You guys might understand this and might enjoy it
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Organ, not piano. Sacred music rather than profane. Late 19th century. Lovely English setting. Fine old church organ.
This is the music I learned on, and I played - back when I played. Abide with me was always a bit discordant to me and this guy explains why. Even so, this is what it’s supposed to sound like, as evidenced by any number of camp meetings in Northern Minnesota growing up, generally played in ancient uprights presented in questionable states of tune.
It’s all over my head, but perhaps you’d like to hear it and comment.
Cheers!
Link to video -
I didn’t listen all the way through, but 3/4 of the way. The hymn sounds of course very familiar. I did a couple of years of organ study as my “minor” instrument, and have had various church gigs. I find many of these old hymns quite beautiful, even apart from their religious contexts.
When the critic complained about the harmonization, it was about not following certain rules of voice-leading: how the four lines of music should move relative to each other and to the overall harmony. When I was an undergrad, we had to study Bach’s hymn harmonizations. They were in a book called 371 Chorales. This was where we learned what the rules were, such as avoiding parallel fourths and fifths, and how to resolve a 7th chord. And we had to do our own harmonizations as coursework.
It was the “violations” of these rules in Abide With Me that the critic objected to. Of course, these days the hymn sounds completely fine and conventional to our ears.
I’m surprised he didn’t bring up the tuning of that old organ. It sure doesn’t sound like equal temperament to me! I thought he might have discussed that. More interesting to me than the hymn itself.
We also had to study 16th century counterpoint, and it was far more restrictive than what Bach was doing! This was the era of Palestrina and Victoria.
Strange that this young man dissed medieval music. Nothing wrong with it, and interesting in its own right.
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Organ, not piano. Sacred music rather than profane. Late 19th century. Lovely English setting. Fine old church organ.
This is the music I learned on, and I played - back when I played. Abide with me was always a bit discordant to me and this guy explains why. Even so, this is what it’s supposed to sound like, as evidenced by any number of camp meetings in Northern Minnesota growing up, generally played in ancient uprights presented in questionable states of tune.
It’s all over my head, but perhaps you’d like to hear it and comment.
Cheers!
Link to video@Steve-Miller thanks for posting that Steve, I’ll watch it later.
@realplayer I have the big Bach chorale book (this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0989087913?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0) which I bought for sightreading practice, but I found it to be too hard for a “one a day” approach, so I haven’t played from it many years. (although my Amazon purchase record tells me that I bought it in 2014. After 12 years, maybe I’d find it easier now…)
But I love the chordal movement there.
Re Abide By Me, I think it’s been arranged and recorded by a lot of contemporary pianist/composers (like Nevue). Here’s a version I really like:
Link to video -
I didn’t listen all the way through, but 3/4 of the way. The hymn sounds of course very familiar. I did a couple of years of organ study as my “minor” instrument, and have had various church gigs. I find many of these old hymns quite beautiful, even apart from their religious contexts.
When the critic complained about the harmonization, it was about not following certain rules of voice-leading: how the four lines of music should move relative to each other and to the overall harmony. When I was an undergrad, we had to study Bach’s hymn harmonizations. They were in a book called 371 Chorales. This was where we learned what the rules were, such as avoiding parallel fourths and fifths, and how to resolve a 7th chord. And we had to do our own harmonizations as coursework.
It was the “violations” of these rules in Abide With Me that the critic objected to. Of course, these days the hymn sounds completely fine and conventional to our ears.
I’m surprised he didn’t bring up the tuning of that old organ. It sure doesn’t sound like equal temperament to me! I thought he might have discussed that. More interesting to me than the hymn itself.
We also had to study 16th century counterpoint, and it was far more restrictive than what Bach was doing! This was the era of Palestrina and Victoria.
Strange that this young man dissed medieval music. Nothing wrong with it, and interesting in its own right.
@RealPlayer I didn't get the sense he was dissing Medieval music, but maybe that's because I've seen almost all his videos. He often goes way back to plainsong and chant. In some videos he composes new pieces based on them. He is an organ scholar graduated from Oxford.
Palestrina. I love his music. Missa Papae Marcelli is one of my favorites. So unbelievably beautiful.
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@Steve-Miller thanks for posting that Steve, I’ll watch it later.
@realplayer I have the big Bach chorale book (this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0989087913?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0) which I bought for sightreading practice, but I found it to be too hard for a “one a day” approach, so I haven’t played from it many years. (although my Amazon purchase record tells me that I bought it in 2014. After 12 years, maybe I’d find it easier now…)
But I love the chordal movement there.
Re Abide By Me, I think it’s been arranged and recorded by a lot of contemporary pianist/composers (like Nevue). Here’s a version I really like:
Link to video@ShiroKuro Ah, my old book had 371 chorales, so it looks like they discovered a few more over the years.
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@ShiroKuro Ah, my old book had 371 chorales, so it looks like they discovered a few more over the years.
@RealPlayer said in You guys might understand this and might enjoy it:
371 chorales
Three hundred.... four hundred.... I've probably only played about ten, so ....
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Recommending that was an excellent idea, Steve. I've had Ben Maton's channel on my YouTube subscription list for quite a while.
I appreciate all the interesting comments in this thread.
I used to play the organ more frequently. For some time, the Hammond organ I own was the only keyboard instrument in my house. In recent years, I've migrated more toward the piano and with my knee issues cannot play the pedals on the organ any more. It's hard enough to just press the sustain pedal on the piano.
Big Al
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Charles Ringling"s summer mansion in Sarasota has a pipe organ and a '20"s Steinway grand piano in it. It was the only preserved room in the house. It was and was always the music room. DeSantis could have turned into a roller rink by now for all I know.
I can't watch this now because I'm at the clubhouse standing in the fog charging my phone.
