SOPP675: I want to play easier pieces well... rather than difficult pieces badly!

Secrets of Organ Playing Podcast

This question was sent by Stephen, and he writes:
“I love the Zipoli Pastorale...!!! Thank you... Zipoli is one of my favorite early Baroque composers!”
Vidas: I wrote to him, “Thanks Stephen! What other composers do you like?” And Stephen writes: “In a more contemporary "vein" I am fond of Dale Wood's music. There are passages in his work that require a legato technique especially with chords...Sometimes I am at a loss as to how best to play them...finger substitution..but which is best..that sort of challenge.
In answer to your question, what composers do I like ....Of course BACH, esp some of the Chorale Preludes. and I intensely care for the Eight Short Preludes and Fugues attributed to Bach but maybe not ?? I think his pupil Krebs may have had a hand in composing these??? I cannot prove that of course. but I love these pieces and I have always played them from the Wayne Leupold Edition...Sandra Soderland, editor. I prefer to follow her revelations as to style and registrations etc...all toes pedal!!!! I love them and find they never bore me....I studied them formally with Dr. Laura Ellis. Always from the Soderland Ed.! I never learned them any other way. so I was lucky :) Thank you and your wife/life partner for all you do to extend education to all who seek ....”
Vidas: And I wrote to him again, “Thanks Stephen! Yes, Wayne Leupold publishes great educational material. Current scholarship thinks these short preludes and fugues might have indeed been written by Krebs but there is no proof. So it's safe to say they were written by the Bach Circle.
You mentioned finger substitution being a challenge. It's just a matter of time spent and experience. Just continue to play easier pieces and little by little you can master more difficult ones as well. Fingers have muscle memory. And something more. They start to sense the best patterns after a while.
The first 20 years are difficult and then it's easy.”
Vidas: Stephen wrote back to me: “I just found a piece I had enjoyed and practiced several years ago...would like to share it with you ...I enjoy and care a lot for Marcel Dupre's work....This is one of the Seventy Nine Chorales Op. 28, he wrote for teaching purposes...I am guessing that you know them: XXVIII The Son of God is Come....very short and beautiful... And I wanted to share my a guiding principle in my organ study which I think is in agreement with yours: "It is only through playing a lot of easier pieces and being able to consolidate our progress at a manageable standard that we can go on to greater things" I want to play easier pieces well ..rather than difficult pieces badly! I find the ZIpoli can present some challenges… having the fingering at hand thanks to you...makes the task of learning it so much easier. Dupre marked all the fingering and pedaling in the Chorales. Happy Holidays: All of them!!!”