Nocturne-ish for Organ

Heya,
So this is a movement of an organ piece that i'm writing for an organist friend. I've never written for organ before; i've discussed writing for the instrument with another organist friend, who gave me some tips, and i looked at a lot of info on the internets. But i still don't really know what i'm doing.

Any and all comments would be very much appreciated. I especially don't know what to do about stops. In this piece, i've marked where (i think) i want reeds or flutes or full organ. I also put foot lengths when i wanted it in a different octave. I don't really understand what qualities the different manuals have, so i didn't mark them.

I imagine that stop-writing would be something that can only really be gained through experience and hearing/playing a lot of organs. So...is what i have now a good amount of information to provide? Will what i have written work? Have i marked it correctly?

Are there other issues with this piece that i should be aware of?

Thanks so much for reading/listening!

Instead of my usual approach for comment I will ask you a few questions -

1) Do you hear the various sounds as flutes and reeds?

2) Have you had your friend demonstrate the features of an organ to you and did he provide a score and/or recording to listen to?

3) Do you think the piece is complete?

4) How much experience have you composing?



As for your registration markings, they are ok except Full Organ should go above the topmost staff.

This is a very interesting piece - I love your sense of harmony, and your use of suspensions. All those held over dissonances will sound amazing on a large organ.

Your organ writing for the most part is fine. There are a couple of times when you ask for Flute or Reed 16' on the manuals - this is a little bit uncommon. You should probably just write those passages out an octave lower and ask for an 8' stop.

Musically I love it, except for the end. I don't like the starts and stops towards the end. You build up a lot of excitement going into ms. 75, when we first hear the grouping of Emajor and Dmajor chords. But then you give us a little stop at 77, which I think detracts from that excitement. Then you do it again in 79! I would really like to hear the excitement GROW to the end, not grow then sort of fizzle out, especially if you want to end it big, which you did. That ending chord will sound great, by the way. But I would suggest fixing the lead up to it by removing the rests.

Great work, though!

To answer your questions, composerorganist:

1) In some cases, yes. In the top staff's phrase that starts in measure 9, and in the fugue (starting m. 49), i really heard reeds. It could just be that i love the sound of reeds though. I suppose that some of the other markings are motivated by trying to even things out (as in, 6 minutes of just reeds would probably be overdose)

2) It's been more of an ongoing process, with me hanging out in practice rooms with her, and her showing me various things. She also occasionally complains about various aspects of new organ music she comes across, and has recommended several pieces and composers to listen to/study (Durufle, Messiaen and Hindemith for good 20th century organ writing, Bach and Mendelssohn for pedals since she loathes how a lot of contemporary composers use pedals).

3) No.

4) It's complicated; i've been composing for quite a while, and have also been taking lessons for a long time. At school, i'm uber-involved with my comp department, but at the moment i'm an almost-but-not-quite-a-major. And lately, i've been going through a radical change in my musical outlook, which had the result of making me not terribly sure of myself composing in any particular style anymore. And (almost done, i promise), this piece is especially complicated since most of the material is taken from a piece i wrote a looong time ago.

Thanks for your interest! Hope this answers your questions.

Oingo, thanks so much for your comments. I'm a little confused about the ranges of manuals. Someone told me that "I don't have any notes below middle C", and i wasn't sure if that meant i should or shouldn't write below middle C (and was too embarassed to ask :-P)

You're completely right about the ending; i will definitely rethink that. Thanks again for your wisdom!

Hey Cream, I'm glad you are developing an interest in the 'King of Instruments'! May I offer some suggestions?

I think at this point, you should leave the registration to your organist friend. If he is advanced enough to play your composition, letting him use his own approach would yield the best results. There is nothing wrong with a basic outline of course, but any organist worth his salt can make do without a stop-list.

Something else to consider is the actual playing of the organ. When I compose for the organ, I try to strike a balance between complexity and reward. Your piece is playable but would require a good amount of work to be played properly, and I don't think most organists would bother.

I'm not trying to be harsh, (I'm working on the same issue ) but perhaps a reevaluation of the piece could yield better results? Measures 49-50 are very interesting to me. Could you expand and re-write the movement with more of this kind of structure? A simpler tempo would do this piece, and the performer, a great service!

Would your friends be willing to sit down at an organ and go over the piece with you? Perhaps let you play it? That would be a wonderful way to learn more about organs and organ composition. Give it a try!

Keep working on it,
Justin

Can I marry you Q.cream?

This is one of the most interesting pieces I've heard on here

The writing was pretty spectacular.

JB: Thanks for your interest and comments. That was not harsh at all! Balancing playability and "reward" (i like how you phrased that!) is something i've thought about a lot, but i always seem to wind up writing for one extreme or another anyway. I really do need to work on that.

What would you organists say are the hardest aspects/passages of this piece are?

And Corbin, this is just happening so quickly! It seems like only yesterday when we were bonding over Susan McClary... Ummm... anyway, thanks so much for the kind words!

All manuals go below middle C... down to a low C in the bass clef, and up to a high C beyond the treble clef, if I'm not mistaken. (I actually haven't been playing at my church regularly since the summer...) Perhaps the person who told you this plays on a Hammond or some other type of organ?

Just to add my opinion- I don't think this piece is too difficult in any respects. I think any organist with a decent level of skill should be able to pull it off without too much difficulty.

Keep us posted on any changes!