Subject: Adventures in Creative Futility: Organ Lessons 35 and 36
Date: Sat, 01 Aug 1998 23:22:08 -0700
From: "James H. H. Lampert" <jamesl@hb.quik.com>
To: The "Adventures in Creative Futility" Network

Again, I was too busy (when I wasn't too tired) to report on last
weekend's lesson, so here are two more, back-to-back.

Lesson 35

    Last Sunday, July 26th, marked my thirty-fifth organ lesson. Maestro
York was busy elsewhere all day Saturday (a blessing, as I wouldn't have
had the energy for an organ lesson Saturday morning, after attending
five concerts [Ampt and Johansen at Spreckels on Monday evening, and
four consecutive Hollywood Bowl concerts] in five consecutive evenings).

    The lesson, like most Sunday lessons, was scheduled for sometime
after the late service at St. Luke's. I had (for the first time since
Lesson 34) time to practice before the lesson, and Maestro York's
decision to take his lunch break before the lesson gave me more time. I
pounded away at "Father, We Thank Thee for the Night" (Peeters, Page 9)
for about half an hour with increasing frustration, then gave up on it
and tried other things, including going back to "Now, my Tongue . . ."
(Page 8), and also experimenting with my idea of adding a left-foot
accompaniment to my mostly-right-foot pedal solo in the Beethoven
arrangement.
    When the lesson finally began, we concentrated almost entirely on
"Father, We Thank Thee," and I finally began to make some progress. Near
the end of the lesson, Maestro York gave me some pieces to look at: a
Canon in Dorian mode, by Allen I. McHose, for both hands and pedal (both
hands in treble clef), and a couple of perpetual Canons for one hand and
pedal on "Freu' Dich Sehr, O Meine Seele," by Thomas Canning. He
demonstrated them, but I didn't actually start on them: I was tired of
practicing, and it was after 1:00 P.M., and I hadn't had breakfast.

Lesson 36

    Back to the usual time, on Saturday morning. Early this morning, I'd
actually had time to squeeze in a bit of practice on "Father, We Thank
Thee . . ." and that's what we worked on for almost the entire hour. I
began by playing the entire piece through, from beginning to end (but
not without LOTS of awkward pauses and mistakes); then, we began working
on pieces of it. Unlike last week, this week I seem to be making real
progress with it.
    Towards the end of the lesson, we started on the McHose Canon,
beginning with the decidely staccato pedal part. Unfortunately, I didn't
have the opportunity to practice after the lesson; Maestro York had a
rehearsal with a couple of instrumental solosts immediately after the
lesson.
    After the lesson, on my way home, I stopped at CSU Long Beach, where
I once again exercised "Alumni Privilege" at the Library, and checked
out a score of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, so that I could use it as the
basis for some refinements to my "Ode to Joy" arrangement. Then, I
stopped and picked up a new starter for my car.
============

The following Monday:

Last night, I finally looked through the relevant part of the score I
borrowed, of Beethoven's Ninth. I found A LOT that was GROSSLY
oversimplified in the piano-textbook version I had based my own
arrangement on. Wow!

--
James H. H. Lampert
http://www.hb.quik.com/jamesl