I'd like to share with you another video of my recent improvisation with VU Kinetic Theater Troupe on the biblical story of Exodus. This time - with combined view from upstairs where the organist plays and from downstairs where the actors moved. Thanks to Audre Dudeniene for editing! Enjoy!
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When you sit on the organ bench up in the balcony, you miss all the fun down in the nave. I'd like to thank Unda Maris student Audre Dudeniene who recorded this video during last Saturday's organ and VU Kinetic Theatre Troupe improvisations "Exodus": Today I'd like to share with you my last Saturday's improvisation recital about the Biblical story of "Exodus", performed together with VU Kinetic Theatre Troupe: It would be interesting to see the video from downstairs but I don't have it yet. I hear one of my students have recorded it and I hope to be able to share it with you later.
Let me know if you'd like me to improvise in your venue.
Welcome to episode 508 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!
Today's guest is an American organist, carillonneur, improviser and composer Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra from Ann Arbor, MI. She was a guest on the podcast several times before and in episode 3 she talked about improvisation in the Bach style. In episode 15 she was back on the show and shared her perspectives about creativity and musing with children, and in episode 120 she talked about her Bach style improvisation treatise. Most recently I met her a year ago in Poland, at the Paslek International Organ Music Festival where she performed a splendid recital on the 1719 Hildebrandt organ and gave a lecture about Bach and improvisation for listeners who came to the event. It was amazing for me to reconnect with her, and this event was a pinnacle of the fall of 2018 for me. Today she will be sharing her insights about improvisation as the key of playing any instrument, carillon playing and composing as well as lifting up marginalized voices by music. Listen to the conversation You can listen bellow to carillon audio recording of her composition "Our Time: Me Too" and a video of her playing the Yale carillon with my Belonging: A Carillon Call to Care for All. Find out more about Dr. Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra and her work by visiting her website at https://www.pamelaruiterfeenstra.com Yesterday I played this recital at Vilnius Cathedral which I livestreamed to Facebook, later uploaded the video to YouTube and today I'm sharing it here. It was pouring rain like from the bucket and my recital should have been called "Noah's Flood" instead of "Transfiguration of Christ". Eight of my colleagues and students organists listened to my playing and many more on livestream. Most of my colleagues haven't heard me play in years because they wouldn't attend my recitals for some reason. Now this gave me some street credit, I think. Let me know your thoughts. In about 30 minutes I will start my improvisation recital on the Biblical theme of Transfiguration of Christ at Vilnius Cathedral. Last night I had a rehearsal and this is what happened: Today I will be presenting my organ compositions and improvisations during a masterclass in Trakai. I will be using this post to organize my thoughts and videos. I hope you will enjoy them.
Representative collection of my compositions and improvisations SOPP439: More improvisation and some theory on counterpoint and how canons are constructed5/16/2019
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas!
Ausra: And Ausra! V: Let’s start episode 439 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Ariane, and she writes: “More improvisation and some theory on counterpoint and how canons are constructed - a lot rings a bell now, especially the stuff on consonant intervals and countermovement.” She is our Total Organist student and answered this question in response of my asking her what is she currently working on. A: Okay! V: So, she’s working on improvisation and theory, counterpoint, canons, and she says that a lot of that is familiar to her, now. A: Do you think it’s important for everybody to know the polyphonic techniques that composers use? V: It depends on the goals, of course. If you want to understand the music of great composers, it’s impossible to understand it without getting a good grasp of counterpoint and polyphony. A: Do you think it’s important to know it in depth or not? Or just to be familiar with it? V: Well again, if your goal is just to play the music of other people and understand it to some degree, then what you might do is create some counterpoints and analyze their music from the scores, but not too much, probably concentrating on the performance itself. But if you want to start writing music or improvising music, I think these techniques are indispensable—to know and internalize them. A: Well, what collection would be a good way to start to analyze in order to learn these things? V: You mean canons? A: I mean all polyphonic techniques, because canon is only one of them. V: I always recommend people start where they are, what they are playing, and look for techniques in their own pieces. If they are playing a piece by Franck, for example, they might find a canon or two very easily, because Franck used canons all the time. If they’re playing other composers, let’s say they are playing some baroque music, obviously polyphonic techniques are even more important there. So wherever you are, open the score, and try to find out what you are seeing on the page. A: I think that’s very good advice. V: What would your approach be? A: I would start with probably two-part inventions. Even with the first invention in C major. Basically, Bach used most of the polyphonic techniques in this first invention. V: And you’re right! Those inventions, and later three-part symphonias form a basis for every pianists repertoire, and technique as well! And that was in Bach’s time! He created those short little gems as exercises for his own students! But not only to be played on the harpsichord, but also to be used as examples in composition, so that his students would not only play them, perform them, develop their own techniques, but maybe use them as models for their own creations. This is teaching by example, obviously, and Bach was a champion of that. He almost didn’t write any treatises, just one short page about counterpoint, but basically, his music speaks for itself! A: True, and I wonder how much the world has changed after that, because in Bach’s time, he and his contemporaries wanted students and pupils to study and to take example from them. And nowadays, I think everybody requires originality. And if you will copy something, it will be very bad. V: At first, it’s okay to copy, I think, even today. A: What about authors’ rights? V: When you are a student, I mean. If you are copying a composer who is long dead, who cares? A: But would you achieve much in the area of composition if you would compose in the style of Buxtehude or Pachelbel? V: To some degree, we all start there as beginners in school, and then move on to something which is more innovative and more interesting to our ears and our age. Maybe this classical education won’t last long, maybe a year or two, but even those people who create today avant-garde music, I think they all went through the rigid classical education at some point. Maybe they hated it. That’s why maybe they changed gears later in life, but this classical education gave them something, too. What do you think? A: Yes, I guess you are right. V: Obviously, at the same time when you are studying and playing Bach, if you are really inclined on originality, you would do well on sight-reading music by modern composers—at least twentieth century composers, or even living composers, even better, and see what other people are doing today. And this way, you will discover things that they are not doing, maybe, and you will get more ideas by synthesizing their own ideas! A: Yes, but don’t you feel sometimes that it’s so hard to create something really new, because so many ideas there are already expressed by somebody else? V: I think somebody wiser than I said, “Whoever wants to be original will never be original.” You know, if we focus on originality, this is not the point, because we have to focus on authenticity. It doesn’t have to be new, it has to be yours, this music. And even if you create something really old fashioned, chances are that nobody else has created this, because music has so many thousands and millions and billions and trillions of combinations, that obviously, it’s impossible to exploit all that. It might sound similar to other music, but it’s definitely something new. A: It’s like a miracle, knowing that everything is created only from twelve different sounds. V: Exactly. So, Ariane and others would do really well by starting where they are, looking at music of further composers, and writing down and improvising their own creative things, starting with consonant intervals! That is required for classical counterpoint, and avoiding parallel fifths and octaves, and employing a lot of contrary motion to achieve this. Excellent guys, please send us more of your questions; we love helping you grow. This was Vidas! A: And Ausra! V: And remember: when you practice, A: Miracles happen!
Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 415, of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Jeremy, and he writes: Played for church this morning. Krebs e minor prelude and fugue for prelude, accompanied a handbell piece on the organ and ended with Piece Heroique of Franck. Standard hymns and some piano playing in there as well. I did improvise a bit today during the passing of the piece. Played through a hymn, then tried to improvise a canon between the soprano and tenor over a pedal tone while keeping the alto the same. I thought it worked pretty well. V: So Jeremy is not only transcribing our fingering and pedaling videos, but he’s on the list of Total Organist students. And at the end of each day, I ask them how their day went, and what did they do? So Jeremy wrote this answer to us, Ausra. A: Very nice, I think. I feel sorry but I couldn't listen and to attend the service, because everything sounds very nice, organized. V: If he ended the church service with the Pièce Héroïque by Franck, it should have been like a small recital. A: I know! You could feel yourself like, being embarrassed. V: Mmm-hmm. Remember when we visited organ builder Gene Bedient and his wife, there, a few summers ago? We went to St Sulpice I think, on one Sunday, and at the end of the mass they have, they have a short recital there. A: Yes. It was wonderful. V: And guest recitalists played there. A: And too bad that we could not go upstairs to the organ to congratulate her because now there is a policy in France, and in Paris in particular because of the terrorist attacks. They not allow people to go next to the organ after the recital. V: Mmm. Yeah, at that time, security alert was elevated. A: I think it’s always like that in Paris now. V: Hmm-hmm. A: Nowadays. V: So, anyway, it was really nice hearing, I think one of the Dutch organists played there. A: Yes, I think she was Dutch, yes. V: Mmm-hmm. Playing B minor chorale by Franck. A: Yes, my favorite piece. V: What else did she play—maybe, maybe a slow movement of Bach’s E minor Trio Sonata? A: Franck was what stuck with me, so… V: Uh-huh. A: I don’t recall other pieces. V: Is that the reason why you practiced Franck today? A: Well, no, not because of that. Because I need to repeat this piece. V: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, I need to play more Franck too, and I think I will. So… A: Do you like Pièce Héroïque? V: It’s very compact, very beautifully worked out, well thought, and for people who, for example, haven’t played large scale works like Pièce Symphonic or the Chorales, that might be a good starting point, or one of the easier pieces, I would say. A: Well, yes, but although it’s not as hard to learn this piece, but it sounds like a… V: Heroic. Mmm. A: Truly heroic piece. And while listening to it you could tell that it’s an easier piece. V: No. A: Well, I don’t think that any of Franck pieces of his big organ works are very easy. But of course there is a big difference in between of his level of difficulties of his music. V: Mmm-hmm. A: For example the day when I played B minor Chorale, I just sight-read a little bit from the A minor Chorale, which I also have played many years ago, and it’s at least three times easier comparing to the B minor Chorale. V: Even thought the third choral is the last one. A: Sure. V: Mmm. A: But if you have quite good piano technique then it’s very easy, because it doesn’t have so much thick texture, it’s more playful, very few pedals. V: I think our friend and colleague Paulius Grigonis wants to play some Franck and he was thinking about A minor Chorale. Do you think he would manage it? A: I don’t know how good is his piano technique. Because you need to have piano technique in order to play this chorale well. Otherwise [it] might sound sloppy, or you might not play it up to tempo. Because out of all these chorales, the A minor is the fastest. V: True. And Jeremy played the handbell piece, accompaniment on the organ. Do you like handbells? A: Very much! V: Mmm-hmm. A: This was the only time when I encountered it was in the states. Before that I didn’t even know that such thing existed—the handbell choir. And remember once we had even to perform because our church was short on handbell choir, I remember, so they asked us to play and we did. V: That was for Easter, I think. A: Yes. V: And… A: And we had special glass… V: Mmm-hmm. A: And various bells. It was fun. V: Wonderful. And I remember that I also played some percussion instrument, right? A: What an honor. V: Mmm-hmm. A: You can put it on your CV. V: (Laughs). Right. So Jeremy just mentioned that he improvised a hymn, making canon between soprano and tenor over a pedal tone, while keeping the alto the same. What do you understand from this, ‘keeping the alto the same’? The same stationary note or playing the same melody from the hymnal—in the alto part? A: I’m not quite sure. Could be either way, I think. But anyway, it sounds very interesting. V: It sounds difficult. A: Sure! It sounds truly difficult. Because when you start to explore some polyphonic technique, as canon for example, it makes a whole difference. It’s not like just playing plain chords with some variation. V: The easiest canon that beginners could start learning is the one that Franck uses so often. In one hand you play, let’s say, a moving melody, and you stop. And when you stop, you repeat the same thing an octave lower, for example, with the left hand. And then stop again with the left hand, and then start to move at the same time with the right hand. Basically hands move interchangeably, not at the same time. And then you don’t have to think about two things all the time. A: I think he uses this technique in his L’Organiste collection. V: Mmm-hmm. Yeah. That’s the easier one to start with, thinking polyphonically. You don’t have to think about intervals, about what kind of allowed intervals are there, because in Renaissance times, they have these very strict rules—which type of intervals produce, which type of canons. And I’m sure Franck knew that. But for beginner purposes, I don’t think it matters. You can create a canon quite easily while following his model, basically playing movement between the hands interchangeably. A: True. V: And it would sound actually convincing. It wouldn’t sound very easy. A: That’s right. V: So, we hope was useful to you guys. Explore your different techniques that Jeremy uses and others might suggest. We hope this was useful to you and please us more of your questions. We love helping you grow. And remember; when you practice... V: Miracles happen! DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.
Vidas: Hi, guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 413 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Eddie. He writes: Hi Vidas and Ausra! I enjoy your ideas on improvisation in the modern style. I am now ready to embark at the fairly late age of 69 today, on the challenging and exciting path of improvisation on the organ. I must confess, however, that I am at this stage a real dummy and raw beginner, but I have a great desire and urge to be able to at least be able to improvise somewhat before I die. I have also embarked on online organ teaching, which is also an exciting endeavor for me. God bless, and keep on with your and your wife’s good work for organists. Regards, Eddie V: What are your thoughts, Ausra, for starters, about Eddie’s improvisation efforts when he is 69 years old? A: I think that it’s amazing that people at various ages pursue their dreams. I think it’s wonderful, because you know that you have dreams, you do something new, you learn something new, it means you will not get old so soon. V: You are so right, Ausra. I just, you know, have this laptop in my lap. And when I open my new window on the browser, by clicking new tab, I get this greeting, “Good morning, Vidas! What is your main focus for today?” The computer talks to me. And there is a sentence for every day, and today, the sentence is, “Anyone who stops learning is old.” (laughs) Henry Ford. A: So it just proves what I am saying, if you are still interested in something and learning new things, it means you are not old. V: Exactly. And the most probably inventive and successful people on earth never stop learning. A: I think it’s very important to stay curious about something all the time. V: That’s right, Ausra. What are you curious today about? A: Well today, I am curious about how I will draw the comic. Because the theme of today is very interesting. It’s Iron Man, and I probably will have to draw Spiky as an Iron Man, and so far I don’t have an idea how to do it. V: Put Spiky in armor. A: That’s right. V: I might have to either develop your idea further, like steal your idea, or do an Iron Man from another character. Maybe our bird, Cornelius. A: That’s true. So now, what do you think about new learning improvisation at the age of 69? Do you think it’s a very hard thing? Or it’s possible? V: No, of course everything is possible. But with age, probably people need more patience. A: Do you think people in general are more patient with age, or not? V: It depends on how you react into, onto the changes and other circumstances around you. I’ve seen people who are patient, and I’ve seen people who are getting very impatient, too. A: So, Vidas, could you tell us what would be your steps if you would be 69 and would want to learn to improvise. What actions would you take? V: I assume Eddie is interested in modern style. I’m interested in modern style as well. So, I’m like the idea of starting small at the beginning. Limiting yourself at the start, and not worrying about too many stylistical ideas or technical details, but choosing just a few notes, maybe 4 notes to improvise on. Like C, D, E, and F. That could be a nice exercise. Start a timer and improvise on those 4 notes without stopping for 2 minutes or 5 minutes or 10 minutes, always trying to do something interesting with those 4 notes. And you can use any octave, any hand, you can play with pedals those pitches, any order you can mix them up. You can have different rhythms, and you can have, of course, different registration, texture. So that would be my first step. And I think it works. A: Yes, I think it would work. V: If 4 notes are too much, you know, some beginners really don’t have a good grasp of 4 fingers at all, so maybe start with one note. Let’s say C. And since you only are worrying about the note C, the pitches are not important. Everything is C. It’s like a percussion instrument, and you are only worrying about rhythms then. And do anything that you want with the pitch C, but try to do interesting rhythms. And after awhile, you can do 2 pitches after a few days, when you get comfortable. C and D. Then you will have more, like what I do with 2 pitches. It’s like, jump from C to D, it’s unbelievable. If you think one note, then suddenly 2 notes. And those 2 notes say a lot, right? I know some people might laugh at the idea, starting with C alone, but it depends on where you are. If you never touched the organ before, or keyboard before, or if you’re so afraid of making mistakes when you improvise, and you will make many mistakes, and that’s okay. Actually, make as many mistakes as you want – the more, the better. That’s my… A: Because it’s improvisation, so there cannot be mistakes. Is that right? V: Yes and no, right? If you say to yourself, “It’s a mistake,” then it’s a mistake, right? If you say “No, it’s not a mistake,” then you can elaborate that so-called mistake into an episode. Sometimes, I improvise and make sound a little bit different than what I intended. But then, I repeat a few times the same idea, and it becomes something that I intentionally did. A: I have noticed that a few times in your improvisation, yes. V: Like I had this very loud episode playing with mixtures and reeds with my hands and feet, like a culmination, and then suddenly I want to play softly, and I gradually, you know, start to reduce the stops on the manuals. Or maybe jump on the second manual and play with strings, and I sometimes forget to reduce the pedals, and this bombarde is, “BUH” like a real trombone, suddenly out of nowhere. A: Like a beast. V: So, what do I do then? I repeat it a few times. A: Repeat it, yes. V: Maybe not right away, but after 10 seconds, I repeat it. Just one note, aha. So then I have 2 trombone notes. And then maybe third time, I repeat the same note again. And maybe listeners will understand, “Oh, that’s intentional, and something, he wants to express some idea with this low bombarde note.” A: So, it’s like cheating your audience, and cheating yourself in a way. V: It’s actually going with the flow. You know, wherever your mind goes, you follow. A: So, if I understand, during improvisation, the most important thing is not to stop. V: Exactly. That is why we recommend timers. Resist the temptation to stop. The first 90 seconds are the most difficult. Actually, the first second is the most difficult. Just to sit down on the bench. A: Very exciting! V: But when you reach, let’s say, 5 minutes, you don’t want to stop. You discover, “oh, that’s interesting,” and you want to elaborate it, and when the timer goes off after maybe 10 minutes, you suddenly think, “Why did it end so quickly?” you know. A: That’s what I also noticed in your improvisations. I think, “this is the culmination, and now the end will come,” but it’s not. There’s another combination and then another one, and how will you finish it up? V: Towards the end of my recital, I have this thought, “How do I finish?” And sometimes, the piece itself, the improvisation itself, suggests the ending, too. Like, if I play some very fast running passages in the hands, maybe I can finish abruptly. We’ve gone downwards or upwards, and stop it like that, like vanishing. Not necessarily five long chords like at the end of a symphony. Sometimes I do that too, of course. A: Very exciting. So I hope Eddie got some ideas from your thoughts. V: And I always say, “Record yourself, and if you are brave, share it online for others to see.” And this feedback will help you grow, will help you sit down on the organ bench again. And participate in our Secrets of Organ Playing Contest. Remember, you don’t have to play repertoire all the time, you can play anything you want. A: Yes, we are looking forward to hear your playing. V: Yes. This was Vidas… A: and Ausra. V: 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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