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You didn't think we had forgotten, did you?

October 12th next falls on a Sunday in 2031. And you better believe we will see you then!

Previous mentions of this movement from Herbert Howells Partita (1971) on this blog:

• in 2014: Howells, Herbert - Sarabande for the 12th of any October
• in 2008: October - Sarabande for the Twelfth of any

Labels: Howells, organ music, Vaughan Williams

An organ work by American composer Alan Hovhaness turned my thoughts to nightingales and whales flying through the air.

In recent weeks, I have been listening to music by Alan Hovhaness, and returned to And God Created Great Whales, Op. 229, No. 1. This is a work for orchestra that incorporates—or, more precisely, relies on—recorded whale song.

Forty-six years before this, Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome also included animal sounds. This work, written, in 1924, for orchestra, incorporates recorded nightingale song in the third movement.

Someone at Disney mashed two of these elements together and animated flying whales to the music of Pines of Rome in the 1999 film Fantasia 2000. (Might a Hovhaness/nightingale mashup must be forthcoming from Disney?)

Hovhaness's music is fascinating to me. I also need to suggest here that it is underperformed.

Hovhaness was a prolific composer who wrote well over 500 works. And much of his music has some connection to the natural world. For the discerning organist, I would suggest here taking a look at Dawn Hymn, Op. 138, written in 1954. It is an eminently serviceable composition that stands ready to bring Hovhaness's sound world into liturgical worship.

Labels: Hovhaness, organ music

It comes as no surprise to us that the THX "Deep Note", the sound created by Andy Moorer that accompanies the THX logo, was inspired in part, by organ music.

... I wanted to start with something that would thoroughly bewilder everyone. They wouldn't be sure that the sound was being played properly, or whatever. That is, to start with chaos and then evolve into the big chord, like a great organ chord. I'd always been impressed by the huge pipe organs and the sounds it could produce, so that was sort of the idea I had in the back of my mind.

listen: #43 | THX Deep Note, Part 1 from Twenty Thousand Hertz

The good stuff starts about nine minutes in, but really the whole thing is worth hearing.

Labels: organ music, sounds

Classical-music institutions rely far too much on anniversary-driven programming: they may as well put up a neon sign saying, “We have no ideas.” Sometimes, though, there are benefits. The centenary of the Argentinean modernist Alberto Ginastera, which falls on April 11, is prompting reconsideration of a composer who, in recent years, seemed ready to fade into the ranks of history’s also-rans.

Ross, Alex. "Modern Microcosm". The New Yorker. 11 April 2016.

It's true. I do always look at the anniversaries, but in the field of church music, where I think it's so easy to get stuck in a rut, sometimes these dates are the incentive I need to try new things.

Or in this case, to reach into my file drawer and pull out the score for the Ginastera's Toccata, Villancico y Fuga, Op. 18, which I have never really learned. It's a great piece, and when I've heard it played it has always stopped me in my tracks. So this is the year.

The opening of the Toccata is a nod to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 in terms of its rhetorical rhythm. The Fugue subject is BACH. The form of Ginastera's piece is probably a tribute to the Toccata, Adagio and Fugue of Bach, BWV 564.

Here's a recording Judith Hancock made as part of the "Popular Organ Music" series (the name of which always makes me chuckle).

Ginastera wrote another piece for organ, the Variazioni e Toccata sopra "Aurora lucis rutilat", Op. 52. This piece was premiered at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Minneapolis by Marilyn Mason in 1980.

Labels: Bach, Ginastera, organ music

A lot of people wonder what it's like to take a new job as a church organist.

It's exactly as you see in this wonderful 44-minute independent film on YouTube: The Organist.

Enjoy. Oh, and happy Halloween.

Labels: church music, organ music, organists

Labels: funerals, Obama, organ music

The younger sister to the organ I most often play these days has some nice press in the New Yorker this week.

Wall of Sound: A resurgence of organ music in the concert hall. by Alex Ross

We just call our organ Rosie, if we remember to use a nickname at all. But Hurricane Mama is hard to beat as far as organ nicknames go.

Labels: Alex Ross, organ music, Rosales, Walt Disney Concert Hall

My husband and I were amazed that our two young sons expressed a preference for an old-fashioned approach that embraces vestments, organ music and Communion every week. We were open to a more contemporary style of worship but went with their choice.

Brown, Ellen F. Faith & Values: Church should not be a battleground. Richmond Times-Dispatch 31 October 2014

Actually, more the rule than the exception.

Labels: liturgy, organ music, young people

It's webcasting season. In case you didn't already know it, we at Sinden.org are huge fans of listening to liturgy, church music, and organ music online.

Trinity College, Cambridge has just released a new tool to search all of their archival webcasts. All of this is free.

St. John's, Cambridge, perhaps our favorite webcast destination, has just started their choral year, and new music is appearing there. Creating an account allows free access to their archival material (very worthwhile).

The BBC has a very long-running weekly Evensong broadcast which you can hear online. Each broadcast is up for about a week, so time is of the essence!

And a welcome newcomer to the webcasting game is King's College, Cambridge. These webcasts are gussied up with spoken introductions by choristers, the chaplian, or sometimes Stephen Cleobury himself. Organ recitals are also mixed in.

We also eagerly anticipate the return of webcast Evensongs by New College, Oxford.

And if these aren't enough for you or you're not feeling quite so liturgical at the moment, don't forget the pure church music webcast of the fine radio program With Heart and Voice and the wonderful radio program dedicated to the music of the organ, Pipedreams.

And last, but most assuredly not least, you can hear no fewer than five services webcast weekly (Tuesday Evensong, Wednesday Evensong, Thursday Evensong, Sunday Eucharist, Sunday Evensong) by St. Thomas, New York. A truly outstanding gift of prayer and praise available online.

Happy listening!

Labels: church music, King's College (Cambridge), liturgy, New College (Oxford), organ music, St John's (Cambridge), St Thomas (New York), Trinity College (Cambridge), web, webcasting

It's been a nearly six year wait. But the time draweth extremely nigh.

You didn't think we had forgotten, did you?

Previously on the blog in 2008: October - Sarabande for the Twelfth of any.

Labels: Howells, organ music

When's the last time you read about a piece of organ music in the newspaper?

Wait, never? Now's your chance.

Remember that guy who got fired from Westminster Abbey recently for saying disparaging things about John Rutter? He's in the news too.

. . . the music at weddings lives or dies at the hands of the organist (in my youth I wrecked quite a few with my approximation of Mendelssohn’s Wedding March) and here Will took no chances. Edward Tambling, assistant director of music at Spanish Place, has the most impeccable technique and judgment. As an organ scholar at Westminster Abbey, he got into hot water for using ‘colourful language’ on a Facebook page to describe the nauseating clotted harmonies of John Rutter. Good man!

As we took our places, out roared my favourite E-flat major chord — the opening of Bach’s ‘St Anne’ Prelude and Fugue BWV 552. Nothing in Bach’s organ music surpasses the grandeur of this work.

Thompson, Damian. "Wedding music lives or dies at the hands of the organist". The Spectator, London. 20 September 2014.

Labels: Bach, BWV 552, John Rutter, organ music, weddings

. . . an immersive multi-sensory performance from Johnnie Walker, featuring flame-throwers, 10,000 year-old ice, and Jude Law -- not all at the same time.

But the star attraction is a bespoke organ that reportedly employed around a quarter of the world's specialist craftsmen for the instrument during a building process that took three years and 10,000 man hours. This is the 'Flavour Conductor,' a landmark for synesthetic experiment that combines cutting edge science with a devotion to enhanced pleasure.

Monks, Kieron. "Magical organ gives 'musical taste' a new meaning". CNN. 19 September 2014.

Speaking of 10,000-year-old ice: we are big fans of the television programme Going Deep with David Rees, especially the first episode: How to Make an Ice Cube

Labels: flame-throwers, food and drink, ice, Jude Law, organ music, organs

5 October 2013, RICHMOND - Nothing ever seems to go quite according to plan when Cameron Carpenter comes to Richmond.

On Friday night he returned to the historic Byrd Theatre to perform on the Wurlitzer organ there for the third consecutive year. Actually, that may not be quite true.

From what I hear about his first performance at the Byrd in 2011 (I did not attend that performance, though I did attend in 2012), he started playing a bit on the Wurlitzer and then moved to his own electronic touring organ. On Friday, however, there was no part of the organ that was left unexplored, and the touring organ was still on the truck.

One thing to know about the Byrd Theatre's organ is that it works, mostly. There are a few sour notes, especially in the upper ranges of certain stops. But the main thing that Carpenter and the Theatre would like to restore is the organ's combination action. These are the little, round, white buttons under the keyboards that summon pre-set combinations of sounds. In Carpenter's hands, a fully functional theater organ becomes the ideal vehicle for his own wildly colorful imagination and impressive technical ability.

So hearing Carpenter at the Byrd is like hearing him "unplugged".

The evening began without announcement and with Carpenter taking the helm for Walton's Crown Imperial. He seemed to struggle through this, quickly adjusting stops on the fly. The performance seemed unstable, like an empire on the decline. This quality was exacerbated by quarter-second hesitations while Carpenter repeatedly reached up to change sounds in key moments. Certain chords were "wrong", perhaps harmonically altered to suit Carpenter's whims. But if they were intentionally altered they did not serve the music.

Carpenter is the "shock jock" of the organ world. The program proclaimed that "You'll swear it's Bowie performing Bach", and at the end of the first half we finally did get some Bach. And here's where things really started to come undone.

Carpenter introduced the second movement ("Lento") of Trio Sonata No. 6 in G Major, BWV 530 as having a strange "sinuosity". In Carpenter's hands and feet this was only strange, and it was not helped by a false start due to an inadequate registration; Carpenter had chosen a solo stop with far too many dead notes to hear much of the melody. It may have been convincing on a Wurlitzer in excellent repair, but such an instrument the organ at the Byrd is not. A quickly revised registration proved that this Trio Sonata was simply a bad fit for this organ. The extreme rubato further added to the general uncertainty. The result was "amateurish", as I overheard someone say at intermission.

From the E minor conclusion of the Trio Sonata movement, Carpenter proceeded without interruption to the "Wedge" Fugue in E minor, BWV 548b to close the first half. The result wasn't so much a rock star performance as it was an organist struggling to regain control of his program.

After intermission the recital became nearly completely derailed. After a couple good tunes including "Moon River" Carpenter found his instrument insisting on a high E-flat in a reed stop long after the final chord.

Carpenter, who when he addresses the audience never fully turns off the organ bench, seemed truly at a loss.

"One never knows whether to keep going," he said, before he mused aloud about Percy Grainger's "Movable Do", a piece that Grainger wrote for a ciphering harmonium. Carpenter wisely chose to improvise around the note for a while. Eventually the note wavered and disappeared, so Carpenter created another, higher "cipher" to symmetrically close this short, witty interlude.

There was a collective sigh of relief when the final chord released into the expected silence. "I learned an important lesson tonight:" Carpenter mumbled to the audience, "you always keep going".

As part of what seems to be a quest to re-imagine movements of the Bach Cello Suites, we heard Carpenter's take on the first Bourreé from the Third. This, too, was marred by unfortunately placed dead notes, especially in a climactic pedal statement of the fugue subject. Yes, there was a fugue. Carpenter's lengthy fantasia culminated in an attempt to outdo Bach, and if he didn't quite best the old master, he certainly got his attention.

And this is maybe the heart of the matter. Carpenter is a formidable talent, but much of this music would have been so much better on a functioning pipe organ of any type (be it theater or otherwise). And please note that I am reviewing the performance here, not the fundraising effort for the Byrd Theatre, which is an important, separate issue.

At best, Carpenter appeared to be a good theater organist on Friday night, but in the more adventurous pieces, he and his program were ill-prepared for the Byrd.

But more than this, one gets the sense that Carpenter is starting to chafe at the corner he has painted himself into. The relentless virtuosic pedal work that is (or was) his claim to fame was largely saved for a brief encore. If Cameron learned that he must "always keep going," perhaps a change of direction is in order. It may not be so much a challenge for him to outdo Bach as it is an increasing challenge for him to outdo himself. This challenge might be reflected in the audience at the Byrd, noticeably smaller than last year's.

As it turned out, Carpenter wasn't so much unplugged as he was uninspiring.

This review may be updated through Monday as a I continue to reflect on the recital.

Labels: Bach, Byrd Theatre, Cameron Carpenter, Grainger, organ music, Walton, Wurlitzer

A colleague recently inquired about the Duruflé Toccata at the end of the the Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols from King's College, Cambridge. I have to admit that while I had some considerable familiarity with the voluntaries at the service, I had not added them to the spreadsheet.

That omission has been corrected.

The first voluntary is always the chorale "In dulci jubilo," BWV 729 by J. S. Bach. It was played rather more imaginatively this year (by Organ Scholar Parker Ramsey) than it has been in the past.

I must, of course, note here that the value in gaining access to previous service booklets would reveal at what point this first voluntary became part of the "ordinary" of the service, or if it has literally always been this way.

The second (and third!) voluntaries are more variable, but reveal that there is some repetition. French (Belgian!) toccatas are very popular.

Pieces that have been repeated over the years include

• Toccata - Duruflé
• Toccata - Jongen
• Dieu parmi nous - Messiaen

If I had to put money on it I would say that "Carillon de Westminster" is also in this group, though it has only appeared once since 1997.

So even if it's not "Christmassy" per se, the Duruflé fits right in with the repeated toccatas, and other big French pieces played after the service:

• Dupré Prelude and Fugue in B
• Langlais Fête
• Mulet Carillon-Sortie
• Vierne Final from Symphony VI

It even fits the mold (mould?) of Francophile toccatas by Anglos: Baker & Briggs.

There are also some real oddball pieces like "Recessional on 'In the bleak midwinter'" by Lionel Steuart Fothringham.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that he's an English composer.

Actually, given the list we've examined the real outlier is the Bach Sinfonia from Cantata 29.

But Bach is always welcome at the party.

Labels: Duruflé, Jongen, King's College (Cambridge), Messiaen, organ music, Vierne

It's time again for an annual podcast on the music at the Lenten Preaching Services at St. Paul's Church. The first episode is ready:

Episode 1: Ash Wednesday

The feed for this podcast is http://feeds.feedburner.com/MusicAtStPaulsChurchRichmondVirginia

And we should be up and running on iTunes shortly.

Labels: church music, Lent, organ music, Stainer

It's a song. I played it.

Labels: film, organ music, Weezer

Labels: church music, film, improvisation, organ music, poetry, St Paul's (Richmond)

Aaron Copland's only solo piece for organ Episode comes from his score to the film Our Town (1940).

His score was nominated for an Academy Award.

Here is the film, courtesy of archive.org.

The music that Copland would later arrange for organ can be heard toward the very end of the film starting at about 1:19:30

Sadly, the film quality isn't great, but I for one look forward to viewing the whole thing when time allows.

Labels: Copland, film, organ music

"As Mary continues to coax her malevolent tune from the organ, she moves more deeply into trance, beginning to experience an extended impressionistic vision of a throng of ghouls emerging from the water to waltz to her music in the pavilions ruined ballroom. As the Man moves towards her and then reaches out for her while she watches in numb horror, her fingers spasm on the keyboards, signaling the approach of a not-too-metaphorical climax. But just before it occurs, the minister appears suddenly and wrenches her hands from the organ, furiously calling her music sacrilege. He "asks her to resign" because of her lack of reverence and awareness of things significant to the church and concisely laments her "lack of soul". Before she leaves he softens his attitude a bit and tells her that the church can offer her help. She departs in totally wordless dejection. From here on her appeals for help to her acquaintances become more desperate."

I play like this all the time, and without meaning too. And then I stare at my hands. There are creepy montages, and the room starts to spin.

Fortunately I haven't been asked to resign, yet.

Happy Halloween.

Labels: film, organ music

If you view this blog in a newsreader, or find yourself coming to directly blog.sinden.org you may miss the Halloween-themed video that now graces our professional front page (Sinden.org proper).

A short organ-centered film called "What comes next on Level 13". Be sure to click through for the full HD experience.

Enjoy, if you dare.

Labels: Bach, organ music, Rosales