During the MuSeg festival, an organ course with about one dozen of participants took place. We learned a lot from Bine Bryndorf (just one example: historic fingering techniques) and Ángel Montero (for example, how to perform Glosas). Both shared an incredible amount of knowledge, positive energy, plus Angel was quite busy to ensure everything worked smoothly “behind the scenes”.
The course took place at several historic instruments: The two main organs of Segovia’s cathedral, a positive organ in one of its chapels, and the organs of the churches in El Espinar, Abades, Sangarcia, and Marugán (BTW: this valuable instrument has been replicated). Four concerts have been performed: an opening concert by Angel in Sangarcia, Bine on Monday at the smaller one of the two cathedral organs, and course participants on Saturday in El Espinar respectively Sunday in Abades.
There were a couple of reasons why I subscribed to this course:
- I have a couple of spanish baroque organ pieces in my repertoire, plus I started to learn two more only recently (Andrés de Sola, Primer Tiento del Primer Tono plus José da madre de Deus, Fuga in d minor). I simply know little of how to perform them best, so the course came in handy to further develop my skills.
- I used several sources to learn more about the specialities of baroque Iberian organs. I learned a lot, but still a lot of questions remained. So the chance to have access to several historic instruments promised to better understand their particularities.
- I use a digital sample set of the Echevarria organ in Segovia’s cathedral. The work with the sample set also left a couple of questions unanswered. So the chance to see the original instrument was extremely tempting.
- Sound. Of course I listen to recordings and use sample sets. However, nothing is beating the real sound of an authentic instrument, including its imperfections, the typical meantone temperament and the analogue sound if the horizontal pipes.
The course was very rewarding, since I learned much more than I longed for. As a consequence, I’m extremely grateful to all of the people who contributed to make it happen. I met a lot of nice, skilled, and highly motivated people. Plus Segovia obviously is an extremely nice holiday destination.
Pictures:
