What Are the Exceptions of the Legato Articulation for Music Composed After 1800?

02/15/2012

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Although the legato articulation is the traditional touch for the romantic and modern organ music, there are several exceptions. It is important for the organist to know when the legato touch is not to be used because performed with the legato articulation in entirety such music might lack precision, clarity, and vitality. In addition, these several exceptions have the very precise manner of execution which contributes greatly to the performance level in general. In this article, I would like give you the advice on when the legato articulation should not be used and how such cases should be performed in romantic and modern organ pieces.

Repeated Notes

The first exception to the rule of legato articulation concerns the repeated notes in organ composition. Whenever you see the repeated notes in the same voice they have to be performed in a very exact and precise manner. The repeated notes should be shortened by half of their value if the note could be divided in half (duple meter). For example, shorten the quarter notes by playing eight notes and have eight note rests. If the meter is triple, look at the music and decide what the shortest value is that you see most frequently in this composition. We will call this shortest value unit value. Shorten the repeated notes by unit value. For example, if the meter of the piece is 3/8 and the sixteenth notes are most commonly used, shorten the repeated notes by the sixteenth note.

Staccato Sign

The second important exception of the legato articulation is the staccato sign. The staccato literally means “short” and is indicated by the dots under the notes. The most precise way of performing the staccato notes in romantic and modern organ music is to shorten them by unit value. For example, if the staccato sign is given under the eighth notes, and the unit value of the piece is the sixteenth note, make these notes shorter by a sixteenth note rest. If the unit value is an eight note in such a piece, shorten the note by half.
 
Notes Before Unison

The third exception of the legato articulation is instance when one of the two voices is stationary and later these two voices form an interval of the unison. In other words, if there is a spot in your organ piece when one voice comes into unison with a stationary note, it is not possible to play the voice which was stationary legato. You should shorten this note by unit value. For example, imagine that the most frequent notes in the piece are the eighth notes. That is unit value. The top voice has two quarter notes D and D and a half note G. The lower voice has a two half notes G and G and the second G is in unison with the top voice. So the rule says that you should shorten the first G of the lower voice by unit value (an eighth note rest).

Try to locate above exceptions in your organ music and practice shortening notes exactly by unit value. This will give your performance the necessary precision, clarity, and vitality.

The above exeptions are discussed in great detail by Marcel Dupre in his 79 chorale preludes for organ which are fully edited, fingered, pedaled with complete registration and serve as a great introduction before playing Bach chorale preludes.

If you are interested in performing Romantic organ music, you might enjoy reading "Playing the Organ Works of Cesar Franck" (The Complete Organ No. 1) by Rollin Smith which I highly recommend.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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When to Use the Ordinary Touch in Organ Music?

02/12/2012

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Although there are many technical elements in organ playing, one of the most important and noticeable is articulation. It is precisely articulation which might be the decisive factor about the overall level of the organist. It is such a vital aspect of organ playing because it can help to achieve precision and clarity in your performance. Therefore knowing what kind of articulation to use in any specific organ piece is indispensable skill any organist must strive to achieve. One particular type of articulation, the Ordinary Touch, is commonly used in certain organ music. Today I would like to explain what it is and when you should use it.

Articulate Legato in Early Music

If you play music which was composed before 1800s, the general traditional touch is articulated legato. Writers of the Baroque period used a term “Ordinary Touch” to describe such an articulation. As a general rule of thumb you might think of articulated legato as having small distances between the notes. It is not non legato because the spaces between the notes are very delicate which does not make the music sound choppy. Actually, this playing manner is quite vocal and Bach refers to it as “Cantabile”.

The authors of the Baroque period called this touch “Ordinary” because it was widely accepted and there was no need to indicate it in the music score. For this very reason you will rarely see any articulation markings in early music. But you should not assume that although the score is clean, you should play everything legato, which some organist still do even nowadays. The habit of playing legato comes from our background of piano playing. Actually, people who have experience with articulated legato touch use it for playing early music even on the piano.

This touch has many similarities to the tonguing of wind instruments and bowing of the strings. For example, when a violinist uses up and down strokes of the bow we barely hear the articulation. Nevertheless, we can clearly hear that the notes are not slurred. The same is with articulate legato on the organ. Although there are small distances between the notes, we may not even be aware of them unless we pay attention. The ordinary touch can easily be tested by playing a scale with only one finger but as connected as possible. Then try to copy the same sound with the usual fingering.

Emphasize the Meter

Although the ordinary touch is very important for early music, you need something more to make the music come alive. You need to emphasize the meter and the strong and week beats of the measure. Because the organ pipes cannot sound louder or softer depending on the level of strength that you are using with your hands, there are three primary ways to make accents in organ playing. First, you can make the strong beat longer which will have the impression of accent on the listener. Second, you can make the weak beat shorter which will have the opposite effect. Finally, you can come in a little late on the strong beat which will make it even more accented.

As you can see, not all the notes have the same length in early music. Some notes are longer or shorter than the others depending on the beat of the measure. In syncopation, the weak beat becomes accented. Therefore, make the weak beat longer and the downbeat shorter.

If you are interested in articulation and other issues of performance practice, an invaluable resource is "Performing Baroque Music" by Mary Cyr which I highly recommend.

By the way, do you want to learn to play the King of Instruments - the pipe organ? If so, download my FREE video guide: "How to Master Any Organ Composition" in which I will show you my EXACT steps, techniques, and methods that I use to practice, learn and master any piece of organ music.
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