Category Archives: Newsletter

Twenty ways to improvise on a hymn

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As this issues is number twenty in the series of newsletters, I thought I’d offer a simple and practical list of twenty ways to practice a hymn that you can make part of your regular routine. Depending upon your experience level, some of these might be considered warm-up exercises while others will hopefully help you expand your improvisational toolbox. While I typically only give hymn melodies on the website here, I’m writing this list with the presumption that you have a four-part harmonization in front of you, so break open the hymnal and get started!

  1. Transpose the hymn to all the other major or minor keys.
  2. Play the hymn in other modes: change major to minor (or vice versa). Try Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian (coming this Friday) as well.
  3. Invert the soprano and alto parts. (If this is your first effort at doing this, don't worry about parallel fifths for this or any of the other exercises on this list. Simply play the notes on the page.)
  4. Play the melody in the tenor (left hand) with the right hand playing the alto and tenor parts up an octave. Play the bass either with the left hand or pedals.
  5. Play the melody in the tenor(left hand) with the right hand playing the tenor part above the alto part. Again the bass can be played with the left hand or pedals.
  6. Use an 8' stop in the pedal to play the melody in the tenor register. Play the bass with the left hand while the right hand fills in from the tenor and alto parts.
  7. Play through the hymn harmonizing each melody note as each of the following functions: tonic of a major chord, tonic of a minor chord, third of a major chord, third of a minor chord, fifth of a major chord, fifth of a minor chord, tonic of an augmented chord, tonic of a diminished seventh chord. (See Issue #7 for an example.)
  8. Rather than applying one type of chord throughout the entire hymn, choose a numeric sequence (such as 1-3-5, all in major) and follow the same idea as above. You could also follow a more complicated sequence, such as 1M-3m-5M-1m-3M-5m. While the progressions might not make much sense harmonically, this will help you think and shift between keys quicker.
  9. Play the melody as a two-voice canon at the distance of one note, a half-measure, and a full measure. Each of these canons can be practiced starting with the right hand, left hand or pedal creating six different combinations for each distance.
  10. Choosing the distance than works best, play through the canons again, but at different melodic intervals.
  11. Play a monophonic variation arpeggiating the chords in triplets or sixteenth notes. Be sure and try different figurations where the melody note is not always the first note of the arpeggio.
  12. Create a duo where the top voice is the melody and the bottom voice plays eighth notes (two notes for every melody note).
  13. Create a duo where the top voice is the melody and the bottom voice plays triplets (three notes for every melody note).
  14. Create a duo where the top voice is the melody and the bottom voice plays sixteenth notes (four to one).
  15. Repeat steps 12 to 14 with the melody in the lower voice and the more active voice above the melody.
  16. Repeat 12 to 14 but rather than ornament the bass, ornament the melody. Instead of a duo, you may choose to play the full ATB harmony as in the hymnal as the accompaniment.
  17. Create echo passages by changing manuals (or registration) and repeating short sections of phrases, i.e. for a two-measure phrase, repeat the second measure, and then repeat the last half-measure again.
  18. Change the meter from duple to triple (or vice versa). How many different ways can you shift the meter? For example, one measure of four can become two measures of three or one measure of three.
  19. Change the meter to 5/4, 7/8 or some other odd (but consistent) meter.
  20. Improvise a toccata following the plan from the newsletter sign-up handout!

Many of these steps can be done at the piano and do not require a significant chunk of time, so I encourage you to practice as many of them as often as you can. If you can’t practice all twenty daily, choose as many as you can and practice them for twenty days and then move on to another set. Slowly over time, your improvisational skills will grow.

May your improvisations be better each day,
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 20 – 2014 09 15
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Learning Modes Two

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I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
― Pablo Picasso

Last week we looked at the Dorian Mode. In addition to proposing some exercises to help you practice it, I mentioned how we each have a preferred sensory method for learning, either visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), or kinetic (touching). As musicians, there would seem to be a bias towards learning through listening, however I know I am a strong visual learner: if I try to play a piece I know from a different edition of the score, it feels like I’m learning it all over again! I’ve always known that one of the greatest hurdles to improvising is the the fear of not having a score on the music stand, but perhaps that’s related to a person’s learning mode more than not knowing what to play? Which mode do you favor when learning music? Is it different from how you might learn other subjects?

Global or Detail

Are you a big picture person? How closely do you pay attention to details? If you are giving directions on how to get somewhere for someone, how much detail do you provide: general guidance (left at the end of the street, then left at the third light) or turn by turn instructions with descriptive landmarks (left when the road ends at the airport, through three lights, crossing route 50, turning left on Maguire after passing the mall before entering the next subdivision)?

I recognize that my first approach to an area is from the big picture perspective. You can call this “Ready, Fire, Aim.” (There’s even a book by this title: Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat about building a business this way!) Want to learn to improvise? Start by sitting down at the bench and playing. Next step, refine what you played into something better. This is how to get over that first hurdle of playing without a score in front of you. The big picture viewpoint to to simply start playing something. Afterwards, we aim for improvement and choose a direction to focus our attention.

The detail oriented perspective requires more preparation. For example:

  1. Choose a mode to learn (Phrygian)
  2. Play the tonic of the mode in the lowest octave of the pedal on soft 16′ & 8′ stops
  3. Play a quarter note ostinato pattern with the left hand on soft 8′ foundations – perfect fourths with the top note melody being E-F-G-F.
  4. Finally add a melody on a solo stop played by the right hand.
  5. Begin the melody on something other than tonic. Create a four measure phrase before arriving at tonic.
  6. Create a second four measure phrase that contrasts with the first phrase.
  7. Conclude by repeating the first phrase.

See the example below for a sample start following the detailed instructions above:

PhrygianOstinatoStart

In some ways, the detailed approach can provide more success, but it also leaves less room for creativity. What happens when we play a note outside the mode with our right hand? Do we stop? Is that instantly a bad improvisation? Do we brand ourselves a failure and never improvise again? Of course not! Sometimes a little slip can focus our attention and help us move into flow making an even better overall performance!

Teaching and Learning

The best teachers are able to meet the student where he or she is and open doorways to new areas of learning, providing the right amount of detail to enable the student to step through those doorways. In the end though, it is up to the student to step through the doorway. Are you practicing your improvisation skills? Are the instructions I am providing detailed enough for you or are they too general? What else can I do to help you become a better improviser? If these posts are helpful, please sign-up for the newsletter or take a moment to let me know more about you and your interests in improvisation by leaving a comment below. The more I know about you, the more useful this newsletter and website will become.

Whether working from generic or detailed plans, hoping all your improvisations are masterful,
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 19 – 2014 09 08
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Learning Modes

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“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
― Pablo Picasso

Learning to do something requires us to step beyond our comfort zone. Just as hearing someone describe a watermelon to you will not allow you to taste it, reading about improvisation does not allow you to become an improviser. At some point, it is essential to sit down at the keyboard and, as Nike encourages us, “Just do it.”

How to Learn

Some people learn best by watching someone else do the task first. Others need to hear someone give an example. This is one of the reasons why I include YouTube videos at organimprovisation.com. While all of the videos provide auditory examples, when I am searching for videos to include, I will give a preference for those where you can see the player’s hands at the keyboard as well. I know from my own personal experience that it has been very helpful in my learning process to be able to see exactly how someone is creating the sounds that I am hearing. The organ offers so many different sound combinations and such complex sounds (through the use of mixtures and other upper work), that a quick glance to see where the hands are at the keyboard can settle many questions that the ear might have posed. I remember even my teacher peering around the corner once after I had been asked to improvise with my left hand and feet alone. I’m sure he was checking to make sure I didn’t slip my right hand into the texture!

Some people also learn best by touch. You can explain to them and show them, but until they can use their hands and do it for themselves, their learning will be incomplete. For me, this is where scales, arpeggios, cadences and other progression exercises help train us as improvisers. Any one who has ever memorized a piece of music is familiar with the idea of muscle memory. We need to find ways to train and take advantage of this muscle memory when we improvise as well. Knowing our muscles know where to go next frees up brain power for us to focus on form or any of the other elements we need to consider as improvisers.

Modes

As a young piano student, I learned to play all the major and minor scales, along with arpeggios, chords and cadences. These drills helped build technique and were my introduction to harmonic theory. If you have not learned to play scales, arpeggios, chords and cadences (I-IV-I-V-I) in all the keys, I strongly urge you to do so. While I have most often done these at the piano, we shouldn’t forget to practice them with our feet as well. Go as slowly as you need to in order to play accurately, then you can work for speed.

While the major and minor scales are part of most every musician’s formation, other modes are frequently omitted or only touched briefly. As an improviser, I believe the more tools we have in our toolbox, the better we will be prepared to improvise on any given theme. For this reason, I’d like to recommend spending some time getting to know other modes as well as we know the major and minor modes.

Dorian Mode

As mode number one in the codification of the church modes used for Gregorian chant, I’d like to start with the Dorian Mode. It differs from the natural minor scale by having a raised sixth degree.

DorianMode

Rather than playing minor scales this week when you practice, how about playing the Dorian mode? Be sure you can play the mode starting from each of the different pitches. If you need to verify or want to have a reminder in front of you, I prepared a pdf that you can download here.

Aside from scales, here are a few other ways to practice and learn the Dorian mode:

  1. Play the same arpeggios, chords and cadences that you would play when practicing a major or minor scale.
  2. Practice any other technical exercises that you might normally do (Czerny or Hanon for example) in the Dorian mode.
  3. Change the key signature for a hymn to the equivalent Dorian mode signature. This will be easiest with hymns that have no accidentals, but you could also try with more complicated hymns.
  4. Create melodies in the Dorian mode. Be sure to include the scale degrees that make it different from the natural minor so that you can learn to hear the difference.
  5. Practice the Dorian mode in different keys by playing a pedal point on the tonic and chords or melodies with the hands. After 1-2 minutes, change the pedal point and tonic to a new key.

What else can we do to get the Dorian mode into our ears and fingers?

In the coming weeks, I plan to include posts about other modes on the website, explaining how they are constructed and identifying themes that are in the mode. All of the suggestions for the Dorian mode today can be (and should be) applied for each of the other modes that will be presented in the weeks to come. Part of creating colorful improvisations is the ability to use different modes. Regardless of how you might choose to go about learning the modes, be sure to find a way to include them in your improviser’s toolbox.

Hoping you will venture into new territory in order to learn more,
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 18 – 2014 09 01
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The Sound of Silence

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“There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.”
― John Cage

“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”
– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

As improvisers, we most often are concerned with creating sounds to fill a certain amount of time (just as I did with a passacaglia during communion in Aix). We endeavor to create something coherent and colorful enough to be interesting to us and the listener. Often, this will mean playing a barrage of notes that might fill the time, but do they make music?

Interest

Music flows through constant shifts in tension and release. If there is too much consonance, then there is nothing to propel the piece forward. Too much dissonance simply becomes a different level of musical saturation. Why are people who have trouble sleeping encouraged to use a white noise generator in order to sleep? Because the higher level of background noise allows other sounds to fade into the cloud of white noise where they will not disturb the person’s sleep! Why do most people find twelve-tone music uninteresting? The equal treatment of the pitches turns them into “white noise” with no cycle of tension and release to hold the listener’s attention.

Silence can be scary

While I was out running with my marathon training group this week, the conversation turned to horror films. Good film music reinforces the moods and emotions of the scenes. We know something bad is about to happen when the music shifts into some dark, minor key and slows down. The person I was speaking with also pointed out how she becomes afraid when the music stops. The silence can actually build the tension by leaving the viewer (listener) hanging, waiting for whatever will happen next. When the music stops, it’s a cue for the listener to become afraid.

As improvisers, creating the music, I think often times we are afraid of the silence. Perhaps we’ve been trained by too many horror movies that something bad will happen after the silence, but I believe silence is a tool that we need to learn to master just as we master harmony and counterpoint. Silence can be restful, providing relaxation from the tension that came before, or it can be suspenseful, creating a rise in expectations of what is to come.

Simplicity

If complete silence seems a little too scary for you, I encourage you to thin out the texture. Charles Tournemire writes numerous passages in L’Orgue Mystique where only a single melody line is playing. He even ends movements this way!
TournemireSolo

(The end of II. Offertoire, In Assumptione B.V.M., L’Orgue Mystique, n. 35)

Just because we have two hands and two feet does not mean that we need to play notes constantly with all of them. Why not let each rest in turn? How little accompaniment can you be comfortable playing and will your structure support? Rather than just letting your foot rest on a pedal point, what if you added some rests and so instead of playing a series of tied whole notes, simply played a quarter note on the down beat of every bar?

PedalPointSilences
If an accompanying chord sustains for multiple beats, do you really need to simply hold it for full value? What if you treated it like the pedal point above and only played it on certain beats (2 and 4)? I wouldn’t want to turn your improvisation into the Sortie in Eb of Lefebure-Wely, but hopefully you understand how silence can help create interest and keep a piece moving. If you have the score (available for download here), I encourage you to go play the Lefebure-Wely and fill in as many of the rests as you can by sustaining chords or pedal notes for longer values. I don’t think the result will have the same effect….

Artistic

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.
―Leopold Stokowski

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
―Victor Hugo

Sometimes in our haste to create music and fill the space with sound, I believe we forget that silence is our canvas. John Cage points out how silence is filled with something to hear regardless of what we do. Victor Hugo tells us that music expresses that on which it is impossible to be silent. So the next time that you improvise, I encourage you to let the silence speak. Do you have something more important to say that what the silence can communicate?

Hoping you enjoy the silences of life and music!
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 17 – 2014 08 25
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Becoming Grounded

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One of the most magical musical experiences I ever had occurred when I was improvising a passacaglia once during communion at the Cathedral in Aix-en-Provence. Starting from a single soft pedal line, I steadily built a crescendo of sound and activity until I reached full organ before finally concluding softly. I remember feeling like I was having some sort of out of body experience as I turned to look over the railing to see how much longer I would need to play. I knew something special had happened at that moment because I was literally shaking at the end of the piece, and the priest thanked me for sharing such wonderful music when he made announcements. Perhaps the scariest part was that I knew I had to start playing again in just a moment for the Sortie!

Focus

While I have searched for years to return to that same mental state where the music just flowed out of me, I recently heard an interview with Steven Kotler (author of The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance) where he identified some of the characteristics that help create this state which researchers now call “flow.” The first of the seventeen triggers that he identifies is focus. I believe as an improviser, one of the best ways to focus is to improvise over a ground bass or passacaglia. On that day in Aix, I had a bass line written out with figures above the notes to remind me of my intended harmonies. An easy place to start would be a short descending scale in major:

PassacagliaDMajor4
or minor:
PassacagliaDMinor4

Goals

The second trigger Steven Kotler identifies is to have clear goals, i.e. to know what we are doing and why. A passacaglia, not only gives us focus, it provides a clear definition of what we are to play. At Aix, I also had a reason to play that passacaglia: to provide music during the distribution of communion which would last 6-8 minutes. That was my larger goal, My shorter goal was each variation of the bass, and the immediate goal was what to play for the next chord.

Feedback

The third trigger for flow is feedback. As an improviser, we receive immediate feedback on our results. This is not a test or other written assignment where we choose an answer or what to say and find out sometime later (if ever) whether we were correct or pleased the reader. Hopefully, our ear will let us know instantly if the notes we have chosen to play have met our goal or not. The other advantage of a passacaglia is the harmonic and rhythmic drive forward of the form. We use the feedback to move us forward, continuing with an idea that works, making changes to ideas that were not so successful.

Bored or anxious?

The final psychological trigger identified by Steven Kotler is the degree of difficulty of the task. If we are bored or otherwise unchallenged, we are not likely to get into flow. If the task is too daunting, we will most likely be nervous, and doubt will keep us from achieving our best performance. Flow lies somewhere in the middle where we have confidence in our skills and yet feel challenged by the task at hand. Perhaps the themes above are too simple for you. How about one of these more chromatic basses?

PassacagliaChromatic4


2005improvisation1
Regardless of the complexity of the theme, we can still challenge ourselves by increasing the harmonic complexity, increasing the tempo, increasing the rhythmic complexity, or setting other technical challenges for ourselves.

The Zone

Perhaps it’s simply because of that experience I had in Aix, but I have a special interest in passacaglias. I believe I’ve discovered part of the reason now through Steven Kotler’s seventeen triggers for flow. What forms do you improvise well? Are there any styles or processes that you use to create your best music? While I might not have told you how to improvise a passacaglia today, I hope I have given you some inspiration and reasons to do so. Hopefully this grounded form will keep you focused so that you too can enjoy that same out of this world experience that I had in Aix.

May all your improvisations be fabulous!
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 16 – 2014 08 18
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Coherence through repetition

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One of the quickest ways to be coherent is through the use of repetition. Even Gerre Hancock in explaining his first axiom (“Never stop.”) urges the student, should an unexpected and harsh dissonance occur, be sure to repeat “the mistake.” Through the repetition, we have balance and intention, so the audience may begin to doubt if that first surprise was unplanned. What if, instead of repeating ourselves when we made “a mistake,” we choose to practice our repetition intentionally?

Ostinatos

An ostinato pattern can give us a repeated motif that can provide tonal and rhythmic coherence for a piece. It can also enable us to practice our mental gymnastics. While a repeated pattern may appear mindless, if we focus too much on what else we are trying to do, it could very easily fall apart. Ostinatos should be short and simple enough that we can repeat them easily and spend our mental energy on the other voices we add to the pattern.

While I improvised freely at the piano as a young student, there came a time when I became attached to the notes on the page. The jazz piano lessons I took from Laurie Altman began to free me once again from that attachment. One of the first pieces he had me learn was “Peace Piece” by Bill Evans. The YouTube video below is Bill Evans’ 1958 recording with a transcription by William Hughes.

The entire piece is built on two chords and lasts over six minutes! The left hand provides the ostinato, keeping the rhythm and tonal center for the piece while the right hand is free to explore different ideas, sometimes quite far away or very rhythmically complicated. While the transcribed rhythm at the beginning is rather complicated, the simple version is as follows:
EvansPeacePieceOstinato
While this is obviously a piano composition, I think it would adapt quite well to the organ with the feet playing the lower notes (stems down in the above excerpt) and left hand playing the chords (stems up). Start with a soft flute (or celeste) registration for the accompaniment with some sort of a solo stop for the right hand to explore.

Exploration

While the left hand provides an anchor, the right hand is free to explore. After initially keeping to notes in the same scale, an F# appears, and then many other accidentals. My jazz piano teacher actually encouraged me to explore several different modes with the right hand while the left hand remained constant.

Notice also the change in register. Not only is the left hand repetitive, the right hand repeats melodic ideas, often at different octaves. The right hand even comes all the way down into the ostinato pattern at one point.

From the title, we gather that Bill Evans’ intention was to create a softer reflective mood. Without changing the ostinato, how could we do to change that? What if we got louder, creating a crescendo as we went along? How about increasing the chromaticism in the right hand? increasing the speed of the right hand rhythms? increasing the number of notes in the chords the right hand plays? I think we could become rather wild and frenzied using this “Peace Piece” ostinato!

Transposition and modification

As with any improvisation exercise, it’s always good to transpose it into all the other keys. I remember Laurie Altman suggesting creating a B section for the piece by moving into Eb major (or was it E major?). This way, we could have a nice little ABA piece with a calm beginning and ending and a contrasting more active (in a different tonality) middle section. If you practice in multiple keys, there’s no reason you couldn’t create a multi-part rondo (ABACA). Even if your sections are half as long as Bill Evans, that would give you 15 minutes of music all based on the same idea! (Perhaps you could try it the next time you play a wedding and the bride is late…..)

This is only one ostinato. Michael Joseph offers another in the New Hampshire AGO Workshop which I posted this week (video part III). I’m sure there are many others that you could find or create. Next week, I plan to look at a slightly longer ostinato pattern we commonly call a passacaglia.

Hoping all your ostinatos have variety,
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 15 – 2014 08 11
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Interludes and Challenges

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First off, I must extend to you my apologies for not sending out a newsletter last week. I had started a draft but didn’t get to finish it before my schedule basically sent me off-line for a few days. Hopefully, the previous issues have given you plenty of ideas to work on so that you still had lots to practice!

Interludes

Today, I want to focus on the short phrase that appears between variations II and III of Ives’ Variations on ‘America.’ In my experience, many times it is during transitions and interludes that organists tend to wander and the coherence of the structure tends to break down. Knowing where you need to go and taking the shortest path to get there is something we could all spend some time working at. Ives is looking to move from F major to Db major, and since he is not afraid to combine two tonalities at once, he simply shifts the left hand and pedal into Db major while leaving the right hand in F major. It may not be a very pleasing sound to our ears (especially given the otherwise very tonal surroundings), but it certainly makes for a quick transition!

With these dissonant harmonies for the interlude, what does Ives give us to facilitate the transition? Thematic material, of course! Each hand harmonizes the melody in it’s proper key with the left hand making a canon with the right hand at the distance of one measure:
IvesInterludeExample
The consistent thematic material gives our ear an anchor even when the harmonic language is in flux. A convincing rhythm can go a long way towards enabling the listener to accept what the improviser creates. I have told many students that if the melody and rhythm are there, slips in the harmony may go unnoticed by the typical listener. Interludes and transitions are times to charge ahead with full confidence to the next destination, not times to wander aimlessly.

Canons

One of the steps towards improvising fugues is to learn to play canons. Though Ives only gives us a little snippet here, as we are studying the piece in order to find practice ideas, I can’t let this moment go by without encouraging you to practice making canons out of the themes that you study.

The easiest way to start is with the canon at the octave where the left hand follows the right hand. Depending upon the theme, the best distance may be a measure, half-measure, one beat, or even two measures. You should practice each of these playing all the way through the theme regardless of any parallels (fifths or octaves) that are created. When you are confident playing through the theme as it is in canon, begin to consider how you could alter the rhythm or melody in order to avoid any unwanted parallels or dissonances.

When you have mastered right hand leading with left hand following, be sure and try out all the other variations available at the organ:

  • right hand leads, feet follow
  • left hand leads, feet follow
  • left hand leads, right hand follows
  • feet lead, right hand follows
  • feet lead, left hand follows

Depending upon the theme, you might even try a three part canon which would give you nine more options to try out (and we’re still at canon at the octave)!

Ives uses a canon at the minor sixth for his modulation interlude. Though canons most often are at the octave, fourth, or fifth, there is nothing to keep us from practicing them at any interval we wish. While the results may not be harmonically satisfying, I encourage you to try canons at all intervals. Keep the right hand in the tonic and shift the following voice (left hand or feet) through each of the twelve potential starting notes. If the starting note (for example, D) is in the tonic scale (F major), what happens to them theme if you use the tonic key signature (F major or D dorian) instead of the starting note key signature (D major)? What happens when the leading voice is in a different key with the following voice in the tonic? So many options to try!

Mental Gymnastics

Currently, I am preparing to run my first marathon. Anyone looking to accomplish a physical endurance task knows that you have to push your body outside it’s comfort zone if you are going to make progress towards the goal. Mental tasks require the same sort of stretching of our limits. Even if I only run a marathon once a year, training to do so, will make it easier for me to take the stairs at work, sprint across the street, or spend a day on my feet at a theme park. Likewise, practicing canons in assorted keys at different distances will give you more mental flexibility and confidence to tackle new improvisation tasks that will suddenly seem easy by comparison!

We readily acknowledge the need to practice physical technique (even scales and arpeggios). Improvisation requires not only physical skills, but mental aptitudes as well. I challenge you to challenge yourself and discover ways to move beyond your comfort zone. What can you do today to push your mental envelope?

Challenging you to find the next level,
Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 14 – 2014 08 04
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Twists and Turns

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For the last couple of weeks, we’ve been working from Charles Ives’ Variations on ‘America’ to discover improvisation ideas and practice techniques. After looking at the fireworks of the first variation, the polonaise, and the introduction, today we turn to the chromaticism of Ives’ second variation.

Chromaticism

The first difference to notice with this variation is that Ives has changed range. The melody begins one octave higher, allowing him to use chords with more open voicing – and thus more space for chromatic fill! This variation is filled with stepwise motion (whether chromatic or diatonic) in the lower voices. Only the soprano melody remains largely untouched. Ives also moves from the predominantly quarter note rhythm of the theme to consistent eighth note activity. As our first exercise (since Ives didn’t touch the soprano), let’s try to tun the melody into a flurry of chromatic eight notes:

IvesChromaticExample

Add chromatic passing tones between steps in the melody and chromatic neighbor notes for repeated notes. It may be overkill to do this only to one voice, but I think it is a great practice technique to explore, working our way through each of the voices in the standard harmonization one after the other. Do the same exercise with the alto, tenor, and then the bass alone. For step two, play the full harmonization while adding chromatic neighbor and passing tones to one voice. After you are comfortable focusing on one voice at a time, your ear will likely have led you to discover spots where chromaticism works better in one voice than another. Play through the harmonization again now adding the chromaticism in the voice where it works best.

Some tips to consider as you explore: In four-part texture, one of the notes of the chord is doubled. This is probably not the note to alter chromatically unless it is the root of the chord and you are adding the seventh. (Ives ignores this in m.4 of this variation, but ends up with parallel octaves between the soprano and this inner voice.) Thirds of chords can easily be major or minor. Choose whether to move from major to minor or minor to major based upon where the voice needs to go next. Fifths of major chords can be raised; fifths of minor chords can be lowered. The diminished triad (and fully diminished seventh chord) can transport us easily from one key to another, so provide excellent transition material (see m.6 of variation II). Ives also reduces his texture to only three voices at times in order to highlight the chromatic lines (and lessen his concerns about doubling). As you become comfortable shifting from one voice to another, be sure and try combining chromaticism in multiple voices at the same time!

And now, faster!

Typically when creating variations, the rhythms move from quarters to eighths, through triplets and on to sixteenth notes. After exploring eight notes, the third variation on ‘America’ by Ives suggests the triplet feel by shifting to 6/8 time. Ives also sets up an accented chromatic neighbor note in the accompaniment as a motif for this variation. Leaving modulation and discussion of the interlude for next week, Ives also changes keys here. Rather than change so many items at once in our practice, how about doing them one at a time? Stick to the original key, but instead of chromatic eight notes, add chromatic triplets! Rather than using passing and neighbor tones on the weak beats, try to use more accented chromatic neighbors. It would be overkill, but what if each note of the soprano (or alto or tenor) began a half-step lower and slid into the proper pitch? (How many vocalists have you heard scoop into a note? Why can’t we try it at the organ!) After you are comfortable in the home key, choose another key in which to practice the harmonization and addition of chromatics. Start again with eight notes and progress through the same steps outlined above.

After triplets, move on up to sixteenth notes. The final variation Ives provides keeps the same chromatic neighbor from variation three in the accompaniment, returns to the tonic key, but increases excitement by using a constant sixteenth note motion passed between the voices (including some challenging runs for the feet). While it looks complicated on the page, it really grows out of the techniques covered in the earlier variations.

While the road may offer many choices for the twists and turns to take, I hope you will take each step forward, confidently making progress towards creating your own fireworks at the organ!

Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 13 – 2014 07 21
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From ‘America’ to France (via Poland)

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After celebrating Independence Day last week, today is France’s national holiday: Bastille Day! While I couldn’t find the recording of Pierre Cochereau’s improvisation on La Marseillaise for General de Gaulle’s funeral on line, I did find Jeremy Filsell’s transcription/recreation for your listening pleasure:

While the theme is normally in a major key, as this improvisation was originally created for a funeral, the minor mode beginning suits the occasion perfectly. When we began creating holiday variations last week, we started working with Charles Ives’ Variations on ‘America’. Ives also provides us with a variation in minor which is what we will focus on today. (Here’s a link to the video in case you want a refresher.)

Polonaise

The polonaise (which is the French word for ‘Polish’) is a traditional Polish dance in 3/4 time. Ives includes one of these dance movements as his fourth variation on America. You can see the traditional rhythm in the excerpt below:
IvesPolonaiseExample

As mentioned last week, rarely does Ives let a measure go by without any thematic material. Here we have two measures to practice our polonaise rhythm before beginning the theme. If we wish to improvise polonaises, we could spend much more than two measures practicing the rhythm. Choose some simple chord progressions and practice the rhythm in different keys. While Ives keeps the rhythmic figure confined to the left hand and pedal, we could also practice it with right hand and pedal or hands alone.

Once you have mastered the rhythm, then it’s time to add in the theme. For the first half of this variation, the theme is played by the right hand on a solo stop. If necessary, practice soloing out the theme with a simplified accompaniment first before adding the polonaise rhythm back in. For the second half, Ives requires the left hand to play both the theme and the rhythm. Just as you would probably want to practice the left hand alone if you were learning the Ives, so too, you probably want to practice the same idea with whatever theme you have chosen to turn into a polonaise. The first variation in the Ives set has the left hand playing the harmonized theme, so even Ives gives you a simplified version to practice first before increasing the difficulty level. The right hand then adds some sparkle with it’s commentary.

Fireworks

It is interesting to contrast the Polonaise with the first variation Ives offers. Having already practiced the harmonized theme played by the left hand and pedal in a simplified rhythm, rather than add difficulty to the left hand, Ives adds a running line for the right hand to play. He begins with sixteenth notes (basically four notes to each note of the theme), but then doubles the speed to 32nd notes (8 to 1)! The fast motion, large leaps upward and chromatic movement downward make me think of fireworks which seems a most fitting idea for variations on a patriotic song.
While these two variations appear to be very different, there are several common techniques that we can practice to advance our improvisation skills. Thanks to registration options at the organ, we could also practice the same ideas found in each of these variations but swapping hands. For example, use right hand and pedal to play the polonaise rhythm while the theme is played by the left hand in either the tenor or soprano register. Play the theme with right hand and pedal while the left hand adds fireworks on a 2′ stop! What if the polonaise was in a major key and the fireworks in minor? What other dance rhythms could you use instead of a polonaise?

While not looking to start a revolution today, I hope you are inspired to create your own fireworks while practicing your improvisations!

Viva la France!

Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 12 – 2014 07 14
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Creating Holiday Variations

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One of the first forms many organists attempt to improvise is most likely a variation on a hymn tune. Perhaps you needed a little extra music for communion or didn’t have time to practice a postlude, opting instead to fill the time with some modified version of the last hymn that was sung. Louis-Claude Daquin (born on July 4, 1694) was famous for his variations on Christmas carols which he played before Midnight Mass at Notre Dame in Paris. Pierre Cochereau delighted audiences with his concert variations on popular tunes. Even the complex tonal language of Max Reger becomes more accessible when there is a chorale stated amongst all the chromaticism. Remembering the improviser’s goal to sound like a composition, I thought we would spend the next few weeks looking at some written variations to see what we could learn about improvising from a written piece.

Because we just celebrated Independence Day here in the US, the first set of variations I’d like us to consider is Variations on ‘America’ by Charles Ives. E. Power Biggs asked Ives if he had any organ music that he could perform on his weekly radio program in 1948. Though Ives had written the piece in 1891 when he was sixteen, Biggs performance on July 4, 1948 led to the publication of the piece in 1949. If you are unfamiliar with the piece, I encourage you to listen to the performance by E. Power Biggs below which will also allow you to follow the score (sometimes with Ives’ manuscript):

Out of the fourteen-page modern edition, there are only a handful of measures where there is material that is not explicitly connected to the theme. No aimless wandering here!

Introduction

As today is the introduction to our survey of variations, we’ll focus on the introduction that Charles Ives writes. While only two pages in length, it offers a wealth of practice ideas for us to master. Looking at our theme America, we can see that it uses two-measure phrases. The only time Ives deviates from two-measure units is in measures 5-8 (repeated as 29-32) when there is a tension building harmonic progression that has the loosest connection to the theme of any material in the piece. Here’s our first element we can extract for practice. I’ve simplified the chord progression for these measures below. Ives provides two different figurations in the introduction. How many more can you develop?
IvesExample1

You should also learn to transpose this progression into every other key (as suggested when we explored color).

Transposition is also something Ives uses liberally in his introduction. Phrases of the theme appear in F major, G minor, D minor, D major, B major (or E Minor). Later on, we have an entire variation in Db Major, so being able to play the theme in any key seems like a worthwhile skill to practice. If the entire theme seems a little long to work with, Ives seems to change keys every two measures (in keeping with the phrse structure), so try practicing in bite-size two measure units. Depending upon the theme you have chosen, the adaptation in to minor mode (from major) can sometime prove tricky. When Ives ventures furthest afield in the introduction (mm 17-24), he keeps the rhythm, but adapts the melody to suit his harmonies. While it can be a worthy exercise to be strict in your transposition, don’t be afraid to make adaptations and adjustments to make the changes more musical. After all, we are in the process of making variations here!

Variety

Whether you are making variations on a patriotic tune for a concert or competition, providing an extended Christmas prelude, or introducing or concluding a hymn, studying written variations can provide us with ideas and tools to practice. Just as we break down repertoire into chunks to practice, so too we can break down our improvisations into bite-size practice bits. Looking at Ives this week, we identified nuggets about practicing phrase length, transposition, and a harmonic sequence in just the Introduction to Variations on ‘America.’ Next week, we’ll explore ideas from the actual variations. How much more gold can we find in this piece?

Hoping the freedom you have inspires you to freely create music!

Glenn

 
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Newsletter Issue 11 – 2014 07 07
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