For all the "8 short" episodes in order, see ua-cam.com/play/PLABcWksVExXvcMfZzhf9XLHeXqlSj0QiJ.html Thanks for all the questions and feedback - all appreciated!
Great presentation! You are right that some people look down their noses at these pieces - I really love your funny analogy of the works gatecrashing the Bach party. I look forward to the other 7!
01:59 About working at the piece away from the instrument. Thank you for explaining and emphasizing this so well. This really is very important in my experience. In my first few years I used to be discouraged that when I got the instrument after studying the piece, things were more difficult than I hoped. But this is no longer the case! It turned out I wasn't studying it in a useful way. I was filling my head with a list of things I must remember to do. What I do now is like the things you talk about before you play. I understand things about the piece. When I finally get to the instrument I'm usually able to get everything right first time (with speed throttling) and that has the amazing result that recordings are then easy because I've only learned one way to play it, so that's what I do! Great lessons.
Thanks for the video! Why are these absolutely everywhere in Norway? I took over as organist in a parish of five churches here and there is a copy of them in every single church, and when I had frihelg I went to a neighbouring kommune and the organist played the F major prelude as a postludium. You can’t move for them! I’m not sure I ever encountered them in the UK beyond my very earliest organ lessons, but I might replay them now.
When I asked what music to look at next in this series, these 8 short preludes & fugues were by far the most popular answer, so they’re evidently popular in many places, perhaps because so many people - like you and I - used them in their earliest organ lessons. Like you, I see copies lying around in Norway as well as in Germany and Denmark. I’ve not played them since I was 15, when I heard someone refer to them as “those silly pieces that people shouldn’t learn”, so looking at them now is quite redemptive. They’re jolly pieces and surprisingly well written; when we stop looking at them for what they are not, they really seem quite attractive. Maybe we both ought to play them more! Tim
I love reading your replies to people's comments. Very courteous, but informative and with great authority. And a nice touch of humour (however did you come up with Kazakhstan?). Nice discussion and performance of this prelude as well.
I'm very pleased you chose this piece for your analysis - I am sure like many organists I was introduced to this early in my playing career and it remains one of my 'staples' and is often commented on by members of the congregation. I would value your opinion over the phrasing I use (was taught) from bar 5 onward which was to have the first semiquaver in the bar as part of the preceding phrase, and the new phrase starting on the second semiquaver of the bar - I continue the same principle throughout the piece. When the harmony changes twice in the bar, as you have pointed out, so does this phrasing. I think this gives a feeling of chord suspension and resolution - eg bar 26/27 adding to the musical interest. Any thoughts?
Thank you: that's a really interesting question. I can certainly understand why what you describe was suggested, and it was a widespread way of thinking for a time. But eighteenth-century articulation ("phrasing" as such was not a concept until well through the 19th century - later than Mendelssohn's time, at least) is rooted in the idea of highlighting the beat. Everything serves to emphasise the beat - which is why hemiolas and other disruptions of the beat were so commonly used to signal cadences and so on: simply because the beat was so central to everyone's awareness that the slightest disruption served like a big flag. In that sense, slurring across the beat is not something Bach or an 18th-century performer would ever have done in this kind of passage. I talk a little bit about articulation here: ua-cam.com/video/hPN6AEm2hno/v-deo.html but that is mostly in connection with fingering, and it occurs to me that I don't really talk enough about the basics of articulation. But I did discuss it at more length on ua-cam.com/video/7SLraW3ucdg/v-deo.html (after the first minute or so), including a bit about why we don't slur across the beat. Of course, we can always end up with the old conundrum: we are not 18th-century people - we have been partly shaped by 19th-century thinking - so do we necessarily have to do things like they did in the 18th century? And that one I can't answer, so I'll leave it with you. It sounds like you have a very thoughtful approach and I'm sure your congregation is very fortunate to have you there! Tim
Thank you for this inspirational video! I have Schirmer Library of Classics edition of these 8 pieces (edited by Widor and Schweitzer) and there is an annotation for each piece that I cannot figure out. For example, for BWV 553 it says prepare U Bflat 10 (in a circle) 00 7717 112 and a line below that says P64. I am guessing U is for upper (manual), P is for pedal, but would you know what do the numbers mean?
Mm, that one's tricky. Given that 0077 is the dialling code for Kazakhstan, this is evidently Schweitzer's telephone number during his North-Asian period ... no, I'm sorry, probably not. But I've just found a picture of the book on the internet, and from the front cover, I see that it includes Hammond registrations. Now, "Hammond players refer to the drawbars as sets of 9 numbers. Because of the nature of the harmonic series and the color of the drawbars, they are spaced like so: 12 3456 789 Each position is a drawbar “pulled” to a number between 0 and 8, representing the position of the drawbar." (quoted from www.davidkempton.com/hmd3/). Shame, really: I was just warming to the Kazakhstan idea. Tim
How can you be sure that L just means toe, not heel? Surely an important principle is to slur a suspended dissonance to its resolution? in the Great G major, bar 9, pedal, if you use a heel on the G and a toe on the F sharp, it is easy do it legato and you avoid unnecessary movement.
You're thinking in terms of today's pedalboards, not the pedalboards the 17th and 18th centuries. Sure, builders were beginning to use pedalboard resembling the more modern German pedalboard, which would allow you to use heels, but that would have been a novel technique at the time and would not be possible in many of the organs of the time.
You make some really good points. Firstly, the toe and heel question. I discuss this question here: ua-cam.com/video/hPN6AEm2hno/v-deo.html . You're quite right that left and right are ambiguous, but the preponderance of evidence seems to support toes being a generally-accepted practice, though, as I point out, that doesn't necessarily mean we have to do the same. But in this kind of pattern that we're discussing here, using only toes actually helps us to attain a correct articulation, so it is in any case useful. You're also right that resolving a suspended dissonance is an exception to the custom of taking a breath after a long note tied to a shorter one, although that's not the case in this fugue. Thanks for your points! Tim
For all the "8 short" episodes in order, see ua-cam.com/play/PLABcWksVExXvcMfZzhf9XLHeXqlSj0QiJ.html Thanks for all the questions and feedback - all appreciated!
Great presentation! You are right that some people look down their noses at these pieces - I really love your funny analogy of the works gatecrashing the Bach party. I look forward to the other 7!
Glad you liked it! Tim
Thank you for this video, The information you share with us is very useful and interesting.
Glad it was helpful! Tim
Thank you for creating this educational video. It supplements my lessons.
I'm very glad that it's useful. Good luck with the lessons! Tim
01:59 About working at the piece away from the instrument.
Thank you for explaining and emphasizing this so well. This really is very important in my experience.
In my first few years I used to be discouraged that when I got the instrument after studying the piece, things were more difficult than I hoped.
But this is no longer the case! It turned out I wasn't studying it in a useful way. I was filling my head with a list of things I must remember to do. What I do now is like the things you talk about before you play. I understand things about the piece.
When I finally get to the instrument I'm usually able to get everything right first time (with speed throttling) and that has the amazing result that recordings are then easy because I've only learned one way to play it, so that's what I do!
Great lessons.
Really great that you've found such a good and helpful way of working: thank you very much for sharing that. Tim
Thanks for the video! Why are these absolutely everywhere in Norway? I took over as organist in a parish of five churches here and there is a copy of them in every single church, and when I had frihelg I went to a neighbouring kommune and the organist played the F major prelude as a postludium. You can’t move for them! I’m not sure I ever encountered them in the UK beyond my very earliest organ lessons, but I might replay them now.
When I asked what music to look at next in this series, these 8 short preludes & fugues were by far the most popular answer, so they’re evidently popular in many places, perhaps because so many people - like you and I - used them in their earliest organ lessons. Like you, I see copies lying around in Norway as well as in Germany and Denmark. I’ve not played them since I was 15, when I heard someone refer to them as “those silly pieces that people shouldn’t learn”, so looking at them now is quite redemptive. They’re jolly pieces and surprisingly well written; when we stop looking at them for what they are not, they really seem quite attractive. Maybe we both ought to play them more! Tim
Yes, indeed not by Joh.Seb.Bach, but whoever did write it did a good job. And you do a good job at presenting it.
Thank you Joh.Seb.Bach - great to have confirmation that you don't know who wrote the piece, either. Tim
What a lovely and bright organ!
Yes, it's by one of my favourite builders in Norway. The registration was just 8, 4 and 2 but as you say it works so well in the room. Tim
I love reading your replies to people's comments. Very courteous, but informative and with great authority. And a nice touch of humour (however did you come up with Kazakhstan?). Nice discussion and performance of this prelude as well.
Thank you so much for that! Tim
I'm very pleased you chose this piece for your analysis - I am sure like many organists I was introduced to this early in my playing career and it remains one of my 'staples' and is often commented on by members of the congregation. I would value your opinion over the phrasing I use (was taught) from bar 5 onward which was to have the first semiquaver in the bar as part of the preceding phrase, and the new phrase starting on the second semiquaver of the bar - I continue the same principle throughout the piece. When the harmony changes twice in the bar, as you have pointed out, so does this phrasing. I think this gives a feeling of chord suspension and resolution - eg bar 26/27 adding to the musical interest. Any thoughts?
Thank you: that's a really interesting question. I can certainly understand why what you describe was suggested, and it was a widespread way of thinking for a time. But eighteenth-century articulation ("phrasing" as such was not a concept until well through the 19th century - later than Mendelssohn's time, at least) is rooted in the idea of highlighting the beat. Everything serves to emphasise the beat - which is why hemiolas and other disruptions of the beat were so commonly used to signal cadences and so on: simply because the beat was so central to everyone's awareness that the slightest disruption served like a big flag. In that sense, slurring across the beat is not something Bach or an 18th-century performer would ever have done in this kind of passage. I talk a little bit about articulation here: ua-cam.com/video/hPN6AEm2hno/v-deo.html but that is mostly in connection with fingering, and it occurs to me that I don't really talk enough about the basics of articulation. But I did discuss it at more length on ua-cam.com/video/7SLraW3ucdg/v-deo.html (after the first minute or so), including a bit about why we don't slur across the beat. Of course, we can always end up with the old conundrum: we are not 18th-century people - we have been partly shaped by 19th-century thinking - so do we necessarily have to do things like they did in the 18th century? And that one I can't answer, so I'll leave it with you. It sounds like you have a very thoughtful approach and I'm sure your congregation is very fortunate to have you there! Tim
@@timrishton5871 Many thanks Tim - lots of food for thought! I look forward to your analyses of the next few pieces in this set!
Thank you for this inspirational video! I have Schirmer Library of Classics edition of these 8 pieces (edited by Widor and Schweitzer) and there is an annotation for each piece that I cannot figure out. For example, for BWV 553 it says prepare U Bflat 10 (in a circle) 00 7717 112 and a line below that says P64. I am guessing U is for upper (manual), P is for pedal, but would you know what do the numbers mean?
Mm, that one's tricky. Given that 0077 is the dialling code for Kazakhstan, this is evidently Schweitzer's telephone number during his North-Asian period ... no, I'm sorry, probably not. But I've just found a picture of the book on the internet, and from the front cover, I see that it includes Hammond registrations. Now, "Hammond players refer to the drawbars as sets of 9 numbers. Because of the nature of the harmonic series and the color of the drawbars, they are spaced like so: 12 3456 789 Each position is a drawbar “pulled” to a number between 0 and 8, representing the position of the drawbar." (quoted from www.davidkempton.com/hmd3/). Shame, really: I was just warming to the Kazakhstan idea. Tim
@@timrishton5871 :) Thank you
How can you be sure that L just means toe, not heel? Surely an important principle is to slur a suspended dissonance to its resolution? in the Great G major, bar 9, pedal, if you use a heel on the G and a toe on the F sharp, it is easy do it legato and you avoid unnecessary movement.
You're thinking in terms of today's pedalboards, not the pedalboards the 17th and 18th centuries. Sure, builders were beginning to use pedalboard resembling the more modern German pedalboard, which would allow you to use heels, but that would have been a novel technique at the time and would not be possible in many of the organs of the time.
You make some really good points. Firstly, the toe and heel question. I discuss this question here: ua-cam.com/video/hPN6AEm2hno/v-deo.html . You're quite right that left and right are ambiguous, but the preponderance of evidence seems to support toes being a generally-accepted practice, though, as I point out, that doesn't necessarily mean we have to do the same. But in this kind of pattern that we're discussing here, using only toes actually helps us to attain a correct articulation, so it is in any case useful. You're also right that resolving a suspended dissonance is an exception to the custom of taking a breath after a long note tied to a shorter one, although that's not the case in this fugue. Thanks for your points! Tim