Blog Archives - secrets of organ playing - when you practice, miracles happen

A big mistake

6/30/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

How to recover from a big mistake during your public organ performance?

Always treat your performance like improvisation. Never let yourself be restricted by the notes on the score.

When you make a big mistake, try to do one of the two things:

1. Go to the nearest half step up or down. That's all it takes to find a suitable note.

2. Repeat the mistake several times with some variations and use it as a turning point in your composition. This way it becomes intentional and part of the performance.

If you play from the score and play the wrong chord or note, see if you can keep the steady pulse and don't stop the flow. Instead think of the key this episode is in, and play a simple chord progression (a cadence) in that key which will give you time to adjust to where you are in the score and continue your performance.

Most importantly, breath to avoid panic and remember that your audience doesn't usually know each note of the piece (unless it's a popular hymn or anthem). Even then, rhythm is more important than melody.

Keep up the flow.

Did it grab you too?

6/29/2016

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene

The organ is like an ocean.

Because it's the most magnificent instrument of all.

Other instruments will never match the 2000 year history, vast cathedral acoustics, and color possibilities. And don't get me started on the repertoire - it would take several lifetimes just to sight-read it.

Sure, electronic organs might lack some of these things, factory-made organs often have no life and some amateur organ builders the pipework out of rainwater pipes but in general, even in the ugliest instrument I can find at least one decent stop.

Maybe I would never play Volumina but just about any other piece I might find the right mood for.

As long as my hands and feet allow me to do so, I will continue to play this instrument because I love it.

The organ is like an ocean: once it grabs you, it never lets go.

[Thanks to Roberto]

PS June 30 is the last day to get a 50% discount on our Building Pedal Powers course.

Postlude

6/28/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

The postlude that I played yesterday for the graduation ceremony of masters of the Philosophy Department of Vilnius University. It lasted about 7 minutes. Its form was modulating rondo. Its refrain consisted of chords from the first eight measures of Bach's Aria from Goldberg Variations. Its dotted rhythms reminded me of a march in 4/4 meter.

I didn't like it. Although it may have sounded solemnly, I found it annoying. My friend baritone who sang with me earlier in the ceremony mockingly remarked that I should write it down and even the lady security guard couldn't fall asleep while I was playing, which she suggested was because of the lack of pentatonic mode.

Would it have been written down, after some 300 years it is more than likely that this postlude will be found in some attic, without a page or two. And it will be sold to museum for an old piece and put under protective glass. And organ music lovers will go see and have deep respect for it. They will be in awe by the splendid dotted rhythms, and try to guess as to how artistically pleasing the page or two that were lost most certainly was.

We, who are living today, don't appreciate the perfection of that postlude. We take it for granted. It is like the forests and the oceans: We don't admire their beauty because we are so used to them. So it is with that postlude.

In 2316, listeners will flock to hear it. Creating such postludes will have become an art of the past. Our great great great grand children will marvel at how we wrote them, and think how intelligent we were. We will be called affectionately as "those old masters that worked in the 21st century and created those annoying postludes."

Crawling seventh-chords

6/27/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

Every organist has to do 3 things at least once in life: play in a church service, perform a solo organ recital, and improvise a horror story.

A horror story on the organ is interesting. What kind of a sicko would take a cliffhanger that raises people's heartbeat, keeps them breathless and jumping from the edge of their seats, and play it on the instrument which is devised to elevate their souls into the realm of beyond?

In a horror movie, we cover our eyes when it gets too scary. In a horror organ recital, are we supposed to cover our ears?

And does the organist really think playing a bunch of notes in the octatonic mode will make the listeners say:

"Don't turn the light off, daddy. I'm afraid these diminished seventh-chords will crawl from under my bed."

Raising sacred music leaders

6/26/2016

Welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast #48!

What does it take to raise sacred music leaders in the 21st century?

Listen to the conversation with Dr. Martin Jean who is Professor of Organ and the Director of Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.

Ready for anything

6/25/2016

By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene

A week ago Vidas and I played six sonatas by Franz Seydelmann in the little beautiful town of Nida on the lagoon by the Baltic sea (the entire area, Curonian Spit is protected by UNESCO). Although we were looking forward to this festival very much, our performance in the Lutheran church there took us by surprise. I don't know if I would like to experience the same things one more time. Nevertheless, I learned some things I would like to share with you that I think would be helpful if you will ever play with somebody (not just an organ duet but with any soloist as well).

First of all, don't decide ahead of time who will try to find who in case one of you will get lost. The reality will dictate its rules. You need to be ready help each other.

Before this recital Vidas promised me if something will happens he will catch me. This promise had to make my life easier since the night before going to Nida, I broke the fifth toe of my right foot. So I had a hard time walking and sitting in the car for a 5 hour long drive. It may sound surprising, but during the actual performance in one spot Vidas got lost (because of the reasons you will read in the next paragraph). I even had to point at his score where he is supposed to play.

In addition, we both learned that manipulating octaves is not always a good idea, especially when you share the same keyboard with somebody else. Since the bass A in Vidas range stopped working, sometimes he tried to play both hands an octave higher, unfortunately that was a very bad idea, since I also had to play somewhere. By the way, Vidas managed to improvise registrations and to leave the 1st manual for the left hand which had all keys working.

The last and the most important thing was this recital confirmed once more that breathing is the decisive factor for giving in to panic or not. In all those horrific moments I kept reminding myself to breath and actually it helped me not to stop and not to panic.

The best thing about this recital was that it eventually ended and our listeners haven't noticed anything. Only our colleague who listened us from the nave noticed that something happened to the organ. But even for him this incident haven't ruined an overall positive impression.

One more time I learned that an organist must be ready for anything and everything.

Black keys only

6/24/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

To many organists, playing the pedals is like walking among snakes. They constantly look at their feet to avoid them. If for a second they would look up, they would be instantaneously bitten by a viper.

"So, you played an Eb in the D minor toccata. Now I will bite you."
"Please don't bite me, Mrs Viper. I will transpose the entire toccata to Eb minor."

I think there might be a cure for this habit to look down. What if the organists placed a real snake on the music rack? That would surely fix their attention.

The only way to cheat her and put her to sleep so you could look at the pedals would be to play something in the Pentatonic mode.

"Where do you think you're looking at, young man?"
"Aren't you supposed to sleep now, Mrs Viper? I'm playing black keys only now!"
Your Jedi-mind-tricks work only on feeble-minded. I'm the black mamba!"

"I can't decide what I want to play"

6/23/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

There are two basic types of atonal music - serial music and aleatoric music. If you want to write serial music, you want to control as many musical elements as possible. The more, the better. So write a series of notes in which any particular pitch cannot be repeated before an entire series is over. In total serialism you assign each pitch a duration, dynamic level, articulation, and color.

In aleatoric music you leave everything to chance. The pitches are assigned to the specific numbers of the roll of the dice. You roll the dice and write the note that has shown up by accident. Roll some more and write another pitch. Twelve pitches of the chromatic scale - twelve numbers of two dice cubes. That's how it works.

There's one thing serial and aleatoric music have in common - they both sound exactly the same.

Cats love such music. Every time you see a cat on a keyboard - that's what they're using.

"Hey, Tigger, what are you playing?"
"I can't decide what I want to play - total serialism or aleatory".
"Can't you just compromise? Play serial aleatory or something."

Evil scientists

6/22/2016

Organ music can be pretty powerful. It can heal and it can make you ill. I recently found out that one of my organist friends disliked a certain modern Lithuanian organ music so much that he got herpes whenever he heard it.

I think evil scientists may use this idea. What if they turn this whole herpes thing into some kind of a weapon? Make a certain part of human race get herpes. Wipe out entire cities with Lithuanian organ music. Maybe that will solve overpopulation problem.

"Where did all these people go?"
"Oh, they just listened too much of atonal avant-garde."

The blower doesn't care

6/21/2016

By Vidas Pinkevicius

Why nowadays organists are so unfriendly? Never helping each other out. Always minding their own business. Ever tried to get recommendations for organ recitals from your colleagues? Forget it.

It used to be that an organist had to be nice to at least one person. That's a calcant who pumped the bellows. Just try to be mean to this guy. He will just say, "I'm not pumping for this jerk." And there goes your postlude.

The farther into history we go, the nicer an organist had to be. In Winchester Cathedral they built an organ with 26 bellows in the 10th century. Imagine how many calcants did you have to be nice to then?

I think it's the electricity's fault.

Now you have the blower, right?

"Oh, you couldn't talk during my prelude? Try that during the postlude with all stops drawn out!"
"You think the tempo of my hymn was too fast? OK, I will add improvised flourishes between the phrases to slow things down a bit!"
"Your hearing aid can't stand this high-pitched mixture?" I'm sure you can deal with the Cymbel!"

You can just keep kicking other people, keep slapping them in their faces because the blower doesn't care.

"Oh, you want to play an organ in a foreign country? OK, here's a contact where I got robbed and almost was kidnapped for organ transplants. I hope you'll like it."

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Andrea Durlo: This is me improvising after a Mass in St. Anthony's church, Padua (Italy), at the main console of the big Mascioni organ.