano/tenor; soprano/bass; alto/tenor; alto/bass; tenor/bass. A: I think that’s a very slow approach. I don’t think many of us, we have time to do it. V: And then three-part notation, soprano/alto/tenor; soprano/alto/bass, alto/tenor/bass. And finally, four-part notation, soprano/alto/tenor and bass. I see, you cannot see Ausra now, but she is covering her ears. (laughs) A: Yes. V: Why? A: You confuse me with all these combinations. I would just sit on the organ bench and I would practice from open score. V: And that’s it. A: Yes. V: And you would be fine -- it’s okay for you to feel really slow at the beginning, to progress really slow? A: You know, I would compare playing from an open score, a little bit with you know, learning how to read from other clefs. V: Mm hm, sure. A: Let’s say C clefs. And you know, my students try to cheat on me very often, with this skill. Instead of learning how it’s written, they try to write down, in the treble clef, let’s say… V: Yeah. A: Alto clef, you know, transposed into the treble clef. V: Yeah. A: And when I see it, I’m telling them, it took you so long to write down all these things. You’d better spend this time by learning that exercise from an alto clef. It would give you a bigger benefit. Because next time, when you would learn a new exercise, it would be already much easier. V: It’s like an investment. A: True. V: Yes? You invest a little bit of time, and it will pay off the next time. A: That’s right. So I guess what I would suggest if you have to play from an open score, do it more often. And I believe it will get easier with each piece that you will learn. V: Mm hm. I guess having open score reading course in our Total Organist community, would be beneficial for students, too. A: True. Plus, you know, there are pieces that are written in five lines, like you know, Bach’s Magnificat, for example, for choir. It has, you know, five lines, and it’s polyphonic music, so it’s really tough. So maybe you need to sightread it, and then go back to your regular four-staff notation, and you will see that it becomes much easier. V: And there are double choir motets for eight voices. A: True. V: And for twelve voices, too! A: Okay! Let’s don’t go over. You always like to exaggerate things. V: All right. So maybe, look forward to such a course, Open Score Reading Course, from us. I have an idea, while talking to you, Ausra, that it would be nice to select a collection of music, and go through it methodically, how you would teach others in reading those open score notations, and by the end of that course, people would feel much more comfortable. A: Yes, because it’s really a useful skill. V: So let us know if such a course would be useful to you. All right. Thank you, guys. 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.
Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra V: Let’s start episode 493 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Sally. And she writes: Choir rehearsals for the fall start Thursday, September 5, so time to get serious and spend time going through the music. I have a meeting with our music director this week to review the music for the fall and go over expectations. I also need to continue working on pieces for preludes and postludes this year, as well as meditative music to use at the end of communion. My goal is to spend time at the organ /piano everyday. It is challenging because I work full time and often am mentally drained by the time I get home. But once I make it to the piano or organ, I can easily spend an hour. So that's my goal. V: So Sally is a church musician, Ausra. A: Yes, it seems like that, but she also has a full-time job so she’s not only a church musician. V: Mmm-hmm. A church musician on the side, probably. A: Yes. V: And the challenge is to find mental energy after work to practice on the piano or organ, and now she has to get serious about practicing choir music, accompaniments probably. A: Yes, I guess because she needs to accompany choir. V: Have you ever accompanied choir, Ausra? A: Of course. When I worked Grace Church. V: How was it? A: Well, I liked it. I enjoyed it actually. It’s fun. V: What kind of skills do you have to have? A: Well, for me my sight-reading skills helped me the most. I would say then you don’t have to struggle and to put a lot of effort and time and learning new stuff. V: What about collaboration with others, if you’ve been used to playing solo, solo, solo? A: Well, that might be difficult for you. It wasn’t difficult for me because I sang in a choir since the age of seven, I guess, so it wasn’t hard for me to accompany choir. And actually I enjoy accompanying more when no singing myself. V: Me too! Singing is actually more difficult for the voice and mentally probably more difficult to me. To accompany is to pay attention to the conductor and to follow the orders that comes from conductor, and that’s all you have to do. A: Yes. And you even don’t have to worry about picking up your own tempo because if there is no conductor then it’s all settled. V: Mmm-hmm. So Sally is probably in this situation too. She has to work with music director. A: But as I understood the main concern of Sally is to have that mental energy, to be able to rehearse. Because if she gets to an instrument then she practices. The trouble probably is forcing herself to reach that instrument and sit down. And I can well imagine because I’m dealing with the same problem—all that time managing thing. Because also as teaching full-time, I know what that is to be able still to practice, yourself. V: Um, is it time management or priority management? A: Well, it’s not so much time and priority management, I think it’s about finding enough energy to do it. V: Mind management. A: Well… V: They say you have to manage your mind also, in order for it to function properly when you need it. A: I think what is very important, we don’t know what full-time Sally is doing besides being a church organist. But if it’s not a physical activity, and I guess that it’s probably not, if you are working in an office, so and working at the church, it means you really lack the physical activity. And this might also be a reason for not having enough energy to practice. So I think the crucial thing would be to find time to exercise, to do some physical activity. That might recharge you and you might be able to practice. V: The easiest way is to walk, as we found out, ourselves. A: Yes. But you know the trouble with that is for example, last night Vidas and I went for a nice long walk. It took about an hour for us. We used our tracker pulse. V: You mean tracking pulse. A: Tracking pulse, yes. V: Mmm-hmm. A: Tracking pulse, or tracking sticks. And I still cannot manage them very well, but after coming back from the forest, I couldn’t do anything. V: You were exhausted? A: Yes, I was exhausted but the good thing was that I slept very well after that. V: Really? A: Yes. V: Aha. So your mind was in a resting state. A: True, so maybe… V: Recharging. A: maybe if I wouldn’t walk like for an hour but maybe for a half-hour, I would still be able to practice after that. I don’t know. V: Plus you used those tracking sticks, which are difficult to manage at first. And also they take total body coordination and workout your upper body muscles. So you actually exercised much more than you usually did during walks. A: Yes, and I realized how sloppy I am in my body if I may say so. Because doing the right foot and left stick… V: Mmm-hmm. A: was really hard for me. It was really a challenge. Vidas kept saying to me, ‘oh, you are doing it incorrect’. So because he is a champion… V: Yes… A: on those things very well. V: I watched a Youtube video for five minutes. A: That’s right. And that made you an expert. V: Yes. A: So actually, exercising might help to be more efficient with your practice, to get you on the organ bench. Another thing might help—when I was studying at the National Čiurlionis School of Art, I would often have classes from nine to six and it was really big, long time. V: Like a full-time job. A: Yes, like a full-time job. But I would still have to do all those homework[s], and to practice and… V: It was even more than… A: Yes, it was actually much more than a full-time job. V: Mmm-hmm. A: Because I would finish doing preparing for this school like at one or two o’clock in the morning. So can you imagine that? V: I would think adults work 40 hour weeks and students work 60 hour weeks, probably. A: Well at least in this school that’s true. V: Mmm-hmm. A: So, I would return back home and actually I would take a long nice bath. V: You would take a long nice bath. A: Yes. V: Mmm-hmm. A: And after this long nice bath, I could do things again. I would sit and practice for a couple of hours and then do other things. So you might try that as well. V: I have another suggestion which works similarly, but you don’t have to use water. Just sit, or lay down even, for fifteen or twenty minutes with your eyes closed, and sort of breathe naturally. A: You will fall asleep if you are really tired. V: Yes. But then wake up after twenty or fifteen minutes and that would be enough, just enough to get you recharged. It’s like a short meditation. A: Actually what many people do in a case like this when we need to do still something and we don’t have energy—but I wouldn’t suggest you to do that—we eat sweets and we drink coffee. I wouldn’t do that. V: No, it’s better… A: Because, maybe you will feel better for a short while but in the long term it will make… V: Mmm-hmm. A: things even worse. V: I agree! It’s better not to do artificial, not to take artificial boosters like this. Maybe just for twenty minutes of relaxation, and really closing your eyes and breathing, you will feel that energy boost in actually, anyway. And if you do this in the middle of the day, let’s say in, around two o’clock, when you feel the most tired, two, three o’clock, when you feel the most sleepy maybe, you will then discover that the day has split into two parts. Like you’ve been getting out of bed at two o’clock in the afternoon and starting a new day this way. And you can do this where ever you are—don’t necessarily at home, not necessarily in the bed, sitting in the chair is fine. A: Sure! I think that’s a good advice. V: Thanks guys. We hope this was useful to you. Please send us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice… A: Miracles happen!
Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra V: Let’s start episode 487, of Secrets Of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Andrei. He wrote: I am working on the Sight Reading Master Course and I am struggling with the 32nd notes, how do I count them? V: Very practical question, right, Ausra? A: Yes. V: What do you do with 32nd notes? Do you count them? A: It depends of the piece. If I’m learning a piece by a contemporary composer, then yes, if the smallest note values are 32nd, then yes, I subdivide everything in 32nd—until I learn the text. V: If the music is not familiar and not easily predictable, right? A: Yes. V: Like Messiaen. You count in smallest note values. A: That’s right. There is no other way how to do it. V: But flourishes in the Art of Fugue that my Sight-Reading Master Course is based on, might be well predictable, quite predictable. And I’m thinking whether Andrei has to even count them or not. A: Well, I think that whole thing is to know math a little bit—to know how many notes are in another note value. V: Mmm-hmm. A: For example, you have to realize that in one eighth note, you have two sixteenth notes… V: Mmm-hmm. A: Yes? And in one sixteen note you have two 32nd notes. V: Yeah, it always doubles. A: So you really need to know how much, how many notes is on that certain beat. V: I’m not good at math, but this I understand. A: So, and then you just really need to count. Well, what would you suggest? What would be the best note value to count in this particular example? V: I wrote to Andrei to try counting in eighth notes. A: I think that’s a good advice. V: And if it’s still too many unclear notes, it’s means maybe he’s playing not slow enough. A: Yeah, that could be a problem. V: Right? So in one eighth note you have two sixteenth notes and four 32nd notes. Four 32nd notes total in one eighth note. Is it possible to play four notes without counting? I would think so, yes—in one eighth note. But then you have to really take it really slow—maybe twice as slow as you are playing right now. A: That’s right. I think that wrong tempo might be a problem. Then of course later on when you will master hard parts, you might will play in a faster tempo but not at the beginning. Especially if you are struggling with some rhythmic issues. V: Right. A: And what do you think? Have you encountered that sometimes you tell your students that you need to count and they are telling you ‘oh yes, I’m counting’ but they can still not master it and still play incorrectly rhythmically. V: What I do is I ask them to do aloud, aloud. A: Yes, I think that’s the best… V: With their voice. A: that’s the best way to do it. V: Because if they do this inside of their head, it might seem that they are counting correctly, in a constant tempo, but you never know. A: That’s also what I’m doing with my students when they are writing dictations... V: Mmm-hmm. A: Musical dictations. Especially in one voice, dictations might be quite hard, so if they cannot grasp it and count it, I’m forcing them to count loud. V: So let’s say, in Sight-Reading Master Course, there is a tempo of cut time, alla breve, maybe 2/2 or two half-notes per measure, right? But at the concert tempo you should count in half-notes. But when you practice you could subdivide it in anyway you want. So you could treat it as a 4/4 meter easily. One, two, three, four. But to tell you the truth you could subdivide it in eighth notes—one and two and three and, and count it slowly enough. If that’s too fast, you could count in sixteenth notes also by adding one-e-and-uh, two-e-and-uh, three-e-and-uh, four-e-and-uh. But I don’t think you could even add the additional syllable for the 32nd. That would be like specially composed poem for counting. Maybe we should Google, you know, how to count in 32nd, or even create a special poem. Maybe I could get creative with this and produce something. Do you have an idea? A: Well, I don’t know. I need to think about it. But anyway if you would practice slower and count, I think everything should work out quite well. It all comes with experience. V: Mmm-hmm. One-e-and-uh; it’s like counting in sixteenth notes. So now if you wanted 32nd notes, you should add one additional syllable between each of the sixteen notes; one-e-and-uh, would become, what would be a better syllable to fit here. A: Could you do the same, just in a faster tempo? And it would work for 32nd. V: One-e-and-uh, two-e-and-uh. Yeah, you could. But you could do one-beat-e-beat-and-beat-ah-beat, (laughs) for example. A: I couldn’t do that. It’s too complicated for me. V: Or you could do really creative. Instead of beat you add some organ term with one syllable. What is your favorite one-syllable organ related term? Like flute, for example? One-flute-e-flute-and-flute-ah-flute, for example? A: I don’t think I know many one syllable organ terms. V: You could twist your tongue and go to the doctor afterwards. A: Maybe no. V: Tongue doctor. Is there a doctor like that? A: I don’t think so. I think your tongue is working pretty well so I don’t think you need to worry about it. V: Alright guys. Get creative and if you really want to count in 32nd notes or 64th notes or 128th notes—I don’t know, get wild. Alright. 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!
Vidas: Hi guys! This is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 488 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Jeremy. And he wrote on Basecamp, when he received a question, What was he working on today? He wrote: Went to an organ recital tonight. First time I had heard Tournemire played. Will be looking into his work. V: It’s not a question, but an observation, right? A feedback. What do you think about Tournemire, and it’s interesting how your perception of Tournemire changed over the years A: Well, let’s say that, to tell the truth, that I encountered Tournemire quite late in my life, as a professional organist. V: Mm hm. A: Because you know, now, late, back in our lives when we were very young, not many organists in Lithuania knew Tournemire or played Tournemire. That’s even, we studied at the Academy of Music. Have you encountered Tournemire? V: Maybe your teacher Balys Vaitkus might have known it. A: Well, yes, but he never gave me Tournemire’s works to play or said anything about him, so I don’t know. V: I’m sure some of the teachers might have heard his name, but never really played his music. A: In general, I would say that Lithuanian understanding of organ repertoire is quite narrow. V: But it’s changing now… A: It’s changing… V: Because of new possibilities to download free scores from the internet. A: Yes, I guess getting access to the scores was a big problem 20 years ago, but it’s not now. V: Do you think people in Lithuania are more downloading free scores, or sometimes buying them? A: Well, I think through downloading. I don’t think people have much money for scores. We don’t understand importance of supporting, you know, the music… V: Industry. A: Industry. V: Publishers. A: And too bad, it’s just too bad. V: All right. I think I maybe got introduced to Tournemire also later in life, but my first encounter with him was through Dupre’s, I think, memoirs. I also read Tournemire’s memoirs, too. Or at least, an excerpt from it, like a shortened passage. I remember Tournemire being a very great proponent of organ improvisation, and saying an organist who cannot improvise is only a half organist. And that really hurt me. So I started to improvise. A: So I guess 99% of Lithuanian organists are not real organists, because we can’t improvise. V: According to Tournemire. A: Yeah. I guess, you know, it’s a great French tradition of improvisation. But we were raised in a different environment, because somehow in Lithuania, improvisation was always associated with jazz, and jazz was associated with United States of America, and it was an ultimate evil, in those times. So basically, while being professional musician, you didn’t get much chance to learn how to improvise unless you would do it on your own. And even in that case, it was more like jazz improvisation, not like classical improvisation. V: Do you think jazz was illegal in Soviet Union? A: Well, I will not speculate about it, because I’m not sure, but of course, it wasn’t supported. V: Uh huh. Jazz musicians had a much harder time to get attention from concert organizers. A: And since church music wasn’t developing during the Soviet era, so that you could not learn organ improvisation as well. Even now, I don’t think anybody is teaching seriously. V: Yeah, just from time to time they have courses. But maybe with time, something will change. Of course now, people are not limited to physical courses that they take in Academy of Music. They can do self-study from textbooks, from videos, studying masterworks of other composers, taking as a model, sightreading. That’s how I learned. And I’m still learning. The learning process never finishes. And I hope to improve, too. A: So what do you think now about Tournemire’s music? Do you find it very improvisatory, or not? V: Yeah. At first, it was very difficult to understand what’s going on, because it was so spontaneous, so free and rhapsodic in nature, and it seemed like, besides those Gregorian chant melodies which you could see on the page, anything else was written sort of, a little bit by chance. To me, a little bit at that time, I thought so. And then I understood one thing about genius. That it’s very difficult to analyze genius work. Sometimes genius, simple music is very, is genius too, like simplicity, in Mozart music, you could feel the genius like that in simplicity, elegant, poetic simplicity. But sometimes, it takes genius to analyze a work which is very spontaneous and hard to predict what’s going on. So I think Tournemire is like that. A: So do you think his music is easily comprehended to amateurs? V: No, no. A: What about general audiences? Would you suggest if you know that you are playing an organ recital for a completely uneducated musically people, would you play Tournemire for them, or not? V: It would be the same rule as with any modern composition, modern organ composition. I would probably need to add some well-known pieces from classical repertoire in between of modern and unfamiliar pieces. So the same goes with Tournemire. If I wanted to add something from his cycle L’Orgue Mystique, which involves organ masses from every Sunday of the liturgical year, I would need to add some classical baroque piece, Bach chorale, before that, or maybe some romantic work afterward, or even some lighthearted scherzo, for the audience to understand and appreciate Tournemire also. But in general, I would say Tournemire sounds sweet enough to my ears, because they are developed, and I think it depends on how much a person is used to the dissonances. And we can surely find many more composers in French tradition who created more dissonant music that Tournemire. Definitely. Vierne’s later symphonies are more dissonant Than Tournemire’s, I would think. But it doesn’t mean that dissonant music cannot be played and appreciated. A: Yeah. V: Agreed? A: Yes, I agree with that. Although when talking about Vierne, I think it’s easier to understand him easier than Tournemire, because he has clear forms. Because in terms of compositional, his pieces are very well-shaped. So I guess that makes them easier to comprehend. V: So anyway, guys, if anybody is interested in the French tradition, or learning improvisation in that model system, you would do very well in researching more about Tournemire’s work. Maybe sight-reading some of his L’Orgue Mystique pieces. You will find a lot of inspiration from there. I know I have. And actually, some of my own organ masses have been created based on his own models. Rhapsodic nature and improvisatory style like that, and based on Gregorian chant. Thank you, guys. 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. |
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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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