Our daily bread

Perhaps there isn‘t any food which we could eat every day, such as bread. Some people like white bread, some – sourdough, some – other sorts of bread. It depends on our culture. But still the bread in general is vitally important to us.

But what if we tried to eat something else for one week every day? Even cakes, pies, fruits and vegetables would start to become boring.

The same would be with the meat, fish, porridge, pancakes and everything else, if we had to eat it every day.

In one sense, organ music is similar to food. There are pieces of immortal classic, such as opuses by Bach and other great masters which we could study, practice, play and listen to every day. Their musical language (including melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, form etc.) is literally perfect. We couldn‘t make it more perfect even if we wanted to.

Such music connects us. If we listen or study it with another person, an interesting harmony, a real connection arises between us.

But there is also and quite a lot of organ pieces of shallower nature which can be really loved by listeners during concerts. Nevertheless, they lack such depth as the others. They are more for entertainment.

By the way, there were even the entire historical periods in certain countries were composers created exactly such music.

If we would constantly practice and play only such pieces, after a while we would become not as sensitive for these real masterpieces.

Of course, we have to remember that our food has to be varied enough. We eat not only bread. Therefore, we also need a variety in our organ repertoire – virtuosic, and meditative, polyphonic, entertaining, ancient, modern etc.

But try to include at least a little of this timeless classics in your every day practice.