Ever wondered how language and organ improvisation are related? It turns out they have much in common.
The smallest element in a language is a letter. Put several letters together and you can get a syllable. Two or more syllables often form a word. A few words connect to a phrase. A few phrases make up a sentence. If you put a few sentences together, you get a paragraph. A few paragraphs can make up an essay. A few essays form a chapter. A few chapters can make up a book. In organ improvisation, the smallest unit is of course a note. Putting several notes together makes a motive. Two or more motives form a phrase. A few phrases make up a sentence. If you put a few sentences together, you get a period. A few periods can make up a simple form. A few simple forms can make up a compound form. A few compound forms make up a large-scale form. A few large-scale forms will make up a multi-movement composition. Letters-syllables-words-phrases-sentences-paragraphs-essays-chapters-book Isn't this the way we learn to use a language? One way to improvise on the organ is to tell a story through musical language. But first, you have to learn to connect notes into motives, invent phrases, sentences, periods, simple forms, compound forms, large-scale forms and multi-movement pieces.
Comments
Some people think that the art of improvisation is available only for organists with advanced music theory skills. They may be right in that people with good theoretical background are more likely to think about written down organ music analytically which leads to a better understanding of how the piece is put together which leads to better skills in improvisation.
But what they might not realize is that the joy of improvisation is available to all of us regardless of how far an organist is progressed in music theory if only he/she is curious enough to try. Here is an example of how you can create an improvisation based on major chords only. It sounds colorful because I avoid intervalic relationship between the chords that are characteristic for tonic-dominant and tonic-subdominant (perfect fourths and fifths). Instead I use major and minor thirds, seconds and a tritone. All you have to do is to choose a meter (in this case 4/4), a prevailing unit value (in this case an eighth note), a few rhythmical figures (here I use the rhythms suitable for march - dotted, long-short-short etc.), a texture (in this case a single layer chordal texture without the pedals), a form (in this case ABABA), a registration (in this case 16' and 8' reeds on two manuals) and off you go. Yes, you will do better if you learn the foundations that teaches about various scales, modes, intervals, chords, polyphonic devices etc. in the long run but no, you don't have to have a PhD in music theory to start. Try it tonight and share your experience here. Today I have prepared an outline of the improvisation that you can create in ABABA form.
Choose any meter, tempo, rhythm, registration, octave and texture and play something interesting exclusively out of major chords built on these notes. In order for the B part to have more contrast with the A part, you can choose some other musical elements listed above (different meter, tempo, rhythm etc.). Here is the PDF file for printing. If that's your recurring thought, you are trying to solve the wrong problem.
If your organ improvisations or compositions suffer from the lack of creativity, the solution isn't to figure out some way to invent a lot of musical ideas, figures or more textures. Those are the solutions, based on the notion that what you doing isn't sufficient, isn't interesting and isn't inventive. The challenge with this approach is that it is very difficult to control it. You can get tons of new ideas, find hundreds of figures in the pieces of other masters but the question is what are you going to do with them? Soon you will get lost in all the wealth of musical material that comes your way. No, the solution lies in using the musical ideas that you already know and building something interesting out of them. If you only know one chord, that's plenty to start with. Go play with this chord in any key, in any intervalic relationship to find out which solution sounds worth remembering and which one - not so much. When you do that, when you improvise for 10 minutes just using this chord (regardless if some part of your brain screams at you to stop), then little by little you will discover new interesting ideas and musical elements that you can put in your "bag of tricks". No, it won't be a perfect sonata or a set of variations that gets listed on the top 10 most important pieces ever written. But yes, you can drammatically solve the problem of "more creativity" by mastering musical elements that you already know and controling them in a creative way. Everyone is creative. In fact, we are too creative. More important is deciding to use the creativity you already have and share it with others. This video is an example of how you can leverage your transposition skills to create a rather lengthy improvisation on any hymn tune you like. Specifically, this is a famous Christmas carol "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing".
The text of this hymn was written by Charles Wesley in 1739 who was the leader of the Methodist movement in England in the 18th century and is best known for more than 6000 hymns he wrote. The original opening text was a little different: "Hark! how all the welkin rings / Glory to the King of Kings" but Wesley's co-worker George Whitefield changed it to the one we use today. The modern music of the hymn was adopted from Felix Mendelssohn's cantata that he wrote in 1840 to commemorate the invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg (hence the name of the hymn tune - Mendelssohn). At any rate, here is the tonal plan of this improvisation: F major, C major, A minor, D minor, G minor, B flat major, E flat major, A flat major, B flat minor, and F major (with Coda). This straightforward plan leaves a powerful impression on the listener for several reasons - the fluency of performance, the tune is lovely and familiar and the key changes make the harmony quite colorful (especially when you change the major mode to the minor and vice versa). It works best if every verse is played on a different registration. A chorale fantasia can be described as an organ piece based on any preexisting melody, such as hymn, chorale or Gregorian chant tune in which each of the tune phrases are treated more than once in different voices using a wide variety of techniques. The fantasia can be contrasted with the chorale prelude in which the tune is played only once.
So what is the process for learning to improvise a chorale fantasia? 1. Take a hymn tune and create a two-part note-against-note counterpoint. The tune can be played in the top or the bottom voice. The most appropriate intervals for this step are major and minor thirds and sixths, perfect fifths and octaves. Avoid parallel fifths and octaves by using contrary motion between the voices as much as possible. 2. Harmonize a hymn tune in the treble clef only using the primary three-note chords and their inversions (the Tonic, the Subdominant, and the Dominant). 3. Harmonize a hymn tune in four parts (SATB) in the treble and the bass clef. 4. Enrich your harmonization with chords of the secondary three-note chords, their inversions, four-note chords, their inversions, tonicizations, and modulations. 5. Transpose your harmonizations into 5 closely related keys of the major or minor scale: the Dominant and its relative, the relative of the Tonic, the relative of the Subdominant and the Subdominant. 6. Repeat step 5 with the tune in the tenor (played with the solo registration on the different manual) and in the bass parts (with the reed in the pedals). 7. Repeat step 6 with the tune in half notes (the chords can change in quarter notes when appropriate). 8. Repeat step 7 adding non-chordal notes in eighth-notes, eighth-note triplets and sixteenth-notes. 9. Create a bicinium for two voices (the tune can be played in any of the voices with the solo registration). 10. Create a trio for three voices (the tune can be played in any of the voices with the solo registration). 11. Add imitative introduction and interludes in two and three voices between the chorale phrases. A single voice phrase can be used at the beginning. 12. Add diminutions in the voice that has the tune in four parts. 13. Add chordal echos for each of the chorale phrases. 14. Add melodic echos for each of the chorale phrases in three parts. 15. Add echo passages in sixteenth-notes for each of the chorale phrases in two parts. 16. Combine steps 9-14 to create a full-length fantasia. So where to start? Pick 10 hymn tunes that you like and practice step 1 on your instrument. Make sure you take a very slow tempo and don't advance to the next step with another set of 10 hymn tunes until you can play the current one at least 3 times in a row fluently. Here is what you have to think about when you want to create something for the organ (either in writing or in improvisation): 1. Melody: 72 modes with 7 notes out of 12 tetrachords (more if we count special modes with 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10 notes). 2. Meter: 15 most common meters. 3. Rhythm: at least 20 different rhythm combinations in each of the meter. 4. Harmony: three-note chords (4 versions and their inversions), four-note chords (7 versions and their inversions), five-note chords (11 versions and their inversions). 5. Registration: 4 stop families and their combinations. 6. Texture: 1 layer (5 choices - solo voice, intervals, three-note chords, four-note chords, and five-note chords), 2 layers (20 choices), 3 layers (16 choices). 7. Form: Period, Simple Binary, Simple Ternary, Compound Binary, Compound Ternary, Variations, Rondo, Sonata, Rondo-Sonata etc. If we multiply the numbers in each of the category with the number of versions in them, we get over 3 billion (with a B!) choices to make (and I most certainly missed some of the other things, such as octave range or variety of stops in pitch level). With such a huge variety of choices, a lot of people feel rather lost. What can you do then? Don't worry about these infinite possibilities. Just pick one element from each of these categories that you are familiar with and create something today. For example: 1. Melody: natural major scale from C. 2. Meter: 2/4. 3. Rhythm: one quarter-note and two eighth-notes. 4. Harmony: three-note 1st inversion major chords. 5. Registration: Principal 8'. 6. Texture: 1 layer - three-note chords (in the treble octave played by the right hand). 7. Form: Period - 8 measures total (2 sentences of 4 measures each - question/answer style - start and end on the C note). When completed, this exercise might look something like this: Now it's your turn. Try it for yourself (and enter into a fascinating world of musical composition or improvisation).
1. Too much unity
2. Too much contrast Too much unity - no change in texture, key, mode, melodic and harmonic direction, too many repetitive rhythms. Too much contrast - constant change of new textures, themes, rhythms, melodic contour, harmony, keys, modes, and other compositional elements. A good improvisation (like a good composition) must have a balance between unity and contrast. A remarkable improvisation happens when the listener (but not the organist) forgets about all these compositional elements and simply is in awe. Play this melody (a theme) a few times with your right hand. After that, harmonize this theme in 4 parts (SATB) on your instrument. The key is D major.
If you have pedals, you can play the bass part with your feet. Start with the Tonic chord of D major and finish with the Dominant chord. We will call this 4 measure fragment a question. Then repeat the same theme but finish with a different cadence with the Tonic chord. In order to do this, you will need to end your melody on the first or the third scale degree of the D major scale. This will be your answer. Use Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant chords in the root position and first inversion. At the end of measure 2 (note G), you can play a D65 (C#-E-G-A) or D34 (E-G-A-C#) chord. Avoid parallel fifths and octaves among the parts and try to use contrary motion in the bass with the soprano as much as possible. Here is the PDF file for printing. Practice very slowly and try to achieve the fluency when you can do this exercise 3 times in a row correctly. After you are done practicing, post your time to comments. Although organ improvisation is a very fascinating subject to study for a lot of organists, it is not easy to constantly see the desired improvement and advancement. On the way to perfecting their skills, many people have to face certain difficulties, such as lack of direction, being lost in this process, or inability to achieve the results. In this article, I will share with you tips how it is best to overcome these challenges which may be holding you back in organ improvisation.
1. Lack of direction. A lot of times people who just start improvising on the organ, have lots of wishes, and a lack of proper direction. They want to become very good improvisers in many styles. In reality it doesn't work this way. The more you can improve your focus, and simply work on a certain style or genre for a while, the better chances you have to succeed. When you feel fluent in one style or genre, you can easily begin to explore additional styles or genres. So it is important to stay focused at only one goal at a time. Taking your daily baby steps towards this goal will increase your chances for success. 2. Being lost in this process. Many people don't know where to start when it comes to organ improvisation. There are so many method books and treatises and every one of them requires at least some knowledge in music theory. So it is very difficult to improvise well if you don't know basic concepts of music theory, harmony, and basic elements which constitute a musical piece. If you want to learn to improvise on the organ, it is inevitable that at some point or another you will understand the necessity to learn music theory, harmony, and musical analysis. It is better to start this study sooner than later. 3. Inability to achieve the results. It may happen that no matter how hard you are trying to improve, no matter how focused you are, you are still not getting your results. Or perhaps the results are so small that when you start to think about your long-term goal, you may be thinking that it will take many years to achieve it. This might be very frustrating. It may mean, that you are practicing incorrectly. You see, improvising on the organ is no different that learning to play a written down composition. The only difference is that you have to think and compose while you play. But you should still apply the same practice principles as if you would be playing a real organ piece - slow tempo, practice in fragments, voice combinations, aiming on improving your technique and doing repeatedly over and over again. Think about these tips and apply them in your improvisation practice. You may be surprised how fast your improvement will be if you remember your goal, deepen your knowledge of music theory, and constantly take incremental baby steps. If you need help in practicing organ improvisation, check out my free improvisation mini course. |
DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. ![]() Authors
Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. Our Hauptwerk Setup:
Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|