That organ music could be FUN?!

Most people, unfortunately, associate organ music with the macabre, Phantom of the Opera, vampires dripping with blood, horror films and the like. Never in a million years would people think of music for the organ as cute or humorous.

But that’s what tonight was all about, our Organists 1-2-3 concert with Jieun Kim Newland, Sachi P. Hirakouji and myself.

We opened with “Intrada à tre organis” by Carlo Goeury (18th c.) which to me was a little like “Organ Volleyball,” in which one organ played separately, with another sounding an echo section, followed by yet another echo section by the third organ, and finally all playing together. Instead of hitting a ball across a net, we “hit” music back and forth between the three organs.

Jieun and Sachi played a Renaissance piece on the two small organs by Aurelio Bonelli (c. 1569-1620) which was very much like a double choir piece with echo effects and triple rhythms, followed by the “1st concerto für zwei Orgeln” by Josef Blanco with me on the big organ and Jieun playing the Beckerath continuo.

I next played a solo chorale partita on “Ach wie nichtig, ache wie flüchtig” by Georg Boehm (1661-1733), with ten variations, hopefully showing off some of the colors of the organ. Each variation has the second section of the chorale repeating, affording more opportunities for color changes.

We three next played Antonio Soler’s (1729-1783) Concerto No. 6 in D Major, a piece Carl Crosier and I played frequently in the early days when we had the older Beckerath positiv organ at the other end of the church. Musically I felt this piece had the most substance of tonight’s duets but still had a very playful character. The work is really only for two organs, but I divided its many sections into parts for three instruments. We gave Sachi the fiendishly difficult Presto section since she is a pianist and can jump all over the keyboard!

Sachi and Jieun next performed a Mozart sonata, K. 278, which originally could either be played on piano or organ—they performed it on both Beckerath organs. I helped pull stops and turn pages for Sachi.

Jieun and I played another duet on the two small organs, “Praeludium und Fuge” by Johann Gottfried Albrechtsberger which is equally contrapuntal for both organ parts. I decided to play the entire fugue part up an octave to give it more brightness. It was a little discombobulating, though, since my part was only written in the bass clef throughout and here I was playing mostly in the treble range!

During the offering, Jieun played “Praeludium und fuge in E Major” by Vincent Lübeck with an impressive pedal part. I am told we took in more than $1,400 tonight to benefit the scholarship program of the American Guild of Organists and the LCH Music Fund! Woo hoo!

Then it was fun time as Jieun and I played “Romanza con In Rondo a Quattro Mani” by Luigi Malerbi, a humorous piece which reminded me of music for a silent film or a circus! At the very last section my two organ students, Sophia and Raphael, unfurled a banner and sang “BOLOGNA!” because the melody was like the Oscar Mayer commercial!

We all ended up on the big Beckerath with “Suonata a sei mani (Sonata for 6 hands) by Vincenzo Panerai and people laughed as we sat crowded on a single bench. This truly was circus music, especially as Sachi threw on the zimbelstern for the last phrase.

What fun!

I think everyone went home with a smile. Our mission was accomplished