Now, I take no credit for this. It is the composer's writing that makes it so.
You see, the theme of the service tonight was "trust," and so for the prelude I selected two short settings of "If You But Trust in God to Guide You" and a longer setting of "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need."
The setting of "Shepherd" may well be one of my new favorite organ pieces. It is expansive - largo - and contemplative, presenting the melody first quietly, and then in minor (using one of my favorite solo stops on our organ, the corno di bassetto, less glamorously known as the "basset horn"). And then it does another one of my favorite things. It calls for the sound to be put up in the back of the church, on the antiphonal organ, using the very softest stops - in this case some whisper-soft ones from the digital portion of the organ - for an incredibly ethereal effect. But the end is really where it's at. The final statement of the melody is an enormous, gradual, heart-wrenching crescendo, with each phrase becoming stronger and deeper and broader in sound. The pedal part grows more active and agitated and calls for a more prominent, reed-y sound so that it can cut through the full sound already being made.
And then....
It reaches its climax - or so you think - in the final full organ chord. But the composer actually specifies that in the middle of the chord the sound is to be "sfz", which in this situation translates into using the "tutti" button. This is the "hang on to your hats" button, because it takes the organ from zero to 100 instantaneously. In terms of volume, that is. The organ is not actually mobile while this occurs. (Although wouldn't that be hilarious f it were? Hit the tutti and WHOOSH! The organ and organist go flying across the room!) So just when the listener is thinking the piece has reached its end, there is one last burst on top of the already pew-rattling sound.
It's a gut-wrencher. It really is. It was composed for a couple in memory of their sons, and so it definitely has a very funereal, redemptive quality.
I even debated if I should go all the way to "holy smokes turn down your hearing aid" loud at the end; that's not normally something I do in a prelude. Semi-full organ, sure, but tutti? Not so much. However, it really is what the piece is all about - at the end, after everything - the good and the bad - the King has one more move. And so I decided to go for it.
Let me tell you - there is nothing quite like the silence after the release of that sort of chord. It's a moment you don't want to ruin.
Which, unfortunately, I sort of did.
You see, after the prelude, our tradition is to chime the hour using the organ chimes. (There's a stop labeled "chime", so you just pull that and press a key!) And so while I was doing this with my right hand and pulling the prelude music off the music rack with my left hand, with my feet I was preparing the boxes (those are the big black "volume" pedals for the various parts of the organ) for the next piece and the first hymn. No problem, right? I do this all the time.
Well, the problem is that I missed.
Yup.
Badly.
And loudly.
You see, I was going for the "solo" box, which is the 2nd one from the right. I needed to open it all the way up to prepare it for the hymn. But I missed. Instead, my foot found its way to the "crescendo", which is the one on the far right. (Apparently my right foot can't read the little labels that say "solo"and "crescendo." Stupid foot.) Now, the crescendo pedal's sole purpose in life is to gradually bring on more sounds the further it is depressed, or "opened." So, as I was chiming along, suddenly there was this honk of organ sound as I opened what I thought was the solo but what was actually the crescendo pedal. It went something like this:
Ding! Ding! hhhhOONKDing!
Drat.
I made a quick recovery and closed the box back down as I finished the chimes, and - thankfully - my first thought, rather than "you moron," was more along the lines of "holy cow, that was hilarious!" I sort of wanted to start laughing right then and there, but I figured that would be frowned upon.
Life happens.
What are you going to do?
No comments:
Post a Comment