On Wednesday @laputis and I went to our first Unda Maris organ studio rehearsal this year. I was surprised to find 15 people on the organ balcony. Half of them were new. It will be a very difficult year if they all continue to attend because there were a few who might come only next week. I have a hope that only the most motivated will stay. After I asked them to introduce themselves, I played for them a short introduction to the organ: Then some of them played on the organ too. A few people knew some music while some tried to play some chords or improvise. A couple of old members played as well. There was a couple of exchange students from China and Germany as well.
Next week I asked all of them to bring their favorite music. Some might work on the organ too.
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At the end of my organ demonstration at the church the students wanted to listen to different acoustical qualities while walking around the room. In some places you get to hear more high-pitched sounds, in others - low-pitched sounds and in some places - pedal pipes sound the most prominent etc. So I improvised this piece for them. After that my boss at the university came up to me and asked what was this piece? I said I improvised it. Her eyes opened wide in awe. I think I may have earned some extra points with her yesterday... What do you think? On Monday I had a meeting at my church with the group of students from the Art Academy and their professor about our upcoming collaborative project called OrganLabs. Since it was student's first visit to the organ balcony, they wanted to find out more about the organ. So I demonstrated all the main families of organ stops plus some additional colors. Even though the video is in Lithuanian, I think you'll get the idea. Let me know what you think.
Today, instead of a podcast conversation I would like to share with you the audio of my newest organ demonstration I just did for a group of 5th graders from Vilnius International School in English. On the Klais organ at Lutheran church was my colleague Dovile Savickaite and I talked about the pipe organ, J.S. Bach and his music.
Let me know what you think. DON'T MISS A THING! FREE UPDATES BY EMAIL.A couple of days ago Ausra and I played organ demonstration in the little town called Leliunai. The listeners were 10 kindergarten kids and 18 elementary school children and a few of their teachers. This event was organized by National Association of Organists in Lithuania.
While Ausra played music of Bach, Krebs, Mendelssohn, Franck and Lefebure-Wely, I made up a fairly tale about how Pinky and Spiky built pipe organ for the kids. We had color paper and color pencils with us so the kids could draw this story themselves... It was a lot of fun... We hope they will remember this for a long time... Here are some pictures from today. Would you like to have a similar event for children in your area? Let us know your thoughts... I hope you'll enjoy this improvisation on the Bruno Goebel organ at the Cathedral in Panevezys which I played before my organ demonstration there on September 21, 2018.
The organ was built in 1931 and has 3 manuals, 25 stops and pneumatic action. It came to Panevezys from the chapel in Konigsberg. There is room for 13 more stops which could be added in the future. Goebel made a new organ console with 38 stops which would fill the Cathedral space. In 2008-2014 the instrument was restored by the Lithuanian organ builder Antanas Šauklys workshop. Here is the full specification list If you want to watch entire organ demonstration, here is the video (demonstration starts around the 10 minutes mark). Please let me know what you think.
Vidas: Hi guys, this is Vidas.
Ausra: And Ausra. V: Let’s start episode 266 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Dan. He writes, in response to my question about how he became fascinated with the organ. So he continues: For me, I’d say even back then when I was really young, I had an interest, and fascination in the organ. And as I still do to this day, whenever I’d hear the organ played at the church i’d attended at the time, which had really nice, excellent acoustics, i’d listen to every little detail of the organist’s playing. Some friends of ours had one of those little spin it organs, made by a company who I don’t think was really known for making stuff like that - Electrohome. Whenever we’d go over there, I’d never want to get off of that instrument. It was one of those that had slightly shorter manuals than a conventional 61 key manual. They only went down to an f, so they were shorter on the bottom end, and only 13 little short, tiny pedals, which you could only play one note at a time on. But back to that organ in the church i’d attended, I one time, had attempted to talk to the organist, we’d went up to the console after a service, and I’d asked if I could take a look at the instrument, it was a two manual Allen organ, from the late 1980’s I think. She’d pretty much said no, that I couldn’t, but i managed to get a finger onto the bottom notes of one of the manuals. She’d either totally turned off the organ, or just didn’t have any stops on, I’m not sure which it was, as when I’d pressed the keys which I did manage to touch, I didn’t hear any sound at all. I was disappointed, after we’d left there. I think it’s important, for organists to show people, no matter how young or old they are, the instrument, if they’re interested. I later did get to try that organ, but that was a couple of years later, after that first experience. Dan V: So, Ausra, I think the main idea that Dan is trying to communicate is his disappointment in the situation that the local organists didn’t show him the organ. A: Yes, it’s very disappointing, you know, for a kid. V: Did you have something like that in your life when you were growing up? You said your first experience with the organ was in Nida, right? A: Well, when I heard the homeland organ recital, yes. V: Did you want to go upstairs and try out the instrument yourself? A: No, because I think I was just too shy for such a thing, but I remember that recital. It was really something! And then also afterward, I finished my first grade of elementary school. We had our choir concert at the Philharmonium building in Vilnius, which has this big Schucke instrument. And Bernardas Vasiliauskas, actually, he was the man who played that organ recital in Nida at the first organ recital that I have ever heard, he actually showed us that organ from inside, and I just remember that feeling—it was so fascinating. I just could not imagine that there could be so much space in the instrument, so… V: Ausra, now tell us a little bit… how did you become a professional organist? How did you decide to become a professional organist? Who suggested for you this idea? A: Well, it was actually by accident, I think, that I became an organist. V: Right, so…. A: Because simply, I graduated from National Čiurlionis Art School, where I teach now, and I didn’t want to go the Acadamy of Music, because my major at the time was choir conducting, and I didn’t want to lead a choir. And, I wanted to study history at the University of Vilnius. But, then I met one professor, a piano professor from our Academy of Music, and he listened to my piano playing, and he told me that I should study at the Academy of Music, and if I don’t want to study choir conducting, I could study the organ. V: That’s right. And you said yes, right? Did you spontaneously agree, or did you….? A: Well, yes, I almost spontaneously agreed, because I have never thought about that possibility, but since childhood, the organ fascinated me. And then, he told me about this possibility, I was sure right at that moment that it’s the right path for me. V: So you say that when you said “yes” to that piano professor, in your memory, this Philharmonium Schucke organ experience came out, right? A: Yes, and the Nidas recital, too. So, I think it’s very important, what you experience as a child. V: Imagine that Bernardas Vasiliauskas would have been busy or not there, and didn’t show you this organ from inside. Your curiosity about this instrument might have not been great at that moment. A: That’s true! That’s true, because I think that children are the most eager to accept things and to experience things, not an adult. I think so many adults with the years just lose the curiosity, and it’s just too bad. V: And when my teacher were at the academy of music because of the organ, too. A: That’s right. V: So, we probably wouldn’t be speaking today to you guys, if not for Ausra’s first grade experience, right? When someone really great introduced the organ to the entire class, group of children, and for me, probably, too! If my mom didn’t show me the instrument in our summer place where we stayed—small village church, anonymous builder organ without pedals, and she pumped the bellows for me by hand—I probably also would have chosen a different path, maybe choir conducting! A: Yes. V: Because, I had probably a stronger interest in choir conducting than you at that time. A: So, I think it’s a good lesson from Dan’s letter that we can learn, all of us, you know who are organists and have access to an instrument, that if somebody, especially children, show interest in the organ, we need to show them around. Let them play. Of course, not damaging the instrument, but you know, really, we need to guide them, and to show them the instrument, because one day, maybe they will decide to learn this profession! And I think it’s so important nowadays when organ art is slowly dying. V: And, for example, if you are doing organ demonstrations to a group of kids, it’s really a great idea to let them draw the organ. Not only play, but draw. So, maybe one or two are playing at the moment, sitting on the bench, or sometimes even three, but the rest of them could draw with pencils or with crayons, or pastel, something that you could all bring together, like a story about the organ, and that way they will internalize the instrument and experience much deeper. A: That’s right. V: Thank you guys, this is a lot to think about for us, and hopefully for you, too. And please keep sending us those wonderful questions, we love helping you grow. And remember, when you practice, A: Miracles happen.
This blog/podcast is supported by Total Organist - the most comprehensive organ training program online. It has hundreds of courses, coaching and practice materials for every area of organ playing, thousands of instructional videos and PDF's. You will NOT find more value anywhere else online...
Total Organist helps you to master any piece, perfect your technique, develop your sight-reading skills, and improvise or compose your own music and much much more... Sign up and begin your training today. And of course, you will get the 1st month free too. You can cancel anytime. Check it out here Here's what one of our students is saying: I really like the sharing. It's interesting to see what other organists are working on and how they go about learning new pieces. (Anne) Would you like to receive the same or even better results that Anne is getting? If so, join 80+ other Total Organist students here. By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
I almost forgot I scheduled this organ demonstration today! After the first ear training class this morning for 7th graders, I was ready to go and practice on our school recital hall organ. I wanted to play some Langlais... Without any rush I went to the bathroom to refill my water bottle and then checked out the key from the organ balcony. It was then when somebody called on my cell phone. It turned out to be my colleague music history teacher to whose 6th grader's class I promised to do an organ demonstration. She was teaching them about various musical instruments around this time and pipe organ was next on their study list. So the kids were already waiting for me and I almost forgot this event! OK, it's going to be really fun... I started demonstrating this organ, telling stories about the stops and the mechanics of this instrument. Then I played BWV 565 Toccata without the fugue from memory. I actually forgot the ending so I improvised my own ending (don't tell master Sebastian). I then took out one of the wooden pedal pipes and gave the kids to blow on it. Only after did I understood what kind of mess I made: the pipe was very challenging to put back in place because you couldn't really see the handles on the back side of it. I tried to do it several times, gave up and gave to some of the bravest boys, they gave up and then their teacher volunteered to help out. Luckily she was a tallest one from our group and actually succeeded almost immediately to put the pipe back in place. Then I gave all the kids the chance to play this small 10 stop two manual organ. It has an ugly post-war German really piercing sounding 1' 3 rank Mixture. It turned out to be their favorite stop! Almost all of them used it when they tried out the organ with their hands. While they were playing I took the rest of them into the organ chambers to take a peek and enjoy the "beautiful" sounds from the inside. Heavy duty earphones would've been really nice! Nevertheless they were all extremely happy. Maybe next year somebody from them will take organ lessons... So what's the deal with mixture that fascinated them so much? What do you think? By Vidas Pinkevicius
The above drawing was made by a 7-year-old Andrius after I gave him and his dad a private tour of the organ at Vilnius University St. John's church. When he presented me his vision of the largest pipe organ in Lithuania, I started thinking that the organ demonstration experience could be much more profound for kids if we ask them to draw what they saw afterwards. Notice it's not the usual boy-drawing - airplanes, soldiers, machine guns or cars. It's a pipe organ. So next time you play an organ demonstration for a group of kids, their teachers and parents you found in some school of your area, make sure you give them some homework, like drawing a pipe organ that they saw or depicting a feeling of music that they heard. Connect their hand, eye, and ear into complete experience that they will never forget. Is it OK to let children touch the organ when you invite them to the organ loft? Watch this video with insights from me and Ausra and share your opinion in the comments. |
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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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