It has been quite some time since I have presented multiple liturgical improvisations in my blog. A lot of that has to do with the gradual, but fairly dramatic deterioration of the organ at the monastery I use to work at (check out that improvisation here; it’s really noisy as the organ by that point was leaking so much air it was hard to get the recording to sound decent). The other piece is that I use to improvise five to nine liturgies over a weekend which leads to A LOT of improvising. Now it is a single service on a Sunday morning – not that I’m complaining by any means! Just a data point about the number of improvisations I have to choose from in a weekend.
BUT over the weekend of May 14th, 2023, also known in the US as a secular holiday as Mother’s Day! I implore you to check out the history of Mother’s Day as it’s a holiday I am typically NOT enthusiastic for, but this year something really struck me. There are a handful of projects that I’m still in the middle of (go check out the “Arranger” label on my IMSLP) but today’s improvisations will likely turn into one of those things. I’ve been working to arrange music by women and BIPOC composers and it occurred to me that my mother has a whole bunch of music in the public domain just waiting to be arranged!
Well, due to it being May and being tired from the end of the semester (and Easter), I decided to improvise on them rather than arrange them. When I prepare an improvisation like this I like to take pieces and aspects from the works to create the material. Granted, the material I was drawing from was simple (but excellent) music for beginning orchestra which meant that I needed to find ways to elaborate it and draw it out to a work for organ. The prelude was not too hard to elaborate on – I took a Satie-like approach to it. The toccata used the main melody as the toccata theme and I pulled the pedals from melodies found in other places in the piece. I had a lot of fun taking my mom’s music and turning it into something for the organ: be on the lookout for them to be turned into full fledged pieces on IMSLP! In the meantime, enjoy these Mother’s Day improvisations: