Recently, I became engaged in discussion with an academic who is considering the creation of a new elective course for piano majors. It would have to do with exposure to, and learning how to play, the pipe organ—for pianists.
This raised red flags for me. In my long life, and especially during my academic training in both piano and pipe organ performance (which I did in that order), the two do not mesh well as a simultaneous endeavor. Furthermore, this department head (of piano) in a well-known school of music, could not elucidate why he would like to have such an elective course added to the piano department curriculum. It seems to be more of a knee-jerk reaction to the potential donation of an organ to the school, rather than a philosophical desire to round out the students’ education.
This is a subject about which I feel deeply, which I indicated in my final missive to him. Please allow me to share it with you:
“….Just so you know, I asked the question about the thinking behind having piano students learn to play the organ because there is such a significant difference between the correct keyboard technique of the organ and the piano. In fact, there was a school of thought, when I was an organist, that one should be either a pianist or an organist, but not try (professionally) to be both.
Similarly, one of the first things that Phil Steinhaus taught me was how NOT to play the organ like a pianist. He yelled at me, in fact, in an early lesson, saying “you’re playing this like a piano!!!” He completely changed my hand placement to accommodate “voice leading” in the fingering to keep the legato line on the organ, which obviously, is not necessary on the piano.
Are all organists playing this way today? Sadly, no. It is one of the biggest disappointments of my lifetime to witness the deterioration of both organ (e.g. Cameron Carpenter) and piano (e.g., Lang Lang, who did not use to play this way when he was new on the scene, and Yuja Wang) techniques.
I believe that the emphasis now is much more on what the performer looks like while playing, than on finding the original inspiration of the composer, and conveying that intent through performance. I blame the creation of the internet and associated outlets like You Tube, Instagram, and the like, on this sad state. Performers are now much more concerned with how they look (impressive) while performing, than in creating music. Add to that an exorbitant need for speed, and you have the picture.
To put it another way, Ego dominates, Spirit does not.
There is, finally, one legitimate reason, I believe, to expose pianists to the organ, which is to help them to understand the differences between the two (which is much greater than learning how to play the pedals) and perhaps give them a more educated understanding of whether they might want to change from piano to organ. Piano playing, of course, is a prerequisite to organ study, but you might be surprised at how many people don’t know that!
As you can probably tell, I feel rather passionately about this. So, let me once again offer my willingness to engage in conversation with anyone who is part of the decision-making process at the ******* school.
I wish you all the best.”
Ann, I didn’t know you were so musically talented. Glad to hear, and glad you are well-qualified to provide your opinion on the piano and organ situation. My sister Jean’s primary instrument when in a music program at Michigan State University was the pipe organ. I’m guessing she would support your premise as well. Keep playing.
I had no idea that Jean studied the pipe organ at college, Jim. I will have to chat with her sometime about that.
Thanks once again for your supportive thoughts. Did you know that every time you send me a comment, you increase my reach by search engines? So thanks for that, also. I hope you will have a lovely Christmas Day and Season!
Funny you bring up the point that you dislike it when people play the organ like pianists. I abhor it when people play the piano like organists. Drives me nuts. One in particular that I worked with played everything the same dynamic level. It lacked eloquent phrase shaping with strident, calculated execution of the keys, almost mechanical. He played everything like it was a march. He may have been the extreme case, but the lyrical, beautiful lines are missing many times when organists play the piano.
I do think, however, that piano performance majors should have one year of organ lessons. There are many areas of the country that don’t have enough organists available. Even if they don’t have the benefit of years of study, they can at least be ahead of the game. Who knows, maybe they will like it so much that they continue with lessons after university study.
I think it’s also important for organists to remain immersed in piano study if they play the piano often. If they transition from piano to organ study and don’t go back to the basics of piano, they will often lose the fluidity they gained. I agree the instruments absolutely must be approched differently.
Thanks for your thoughts, Heidi. The first example you give of the organist playing the piano makes me think that they were playing a tracker (mechanical action) organ regularly. That could account for why they “attacked” the piano as though they were playing a march, because tracker organs require a great deal of physical strength to play them. Electrically-assisted organ keyboards do not.
The frustrations you express bring me back to my premise that, from an artistic point of view, a player should choose one instrument or the other. The techniques are inherently different, and don’t cross over easily or well, as you have seen as a pianist, and I as an organist.
I appreciate that there is a shortage of organists out there, but that does not mean that pianists should fill in those slots, any more than we would expect a trumpet player to fill in for a trombone player in an orchestra. Yes, they are both brass instruments, but with very different techniques. Piano and organ both have keyboards, but that is where the similarities end.
I will always support the higher ideal of having each instrument being played well, with the highest aesthetic possible, as designed for that instrument.
Thanks again for writing!