-
I'm looking for some classical recommendations to play on organ. It can be written for piano though. I'm tired of my old rep and looking for something new. Looking for melodic, linear, mellow, pretty, and not boring, spastic, dense, or too advanced. Actually linear and thin is fine because I am scheming to analyze the chords, fill them in, and improvise on them.
-
03-26-2023 08:30 PM
-
So not this?
cant go wrong with Bach Chorale Preludes
-
Both of those are actually very pretty but I'm looking for something linear that could help my jazz playing somewhat. As I'm not looking to work up classical rep for its own sake.
-
the Bach chorale
Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
preludes are settings of hymns, so can compare to the basic tune
-
I want some nice smooth linear right hand.
-
LJS 56: 8 Reasons Why Jazz Musicians Should Shed Classical
- There are famous stories that Charlie Parker use to warm up sometimes by playing Claude Debussy’s and Igor Stravinsky’s music on alto.
- John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter used to practice out of a classical cello book together (one story goes that an exercise from this same book inspired Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” pattern).
- Miles Davis was really into classical, especially Karlheinz Stockhausen and Aram Khachaturian, among others.
- There are famous stories that Charlie Parker use to warm up sometimes by playing Claude Debussy’s and Igor Stravinsky’s music on alto.
-
Can’t get much more linear than Bach 2-part inventions. No chords either. Also I assume this would work nicely on the 2 organ manuals?
All this old stuff should be freely available on the IMSLP website.
-
in terms of repertoire, might it not be better to ask some organists? I don’t feel l know the rep that well. Probably Bach Chorale Preludes and things.
To improv on…
i quite like taking a piece and boiling it down to a bass line and then improvising. This works really well for things like Bach preludes. You can then improvise lines on top.
Conversely it’s good to be able harmonise and reharmonise chorales and hymn. This is stock in trade for church organists through the ages, including of course Bach. You could do this in a jazz way.
If you are interested in classical improvising as opposed to blowing jazz on classical pieces, I would urge you to check out the book ‘Pianists Guide to Historical Improvisation’ by John Mortensen.
-
And of course in the Baroque era, you were supposed to do some improv on a lot of these things anyway (at least that’s my understanding), so you’d be correct in doing so.
-
Oh I find the ‘lute suites’ have a good linear right hand and straightforward bass lines. In fact afaik they were keyboard pieces arranged for lute so I think they would work on organ.
I like BWV997. It’s got a fugue and a sarabande. What more could one want? The double is florid linear melody over walking bass basically so might fit the bill.
-
Yes, this is the structure and aesthetic I'm looking for. The trick for me is finding tunes that are more melodically memorable and don't sound all lame like a major scale being run up and down and won't give me a tick when I go to practice them lol. The minor ones sound nice. I like the 4th one. I'll continue listening to this and see if I find one that checks all the boxes. The only thing I'd ask for further suggestions is like this but memorable melody. Originally Posted by grahambop
-
Yep sounds nice and with a walking bassline too haha. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Last edited by Jimmy Smith; 03-27-2023 at 05:03 AM.
-
I get the impression a lot of jazz musicians like to play some Bach for practice etc., it seems to tick a lot of boxes.
As Christian says, the lute suites are good, and may be a bit easier than some of the keyboard stuff.
-
I like the sinfonias that are in minor so far. I think I'll choose sinfonia 2 to work on.
-
Sounds good, hot licks by JS Bach!
-
Yeah I’ve got his DVD, it’s great.
-
Try the some of the Chopin preludes Originally Posted by Jimmy Smith
-
also could get a lot of Autumn Leaves material from this one
-
I actually printed out a couple nocturns.
-
You should ask your teacher.
He must have played classical music once when he was learning to play the organ.
Chopin's Nocturnes are very difficult to play and interpret properly.
I listen to Chopin almost every day because I have a professional pianist wife.
-
I mean all classical music is hard to interpret properly…. To the highest level
I’ve often heard it said Mozart is the most deceptive for this reason. It ain’t Liszt technically, but to play it well requires a very high level of musical nuance. I played a version of the Mozart double concerto by two famous jazz players to the missus and she was right away ‘no this is all wrong, the phrasing is very clunky.’ She has better ears for this stuff than I do that’s for sure.
Bach is more forgiving in this regard… most jazzers play it like an exercise though tbh. Which it kind of is to us jazzers, and that’s fine so long as that is understood.
Nothing wrong with playing any of this stuff for your own pleasure though. I wouldn’t give a public guitar recital in a million years but there’s a lot to learn from repertoire. You don’t have to do something to a high level to get something from it. Obviously jazzers are often interested in what they can adapt and borrow for their own purposes.
Theres a perspective that recording has really spoilt amateur music making. Why hack through a Beethoven sonata when you can listen to Brendel play it perfectly any time you want? It’s a tricky one. But you could argue the same is true for anything. Why run marathons?
-
That reminds me - if you haven’t seen it, I still can’t work out how much of this is trolling haha. It is pretty funny though.
-
There’s an interesting point Gould makes about improv tho. I know some jazzers might see it as heretical, but I kind of feel it a bit.
-
There is no need to fight with very difficult tunes. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
Classical music is very extensive.
Just find tunes that are just easier.
Children from the first class play tunes from the program of the first class/music school/ ...
Technical barriers must be overcome first...making music is the next step.
This is probably the case in all music schools.
Reply With Quote
Buy a no-brand guitar?
Today, 08:05 PM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos