Yesterday we had Unda Maris organ studio rehearsal No. 2 this season. Since @drugelis had to leave early for her class, I let her play first. She played 2 voice setting of the chorale "Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten" by Johann Ludwig Krebs. She really has made a good progress since she started playing the organ from scratch regularly participating in our contest and now she needs to work more on the pieces with pedals and legato touch and also advance with her Baroque pieces as well.
Last week I tried to listen to as many students as possible play something in order to assess their skill level and asked to bring some music this week. So now two gentlemen played for me some keyboard works of Bach that they knew beforehand. One was 3 voice Sinfonia No. 7 in E minor and the other - 3 voice fugue in C minor from Well-Tempered Clavier Part I. Both of them showed some potential. I started emphasizing correct articulation for early music right away. Obviously coming from piano background most of the pieces they practiced before were legato because they used older editions with editorial legato signs. So I advised them not to pay attention to these markings and aim for articulate legato touch. In order to discover this touch they first have to play a passage using just one finger. Then - they will naturally play with articulation. Not too detached, obviously, not too choppy but in a more singable, cantabile manner. When playing with one finger becomes clear, they can imitate the same touch using all the fingers. Then we made an experiment - I asked 5 ladies to play the right hand part of the 1st Short Trio by Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, 19th century Belgian composer and organist who basically founded the French Romantic school. I was surprised to find out that all of them had the power to sightread it rather well with the right hand. This means that if they can master just one part, they can eventually master all 3 parts as well. @elitot which you might remember from an early round of Secrets of Organ Playing Contest came to this rehearsal as well but couldn't play because she hurt her wrist. I advised her to start playing scales and arpeggios on organ pedals, like Marcel Dupre did in his youth when he cut his wrist. We also discussed what kind of shoes does the organist need when playing pedals. The soles and heels have to be made out of leather, smooth surface, not too long or wide. The heel has to be about 3 cm high. Organist shoes are not to be used on the street because the dirt might damage the mechanics of the pedalboard. So now I'm eagerly waiting for our rehearsal No. 3 next week where I could compare people's skills and actually hear some progress (I just sent them some music to choose and start working on).
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Just before I left the church today to pick up @laputis from school I received an email asking for help with intervals. It was from the church organist who is in my harmony class and cannot find the right intervals to add the bass part to the hymn tune. So I decided to help him and other people who would like to understand about intervals. I talked into my phone's camera in this video. At first you will see my face but then I switch to the view on the keyboard and my hand for you to see. The smallest distance between two notes is a half-step. For example - from C to C# or from E to F or G to G#. If you add two half-steps together, you will get a whole step, like from C to D or from Eb to F or G to A. Let's take a C major scale for starters (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C). So in terms of intervals the smallest interval is a perfect unison between C and C which is basically a repeated note. Then comes minor 2nd (from C to Db) and it encompasses only one half-step. From C to D is a major 2nd and it reaches a whole step. From C to Eb is a minor 3rd or 1.5 whole steps. From C to E is a major 3rd or 2 whole steps. From C to F is a perfect 4th or 2.5 whole steps. From C to F# is a tritone or an augmented 4th or 3 whole steps. From C to G is a perfect 5th or 3.5 whole steps. From C to Ab is a minor 6th or 4 whole steps. From C to A is a major 6th or 4.5 whole steps. From C to Bb is a minor 7th or 5 whole steps. From C to B is a major 7th or 5.5 whole steps. And finally from C to C is a perfect 8th or octave which is 6 whole steps. It makes sense - there are 12 notes in an octave (7 diatonic notes or white keys and 5 chromatic notes or black keys) and in total there are 12 half steps or 6 whole steps. Oh and by the way, on my church organ the key colors are reversed but that's for another story... If you want to master those intervals, I recommend writing and playing them from any key. Even better, try to recognize them in any piece that you currently play or listen to. This way you will start to think like a composer who created such a piece and pretty soon you will be creating music yourself! Have fun and let me know what else you would like to know about music theory or harmony.
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. Thank you everyone for participating! You all made us very happy with your entries. We have selected the following winners.
You can congratulate them here On a windy Sunday evening last night @laputis and I went to see Baroque opera performance at the Palace of Grand Dukes here in Vilnius. This event was part of the Early Music Festival "Banquetto Musicale". We like going to the concerts of this festival whenever we can because we can be sure we will not be disappointed. This time was not an exception. It was comical opera "Pimpinone" by the German Baroque composer George Philipp Telemann (1681–1767). The artistic director of the performance was Alina Rotaru (Germany/Lithuania). @laputis and I arrived some 20 minutes earlier and were greeted by the director Claudio Levati (Spain) who was also playing bellboy part. We were introduced to Mr Levati's comedic powers a year ago at this festival so when he asked us to take a ticket to the audition, we understood that it's part of the show. Sure enough, these tickets were numbered and they served as an audition to the 3 openings at the hotel - among them the theorbo player and a maid. The fun started when the real theorbo player came up from the audience and applied for the position. Mr Levati asked him if he knows how to play the instrument and wondered if he better ask for some CV... Then they were looking for a maid and Julia Kirchner, a soprano from Germany came forward. That's how the show started. It was a set up as a mid 20th century Italian hotel, I would guess. So we witnessed two shows in one - about the life in a hotel where Mr Levati was at the center and about this operatic story. This story is about promiscuous young lady Vespetta who comes to work for the rich man Pimpinone. She manipulates him into giving her small fortune and subsequently marrying her. And she not only becomes a wife but she can do whatever she wants and go wherever and whenever she pleases. Pimpinone is so much in love with Vespetta (little wasp in Italian) that he doesn't understand what's going on until it's too late. I think it's a perfectly believable situation even in today's day and age in many families. Here the woman is shown who is manipulating but could be the other way around too. To make a long story short - it was really delightful evening - fun to watch and to listen to. The music was very skillfully composed - no one should doubt the mastery of Telemann. And musical performance was exceptional, despite the fact that only two singers sang for two hours almost non-stop. Both Vespetta's and Pimpinone's parts involved lots of instrumental-sounding flourishes and diminutions which are very hard to sing. On top of that, in one aria Pimpinone had to perform in falsetto using his head register, imitating Vespetta's voice. Exceedingly difficult for a bass-baritone. Pimpinone's part was played by Carsten Krüger from Germany and the instrumental ensemble consisted of 7 musicians - Stefano Rossi, violin (Italy), Laura Šarova, violin (Latvia), Gediminas Dačinskas, viola, Darius Stabinskas, cello, Jānis Stafeckis, double bass (Latvia), Fernando Olivas, theorbo (Mexico/Germany) and Alina Rotaru, harpsichord.
After the opera I felt like after a good sitcom movie in the theater. @laputis and I had many chuckles when reading German/Italian text translations as well as following the action on the stage. When we were ready to go home, @laputis and I took some photos which allowed us to look like 16th century royalty. This week we will be getting ready for our own duet recital but next week we will be planning to come back to more "Banchetto Musicale" events. This week the main focus of my activities will center around our upcoming organ duet recital on Saturday where Ausra and I will play Lithuanian music program on the occasion of M.K Ciurlionis' birthday. We will go to practice at church every day but Friday because on Friday Ausra has classes to teach from 8 AM until 5:30 PM (with a lunch break, of course). So practicing on Friday would be too strenuous. I want also to be able to work on transcribing my "Sarbievijus Rhapsody" improvisation from the video to Sibelius notation. This will require some dedicated time as my schedule is quite full already but I'm certain I can find at least 15 minutes a day to work on it. In fact, when I'll finish writing this post, I'll take a short break, move around to get the blood flowing and come back to the computer to do the transcription. Tomorrow at the Cultural Center of Vilnius University we will have our first meeting this semester. I'm not sure about the specifics but the meeting should center about the upcoming activities of the Center. We have 2 theaters, 3 choirs, 2 orchestras and 3 ensembles in the Center. Oh, and 2 organists (myself and Ausra). So you can imagine each group is quite busy with their events and therefore the team of the Cultural Center as a whole will have lots to talk about tomorrow. Wednesday morning our 2 assistants will come into the church to help us with the registration changes for our Saturday's recital. This is the only time all 4 of us can work together and it's really crucial to have this practice uninterrupted. We have already set up registration changes in advance on paper but still the assistants will need to be mentally ready to change the stops manually (because it's purely mechanical organ). I expect the biggest challenge for them will be in symphonic poem "In the Forest" by M.K. Ciurlionis because they will have to create dynamic waves from pianissimo to fortissimo from memory - in the music we will only notate combination numbers 1 through 6 for the sake of simplicity. So they will have to remember what each of the numbers mean. Because of this rehearsal I had to cancel another meeting at the organ - this time with the group of students from Academy of Art with whom I'm doing a collaborative project about the origin of organ sound this semester. I hope they can come in later in the day. Then on Wednesday afternoon I will have our 2nd "Unda Maris" organ studio rehearsal in the church. I'm not sure how many people will come back from the first time but it would be nice not to have unmotivated people around. Last time we had 15 students and you can imagine that playing time for everyone on the organ would be quite limited. Plus I got a couple of more inquiries over the weekend from Vilnius University community. Maybe I should do a contest just for the entry of this studio, haha!
On Thursday morning I will have a podcast interview with Auke Jongbloed, a Dutch organist who publishes early organ music editions from the manuscript sources and enjoys participating in our weekly contest on Steem. You can check out his profile @partitura on Steem if you are curious. He has a website http://www.partitura.org where he publishes his transcribed music scores. So I'm sure we will talk about his transcription process as well. On Friday I will work at home to get ready for Saturday's recital and on Saturday Ausra and I will practice at church from 4 PM (the recital starts at 6 PM). On Sunday I will publish podcast interview with Andreas Spahn, an organist from Germany who visited Vilnius on the occasion of his son starting his studies at Vilnius University. We had a conversation a few weeks ago where we met at the church and talked about his organist activities in a couple of churches that he plays not far from Stuttgart. He even played our organ a bit. I was surprised what kind of music he plays in his church. I'll reveal on Sunday, of course... What will you be working on this week? “Ciurlionis is illuminated with other colors as we simulate the symphony orchestra with glowing organ sounds with four hands and feet, while the acoustics of the church create a mystical atmosphere. We wanted to celebrate his birthday with a special program of Lithuanian composers,” says Ausra.
On Saturday, September 21st. at 6 pm organ lovers of organ music are invited to the concert of our organ duo at Vilnius University St. John's Church. The concert program will feature organ duet arrangements of the symphonic poem "In the Forest" by M.K. Ciurlionis, "Reverie" by Juozas Naujalis and 4 Lithuanian folk songs by Kristina Vasiliauskaite. The organists will also play organ duet compositions "The Sounds of the Forest by K. Vasiliauskaite, Sonata "Ad patres" by Bronius Kutavicius, Fantasy on M.K. Ciurlionis' Themes, Op. 11a and Veni Creator Spiritus, Op. 3a by Vidas Pinkevicius. "Many of the pieces in our program are related to Ciurlionis in one way or another - B. Kutavičius' sonata "Ad patres" is based on Funeral Symphony series of paintings by Ciurlionis, and my fantasy was born of Ciurlionis' piano prelude," says Vidas. “When I was looking for the works of Lithuanian composers for two organists at the Lithuanian Music Information Center, I had to look through the whole catalog, but only found the piece "Forest sounds". Although this is quite an early composition by K. Vasiliauskaite, it is very dear to us," continues Vidas. “Without a doubt, listeners will be able to imagine the orchestra in our Ciurlionis' symphonic poem "In the Forest" but we will also give it a distinctive color that we have already tested this summer at the International Organ Festival in Svendborg, Denmark. I am sure that the great organ at VU St John's Church will help," says Ausra. This event is part of the cycle “Musical Hour at VU St. John's Church ”. The organizers of the cycle aim to introduce listeners to the King of Musical Instruments with more than 2000 years history, the largest pipe organ in Lithuania, to reveal the beauty and extremely wide possibilities of this instrument. Have you ever wanted to start to practice on the organ but found yourself sidetracked after a few days? Apparently your inner motivation wasn't enough.
I know how you feel. I also was stuck many times. What helped me was to find some external motivation as well. In order for you to advance your organ playing skills and help you motivate to practice, my wife Ausra - @laputis and I invite you to join in a contest to submit your organ music and win some Steem. Are you an experienced organist? You can participate easily. Are you a beginner? No problem. This contest is open to every organ music loving Steemian. Here are the rules Today I taught harmony for a group of 14 church organists at Vilnius Cathedral. This course is a part of St Gregory Organ Academy. We will have 4 more classes this semester and today was the first meeting which was combined with liturgical organ playing class. We started with my colleague Paulius Grigonis giving an overview of his course about playing acclamations.
People usually struggle with playing some forms of Amen, Benediction and Preface. So Paulius prepared some sheets with correct answers in one voice notation. The students will have to learn to supply their harmonizations during the semester. Then they tried playing some answers in octaves and in four parts. I also suggested a two part version. During the intermission between liturgical organ playing and harmony classes Paulius asked everyone to introduce themselves starting with me. I told them the story about my first encounter with pipe organ at the village church in Bagaslaviskis when I was in the 3rd grade and my mom had to pump the bellows for 3 hours by hand. Because of this experience I got noticed by the local priest and he asked me to play at the golden wedding anniversary next Sunday for which I received my first ever pay - 25 rubles (an average monthly salary in those days was less than 100 rubles). I also mentioned my organ study at the art gymnasium and at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and the US. I shared with them how the organ blower died when I played the largest mechanical organ in the world at St Joseph's church in Liepaja, Latvia. Other students also introduced themselves and their reasons of studying at this academy. One answer that stuck was that a person needs a challenge at this point of life where his organist work is already stable and he is in mid 30s. After all the students finished introducing themselves I asked them to play 4 part harmony a small 4 measure fragment of one hymn. Based on their skills I assigned them into 2 levels - 2 people got into the 2nd level and the rest will study from the beginning. I then showed them my handout with 5 hymn tunes for which they will have to provide the bass line only (playing the instrument and on paper in writing). I do this two voice texture intentionally so that even people without formal music education would prepare themselves for 4 part harmony. Students seem to like this approach and I sat down on the organ bench and played very slowly the 1st hymn in two parts saying out loud the intervals that were sounding. The trick was to avoid dissonant intervals of 2nd, 7th and tritone and use consonant intervals of 3rds, 6ths, octaves and 5ths. But there is a rule to avoid parallel 5ths and octaves. This can easily be done by using contrary motion between the hands - when the melody goes up - the bass moves down and vice versa. I asked them to learn to play and write all those 5 hymn tunes for our next class in two weeks. I have high hopes for their advancement. Then I came back home and we celebrated Ausra's birthday with grilling sausages... |
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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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