Approaching baroque spanish organ music

Until now, I struggled to get access to baroque spanish organ music. The recrodings I listened to gave me little clue about the spirit of that era.

This very eve I accidentally stumbled upon a recording of the Tiento XXIII por A la mi re (part II, part III, part IV) by Juan Cabanilles (1644-1712) as shared by Olivier Thuault. Jan Willem Jansen also perfomed the piece. Another recording shows Francis Chapelet acting at the console.

Suddenly, I get the link to the Fantasia in e minor by Abraham van den Kerckhoven I’m still struggling with. This work is totally different to his other works I’ve noticed so far, since it is reminiscent of spanish organ music.

A couple of things are special to spanish organs and the music written for those instruments:

  • The instruments often lack a pedal board, and so does the music. As a consequence, the left hand has to do a lot more work.
  • The instruments often just provide one keybed. As a consequence, the ranks are split to two stops, one for the bass portion and one for the discant portion. This way, the left hand can do the accompaniment, while the right hand can play a solo voice, all using one single keybed.
  • A further thing spanish organs often provide is a chamade, reed pipes protruding outwards.

I’m glad I found the recording of Olivier Thuault, since it will help me to fine tune my interpretation of Kerckhoven’s fantasia.

Die restaurierte Wilhelm-Orgel in Kaufungen

Am Sonntag hatten wir in der Kaufunger Stiftskirche die Gelegenheit, der Wiederinbetriebnahme des Instrumentes von Georg Peter Wilhelm (1733-1806) beizuwohnen. Das Instrument ist insofern interessant, da die Erbauung in die Übergangszeit vom Barock zur Klassik fällt. Die Disposition weist noch barocke Züge auf, die Intonation empfand ich allerdings als deutlich obertonärmer als ich es von barocken Instrumenten gewohnt bin. Die Posaune im Pedal ist wahrscheinlich die zurückhaltendste, die ich jemals gehört habe.

Nach Gottesdienst und Besichtigungsmöglichkeit spielte am Abend Gerhard Weinberger ein Konzert. Mit den wiederholt hängenbleibenden Tasten kam er genauso souverän zurecht wie mit der umfangreichen Literatur. Hier das Programm:

  1. Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Toccata tertia
  2. Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780) – Fantasia a gusto italiano
  3. Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780) – Fantasia sopra »Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele«
  4. Johann Ludwig Krebs (1713-1780) – Präludium und Fuge C-Dur
  5. Ernst Ludwig Gerber (1746-1780) – Drei Choraltrios über »Liebster Jesu, wie sind hier«
  6. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) – Drei Variationen D-Dur
  7. Johann Carl Friedrich Rellstab (1759-1813) – Sonata D-Dur – Allegro pomposo – Andantino – Allegro è Grave
  8. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Pièce d’Orgue (BWV 572)
  9. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – »Herr Christ, der einig Gottes Sohn«
  10. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – »Aus der Tiefe rufe ich« (BWV 745)
  11. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – »Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten« (BWV 691a)
  12. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Passacaglia und Fuge c-Moll (BWV 582)
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Setting up Korg’s logue SDK

At least during the last decade, Korg became a company which constantly generates “Products that customers love™”. From Legacy collection over Kronos to Minilogue, further to the famous Prologue and finally the Minilogue xd, Korg keeps the market busy.

The recent Minilogue xd borrows an outstanding feature from the Prologues. Users can write their very own custom oscillators and effets. To accomplish that, Korg provides the logue SDK via Github.

It is provided “as is”, with no further support, and is not easy to setup. Fortunately Grischa Ekart provides a couple of tutorial videos, the very first one sharing the essentials to get the SDK up and running. From his video, I’ve extracted the crucial steps:

  • Create a folder where you want to place your SDK. Open a terminal window there.
  • git clone https://github.com/korginc/logue-sdk.git
  • cd logue-sdk/
  • git submodule update –init
  • cd tools
  • cd gcc
  • ./get_gcc_osx.sh

I got an error message, which did not harm the further process at the moment:
./get_gcc_osx.sh: line 92: popd: directory stack empty

  • cd ..
  • cd logue-cli
  • ./get_logue_cli_osx.sh

I got two error messages, which did not harn the further process at the moment:

./get_logue_cli_osx.sh: line 35: pushd: /Users/ce/Development/Korg: No such file or directory
./get_logue_cli_osx.sh: line 98: popd: directory stack empty

  • cd ./logue-cli-osx-0.07-2b/
  • ./logue-cli
    • The logue-cli is not necessarily required, since one can transfer the files to the minilogue xd via the graphical librarian.

  • cd ..
  • cd ..
  • cd ..
  • cd platform
  • cd minilogue-xd
  • cd demos
  • cd waves
  • make
  • ls waves.waves.mnlgxdunit

The resulting file waves.mnlgxdunit is a Zip-archive. In my case, the Minilogue xd did not accept this file:

I fixed this by lowering the API version in manifest.json:

  • Change “api” : “1.1-0” to “api” : “1.0-0”
  • Save and close
  • make

Now the file is accepted by the Minilogue xd and works as expected :) .

Thanks a whole bunch to Grischa Ekart for figuring the necessary steps out.

Updating the firmware of a Korg Minilogue XD

Korg provides a firmware updater tool which does all the magic for you. It requires to turn the Minilogue XD into »Update mode«. Unfortunately, unlike advertised, neither the english nor the german manual provide any hint how to accomplish that.

On youtube I found a video explaining how to do it for the Minilogue – hold the buttons 6 and 8 pressed while powering on the device. Consequently, it’s just buttons 14 and 16 on the Minilogue XD.

Edit 2020-01-02:

After the last update, the Minilogue XD complained during startup

Update Required
Panel 1.01
Update Required
Voice 1.01

According to a Gearsluts posting, the Panel update can be performed by holding the buttons 14, Rec, and Rest while powering the on device.

I found no information for the Voice update but for the Prologue, which is buttons 5, Exit, and Shift. Translated to the Minilogue XD this turned out to be buttons 13, Rec, and Rest.

Daniel Maurer, Pascal Reber und Christophe Dietrich am Weißenburger Instrument

An der Dubois-Orgel in Wissembourg waren heute die beiden Organisten Daniel Maurer und Pascal Reber sowie der Percussionist Christophe Dietrich zu hören. Wie Daniel Maurer auch in seiner Moderation anmerkte, wiesen viele der Stücke einen tänzerischen Charakter auf:

  • Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) – Danse des sauvages (Les Indes Galantes)
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Suite No 1 for a musical clock – Menuet (HWV 603)
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Suite No 1 for a musical clock – Air (HWV 604)
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Suite No 1 for a musical clock – Gigue (HWV 589)
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Sinfonis avec carillons (HWV 53) – Sinfonia
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Sinfonis avec carillons (HWV 53) – Chorus I
  • Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759) – Sinfonis avec carillons (HWV 53) – Chorus II
  • Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) – Pièces pour Flötenuhr – Menuett (»Der Wachtenschlag«)
  • Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) – Pièces pour Flötenuhr – Menuett in C Dur
  • Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) – Pièces pour Flötenuhr – Marche in D Dur (»Grenadiermarsch«)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Orgelbüchlein – Choral »In dir ist Freude« (BWV 615)
  • Claude Balbastre (1724-1799) – Trio à 3 mains en si bémol majeur
  • Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski (1840-1893) – Danse de la Fée Dragée (»Tanz der Zuckerfee«, aus »Der Nussknacker«)
  • Louis James Alfred Lefebure-Wely (1817-1869) – Bolero de Concert pour orgue et percussions (Opus 166)
  • Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) – Aquarium (Le carnaval des Animaux)
  • Daniel Maurer, Pascal Reber, Christophe Dietrich – Improvisation pour 2 organistes et percussion
  • Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) – Le Bolero pour 2 organistes à 4 mains et percussions

Um ganz ehrlich zu sein bin ich schwer beeindruckt, was ich heute gehört habe. Sowohl Daniel Maurer als auch Pascal Reber waren spieltechnisch am Instrument absolut sicher. Heute gab es das, was mit sonst so oft fehlt: Saubere Rhythmik, durchlaufenden Puls, und darüber hinaus keine technisch-trockene Notenwiedergabe, sondern eine musikalisch-emotionale Darbietung. Die Übertragung des Geschehens vom Spieltisch bzw. Schlagwerk rundeten das Ganze dann noch ab. Speziell die drei- bzw. vierhändigen Werke waren sehr spannend zu beobachten.

Ich bin sehr dankbar für das Konzert heute.

Ein Stück erarbeiten

Man findet wenig zum Thema, wie man sich ein Stück systematisch erarbeitet. Fraser Gartshore exerziert das im Zeitraffer am Beispiel eines Präludiums in F-Dur von Johann Sebastian Bach. Durch den Zeitraffer gehen einige wichtige Details des Übeprozesses verloren. Dennoch kann man hier ein paar Details beim Erarbeiten eines Fingersatzes, wofür man üblicherweise Anleitung oder sehr viel Erfahrung benötigt, sehr schön sehen.

Ich habe mich übrigens vorhin mit einem Arbeitskollegen zum Thema Übetechnik austauschen können. Auch er hält es so, dass er im Zweifel erstmal mit einem Fingersatz anfängt und den später noch ändert, falls das erforderlich wird. Natürlich muss man hernach die betreffende Stelle neu einstudieren.

Die Emotionalität in der Musikdarbietung

Daniel Heifetz zeigt in seinem TEDx-Event »Communicating the emotion in classical music« den Unterschied zwischen rein notenbezogener und emotionaler Musikwiedergabe.

An der Orgel ist das allerdings nicht ganz einfach. Im Gegensatz zum Klavier kann man an der Orgel während des Spiels nur sehr eingeschränkt (Registrierung, Schwellwerk so vorhanden) eine Lautstärkedynamik erzeugen – bauartbedingt klingen die Pfeifen immer gleich laut. Im Gegensatz zur Geige oder zum Cello kann man beim Spielen auch keine Tonhöhenbeugung erzeugen – bauartbedingt klingt die Pfeife beim Anschlag der Taste immer mit der gleichen konstanten Tonhöhe.

Umso wichtiger ist es, an der Orgel die verbleibenden Elemente gut zu nutzen. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Instrumenten verfügen Orgeln über viele Klangfarben (Register genannt). Eine zum Stück passende Registrierung zu wählen (und selbige im Verlaufe des Stückes vielleicht auch zu ändern) ist somit einer der Faktoren, mit denen man an der Orgel Emotionalität transportieren kann. Viele Orgeln verfügen zudem über mehrere Manuale, so dass man über Manualwechsel zusätzliche klangliche Abwechslung in ein Stück bringen kann.

Neben diesen der Orgel eigenen Möglichkeiten gibt es noch allgemeingültige Stilmittel. Eines der wichtigsten ist sicher die Temponahme, also die Geschwindigkeit, mit der man ein Stück spielt. Wähend des Stückes kann man zudem noch Beschleunigen (Accelerando) oder Verzögern (Ritardando). Die Agogik beschäftigt sich noch detaillierter mit kleinen Tempoänderungen.

Bei der Artikulation bleibt an der Orgel, ebenfalls bauartbedingt, nur die Bindungsart der einzelnen Töne. Leider wurden Organisten lange Zeit zu strengem Legato angeleitet. Zwei aufeinanderfolgende Töne werden so gespielt, dass sie unmittelbar aufeinanderfolgen, so wie es die Notenschrift auch vermuten lassen würde. Vor allem im Barock war den Organisten jedoch das “ordentliche Fortgehen” (Portato) sehr wichtig. Dabei werden die Töne nicht in ihrer vollen Länge festgehalten, sondern etwas früher losgelassen, so dass sich kleine Lücken zwischen den Tönen ergeben. Gerade an Orgeln in großen Räumen mit langem Nachhall führt das zu einem deutlich transparenteren Klangbild. Und es gibt natürlich noch die Möglichkeit, Töne nur recht kurz anzuschlagen (Staccato).

Neben der Bindungsart, bei der die einzelnen Töne immer auf ihren jeweiligen Zählzeiten angeschlagen werden, gibt es noch die Möglichkeit, einzelne Töne später anzuschlagen, wie etwa bei den von mir so geschätzten Notes inégales. Von zwei Noten wird der ersten mehr Zeit eingeräumt, die zweite wird später angeschlagen und wird dadurch verkürzt.

Nehmen wir als Beispiel die populäre Chaconne in f-Moll von Johann Pachelbel. Das Stück ist maximal dreistimmig, teils nur zwei- oder gar einstimmig und dadurch recht minimalistisch gehalten. Über dem Bass-Ostinato aus vier einfachen Tönen baut Pachelbel insgesamt 22 Variationen auf. Wenn ich das Stück höre, wird es oft recht flott gespielt. Für jede Variation wird eine andere Registrierung verwendet. Ich spiele es hingegen deutlich langsamer und halte mich bei der Registrierung extrem zurück, indem ich im Hauptwerk nur einen Prinzipal 8′ mit Bourdon 8′ und im Rückpositiv Bourdon 8′ mit Flöte 4′ verwende. Allerdings verteile ich die Stimmen immer wieder anders auf die beiden Manuale. Zusätzlich gibt es etliche Stellen, an denen man ganz wundervoll verzögern und beschleunigen kann. Auf diese Weise erzeuge ich gezielt eine kontemplative Ruhe.

Update 2020-05-25:

Jean Gabriel, Chief Editor of NuMusician, writes me about how music affects the brain, a further topic I’m pretty aware of.

Lydia Schimmer at the Dubois organ

Today’s menu contained a couple of pieces she played exactly six years ago, plus a couple of others. I was exited by two pieces I’m also working on, which is the Passacaglia of Buxtehude and the pièce of Böhm. Surprisingly, she used a Diapason 8 for the solo voice in the latter pièce instead of a solo voice (like Cornet, Tierce, Voix humaine etc.).

Here’s the track listing:

  • Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Apparatus musico organisticus – Toccata Prima
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Leipziger Choräle – Nun danket alle Gott (BWV 657)
  • Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) – Passacaglia in d (BuxWV 161)
  • Georg Boehm (1661-1733) – Vater unser im Himmelreich
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – Adagio pour harmonica de verre
  • Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Hymne Veni Creator – Veni Creator en taille à 5
  • Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Hymne Veni Creator – Fugue à 5
  • Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Hymne Veni Creator – Duo
  • Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Hymne Veni Creator – Récit de cromorne
  • Nicolas de Grigny (1672-1703) – Hymne Veni Creator – Dialogue sur les grands jeux

Jürgen Essl am Weißenburger Instrument

Ausgerechnet heute wurde das Baustellenzelt auf der Rheinbrücke abgebaut. Es stand daher nach Westen lediglich ein Fahrstreifen zur Verfügung. Der Rückstau reichte bis zum Westbahnhof. Da zusätzlich in Schaidt das alljährliche Volksfest nebst entsprechender Umleitung stattfand, kam ich leider erst etwa zur Mitte des Programmes zum Konzert. Ausnahmsweise gab es heute eine Übertragung vom Spieltisch auf Großbildleinwand.

Ich bin froh, im Stau nicht umgedreht und zurückgefahren zu sein, denn über die Passacaglia und Fuge in c-Moll habe ich mich sehr gefreut. Das Werk ist mit rund 15 Minuten recht lang. Essl registriert angenehm sparsam und trägt nicht zu dick auf. Selbst ich hätte aufgrund der Länge wahrscheinlich mehr Registerwechsel eingebaut.

Hier das komplette Programm:

  • Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Toccata VI
  • Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Nova Cyclopeias Harmonica
  • Isfrid Kayser (1712-1771) – Concerto
  • Isfrid Kayser (1712-1771) – Passepied
  • Isfrid Kayser (1712-1771) – Gigue
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Præludium und Fuge d-Moll (BWV 539)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele (BWV 654)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Passacaglia und Fuge c-Moll (BWV 582)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Liebster Jesu wir sind hier (BWV 731)
  • Jürgen Essl – Improvisation “Litanei”

Thomas Deserranno eröffnet die diesjährigen Vésperales am Weißenburger Instrument

Die diesjährige Konzertsaison wurde heute von Thomas Deserranno eröffnet, der bereits am 25. August 2013 zu hören war. Hatte er sich seinerzeit noch auf barocke Komponisten beschränkt, brachte er heute auch deutlich jüngere Literatur mit. Hier das Programm:

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) – Suite in C – Ouverture (KV 399)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Jagdkantate – Aria »Schafe können sicher weiden« (BWV 208)
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) – Extrait de Dardamus – Rigaudon
  • Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) – Extraits d’Hippolyte et Aricide – Tambourins
  • Guy Bovet (née 1942) – Trois préludes hambourgeois – Salamanca
  • Bjarne Sløgedal (1927-2014) – Variations sur un air folklorique norvégien
  • Gunnar Idenstam (née 1961) – Cathedral Music – Aria
  • Unbekannt – Zugabe

Deserranno spielt beeindruckend. Es zeichnet sich durch gute Spieltechnik und -sicherheit, durchlaufenden Puls und saubere Rhythmik, vor allem aber durch ein enormes Einfühlungsvermögen für die gespielten Stücke, deren Interpretation und Registrierung aus. So etwas bekommt man sehr sehr selten zu hören. Ein phantastisches Konzert eines Ausnahmeorganisten.

Muscle Memory – Mastering a piece of music applying new techniques

Since last year I learned new techniques to master the music I play. I first applied them to some pieces I was already playing, so that this year’s performance went quite well. After almost one year I thought it was time to apply them to learning a new piece.

As Jon Laukvik writes in his book:

Der Übeprozeß führt, spieltechnisch gesehen, vom bewußten Tun zum unbewussten Geschehenlassen.

Freely translated:

From a playing perspective, practising leads from conscious doing to let it happen unconsciously.

The key to it is muscle memoryProzedurales Gedächtnis« in german). To train it, I do repetition a lot. To gain the required motivation to do so, I had to learn that playing a piece of music is a totally different thing than practising it. Besides many other sources I used, I can recommend the TEDx talks of Jocelyn Swigger and Claire Tueller.

The new piece I’m currently applying it to is a Fantasia (e minor) of Abraham van den Kerckhoven. Here’s the approach I’ve chosen.

Prepare interpretation

The interpretation I intend has some impact on the fingering. E.g. if I want to play a couple of notes in legato style, I may use another fingering as if I want to play staccato. The difficulty is that I do not yet have a clear picture concerning the interpretation, since this will develop as I learn the piece. But anyway, sometimes I already have some ideas how to interpret some bars, and most often I already have an idea how not to interpret some bars. I do this by learning more about the context in which the piece was written (composer, time, location) and by listening to interpretations of other musicians.

Develop fingering

Muscle memory is trained by repeatedly doing the same motions. This requires to play each individual note of the piece with the very same finger each time. I do not write down the number of the finger for each individual note. But I apply enough numbers so that the fingering is absolutely non-ambiguous.

This can become a very frustrating process. I have to “somehow” play the piece while considering how I could do the fingering and writing it to the sheet music. Often there are passages where I have no clue yet how the fingering should look like, but I must decide for one before I can practise it. Some things I do:

  • When I found some fingering but dislike it, I start practising whith it anyway. It may well happen that I change it at some later time, when I learned more how I want to interpret the piece. This means that I will need to re-learn the new fingering. But if I have no better clue right now, I accept this possibly additional work.
  • I try to avoid fingerings where I have to jump with the very same finger from note to note. But sometimes it turns out later on that there either is no better solution, or that the jumping fits the interpretation rather well.
  • Sometimes it is difficult to find a good fingering playing the notes forward, e.g. because I want to reach a later note with a certain finger. In such cases, I develop the fingering backwards, playing from right to left.

At the end of the process, the sheet music is quite populated by a lot of magic digits, which is the base for training the muscle memory.

Define fragments

The next step is to divide the piece in relatively short fragments which I can practise independently. I apply numbered markers to the sheet music. The length of the fragments depends on a couple of parameters, e.g. the structure and difficulty of the piece. Sometimes a fragment is just one or two bars, sometimes approximately one line. Sometimes I start with short fragments and I make them longer at a later point in time – or the other way around in case it turns out a passage is more difficult to learn as expected.

Practise fragments

Practising is the process which absolutely consumes the most time while learning a piece. As a consequence, I apply several techniques to succeed.

  • Remove any distraction. I never sit down to the instrument as long as any other stuff occupies my mind. I write down any other ToDos so as to avoid that they pop up during practising. I ensure noone else is listening, e.g. by using an electronic instrument and headphones, since otherwise I am not really free in focussing on the music.
  • Limit session time. Some people use a timer to limit the sessions. I do not. Instead, I define the scope, e.g. the amount of fragments I want to practise. For shorter pieces, this may well read as ”Practise each fragment at least twice”.
  • Prefer multiple shorter sessions over one long. It is being said the brain learns in the time between the sessions. Thus I practise for about 20 minutes up to an hour, then I do anything different, and return to the instrument after an hour or so.
  • Practise in slow motion. To train muscle memory, I play the fragments in ultra slow motion. This may be half of the target speed. For me it is difficult to resist the temptation to speed up. But I know doing so is counter-productive. I keep the speed constant at least during one session.
  • Use a metronome. I often listen to organ music which is played with little rhythmical structure respectively missing pulse. For me it is absolutely key to exactly know the rhythm of each individual fragment. The metronome has a further side effect – it prevents me from raising the speed during the session. As we are at it – I found that many many metronome apps for Android are not running precisely. Use one with proper timing. I built a spike for my own which I’m constantly using, but it’s only available as source code, not via the play store.
  • Limit repetitions. As a rule of thumb, I notice my concentration for each fragment already decreases after a couple of repetitions, e.g. three to four. As a consequence, I usually do not repeat a fragment more often. However, I sometimes break this rule, especially with new fragments my fingers aren’t used to yet at all. It may well happen I then repeat them up to ten times.
  • Focus on playing it right. Training the muscle memory best works in case the motion absolutely is identical each time. In case I notice my fingers prefer another motion over the fingering I developed, I sometimes change the fingering to reflect that.
  • Practise fragments in random order. The goal is to avoid that the brain learns it can rely on the sheet music. I thus practise them in random order.
  • Practise fragments at the end of the piece first. Pieces sometimes become more complicated to play towards the end, and even if not, chances are given I did practise the fragments at the beginning of a piece more often than the later ones, resulting in the fact that I can play the beginning of the piece better than the end.
  • Practise fragments difficult to play the most. In case I won’t master those, any other effort to learn the piece is useless.
  • Practise on different instruments. Different instruments provide different key sizes, key action, key weight and so on. I use this technique to gain reliability. Fortunately the Kerckhoven piece lacks a pedal voice, so I can just practise it on a piano.
  • Practise with dynamic sounds. I’ve chosen a synthesizer sound on my digital piano which provides lots of dynamics. This way I can easily detect notes I depress with less precision than others. Those notes require additional attention, since they indicate weak fingering.
  • Do not play the complete piece too early. This is an temptation I do not resist very well, since it helps to develop my interpretation, which in turn can lead to changed fingering. So I do play the piece every now and then. But at least I try to pay attention to the next point.
  • Clearly separate playing from practising. Since the brain learns during the rests, I never play the piece the day I practised. If I want to play and practise the very same day, I always do the playing first.

Conclusion

I know about a couple of further, more advanced techniques, which I apply every now and then. But the abovementioned points meanwhile became essential to me and allowed me to make significant progress within a couple of weeks while learning Kerckhoven’s piece.

I wrote this posting due to the fact that I found rather little information concerning this topic, though it is important to so many people who play instruments either professionally or as an amateur. If you know about similar documents, please let me know.

Coping with a piece of Kerckhoven

Until recently, I perceived the works of Abraham van den Kerckhoven as less complicated to understand and learn as pieces of other composers I play. But currently, I’m working on a Fantasia in e minor, which is known as #355 of the Cocquiel manuscript (Royal Library Albert I, Brussels, Music Dept. – Manuscript II 3326 1741). Unfortunately little information is available online concerning this work. I knew it from the gramophone record (something similar to a Clay tablet, but intended for preserving music) Orgues Historiques De Thorembais-les-Beguines by Etienne Leuridan. He plays it with reed pipes (Grands Jeux) and makes extreme use of Notes Inégales (“piqué”). I found another recording of François Houtart, but since he’s using neither of them, I still prefer Leuridan’s edition.

As a consequence of last year’s performance, I had to completely change my practicing techniques. I did it first for the repertoire I’m already playing, and it helped to do much better this year. The Fantasia in e minor of Kerckhoven is the very first piece which I approach completely from scratch using the new techniques. Here’s what I did:

  • First I need to find a piece I really want to master. I listen to recordings of other musicians, and while doing so, I already try to imagine what I want to adopt and what I want to do differently.
  • I search for sheet music. Most often, I’m using the imslp.org database. Sometimes I’m not content with the scores I find, so I typeset them using Musescore.
  • The next step, at least for me, is the most annoying, while very important – do the fingering. I print the sheets to paper and use a pencil for that. Then I try to somehow “play” the piece as good as I can while trying several fingerings. As soon I am content with the results, I write them into the PDF using macOS’ Preview application. I do this at home using a digital pipe organ emulation. The advantage is that I can use headphones so as to not disturb others. And due to that, I find the energy to actually walking through this frustrating and time consuming process. For the abovementioned work, I almost gave up whilst in the middle of the work. Now I have the fingering, and there are some bars where I need to play subsequent notes with the very same finger. Maybe historical fingering was helpful, but I have little clue concerning this technique. On the other hand, this piece actually requires less legato and a more stepped approach while playing (otherwise it will sound “muddy”, expecially when playing it with a Grands Jeux registration in a huge cathedral). I learned this while learning the Passacaille of Lully.
  • The next step is to identify fragments which I can practice autonomously. I tend to make fragments the size of about one to two lines respectively six to eight bars, depending on the piece.
  • Now I can finally start with the actual practicing work, the ruminant playing in slow motion of the fragments. I start with the fragments at the end of the piece and then move to the beginning, fragment by fragment. Sometimes I also use a random apprach for selecting the fragments, so I do not play them in the order they appear in the piece. I additionally use a metronome app and about half the intended final speed. This way I can avoid rhythmical failures early. I try not to repeat a fragment too often, e.g. 3 to 5 times is enough. If I do more often, I observe distraction. The metronome has one forther advantage – it avoids acceleration. No, I do not accelerate. I learned that practicing slowly really helps to avoid slipshod work. If I really can play a piece, I can also play it properly in slow motion. If I find it difficult to play a piece in slow motion, it just means I didn’t master it yet.

That’s it so far. I’m still working on the latter point, and this will last several weeks, if not months, depending on time available. This is hard work, and I managed to motivate me by understanding that practising is a welcome after work activity, and that playing the piece is a totally different thing. Both are worthy activities, and they serve a different purpose.

Playing the Dubois organ

As in 2016, 2017, and 2018, I once again was allowed to play a short concert for my family at the Dubois organ, Wissembourg. Since I was not content with last year’s performance, I had to completely alter my practicing practices. I’m still not where I’d like to be – weaknesses I do not notice at home quickly become audible at the historic instrument.

Here’s this year’s menu:

  • Michel Corrette – Premier Livre d’Orgue (1737) – Concert de Flûtes
  • Johann Pachelbel – Chaconne
  • Louis-Nicolas Clérambault – Premier Livre d’Orgue – Plein Jeu
  • Louis-Nicolas Clérambault – Premier Livre d’Orgue – Duo
  • Louis-Nicolas Clérambault – Premier Livre d’Orgue – Récit de Nazard
  • Jean Babtiste Lully – Armide, Acte 5, Scène 1 (LWV 71, 1686) – Passacaille

I’m still far away from performing the Passacaille (sheet music release here) as elegantly as with the linked orchestral version. But without the new practises, I even had not been able to reach what I achieved so far.

So, am I content? No. Am I uncontent? No, I’m just on track :) .

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Jean Baptiste Lully – Armide, Acte 5, Scène 1 (LWV 71, 1686) – Passacaille – Sheet music release

Giovanni Battista Lulli was a french baroque composer of significant influence. I twice heard the passacaille of his opera Armide, Acte 5, Scène 1 (LWV 71, 1686) being played at the Dubois organ at Wissembourg. The first one was Roland Lopes (August 5, 2012), the second was Jürgen Essl (July 20, 2014). An orchestral version is available thanks to the Chœur de chambre de Namur (including Scène II).

I did a transcription of Scène I for organ. The archive contains a ready to use PDF (including my fingerings). Additionally it also contains the Muse Score source files. Unfortunately the latter one needs adjustments when opening it in more recent versions of Muse Score. Feel free to edit it :) .

I play it using a Grands Jeux registration, which results in a much more aggressive sound than the aforementioned orchestral version. I also play it using three keybeds.

Do ré mi fa sol la si

Während wir im deutschen und angelsächsischen Sprachraum Bezeichnungen für die Stammtöne verwenden, die auf dem Alphabet basieren, finden sich im romanischen Sprachraum Tonnamen, die sich aus der Solmisation entwickelt haben. Eine (tabellarische) Übersicht bietet Wikipedia. Oben abgebildet sind Tonnamen, wie sie in Frankreich Verwendung finden. Um Halbtöne auszudrücken, werden die Adjektive «dièse» für ♯ und «bémol» für ♭ verwendet.

Mittlerweile habe ich sie gelernt, habe obige Abbildung aber noch immer griffbereit in der Hosentasche.

Update: Seit Vorgestern findet sich im Netz ein nettes Karambolage-Video dazu.