Halloween Organ Recital

Join the Foothills Methodist Church in Gloversville on Sunday, October 30, at 3:00 p.m. in the church sanctuary for an exciting organ recital featuring a smorgasbord of classics, favorites and surprises. Malcolm Kogut will perform pieces such as the vivid and bristling with energy Dubois Toccata to the ubiquitous Toccata in D Minor by J. S. Bach.  Other music will include Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," Boellmann's famous Suite Gothic Toccata, and the tear jerking "In the Garden." The organ recital is free and open to the public.  For a sample medley of the recital, point your browsers to Youtube, here: 

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One thing Malcolm Kogut loves about living in New England is the endless number of mountain trails there is to explore. Malcolm loves challenging himself and friends to explore a new trail together and he enjoys both the defiance of and going with gravity.  His favorite hikes over the years have been St. Regis near Saranac Lake, Mt. Baker in Washington state and Ice Caves Mountain in Ellenville, NY. Hiking is one of the best ways to get fit and explore nature at the same time.  Malcolm's commitment to hiking is especially important to keeping up his musical pursuits for, hiking gives him something to play about.  After all, nobody lies on their deathbed wishing they worked more.

Make Recitals Great Again

From my "Make Recitals Great Again" recital. It was 95 degrees outside and I don't know what the temperature was inside the church under those 500 watt flood lights but this was the stickiest, sweatiest and most difficult recitals I have ever played.  My fingers were so sweaty that they were sliding off the keys.

This has always been a difficult organ to record because the swell and solo divisions are located in a chamber on the other side of the chancel, the great is located right behind my head and the choir division is installed up in the balcony and consequently often sounds out of sync.  For this recital I placed the recorder in the middle of the church amongst the people and that seems to have equalized it.

Other Pieces from this Recital:

Fugue in G Major, Bach
Allegro From Concerto II, Bach
Princess Leia's Theme from Star Wars
Carillon De Westminster by Vierne
Fanfare by Malcolm Kogut
Prelude in C Major, Bach
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Toccata on "Duke Street"
Once In Love With Amy
Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter
Trumpet Tune by Marsh
Eternal Father, Strong To Save
20th Century Fox Fanfare
A movement from Jupiter; Bringer of Jollity by Holst From The Planets
Dialog

Malcolm Kogut

The Dix Range

This autumnal grand-daddy of all hikes led us to the serene and beckoning  summits of Macomb, South Dix, East Dix, back to South Dix, then to Hough and Pough, over the Beckhorn, to Dix, back to the Beckhorn, then straight down the SW ridge of Dix and Beckhorn.  We camped at Slide Brook then ascended via the land slide of Macomb Mountain with its beautiful view of Elk Lake.  Each mountain has its own beckoning gleam of silver track slides.  Bear Grylls would be proud.

Buxtehude's Daughter

Should anyone be in the Albany, NY area this Sunday, I am playing an irreverent cantata called "Buxtehude's Daughter."  Here is a sample of our first rehearsal:

http://youtu.be/rGlUKxUhPIM

Byron Nilsson and Amy Prothro bring their cabaret show, “Song to Amuse,” to the very brink of the classical-music world with a special concert at 2 PM Sunday, October 5, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society, 405 Washington Ave, Albany.

 

They’re performing an irreverent cantata Byron wrote (with music by Tom Savoy) titled “Buxtehude’s Daughter,” that gives a fanciful and funny version of what might have taken place when the young J.S. Bach traveled to Lübeck to interview for an organist’s job, succeeding the great Dietrich Buxtehude. The kicker: he would have had to marry Buxtehude’s daughter to get the gig, and she didn’t appeal to him. Not a word of the piece is true. It’s doubtful the daughter sang a blues number. The spirit of it turned out to be more P.D.Q. Bach than J.S.

 

This will be performed in collaboration with members of the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, giving the cantata far more legitimacy than it deserves, but Byron and Amy also will sing some of their favorite cabaret-show selections, including songs by Bernstein, Sondheim, Gershwin, Flanders & Swann, and even Roger Miller, all with Malcolm Kogut at the piano

 

And there will be a post-performance champagne dessert buffet to help erase the memory of what you’ll have just endured. It’s an afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at 518/377-3623 or www.musiciansofmaalwyck.org (under Songs to Amuse).

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–Malcolm.

Buxtehude's Daughter, a Cantata

Buxtehude's Daughter is a spoof cantata written by Tom Savoy and Byron Nilsson about the true story of Buxtehude, his daughter and Bach.   In October of 1705, Bach, at the age of 20, secured a one month leave to go hear a musician of considerable reputation.  Bach proceeded to walk over 250 miles from Arnstadt to Lubeck to hear the famed Buxtehude perform one of his weekly recitals and, was so impressed that he forgot to go home and he stayed for four more months, greatly offending his superiors at his home church. 

The aging Buxtehude was retiring and seeking someone to take over his directing position at the Marienkirche.  The catch was that Buxtehude would only offer the job to the applicant who would marry his daughter.  She was not young (over the hill at 30), not pretty, and perhaps did not posses much of a personality. At any rate, her father was having difficulty marrying her off.  Other famed applicants for the position included Handel and Mattheson but the thought of marrying the daughter was too high a price to pay. Apparently, when sacrificing for your art, there are certain sacrifices that are too costly.  The practice of offering a daughter as part of the "benefits package" was not uncommon in those days as Buxtehude himself married the daughter of Franz Tunder, his predecessor.

When Bach eventually returned to his home church in Arnstadt, fireworks ensued.  The "minutes" of a meeting to which Bach was called to explain himself still exist today.  Bach was accused of "making music" with a "stranger lady" and he was even accused of inviting her up into the choir loft.  This was a time when women weren't allowed to sing in the choir and it was a serious breech of etiquette to make music with one.  What would the congregation think?  Not that church people are ever prone to gossip.

Buxtehude did eventually find a successor and son in law; Johann Christian Schieferdecker won the position.  He was a little-known composer who was an accompanist and composer at the Hamburg opera.  Schieferdecker also served as Buxtehude’s assistant shortly before the master died.

The Musicians of Ma'alwyck;
Join us for a wonderful afternoon of delightful, funny songs with Byron Nilsson, Amy Prothro and Malcolm Kogut, paired with the spoof cantata Buxtehude's Daughter and then enjoy a delicious champagne dessert buffet generously prepared and donated by Randy Rosette. Songs of Flanders & Swann, Stephen Sondheim, Noel Coward and others followed by Tom Savoy's and Nilsson's hysterical take on the surprise requirement attached to accepting the position as Buxtehude's successor.  Musicians of Ma'alwyck and Byron Nilsson and friends join together to present Songs to Amuse, Sunday, October 5th at 2pm.  First Unitarian Universalist Society in Albany hosts us in this special fundraiser.  An afternoon not to be missed and a great way to support Musicians of Ma'alwyck. Tickets are $35 per person and available at rwww.musiciansofmaalwyck.org

Toccata in D Minor - Halloween Organ Recital

This recording is from my practice session one day before my Hallowe'en Organ Recital.  For this number I don't have a performance copy because some dummy forgot to press the record button at the beginning of the recital.

Every time I play this toccata, I have to do it differently.  Sorry purists.

Siciliano

Gigue Fugue, by J. S. Bach

The great Virgil Fox used to introduce this piece on all his tours by assuring the audience that the tune comes "first in the tenor, then the alto, then the soprano, and when the tune hits my feet, I dance the jig." 

This clip is from a pre-recital sound and camera check. 

The Little (but not the littlest) Fugue in G Minor, by J. S. Bach

Just as rap, disco or a waltz can be recognized by its style or structure, so can a fugue if you know what to listen for.

In layman's terms, a fugue begins with a solo line which states the melody, usually in one of the hands.  Then the other hand comes in and imitates the same melody while the first hand goes off wandering by itself.  The two hands then come back together, they frolic a bit, then one of them may restate the melody.  The restatement is like a mating call because this usually attracts the attention of the feet who then enter into the fray.  Then the hands, like a tease, go scattering.  After the feet have their say, all the body parts play tag for a while until one of them states the theme one final time, usually the feet get this honor since they were the last in. 

Chorally, in this fugue, the voices enter first in the soprano, then the alto, the tenor, then the bass.   They continue: T, S, A, B, S, B.

Arioso by J. S. Bach

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

This is me having fun with the great Toccata and Fugue in D Minor at a Halloween Organ Recital.  Historically this piece is recognized as being composed by J. S. Bach but musicologists, organists and Bach scholars have long questioned whether Bach actually wrote this piece. Technically, here is nothing specific about Bach in it.  It is actually believed that the original piece was not in D minor, not a toccata and fugue, not for the organ, but for the violin and written in A minor. 

http://youtu.be/TkjF2Vtzwjs

A few of the many reasons that Bach scholars question its authorship is 1) Bach would not have ended the piece with a minor plagal cadence (take a peek at his Little Fugue in G Minor as an example of how he would have ended it).  2) Bach would not have started the piece in octaves.  3) The original manuscript was written in D minor but without a flat.  4) It is not in the intellectual style of Bach.  Certainly the piece was written to dazzle and show off but it does not have the contrapuntal sophistication of Bach and, the fugue is not at all complicated or brilliantly worked out as much of Bach's other fugues are.  5) The diminished seventh is used throughout the piece repetitiously and rather naively. 

The original manuscript was in the handwriting of Johann Rinck (Johannes Ringk) who was a student of Johann Peter Kellner.  Kellner knew Bach and was a student of Johann Christian Kittel and Kittel was Bach's last student.  Many music scholars beleive that the piece was actually a composition of Kellner's which Rinck copied since it is in Kellner's style.

The greater question is: Does anyone care?  Not in the least.  It is still a great piece of music hitting the bulls-eye for generations of listeners.

http://youtu.be/TkjF2Vtzwjs