Learnable? Options

[Tosher]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZvdTgDmq1o

The Allegro from Widor 6.

Is this piece learnable - or is it FRCO++?! Answers from experience please.

I am looking for a well known, 'big' piece that is learnable. I think parts of this seem very hard, and others relatively OK. I have sight read the first page of the score fine.

Opinions welcomed.

[organistno1]

Hello

Yes, every piece is learnable. Some just take more time that others. No one ever composes a piece not to be played; everything written has to be playable by someone even if it is only the composer!!

Most of the bigger parts in the Widor are just chords which can easily be played. The quavers/semiquavers that occur during the piece can also be played with lots of practice to get them fluent and to avoid slip ups with the scalic passages.

Im terms of diffuculty I would say that is difficult to get right (there is more to playing than just the notes) and you would need to spend quite a bit of time on the end passages, however the notes themselves and the key signature pose no difficulty.

Comparing it to FRCO standards doesn't really work. Yes, the pieces in the FRCO list are challenging but the repertoire lists, if I am correct, are not chosen due to difficulty (there are piece on the ARCO list that are easier than grade 8).
Most of the time, it all bottles down to prior experience of playing works like this; I would not attempt it having not played any French Symphonic works before. It also all comes down to how much work you put in...

Mike (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[mrbouffant]

This is a hard piece. Not the opening stuff or the scalic figuration for the manuals which follows, but the middle section where you have a fast, wide-ranging pedal part alongside a fast moving left hand stuff. I never managed to co-ordinate myself enough to make a good enough fist of it for public consumption.

It is harder than stuff on the FRCO repertoire list, but of course FRCO is not necessarily about being able to play pieces convincingly.

An easier movement is the last movement of the 6th symphony. That is more approachable and appears on either the Dip or LRSM list I think. I remember playing it at York Minster back in '89 and having a lot of fun with it.

[Barry Williams]

Apart from the notorious trio passage, this is not a difficult piece to play.

It is, however, a difficult piece to interprete.

The last movement of Widor six makes a super wedding recessional, though not as wonderfully pagan as the last movement of Vierne six.

Barry Williams

[daveinnorfolk]

It's definitely not easy thats for sure. If you're after something that is similiar to this, what about the Marche Pontificale from the first symphony by Widor? It's not as hard but will hit similiar notes with your congregation

[Tosher]

Thanks for the comments!

To me personally, the Marche Pontificale looks even harder in some places - but I think it's a situation of give and take, and what one personally prefers as a player.

Do people have any more suggestions of relatively approachable 'big' pieces, suitable as a recital ender for example? I would be interested in the answers if everybody were to nominate what they felt to be the 'easiest' popular big work. Loose parameters I know - don't take it too seriously!

[sesquialtera12.17]

Thanks for the comments!

To me personally, the Marche Pontificale looks even harder in some places - but I think it's a situation of give and take, and what one personally prefers as a player.

Do people have any more suggestions of relatively approachable 'big' pieces, suitable as a recital ender for example? I would be interested in the answers if everybody were to nominate what they felt to be the 'easiest' popular big work. Loose parameters I know - don't take it too seriously!

I learned the Allegro from Symphonie No.6 10 or 11 years ago. As others have already hinted, the central F# minor section is tricky with a wide-ranging pedal part in quavers against triplets in the manual parts. I found the hardest bit to be towards the end, where the hands and feet are in unison - it never felt comfortable.

For a relatively straightforward "big" piece, try the Final from Widor's Symphonie No.8 in B minor - nowhere near as difficult as the outer movements from No.6, IMHO.

Ses.

[mrbouffant]

To me personally, the Marche Pontificale looks even harder in some places - but I think it's a situation of give and take, and what one personally prefers as a player.

I disagree on that. It really is a lot more straightforward than the opener of the 6th. I would say it is hovering somewhere on the Dip/LR border.