Tag Archives: NCOI

Summer Improv Courses 2016

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The Summer is a popular time for conferences and special courses. Here’s a list of opportunities to study improvisation at the organ this summer. If you know of others, please email me or share them in the comments so that I can add them to the website.

This summer is also the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists. It will take place in Houston July 19-23. Typically there is an improvisation competition and several workshop presentations on improvisation during the convention. I only spotted one improvisation workshop: Adagio Lost and Adagio Regained:
A Study of the Lost Art of Improvising in the Adagio Genre, with Emphasis on Handel’s Organ Concertos presented by HyeHyun Sung. The NCOI competition was restructured for this year with the preliminary round taking place last summer. (See my critique here.) No information about the competition is currently on the Houston website…

I am still considering offering a couple of days of improvisation instruction here. If you would be interested in coming to study with me at the Cathedral July 28-30, 2016, please let me know. Space for active participants will be limited. If there is sufficient interest, I’ll share more details soon.

Hoping you take some time this summer to improvise better,

Glenn

Newsletter Issue 58 – 2016 04 21

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Herbert Buffington

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HerbertBuffingtonHerbert Buffington won Second Prize in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation at the 2010 National Convention in Washington, D.C. He earned degrees from Duke University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music at The Johns Hopkins University. He also studied at the Vienna International Music Center and the Hochshule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. His organ teachers have included Fenner Douglass, Robert Parkins, Peter Planyavsky and Donald Sutherland. His improvisation teachers have included Bruce Neswick, David Dahl, and Gerre Hancock. He presently serves as organist at Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.


Recording:

Joy to the World-Christmas Improvisations

Patrick A. Scott

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PatrickScottYouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/pascott123/videos

Dr. Patrick A. Scott was recently appointed as the new Assistant Organist-Choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a graduate of Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Texas — where he studied with the late Dr. Gerre Hancock and Gerre’s wife, Dr. Judith Hancock. At the 2014 AGO convention in Boston, he won first place in the National Competition in Organ Improvisation.


Videos:
Stations of the Cross:
Station I: (What Wondrous Love)
Station III: Jesus Falls the First Time
Station V: Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross
Station VII: Jesus Falls the Second Time
Station XI: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross and Station XII: Jesus Dies on the Cross

Do Something Different

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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

My mantra throughout these pages so far has focused on treating the practice of improvisation like we treat the practice of repertoire: choose a passage, practice it over and over again until we get it right and then move on. Because improvisation is the art of instant music, far too often I suspect we finish the task at hand and never consider how we could do it better if we were to attempt that same task again. Mastery requires attention to detail, and the only path I know towards mastery is through repetition.

The Flip Side

Even so, repetition should not lead us into ruts. If we have acquired some degree of mastery creating a fugue on Alma Redemptoris Mater, we need to move on to trying a scherzo on the same theme or perhaps a fugue on Amazing Grace instead. If a passacaglia with ten variations happens to fill the time needed this week’s offertory collection, how many more variations could you could do if your time were not restricted? 10 more? 20? 50? 100? How soon would they start sounding like an earlier variation that you’ve already played?

Do you have a favorite form to improvise for the postlude? How many toccatas on the last hymn have you played? While that may be a great way to practice your toccatas with different themes, how about doing something different?

Broad bases for soaring heights

For many years, I have considered acquiring skills to be like building a pyramid. When you focus on mastering one task, it is the equivalent of building higher and higher. When you expand to a related area, you build out the base. Anyone who has ever played Jenga understands the troubles associated with building too high on a narrow base. With a larger base, it becomes easier to reach the previous highs as well as to reach new heights. When we do something different, we expand our base.

The easiest way to start is by changing one element at a time. If most of our improvisations are in 4/4, how about only improvising in 3/4 for the next week? If you are comfortable in 3/4 and 4/4, how about making this the week of 5/4? Do you have certain keys you favor when improvising? How about choosing a key like F# major or Eb minor to be the tonic for your improvisations this week? These little steps outside of our comfort zones help us build a larger base and will make the tasks within our comfort zone seem that much easier.

Large Leaps

Tackling a task too far away from our current pyramid may not help us reach new heights quickly, but it might also be just what we need to do in order to add another ten layers to our pyramid. Going skydiving might not seem related to our music practice, but if jumping out of a plane can give us more courage to begin improvising with little or no preparation, I say go do it!

How many of last week’s twenty ways to improvise on a hymn are within your comfort zone? How many would be small steps outside? Are there any large leaps required for you on that list? Did you actually try any of the suggestions that were new to you? The road to mastery requires practice and repetition, but you also need to be sure you do something different!

Hoping your improvisations are as magnificent as the pyramids of Egypt!
Glenn

PS One of the best ways to grow is through competition. This week, I wrote a post about the new rules for the 2016 AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation. I’d love to hear thoughts from other improvisers about the competition and my comments on the new rule set. Please comment at the end of the article, or if you are so inclined, contact AGO directly.

 
Recent additions to organimprovisation.com:

Organists:

Mode:

Themes

 
Newsletter Issue 21 – 2014 09 22
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Thoughts on NCOI 2016

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The Update

The rules for the next American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation have been released and are available here. While the competition has not been without changes in the past, this set of rules is a significant departure from previous versions. Even if I thought changes in the rules were warranted, I’d like to make some observations about the new rule set that seem to run counter to the spirit of an improvisation competition.

Time lag

Most competitions begin with a recorded round, leading to a selection of semi-finalists who will compete live in person. A smaller number of finalists is then selected to compete in one last performance evaluation. When there are only 5-6 semi-finalists, most competitions hold the semi-finals and finals a few days apart from each other. For the 2016 edition of NCOI, the semi-finals will be held at the regional convention almost a full year before the finals. For a competition focusing on creating music with minimal preparation, having a year between rounds might as well be having two different competitions.

Repertoire

The 2016 NCOI adds a repertoire requirement. To win the competition, not only will one need to improvise, four substantial pieces of repertoire must be learned. To ask an improviser to demonstrate technical ability and mastery of the instrument by playing a piece of repertoire seems reasonable. I know there are other improvisation competitions that demand repertoire, but in no other case does the time for repertoire become more substantial than the time required for improvisation. In the NCOI semifinal round, it could take a competitor longer to play the repertoire requirement than to meet the improvisation requirement!

Hymns

The other new requirements for the 2016 edition are hymns and figured bass. While competitors have been provided hymn tunes as themes for many past competitions, it is now a requirement for a competitor to actually play a hymn with people singing. Recognizing that creating hymn introductions and varied accompaniments is a skill that at least some organists practice every week, this seems to be a more reasonable new territory for NCOI to include. However, as there was a separate hymn-playing competition held in Boston, it seems much preferable to me to continue holding a distinct hymn-playing competition rather than folding this skill into the improvisation competition. While related skills are involved, I would still consider improvising to accompany a congregation as a small subset of the skills necessary to win an improvisation prize.

Figured Bass

While hymn playing may be the bread and butter of most organists’ playing duties, realizing a figured bass seems completely foreign to what most organists must do even occasionally. While improvisers may (should) learn to realize figured bass, it seems to me like asking the entrants in NYACOP to play scales and arpeggios for their assigned repertoire. Who would go to a performance competition to listen to scales and arpeggios or Hanon exercises? While I may be exaggerating slightly to make my point, if a candidate doesn’t know how to realize a figured bass, I feel pretty confident that they won’t be able to improvise variations on a given theme. I say don’t waste time asking for a figured bass, let’s hear the variations!

Preparation

While the rules for the timing of the preliminary round need some further clarification (Does the competitor get three 30 minute preparations or only one?), the significant change in preparation time is the availability to use the organ and the material that is provided more than thirty minutes in advance. Granting access to an instrument during preparation time makes it easier for candidates to verify or practice ideas before performing, but is still a minor change compared to the release of themes days or months in advance. For the preliminary round, the competitor is to improvise five contrasting variations on Vom Himmel hoch. The theme is already known, so there is plenty of time for an enterprising composer to actually write a set of variations, memorize them, and then perform them for the recording. With a few months of preparation, I am sure that the quality of variations heard by the judges will be better than in previous years, but I have no confidence that they will be able to select the best improviser from an exercise with this much preparation time.

Likewise where the themes are given three days in advance for the semifinal and final rounds, I become less assured that what we hear will be an improvisation. Having written a Prelude and Fugue (albeit short) in less than a week and even some compositions in a few hours, I certainly could plan out very carefully if not outright compose my entry. Anyone with sufficient skills to win the competition could certainly posses the skills to compose a piece that fast and either memorize it or bring rough sketches to the competition.

To counteract these potential composition practices, there are very particular rules about what a competitor may write on a piece of paper and bring to the console for the competition. Certainly as long as themes are given out days in advance, what sort of papers one can bring to the competition should be restricted, but what does it mean to compose full harmonies? Would writing out figures over a bass line or using guitar/jazz chord notations be a rule violation? If the goal of all these changes is to raise the level of performances, why couldn’t the competitor take part of the thirty minutes of preparation time to write out harmonies in whatever format he or she chooses? Restricting the paper brought to the competition seems to be a much cleaner rule than trying to tell someone what can or cannot be written down.

Adjudication

Sadly, too few organists practice improvisation at the level where they could consider entering NCOI. It is a difficult skill to master, and even more difficult to teach. With only a handful of master improvisation teachers in this country, in order to avoid any potential conflict of interest where teachers judge their own students, many times the best improvisers are left out of the judges pool. Having a problem finding qualified judges however is not solved by adding more people to the panel. I propose following the model of St. Alban’s, Concours André Marchal, Chartres, and Haarlem where the jury is announced in advance. Competitors are hidden from the judges during all rounds of the competition and are free to study however often they can beforehand with the jury members. Having well-qualified jurors seems much preferable to me than having more people on the jury (especially if they cannot improvise).

Final Round

The AGO has a long tradition of offering certification to its membership. Perhaps unknowingly, the AGO has just set up three levels of improvisation certification corresponding to the preliminary, semifinal and final rounds of the NCOI. When viewed through the lens of certification, each of the requests at the different levels seems appropriately graded and a reasonable way to verify that someone has a well-rounded skill set. Just as a math teacher would ask a student to show his or her work to get to the final answer, it seems perfectly reasonable in a certification process to verify that a candidate can cover all the required bases. At a competition however, repeatedly asking a candidate to do the musical equivalent of reciting a multiplication table is redundant and distracting from the primary topic of improvisation.

Coda

I understand that there was an age limit proposed initially in the 2016 rules for NCOI. A competitor in the 2014 NCOI succeeded in getting that removed by appealing to the AGO’s purpose of professional development and the lack of entrants selected for the competition above that age limit. While I hope the committee will consider my viewpoint for further revisions to the 2016 rules, I have no expectations that any further changes will be implemented for this year. The best suggestion I can make for this rule set would be to expedite the process and hold the final round in Charlotte in 2015 a few days after the semifinal round. Launch a new set of rules for 2016 in Houston with a panel of three judges selected and announced in advance with performance requirements similar to NCOI 2014. Remove the hymn playing (and figured bass) requirements from NCOI and establish a regional hymn playing competition that requires improvised introductions and accompaniments. (The winners of this competition could then provide a fabulous hymn festival for the following national convention!) Finally establish procedures to offer one or more certificates in improvisation as outlined above.

As a devoted supporter of the art of improvisation at the organ, I wish to support any effort to encourage more people to improvise and to raise the level of improvisation in this country. (After all, I started organimprovisation.com in my free time.) I hope AGO will take my suggestions and turn NCOI back into a competition and begin to explore the certification and other hymn-playing competition ideas I have offered here so that we may all work together to encourage spontaneous music making.

Glenn Osborne
www.wmglennosborne.com

Aaron David Miller

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AaronDavidMillerWebsite:
http://www.aarondavidmiller.com/

Aaron David Miller is Music Director at Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Minneapolis, MN. He earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers include David Craighead, Russell Saunders, David Higgs, Michael Farris, and McNeil Robinson. He also studied composition with Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner.

In 1996, he won the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation, and in 1998, he won the Bach and Improvisation Prizes at the Calgary International Organ Festival and Competition. His compositions have been performed by the Zurich Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toledo Symphony, and are are published through Augsburg Fortress, Paraclete Publishing, and Kjos Publishing House.

He is represented by Penny Lorenz Artist Management at www.organists.net.


Recordings:

Aaron David Miller plays and improvises on The Pasi Organ

Videos:
Aaron David Miller – “Joy to the World” – House of Hope Presbyterian, Saint Paul, MN

Review and Recovery

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Wow, what a trip! After two weeks on the road attending the Association of Anglican Musicians Conference in Washington, DC AND the AGO National Convention in Boston, it is nice to be back home. One of the reasons I chose to pursue the organ rather than piano was the joys of congregational singing. For me, there is very little more exciting musically than a room full of people raising their voices together in song (accompanied by the organ). The hymn singing at both of these conferences did not disappoint. I think I heard someone describe the three volume levels of conference singing as sing, stun and kill! Whether it was new music or old standards, everyone at the conferences sang gustily every time they were given the chance.

When a congregation sings well, the organist has many more liberties in what he or she can play. When I was studying at Westminster Choir College, the music director at Trinity Episcopal Church in Princeton was John Bertalot. He is a fabulous hymn player, so I asked about taking lessons from him. His reply: “Why do you want lessons? Hymn playing is easy. You play anything but what is on the page!” What always amazed me then was his ability to do that while the choir and congregation sang the harmonies as they were printed on the page. (The simple way to practice this is to invert the voices or solo out the alto or tenor instead of the soprano melody – that’s what we covered in my first lesson.) With daily worship during AAM, there were plenty of opportunities to experience such fabulous hymn playing (in addition to some excellent choral singing). This was my first AAM conference, and I plan to attend next year when the conference will begin literally in my back yard with a pre-conference day in Winter Park and Orlando before moving over to Tampa.

After a brief stop in New York, I journeyed on from Washington to Boston for the AGO convention. Unfortunately, I missed the hymn sing led by Richard Webster on Sunday evening. If I had seen the poster beforehand with the quote from the Chicago Tribune – “Gabrieli meets Darth Vader.” – I might have expedited my travel plans a little to make sure I was there.

NCOI

The first event I was able to hear was the National Compeition in Organ Improvisation (NCOI). As described last week, five competitors performed two improvisations on themes given to them with 30 minutes of preparation time. This round was held at First Lutheran Church of Boston on the Richards, Fowkes & Co. organ. Bálint Karosi is the music director there and served as host. The organ (full stop list here) is in North German Baroque style, and this fact proved to be one of the larger difficulties for the candidates.

The themes for the first task (a chorale fantasy, partita, or suite) were the hymn tune Burns by Bruce Neswick, the chorale Puer nobis, and the chant Pange lingua. We had one improvisation each using the hymn and the chant. The other three candidates chose the chorale. Given the style of the instrument, a partita or fantasy in German style seemed the best match for music and instrument, however the final candidate managed to secure a spot in the finals with a delightful suite in French style on the hymn tune!

The second task of the semifinals was free of any imposed form and gave the candidates a choice of using a melody by Benjamin Britten and/or Greensleeves. This is where some of the candidates started running into problem both from a composition stand point as well as using the instrument to convey their ideas. Most American improvisers are used to playing on instruments with pistons for registration changes. This organ did not have pistons. They also have been greatly inspired by the French tradition illustrated by Marcel Dupré and Pierre Cochereau. Unfortunately, many of the techniques and favored dispositions of this style can create hiccups, burps, tremolos and all sorts of other unhappy sounds on an instrument with unstable wind like this one. In discussions with other audience members, it seemed like the last three candidates would advance to the finals, however the judges selected candidates 2, 4 and 5. Competition results can be a mystery sometimes and sometimes the differences between players can be subtle, so while I was surprised by the selection, I also was not surprised.

When I arrived at St. Cecilia Church to hear the finals, we were told that one of the competitors had withdrawn. We later found out that he had returned home the day before to be present for the birth of his child. As he was a strong contender, I was disappointed that he was unable to compete in the finals, however, his excuse was completely understandable and acceptable.

The themes for part one of the final round were King’s Weston by Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Hedwig’s Theme” from Harry Potter by John Williams, and Valet will ich dir geben by Melchior Teschner. The themes for part two were Adoro te devote, lines 151-67 of “Il Penseroso” by John Milton and the painting “The Passage of the Delaware” by Thomas Sully. Both finalists chose to use the Vaughan Williams hymn tune. The second candidate (and winner) also included Valet will ich dir geben. For the second part, we heard an improvisation on the literary passage and one on the artwork. Both improvisers started with a fantasy inspired by the style of Maurice Duruflé. Where the second competitor truly outshone the first was in the abundance of thematic material. Hardly a moment went by when there was not something heard that could not be tied closely to the theme. This difference continued in the second improvisation as well. While there was no musical theme implied by the selected improvisation subjects, the second competitor basically began with a clear statement of a melody that might have been played by a fife accompanying the army across the river. He then proceeded to vary and develop this theme, once again providing us with a piece with thematic material clearly stated throughout. With it’s patriotic and fanfare overtones, I suspect he won the audience prize by a landslide.

The judges for NCOI in Boston this year were Christa Rakich, Carson Cooman, and Edoardo Belotti. The five semi-finalists were Chris Ganza, Matthew Koraus, Douglas Murray, Patrick Scott and Samuel Soria. Second place was awarded to Douglas Murray and Patrick Scott received the audience and first prizes. The next competition will take place in Houston at the 2016 AGO National Convention. I have heard there are some rule changes for the competition, so if you’d like to enter, be sure to keep an eye on the NCOI page at AGO headquarters.

Recovery

While there were many other improvisation events during the AGO convention, I don’t want to be like some of the competitors and ramble along too much, so I’ll save my commentary on those events for another time. These two weeks were a change of pace for me as well as an opportunity to be exposed to some different ideas. Part of continued growth is the opportunity to relax and discover new material. If you haven’t had the opportunity to hear others improvise lately, be sure and check out the YouTube video links at organimprovisation.com. Is there an organist that you don’t know listed here? If so, check out their performances to see if you can gain any new ideas. Being an organist can be a lonely profession, so I am thankful for these intense weeks where I’ve been able to meet, connect, and hear so many other fine organists. Now it’s time to rest and digest all that I took in.

Wishing you a relaxing summer of fun and learning!

Glenn

Recent additions to organimprovisation.com:

Forms:

Organists:

Themes:

Newsletter Issue 10 – 2014 06 30
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Jason Roberts

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JasonRobertsJason Roberts was recently appointed as Associate Director of Music and Organist as well as the Director of the Boy and Girl Choristers at St. Bart’s in New York City. For the past seven years Jason has served St. James’s Church in West Hartford, CT, where he built one of the largest choral programs in the Hartford area which including 35 children and over 30 adults. He holds degrees from Rice University, Yale University and the Manhattan School of Music. Dr. Robert’s teachers have included Clyde Holloway, Martin Jean, and McNeil Robinson. His teachers have included Clyde Holloway, Martin Jean, and McNeil Robinson. An avid improvisor, he won first prize at the AGO National Competition in Organ Improvisation in 2008 and was a finalist at the St. Alban’s International Organ Competition in 2011 (Improvisation).

Competitions

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While decidedly fewer in number than competitions in organ performance, there are still a few improvisation competitions that take place. Below are brief descriptions of different competitions with links to the competition website for more information.

Chartres

The competition in improvisation consists of a pre-selection recorded round, two live eliminatory rounds (¼ finals and ½ finals) and a final round. The final round will take place on the great organ in Chartres Notre-Dame Cathedral. The competition takes place every four years with the next one anticipated to be in 2016.

Haarlem

The Haarlem International Organ Competition takes place every year in July and is open to organists under the age of 40. A pre-selection recorded round selects eight applicants to compete live in two elimination rounds. The final competition will take place on the Müller organ (1738 / IIIP / 62) in St Bavo’s Church.

NCOI

The American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation takes place every other year during the national convention of the American Guild of Organists. The competition is open to all organists regardless of age or citizenship.