Pipe Dreams
But oh! what art can teach
What human voice can reach
The sacred organ’s praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To mend the choirs above.
—John Dryden, from “A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day, 1687.”
Organ music is so little appreciated today. Perhaps the modern mind has been made unsuited to its solemnity, its weight, its emotional complexity, its sacred associations. Let us make ourselves equal to the vast wealth bequeathed us by the masters! Chief among these composers of beautiful organ music is Johann Sebastian Bach. His “Sleepers Awake” and “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” are an excellent beginning to the cultivation of a taste for organ music.
Then there are the cheerful organ concertos of George Frederic Handel, which I love. (The closing andante movement from his first organ concerto reminds me of Stephen Crane, Phantom of the Opera, ninth grade history, and “Fresh Breezes” laundry detergent—because that’s what else was happening when I discovered this piece and played it over and over and over and over.)
There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.
Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings are.
—from a poem by Emily Dickinson
This post is dedicated to those unnamed family members who complained about the organ music I played while ironing last Tuesday. I love you anyway. :-)
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NEXT SISTER said...
It’s not the music (tune, etc.) so much as the screeching noise coming out of the thing, The higher keys just sound awful. I like some organ pieces that are on the deeper side—like the one played in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (movie). I list the organ music with bagpipes and violins (played by amateurs). They can sound good at times.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 04:36 PM
ANONYMOUS ;D said...
TeeHeeHee...
Sunday, December 25, 2011 12:55 PM
HANDMAIDEN said...
It took me a long time to like organ music (it started with Handel), and I still don’t appreciate all organ music. But I am working on it, because I think it is worth knowing something about this huge section of music I would be missing a lot, otherwise!
“Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor” is th e”Captain Nemo” piece, You can listen to it above.
What do you think of amateur recorder players?;-)
Monday, December 26, 2011 02:24 PM
HEIDI said...
I didn’t spend much time on organ music until I began meeting and becoming close friends with organists. For example, two brothers I knew in college, along with their father who instigated the whole thing, had built a pipe organ in their home. It’s quite a delight to see it, and to play it yourself, and once you’ve made some of the noises yourself, you can easily see why people take organ lessons.
I hope you can soon convert the rest of the family to this great instrument!
Sunday, January 1, 2012 06:12 PM
Friday, December 23, 2011