Bach on the Organ - I'm doing it!

admin · Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject: Bach on the Organ - I'm doing it!

I FINALLY am music director at a church that has a real pipe organ and loves Bach. I've been taking organ lessons for about three months now to learn the stops and pedals and I just started a couple weeks ago playing Bach for the church services. It's fantastic!

Well.......ok....it's a LOT of work and I have a long way to go. Been sticking to the simpler pieces, the Prelude and Fugue in C major and P&F in A minor, etc. But what a fantastic experience it is.

I played the Toccata and Fugue in D minor last week, with slight edits for the monstrous foot work, and it went great. That's kind of a concert piece with the full stops pulled out.

Today I did the Prelude and Fugue in A minor using just a single flute patch. It was very intimate and beautiful. If you are studying organ, I encourage you to try some pieces using only single stops. It makes for such a dramatic switch when you start adding to it for other pieces.

LONG LIVE BACH!
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ty8131990 · Tadpole Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 23

Does the Church organ happen to be a Silbermann's organ...? That would be AWESOME!

mroyivvi · Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject: amen

I have been playing the piano for about 8 years and got into the organ a year ago at college (Westmont in Santa Barbara). My Junior Recital found me on the piano, harpsichord, and organ where I did Hindemith, A. Gabrieli, and Pachelbel on the organ on a big pipe organ. So this summer I got to play the organ at a little Baptist church. It's a humble little electric Rodgers organ, but a full pedal board and a congregation that gets to hear Bach though they all leave really quickly at the postlude so I have no idea if they enjoy it. I'm sure God enjoys it and that's good enough. So I've been doing the easy Bach's too! (That's what I've been trying to get to this whole time, sorry.) I learned the F major at college, and added to it this summer the D minor (great dramatic prelude!), the G minor and soon the Bb major. I really want to learn all of them.
Are you getting to any of the bigger Bach pieces? It's intimidating when the page turns keep coming and you're just still trying to get the two hand parts right on the first page.
I'm also getting into Pachelbel (who did actually write more than that canon) and Gordon Young for the more recent. My Buxtehude book is coming by the end of next week.
Keep up the Bach. Sometimes it seems like it's not worth it to kill yourself for something and then people are just chatting during your blood-and-sweat prepared Prelude. But there's something worshipful about unnoticed excellence, humbling. Keep up the Bach. He worshiped well.