Category: Improvisation

And I have begun another series of evening improvisations.  This series will focus on one particular idea: the timbre of an individual stop.  The original Evening Improvisations, a series of (hopefully) avant-garde experimentations on my part, was trying to explore instruments in interesting ways.  What it lacks, in my opinion, is a more precise and exacting exploration.

There was one improv that I posted that used particular stops for their timbral qualities.  I really liked this as an experiment and I thought it would be interesting to explore it further.  So here is my second series of Evening Improvisations and I have taken it to the next level: each improv coming in this series will only involve one stop.

The only thing I think I want to explain about the improv is that it centers around the pitch E flat. There are some really excellent moments throughout and it being under 4 minutes makes it listenable.

This is the final improvisation for the “Evening Improvisation” series.  It is loud, a bit obnoxious, and was totally fun to play.  It has some elements similar to the earlier cluster-percussion improvisation, but from a different angle.  Specifically, there is a nearly continuous tremolo cluster in the pedals.  The feet are usually playing a chord that is accentuated by the hands.  I actually found this to be quite technically challenging.  And I will be honest, it has got me thinking that I might write a series of etudes for organ!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Almost that is.  And if you’re in the US (hi Canadian and non-US friends!).  I have sat on a few improvisations that I was not too crazy about from a recording session at Duquesne’s Chapel with the new organ.  I decided this week that I would head back in and try again.  To explain: my goal with the Evening Improvisations was twelve total recordings.  Six from the Monastery, and six elsewhere, Rice and Duquesne.  That plan was built as I was making recordings and in my mind, make a nice cycle.  It happens though, that I become unhappy with a product and feel the need to go back and start over.

In this case, over the weekend, I played for the Retreat Center side of the Monastery as my counterpart was out ill.  Part of their format includes two evening prayers where I get to improvise a long prelude to the service.  This improvisation was born out of one of those evenings.  It starts, as I often like to do, with a collection of harmonic inspired pitches and builds from there.  Unlike the electronic Rogers, the chapel organ has much more timbre to explore.  And unlike the service, I let it get a bit more dissonant.

 

Now that school is back in full swing, I have had a few moments to capture another recording.  Since the first six Evening Improvisations were at St. Paul of the Cross Monastery Church and the next three were at Rice, I knew it was time to make a recording on the new Jaeckel Organ at Duquesne’s Chapel.  Installation of the organ was completed last summer but I never really thought to swing by there and make a recording.  It is quite the unique instrument with aesthetics based on the writings of Charles Tournemire.

That all being said, after the visit to Houston, I knew this needed to happen.  The Monastery organ is not the best, though I am very fond of it.  For the exploration of different sorts of effects, having different instruments is necessary.  In the case of this improvisation, only 16′ stops were employed: 16′ Quintaton, 16′ Bourdon, and 16′ Soubasse for the pedals.  Only at the very end is the 32’added (I also use the thud from an earlier improvisation too).  The harmonics from the Quintaton that appear are really cool!

The last of the three improvisations I recorded at Rice is unlike the previous entries in that it is tonal. Or at least within the confines of scale.  To be completely honest about the recordings, they are actually from a second night of recording rather than my first go at the instrument.  The card in the recorder ran out of space on the first night and I went back for a second go at some of my original improvisations.  It is an interesting exercise to recreate an improvisational idea that was completely spontaneous with a new instrument.  I suspect that my first attempt was better, but this is what I captured in a recording.

The eighth Evening Improvisation incorporates something a little fun for me as the performer.  Organists have added elements outside of the notes of the keyboard.  Nicolaus Bruhns was well known for accompanying himself with his feet while playing the violin.  So why not do the same?  It’s pretty easy to figure out what I’ve added and having time on the organ at Rice makes it all that more fun.

Sometimes my own excitement gets the better of me.  I say that because the last post was of the brilliant organ at Rice University.  If you follow the numbers though, I went from Evening Improvisation 5 to Evening Improvisation 7.  And here is the 6th Evening Improvisation from St. Paul’s Monastery in Pittsburgh.

I have mentioned in previous posts that I find it wonderfully challenging to improvise on a single sound for as long as possible – liturgically, it can be fairly doable.  This video contains three individual improvisations, something akin to movements using three different timbral combinations.  I originally was going to use them separately but I recorded them at the same time and felt that they made a nice suite.  Here’s the order:

I. Mutations

II. Flutes (2:13)

III. Reeds (5:13)

 

Last week I was in Houston for the AGO National Convention and what a blast.  In the coming posts, I will include a recording of the Bayoubüchlein piece performance from the convention.  It will not be the actual performance from the convention as the recordings are exclusive to the convention.  That is an aside though to today’s post!  Because I arrived in Houston a few days early, I was able to get into Rice’s amazing organ recital hall and have a go at their magnificent instrument.

This particular improvisation should be reminiscent of an earlier improvisation where I treated the organ as a percussion instrument.  The Fisk/Rosales organ at Rice is a tracker which allows for a different sort of treatment in its percussive qualities.  I do think the improvisation lacks an awareness of all the subtleties of the instrument – I did only have a few hours after all.  My favorite moment though happens around the 2:45 mark when it sounds like something just fell on the ground.  The next several posts will be more improvisations from this most excellent instrument.