SOPP601: Now that summer is here, I am excited to get into one of the courses on Total Organist again. Maybe the Couperin Mass or improv mini-course.

Secrets of Organ Playing · SOPP601: I am excited to get into one of the courses on Total Organist again

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Vidas: Hello and welcome to Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast!

Ausra: This is a show dedicated to helping you become a better organist.

V: We’re your hosts Vidas Pinkevicius...

A: ...and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene.

V: We have over 25 years of experience of playing the organ

A: ...and we’ve been teaching thousands of organists online from 89 countries since 2011.

V: So now let’s jump in and get started with the podcast for today.

A: We hope you’ll enjoy it!

V: Hi guys!  This is Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.
 
V: Let’s start episode 601 of Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast. This question was sent by Jeremy, and he writes,

Now that summer is here, I am excited to get into one of the courses on Total Organist again.  Maybe the Couperin Mass or improv mini-course.  Either actually as I have just signed up for them…

V:  So, Ausra, Jeremy is transcribing fingering and pedaling for us, and in return, he's getting access to Total Organist community.

A:  Very nice.

V:  And his dream is of course to spend the summer creatively and maybe challenge himself a little more, and try to practice some Couperin and maybe improvisation from the mini course. Have you seen some of his Couperin videos already?

A:  Yes, I have.

V:  He is recording them sometimes for our secrets of organ playing contest, Or sometimes just for fun.

A:  Yes, I think these are very handy pieces by Couperin.  Because you can play them as a set, but you can play separate pieces.

V:  This is the Mass for Convents.

A:  Yes, excellent.

V:  The Mass for Parishes has pedal parts.

A:  So it's easier then, to play Mass for Convents.

V:  Yeah, Mass for Convents is in G Major, and it doesn’t have any pedals, and it doesn’t, it isn’t based on any pre-existent chorale melody.  All the themes are kind of original by Couperin.  Whereas Mass for the Parishes has plainchant, basically Gregorian Chant melodies, and also pedal part.

A:  So I guess when makes the Mass for Convents even more special, because very often, French composers based their masses on Gregorian Chant.

V:  Yes, and it appears that Convents requires smaller organs than Parishes, right?

A:  Surely, and I guess because most of them probably didn’t have any pedals.  That’s why Couperin chose not to add one.

V:  And the course that teaches to play Couperin Mass for Convents is based on video material.  I recorded them on St. John’s organ a few years ago.  And I remember also preparing fingering for students as part of the course, so it’s really comprehensive training program.  Because not only you will get fingering and pedaling, but also I’m talking about characteristics of each piece of each movement of the mass, and the processes that helps you learn faster.

A:  Excellent.  Because I think you need guidance when you are working on French Baroque music.

V:  What’s the most challenging thing that comes to mind right away about French Baroque - French Classical, as they say?

A:  Well, probably the ornamentation.  All these trills and mordents and all other embellishments.

V:  They’re similar to the late Johann Sebastian Bach ornaments, right?

A:  True.  But you know, still, many people cannot grasp them, because just recently, a few days ago, I received a question - one piano teacher from a small town of Lithuania.  But she’s already really mature.  I taught her daughter once, solfege for a few years, so she knows me fairly well.  Sent me a score - excerpt of a score - by Couperin.  But it was actually original harpsichord piece, but her student is performing it on the piano, and she does not know how to play the ornaments.  So I had to explain her.  And it’s so strange that you teach piano for 30 years, and you still don’t know how to play French trills and ornaments.

V:  In Lithuania, I don’t think pianists have any opportunity to learn early music performance practice.

A:  That’s true, but still now I think the information is available for everybody.

V:  Which means you just have to stay curious.

A:  That’s right.

V:  It’s hard to stay curious when you have stagnant position, right, as pianists do…

A:  Yes, that’s true.

V:  ...in music school.

A:  And I guess organists in general understand about ornaments much more than pianists, or at least that’s my opinion.

V:  They should, of course, because generally, they tend to learn early music from early sources, original sources.  And that pays off in the end.  This experience can be applied to many other things.

A:  That’s right.  So now, Vidas, tell us more about improvisation mini course.

V:  This mini course was based on my dissertation from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  And serves as an introduction to the prelude improvisation formula.  So everyone who is planning to take or taking prelude improvisation formula, has to take keyboard improvisation mini course first.  It’s like the first chapter of the bigger course, prelude improvisation formula.  So people get acquainted to the basic ideas in this larger course, and they can master one particular figure that comprises one keyboard prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach from the keyboard notebook for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, for his eldest son.

A:  Well, how advanced do you need to be in order to be able to take and to benefit from this course?

V:  If you could play those pieces, I think you are good to go.  I mean original pieces, keyboard Klavierbüchlein for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.  Like two part inventions, things like that.  Not very difficult at all.

A:  Well, okay.

V:  The fun begins when you try to decipher the figures and the sequences, and various other harmonic devices that Bach uses, cadences.  And then you memorize them, you practice them, and then you transpose to various keys.  And then you put them together in a different order - create your own mini-prelude like this, based on my pre-existing tonal plan.  In major keys, in minor keys, and then you transpose them.  So this is really fun.  It’s just an introduction to the Prelude Improvisation Formula, and could be played without any pedals, so basically on any keyboard instrument.

A:  So basically it’s good also for pianists, and harpsichordists, and organists.

V:  Absolutely yes.  For harpsichordists, they just play this on one or two manuals of their harpsichord.  For pianists, it’s very simple - just play on the keyboard.  For organists, they could change registration, of course, in various preludes, and get more variety with these techniques.

A:  But do you mean just to change the registration once for a prelude, and then to change it for another prelude?

V:  Yes, yes.  Play each prelude with a different registration.

A:  Okay.  I get it.

V:  Remember how I wrote this dissertation?

A:  Yes, I remember it.

V:  Who was there? The testing, we say, rabbit - you?

A:  Yes, I did some of it.

V:  You were my human, what is this word, when doctors test on humans?

A:  I don’t know.

V:  Human guinea pig.

A:  Yes.

V:  And was it painful?

A:  No, it wasn’t.  It was a little bit time consuming.

V:  What do you mean?

A:  Well, because I did not have much time at that time.  I was writing on my, working on my dissertation as well, so…

V:  Did I serve as your human mini pig - not mini pig but guinea pig for you?

A:  Well, no, because my dissertation wasn’t so practical as yours.

V:  What was the topic?

A:  About Adam Gottlob Casparini and his organs.

V:  About basically organ construction and organ building?

A:  Yes, basically, more on that side.

V:  Mm hm.

A:  Not so much connected with performance practice.

V:  Excellent.  So guys, if you want to learn to improvise keyboard preludes which are not based on pre-existing chorale melodies, check out my mini course, which later continues into prelude improvisation formula.  And of course, Couperin Mass training that Jeremy is taking is very helpful, too, for other purposes.

A:  That’s right.  So I hope you will find them useful.

V:  So, please send us more of your questions.  We love helping you grow.  This was Vidas.

A:  And Ausra.

V: And remember, when you practice,

A:  Miracles happen.

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