Nashville Pipe Organ Encounters |
| Greetings From Nashville (POE/POE+)(LONG)
This is for my fellow Pipe Organ Lovers, The Festival Evening Prayer service started with the Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor {BWV 565] as the Prelude played by Dr. Murray Somerville, Choirmaster and Organist at St. George's Episcopal Church. |
| Nashville POE and PLUS Part Two Tonight was the POE faculty concert with Marilyn Keiser, Doug Cleveland, Tom Trenney and Cherry Rhodes. Concert was enthusiastically received and resulted in a hearty cheer and the "wave" in appreciation at the finish. More on that later. Our first full day started Monday with a lesson on "Meeting the Organ" presented by Jennie Lou Smith, who is a Nashville resident, has a private organ and piano studio and is a graduate of Scarritt College and familiar with the Casavant organ in the Chapel. Since POE and POE+ events are geared to the student who may be a total novice regarding the pipe organ, the week starts from ground zero with a lesson on what makes up the pipe organ instrument, such as what is a console, stops, pipes, chests, blower, manuals, and so on. The 2/32 Casavant tracker organ (1970) was used as a vehicle for this lesson. The organ was demonstrated by Vincent Dubois with the J.S. Bach Prelude and Fugue in D major. The rest of the morning was devoted to practice and private lessons. The activities I am describing where for the POE+ participants. The POE participants had similar activities and workshops in the mornings and lessons and practice in the afternoons. In the afternoon we departed for Franklin, Tn where Angela Tipps, organist and director of music at St. Pauls Episcopal Church in Murfreesboro, Tn and Adjunct Music Instructor at Middle Tennessee State University, conducted a workshop on hymn playing. The workshop was conducted at St. Paul's Episcopal Church 1974 Schantz Organ, 2m, 12 rks and First Presbyterian, Milnar Organ, 2m 16 rks (1994) originally built by Delaware, 1978. The lesson focused on ways to make hymns more interesting by varying introductions, registrations during verses and so on. She also discussed a method for handling repeating notes in the various vocal parts. We returned to Nashville for a workshop with Marilyn Keiser, Chancellor's Professor at Indiana University at the Belmont Heights Baptist Church for a Master Class on Service playing. This also focused on ways to make the organ playing during the service parts more meaning full and interesting. We returned to Belmont University for dinner and a Carillon demonstration and tour by Richard Shaddinger, Carilloneur and professor of music at Belmont University. The tower has its' second set of bells after the dismal failure of the use of an electronic substitute. After dinner was the second "Nashville Pipe Organ Festival Event" at the Belmont United Methodist Church, 1988 4m, 70 rank M.P.Moller organ with a concert by Felix Hell. I need not tell anyone familiar with Felix's performances that his concerts are akin to a audio fireworks display. Big numbers with much precision and passion. All the concerts this week are presented by guest faculty members. Felix has been very much in evidence mingling with the POE students and sharing their mutual passions for the pipe organ. His program was designed to help express that mutual passion and also have some fun as "I've been work'n on the railroad managed to sneak into a pedal line in his encore number. In future postings I will avoid commenting on the quality of the programs as everyone of these faculty guest artists are fantastic performers. Here is the Felix Hell Program: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue in G Major [BWV 541] "Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme" [BWV 645] Trio Sonata No. 6, G Major [BWV 530] Charles Marie Widor (1844-19160 Symphony V, op. 42, no. 1 I. Allegro vivace II. Allegro cantabile Max Reger (1873-1916) Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H Intermission Wolgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Fantasy in F minor, KV 608 Samuel Barber (arranged by William Stickland) (1910-1981) Adagio for Strings Felix-Andre Guilmant (1837-1937) Sonata No. in D Minor, op. 42 Introduction et Allegro Pastorale Final Encore with embellishments Today was our last full day. Tomorrow morning is the POE student recital and then it is homeward bound. I will finish relating our activities from the rest of the week when I'm back in Illinois. Perhaps someone who attended the POE can fill us in on what they did on their separate schedule regards, Jon |
| Nashville Pipe Organ Encounter Part 3 I cannot say enough about what great events are Pipe Organ Encounters I stated earlier that Nashville was the place for pipe organ this last week. I am not forgetting the OHS Convention was also last week, but the Encounters are a much different, OHS Conventions are wonderful events to see and hear terrific historical instruments played by first class artists. Pipe Organ Encounters are primarily intended for teen musicians as a hands on experience with coaching by the best in concert artists and church musicians. To be a participant rather than just an observer. Each participant is given an hour lesson each day and an hour of practice time. The Nashville AGO had two Encounters, one for teens and the other for adults. There were some shared events, but for the most part there were separate workshops geared to the particular group. The first evening the events were shared. Throughout the Week there were numerous opportunities for open console. The first fill day was Monday the 11th. I previously reported on the days activities for The POE PLUS students (adults) and will regress to give you and idea of the activities for both groups. The teens will be referred to as POE and the adults as PLUS. Monday:: Breakfast at Belmont University Both groups go to Scarit-Benett Chapel for lesson introducing the organ with Jennie Lou Smith providing information on the various components of the pipe organ. The case of the 3m/32 rank Casavant tracker was open for observation of the operation of the mechanical action. PLUS Students depart for lessons and practice POE students: 9:45 AM-11:30 Technique Building and How to Practice/How to Start a Piece (Gayle Sullivan, Teacher) POE and PLUS 12 Noon Lunch at Belmont UMC POE 12:45 PM Depart for Lessons POE 1:30PM Lessons and Practice PLUS: Workshops in Franklin TN with Angela Tipps POE and PLUS: 4:30 Master Class at Belmont HTS. Baptist Church on service playing Marilyn Keiser- teacher POE and PLUS: Return to Belmont University for Carillon demontstation and tour Richard Shadinger, Carilloneur, dinner served on the patio under the Carillon tower during the concert POE and PLUS: 7;30 Concert by Felix Hell at the Belmont United Methodist Church (the program was posted in an earlier report) open console followed the concert The next report will cover the activities of both groups for Tuesday and Wednesday regards, Jon |
| Nashville Pipe Organ Encounters Part 4 The Nashville Chapter of AGO took on a challenging project by hosting two Pipe Organ Encounters this July?a POE for teens and a POE+ for adults. Many of the events were shared by both groups, but during the day the groups went in different directions. The activities of the teen group will be indicated by POE, the adults by PLUS and shared events by ALL. On Tuesday July 12 All: Breakfast at Gabhart Student Center, Belmont University POE: Classes at Belmont United Methodist Church (4m 70 rk Moller) Hymn Playing- Angela Tipps teacher Improvisation-Doug Murray teacher PLUS: Lessons and Practice All: 12 noon Lunch at Belmont United Methodist Church POE: Lessons and Practice PLUS:Workshop at Calvary United Methodist Church (3m 40 rk Schantz) Organ Registration-Ken Stein teacher ALL: First Presbyterian Church-Franklin (3m 74 rank Beckrath) Organ Master Class-Cherry Rhodes All: Dinner at Brentwood United Methodist Church followed by open console before concert 7:30 Pipe Organ Encounters and Nashville Summer Pipe Organ Festival Concert with Tom Trenney accompanying the original Lon Chaney Silent film classic ?Phantom of the Opera? on the Brentwood UMC 4m 86rank 1988 Moller pipe organ. Hearing this film accompanied on a large classical instrument is a thrilling experience. Most theatre pipe organs were usually less than 20 ranks and contained mainly solo voices which meant they could not provide the huge ensemble effect of a large classical organ. This is not meant to denigrate theatre instruments, they were designed to provide a variety of tasks including accompanying 2 reel comedies with all the requisite sound effects, feature films and often vaudeville acts. POE: swimming party at the Y PLUS: Party at a AGO member residence. Wednesday July 13 All: Breakfast at Belmont University POE: Lessons and Practice PLUS: Organ crawl in downtown Nashville Christ Church Cathedral (3m 60 rank 2003 Lively-Fulcher Organ) First Baptist Church- (4m 59 rank 1970 Schantz Organ) Downtown Presbyterian-(I could not find the information on this organ in the handbook?it is originally an Austin organ enlarged by Milnar pipe organs with the addition of a Great Positive?the Swell and Choir are on the Austin original Universal windchest) This was the highpoint of the organ tour. The church sanctuary is a Nuevo Egyptian décor was has been carefully restored to its? original appearance. A guided tour inside of the Universal Windchest was provided by local organbuilder Dennis Milnar. Class: Improvisation workshop with Polly Brecht (teacher) PLUS: Lunch on their own in downtown Nashville POE: Lunch and visit to Milnar Pipe Organ shop PLUS: Lessons and Practice POE: Dinner at St. Andrews Lutheran PLUS: Dinner at Belmont University ALL: POE and Nashville Summer Pipe Organ Festival at St. George?s Episcopal Church with French organists Vincent Dubois and Olivier Huett. Both the young French artists teach in conservatories in Paris and Dijon respectively. They are fantastic at the keyboard with both conventional music and improvisations. Their final selection was improvisation with Vincent improvising on the theme of the French National Anthem (in honor of Bastille Day- July 14th) and Olivier on the theme of the American National Anthem)?the two improvisations were back to back with seamless transition with Olivier taking over on the manual as Vincent slipped off the bench and continued until Olivier completely. The themes were given to them an introduction to the improvisation. The Program at St. George's (3m 85 rank 1986 Casavant) Fantaisie and Fugue in g minor J. S. Bach Vincent Dubois Vincent Dubois |
| Nashville Pipe Organ Encounters Part 5 (Long) The Nashville Chapter of AGO took on a challenging project by hosting two Pipe Organ Encounters this July,a POE for teens and a POE+ for adults. Many of the events were shared by both groups, but during the day the groups went in different directions. The activities of the teen group will be indicated by POE, the adults by PLUS and shared events by ALL. As part of the Pipe Organ Encounters Week the AGO also sponsored the "The Nashville Summer Pipe Organ Festival" open to the public as a gift to the people of Nashville and there was no admission charge. Here is a link to the AGO Nashville Summer Pipe Organ Festival poster: http://www.nashvilleago.org/pdfs/SummerOrganPoster.pdf There are two site to visit for pictures of the Pipe Organ Encounters week. AGO site: http://www.nashvilleago.org/poe_pix.htm Encounter Plus site: http://opus1100.catoe.org/gallery/index.php This will be my last report on the Organ Encounters and will be a little on the long side. A few comments before I list the last days schedules and organ programs. The days schedules give little insight into the value of the events. Starting with the introduction to the organ which gave an glimpse of what comprises a pipe organ along with basic nomenclature. The use of a tracker to demonstrate the mechanics of organ action and later the organ tour of the Austin chest gave us an understanding of how the organ works which I am sure was new to many of us. Cherry Rhodes' master class in which POE students and POE+ students participated was great, Cherry Rhodes' enthusiasm and supportive comments was a very positive thing for the young organists. It was not a critical review but rather some insight on how they could make their performances even better. Along with this was some interesting insights on what is needed to effective present music on and this unique type of keyboard instrument. Adjusting note duration for emphasis was one of the areas discussed. Ken Stein presented an interesting lesson on organ registration focusing on the harmonic make-up of organ stops. I came away with a better understanding of mixtures than I had previously. One point which was stressed in several lectures including Ken?s was the importance of taking time to take an listening inventory of the stops in the organ throughout the complete range of each stop. A stop you may not like in the mid-range may have tones in lower or upper ranges which are much nicer and by adjusting where you play in can have some very pleasant results and also give you a greater variety of sounds from a small instrument. Polly Brecht's lesson on improvisation stressed that the organ should always provide a meaningful addition to the worship service, even when filling during seating of late worshippers or other interludes. By improvising on meaningful music provides this effect. She suggested drawing on things from your music theory to help accomplish this, for transitions and to try playing in different modes Daryl Miller provided some useful information to enhance your music repertoire. With the exception of the Master-class these comments pertained to lessons given to the POE Plus group. From the schedule you can see that the POE (teens) had similar lessons which were tailored more to their needs. The Plus group was primarily made up of active church musicians, and some university organ performance students. Although I was most likely the least advanced in the group as a beginning organ student, I found all the sessions interesting and informative with things I know I will find useful in the future. Thanks for Ron Anderson of Rockford we have the following information: "One thing you left out however was the first church visited by us adults in Franklin, Tenn. for the afternoon workshop. It was the Historic Presbyterian Church housing a Schoenstein organ. This was the original site before certain members decided to build a new church further out of town and name it First Presbyterian Church - the THIRD stop we made. Also, the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville - a national historic landmark - was the original site until certain members left for Oak Hills and formed their own congregation at what is now First Presbyterian Church - site of Tuesday's Masterclass with Cherry Rhodes (and my organ lessons). Beckrath Organ: http://www.fpcnashville.org/Organ.htm Yes, there were some fifty churches participating during last week's activities. I counted 15 churches that I got to visit and hear the organs. In the August issue of TAO, mention was made that the APOBA ( Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America) donated $20,000 toward expenses shared by the seven Pipe Organ Encounters this summer. Mentioned also was the fact that as a result of such Encounters the last few decades, many aspiring students of the organ have enrolled in college and university programs. From what we've witnessed, these events and others like them demonstrate that the organ can function in more than one setting, and that with talent and perseverance the possibilities are endless. In my hometown, we have an annual Pipe Spectacular Concert featuring the different roles of the organ as played by AGO members, a Halloween Concert featuring spooky music and costumed performers, and member and guest recitals, workshops on service playing and repertoire, a children's choral festival, and other non-AGO performance opportunities." Milnar Organ Co.'s webpage: http://www.milnarorgan.com/home.htm under "links" has a listing of chat rooms.. Also, Nashville AGO's webpage http://www.nashvilleago.org/ has a fascinating history of the local chapter" Our thanks to Ron for the above information.
Tom Trenney |