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How "improvisational" is an organ improvisation really?

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amateurorganist

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How "improvisational" is an organ improvisation really?

PostFri Jul 05, 2013 10:30 am

Do you possess this special skill. I can meander (doodle!) for a few minutes in a service but it's not something I would share in a recital or a recording (or to do in a service to be quite frank!)

How do you 'work out' your improvisations? Is it based on truly what comes into your head at the time? Or do you work it out in advance? Or do you have set structures you follow?

Is it a skill you have developed yourself or did you have tuition to learn it?

I am in absolute awe in some of the French organists such as Daniel Roth and Olivier Latry who can do this masterfully. The legendary Pierre Cochereau was famous for his improvisations.

What advice would you give for someone wanting to improve their improvisational skills? :)
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ldeutsch

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Re: How "improvisational" is an organ improvisation really?

PostFri Jul 05, 2013 9:26 pm

I was fortunate to have studied with a teacher from the French school - himself a student of Marcel Dupre. Improvisation was part of my lesson plan. I was drilled in playing chord progressions in all keys and in getting from one key to another on demand. I was also taught to fill out harmonies in the French style. This was a part of every organ lesson for many years.

My teacher had also worked as a theater organist, helping to pay for his lessons while he was in Paris in the 30s. Clearly theater organists improvise a great deal, so classical organ improvisation always seemed natural to me.

When I used to play for a church, I would sometimes improvise preludes or postludes. In some cases, I would use a hymn tune that was being sung in the service as a theme. In most of these cases, I would run through possible things I might do in advance at home - but the real-time performance was always spontaneous.

In both church and synagogue work, I would often improvise short transitional pieces or meditations on demand. There is no way I could have enough sheet music with me (and find it fast enough) to get through such situations, so this method is extremely practical.

Many of the big organ works we perform also began life as improvisations.

Because the organ is most often played by itself (I am excluding choral pieces here) it is an ideal platform for improvisation.

Les
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johnstump_organist

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Re: How "improvisational" is an organ improvisation really?

PostSun Jul 07, 2013 9:59 pm

I had lessons with Gerre Hancock and some master classes with Paul Manz and P.C. before he died.
In addition I spent many years just working on the skill on my own which involved preparing some ideas ahead of time on the hymn tunes for that weekend using a variety of standard fill in the blank forms until eventually I could come up with something with no prep time. When I was at my best as an improvisor I did include an improve on my recital programs, but I limited the possible themes to be submitted to hymn or chant tunes.
If you want to get started studying on your own, a great introductory book is Jan Bender's book.
"Organ improvisation for beginners". It is pretty much hymn tuned based improvisation techniques.
http://www.amazon.com/Organ-Improvisati ... 0570013127

John
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MikeDC

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Re: How "improvisational" is an organ improvisation really?

PostMon Jul 08, 2013 4:35 pm

Just hit the tutti button and play really fast! Or at least that's what you typically see on YouTube. :wink:

It's really an art whose difficulty to master is far underestimated in my opinion.

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