Cody's Music Page.

Musical plans for this year

2010-11-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying my best to make this year be the best it can musically. I've already arranged Robert Fertitta's organ concert at my church on April 29th, 2011, but there is still more to focus on!

Keeping in mind that I too am an organist and I need to keep up with learning as a performer, I've started work on Cesar Franck's Cantabile from Trois Pieces. It's a gorgeous piece and quite fun to play. The organ at my church does not have the resources to do it justice, so I'll have to perform it someplace else.

This reminds me that I'd like to play some concerts outside of Bloomsburg this summer. I've spoken with several people about the possibility of playing concerts in Richmond, Staunton, and Charlottesville, VA as well as in Indianapolis, Wilkes-Barre, Los Angeles and elsewhere. None of these plans are official, just speculation at this point, but I would love to do a few of them and the Cantabile would be great for them.

In the meantime, I'm working on several accompaniments for my school choir, to be played for our winter and spring concerts. After the spring concert, we have an annual Pops concert (always INCREDIBLY fun!), for which I'd like to accompany some solo on piano, or play piano myself as solo.

In terms of singing, my voice has really began to develop now that I've joined my school's regular choir and the 'Fusion' choir (a select choir), and my church choir. I auditioned for County and District chorus for Tenor 1 and made both of them!

Lots of music this year. I'll keep you all updated!

Organ Recital by Robert Fertitta

2010-10-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Organ virtuoso Robert Fertitta will be playing an organ concert of Bach, Clérambault, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Vierne and Fauré at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg at 7:30 PM on Friday, April 29th, 2010.

Mr. Fertitta received his musical education at Hunter College, Queens College, and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He also studied at l'Ecoles d'Art Americaines in Fountainbleau, France, where he was a student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger, herself a student of Gabriel Fauré. Mr. Fertitta is now retired after thirty years of teaching at Purchase College, but still plays concerts from time to time.

Mr. Fertitta's program:

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
G Minor Suite

Johann Sebastian Bach
Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier
Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland
Fantasie in G major

Louis Vierne
Clair de Lune (from Pieces de Fantaisie)

Gabriel Fauré
Nocturne No. 6 in D Flat Major [piano]

Camille Saint-Saëns
Prelude du Deluge
Two of the Sept Improvisations, Op. 150

Johannes Brahms
2 Chorale Preludes, from Op. 122
      - Mein Jesu, der du mich
      - O Gott, du frommer Gott
2 Intermezzos [piano]
      - C Sharp Minor, Op. 117 No. 3
      - A Major, Op. 118 No. 2

Felix Mendelssohn
Sonata No. 3 in A Major

All Chopin recital by Dr. Dylan Savage

2010-10-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

Dr. Dylan Savage practicing before his concert

Dr. Dylan Savage, a Bloomsburg native with degrees in piano performance from Oberlin and Indiana State University, recently played a concert of the music of Chopin, in celebration of the 200th year since his birth, on our beautiful Blüthner concert grand piano at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, PA.

Dr. Savage played several Valses, Preludes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Tarentelles, as well as Chopin's famous Berceuse Op. 57, Ballade no. 2 in F major Op. 38, and his beloved Polonaise 'Heroic' in A flat major Op. 53.

The concert was enjoyed by all in attendance. Truly gorgeous music played by a pianist of the very highest caliber... it was a night to remember. I was especially astonished at the sensitivity and charm in his performance of the Berceuse... utterly otherworldly.

What a great way to kick off a new year of great music at First Presbyterian in Bloomsburg!

Fantasiastic!

2010-07-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been working on several of Bach's keyboard Fantasias! I've just finished working on BWV 921, Fantasia in C minor, and am presently about halfway through learning BWV 922, Fantasia in A minor. I'll have video on youtube of these pieces sometime in August when I use them as offertories at First Presbyterian.

Harp Restoration: Part 1:

2010-07-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the vintage 1930 Estey Harp unit in the organ at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, PA was removed by a team from Patrick J. Murphy and Associates to be brought to their facilities for a much needed restoration. It should be reinstalled, better than ever(!), sometime in December, just in time for Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the removal of the old unit.

First, the 4 rows of mallets were removed.

The first order of business was to remove the mallets. There are 49 mallets divided into 4 rows. These mallets strike tuned plates via pneumatic contacts. From up close, the sound resembles a xylophone, but when the harp is in a chamber and the listener is out in the church, the affect is very convincing and actually sounds like a harp! Part of this is due to the wooden resonator pipes. These large, square, stopped, wooden pipes are attached to the unit, one per note. They are lined up against the tuned plates and help the sound to resonate (hence their name) this contributes to a realistic harp sound. Many organ harp units use metal resonators, however, wooden resonators create a warmer, more convincing affect.
After the four big, dusty rows of mallets were removed, the crew had to remove the four rows of tuned plates and resonators, this was the tricky part! The rows of plates and resonators are much larger and heavier than the mallets! It was a hot day, no air condition, and these three guys had to take very heavy, 80-year-old, pneumatically powered equipment through a small opening from a cramped room in the ceiling! All for music! All for music!

Row # 1

Row # 2


Row # 3

And finally, row #5, the largest component of the harp.

Close up on resonators

Close up on tuned plates

More music to come!

2010-07-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

My ability as an organist is ever-improving. I see myself, and hear myself, improving more and more, faster and faster.

However, when I return to Bloomsburg from my two month stay in Indianapolis, I'm going to start focusing on some other kinds of musicianship as well. It's one thing to be proficient at playing great organ literature... but what is more important is to be proficient playing hymns, accompanying choirs, and working with the whole music program of a church. I'm not interested in being a concert organist; I want to be a church organist, a minister first, and a performer second.

With this in mind, in the coming months I am going to begin to participate in the bell choir at my church, play services more and more often, accompany the choir, and sing in the choir. My teacher and I agree that the best way to learn how best to accompany a choir is to sing in a choir!
I've been told to "look out!" because our Director, Mrs. Lapinski, is wanting to give me some "Serious choral training!". I'm very excited, I've always had an adoration and love for choral music of all periods and styles, and I've always marveled at how some of the greatest choirs in the world can be equally magnificent and polished in sound, but yet sound so remarkably different from one another!
I have a little over $400 left from my concert donations and I'm going to join the RSCMA as an independent member and I've already spoken with Mark Laubach, organist and director of choirs at Saint Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, about attending the RSCMA training course there in the Summer of 2011 (King's College Training Course).

I'm so excited thinking about all the ways I'll be growing as a musician in the next two years before I go to college! I am so blessed to belong to a wonderful congregation where the music staff isn't afraid to say "This'll do you good! You're in the choir now, no questions asked!", if only all churches could be such!
I will now be doing the following on a regular basis:

- Leading hymns for services on the organ
- Accompanying the choir on the organ and our Blüthner concert grand piano
- Singing in the choir
- Ringing in the bell choir
- Playing Introits, Offertories, and Postludes from time to time

I also hope to have at least one 90 minute solo organ concert this concert season, but my big goal is to have two. In addition to my own solo concert(s), I've spoken with a friend of mine, Robert Fertitta, about a 90 minute concert here in late Spring of 2011. Robert is a very esteemed organist who studied with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in France in 1972. Robert taught at the Purchase Conservatory for several decades.

It is my hope that as I learn and grow in the music program at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, I will help the music program to grow as well. I believe that both I and the music program itself will benefit from one another. I can't wait to see what we'll be doing my senior year of High School!

AGO members recital

2010-05-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of participating in an AGO members recital in Watsontown, PA. Nine organists, including myself, performed for an audience of about 32. The organ is a 23 rank, 32 stop Hook-Hastings rebuilt and tonally modified by Moller and later Parsons in 1995.

Here are some pictures from the event.

Above is the console to the 23 rank Hook-Hastings/Moller/Parsons organ. And to the right is the gorgeous organ case.

My Premier Recital was a total...

2010-04-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

...SUCCESS! My first professional organ recital, held on Sunday, 25 April 2010, went better than I could ever have hoped. We were expecting somewhere between 25 and 40 people to attend. About 90 were in attendance. We had a goal to raise $350 to pay the tuition for me to attend a POE in Indiana this summer, I didn't think we would raise half that. We raised over $700 in free-will donations. I thought I would make mistakes in every other pieces I played. I only made one little noticable mistake in the entire program.

It was one thing that there were so many people there, but it was just as wonderful to note who they were. My family was there of course, and my Great Aunt and Grandmother visiting from Vermont and Boston, respectively. People from the church were there, friends from school were there, other organists were there, the dean of our AGO chapter was there, total strangers were there! It was wonderful! Not only that, but no less than 24 of the attendees, over one fourth of the audience, was under 18. It made me so happy to see such young people attending such a concert and enjoying it so thoroughly!

I've already began practicing new repertoire in preperation for my next concert at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg. I've been working on Messiaen's 'Apparition de l'Eglise Eternelle', BWV 556, BWV 557, BWV 559, the big, grand Prelude and Fugue in D Major BWV 532, and am going to start work on Franck's 'Piece Heroique'. In the upcoming years, I hope to have several organ concerts each year.

My hope for these concerts is that they:

1. Enhance the music program at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg

2. Enhance the musical culture of the town of Bloomsburg

3. Provide great music for the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church and for the Community.

4. Help to raise money for the replacement of our pipe organ

5. Improve myself as a musician

This premier recital was an incredible start to what I believe will be a fruitful career as a musician, performer, and teacher.

My Premier Organ Concert

2010-04-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

I have finally set a date and time for my premier organ recital. I will be playing a program of Bach, Franck, Boellmann, and Messiaen at the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomsburg, PA at 3:00 on the 25th of April 2010. Admission is free and it should be great fun. There will be a free will offering to raise money for me to attend the POE at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music this summer. This POE will help me gain skills to become a better, more professional organist. With the help of the teachers at the Jacobs School of Music and the skills I will learn there, I hope to play numerous more concerts next year and in the succeeding years. It is my hope that through these concerts we may raise money for the eventual replacement of our pipe organ at the First Presbyterian Church. It is also my hope that I may enlighten a few people to the glorious music of the organ.
Thanks for reading!

Future Organist

2010-03-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

My sister wants to learn to play the organ too now! We're going to have to get her piano lessons! Here she is seated at the 27 rank Estey-Fritzsche pipe organ at our church in Bloomsburg.

The New Piano has arrived!

2008-09-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

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!