The POWER of the organ

The POWER of Mendelssohn



The POWER of Frescobaldi



The POWER of Handel



The POWER of Guilmant



The POWER of Franck



The POWER of Widor



The POWER of Vierne



The POWER of Messiaen



The POWER of Dupre



And the most powerful of all... THE POWER OF BACH!

The POWER of the piano

The POWER of Prokofiev



The POWER of Beethoven



The POWER of Reubke



The POWER of Liszt



The POWER of Confrey



And the most important of all... The POWER of BACH

The POWER of the orchestra

The POWER of Dvorak



The POWER of Shostakavich



The POWER of Beethoven




The POWER of Mozart



The POWER of Prokofiev



And of course, the most important of all... The POWER of BACH

Bach and More.

I've recently finished learning the Boellmann Choral Introduction, and am working on the Menuet. I'm eager to work on the Priere a Notre Dame, but I'm holding back until I've finished the Menuet, I've learned it's better not to work on too many pieces at once. I've more or less finished learning the Fugue in Minor (BWV 565), it's not nearly a perfect performance, but I have fingering down for the most part, and can actually play the whole thing through now without stoping. Now I just need to refine my performance (a hell of allot!). I finished learning Banquet Celeste by Messiaen for the most part, I blank out allot while playing it though, which I've never experienced with a piece I've memorized, so I'm going to try to do some additional focused practice on the Banquet. Harry and I may embark on learning the original version of the Prelude, Fugue, and Variation by Frank, the original version is for piano and organ, I didn't realize that until just recently, but now I'm eager for us to be playing it together. The one last piece of music I want to learn before September/October is the Cembalo part for "Wir eilen mit schwachen doch emsigen schritten" from the 78th Cantata by J.S. Bach, it's a personal favorite of mine, and I still haven't bought the sheet, no clue why, so I better get on that! I'm still wondering if I want to keep the Violoncello part as it is, or transcribe it to organ too, to make the accompaniment for organ 4 hands, with one performer (myself in this case) playing the cembalo part on the great, and another (my teacher Harry in this case) playing the Violoncello part on the Swell.
For the Christmas season, Harry and I are going to embark on learning four Christmas pieces for organ duet. I hope it goes well!

IMPROVISE!

IMPROVISING is as important as anything to me in terms of organ performance.
It's always new, essentially, however, all improvisations performed by any particular organist share something with each other; there are certain moments that one swears they've heard before, and other moments in the spontaniously composed music, which scream to the listener, who the artist performing is.
I see people on youtube comment on videos of Latry and Lefebvre, arguing over which one is improvising, as the "video" only contains audio. Most of them seem to agree, by listening, that it is one or the other.
Listening to my own improvisations, I hear many similarities, and patterns used the same way scattered throughout. When I hear Bob Swift improvise, I know instantly that it is Bob playing; it becomes so evident that Cochereau is behind the console when I hear one of his improvisations, and the sophistication of Roth's improvisations, seem to link his pieces together, though these links may sometimes be hard to find.
At the same time, so many of the musical possibilities have already been processed in compositions, and we often hear incredible coorilations between improvisations and written works, sometimes totally unintended. This is the nature of improvisation in a time when almost every possible musical line has been used already.
Here are some of my Youtube improvisations.

The New Piano has arrived!

Our new Bluthner 7' 8" grand piano arrived here from Leipzig, Germany today. It is absolutely incredible! The bass notes are superb! The high notes are full and rich! The sustain is unbelievably long, and the dinamic range is enormous!
The massive piano sings through the entire sanctuary, surrounding the listener from each and every side. It's beautiful Polyacrylic finish reflects the beautiful stain glassed windows with perfect clarity. It's allot of piano.

And to think models are made which are a foot and a half longer... sheesh!
I'm so excited to tape myself and Harry playing that Beast!

My Babies!

Here I've compiled all the organs that really do have meaning and personal value for me.

First, we have the organ that sparked my interest; the Lehigh Pipe Organ at Christ Episcopal Church, Reading Pennsylvania. No I've never played it, but it was the first organ I ever heard, and it's had a profound influence on my life.

Here we have the organ at the Bloomsburg First Presbyterian Church, it is a 27 rank by Fritsche, an Estey rebuild. I know this organ better than any other.

Here is the 33 rank Moller at Saint Matthew's Lutheran Church, Bloomsburg, Pa. It's a very powerful instrument!

Also, the 39 rank E.M. Skinner organ at Saint Paul's Memorial Church, is the organ that really inspired me to start to play. (Sorry, no console picture)