hi all,

i have received my feedback on my 2nd year recital exam....to be honest, i wasn't and still am NOT happy with the feedback. They said the Mendelssohn organ sonata no.2 lacks dynamics (i changed the registration for like 6 times) and it had a rather weak ending. It was true that i made some nasty slips in some places, but i had to play all these pieces (langlais, mendelssohn and eben's moto ostinato) at 9am, with just a 5-minute warm up. The church doesn't normally open till 9:45am and the verger had to come in about an hour earlier especially for the sake of the exam (my professor who booked the venue knows the church doesn't open that early). I think it's rather unfair, not only I had a little time for warmed up. Pianists and orchestral players are often better off when it comes with the markings. I have three examiners (two are university professors and one is a conductor) and only one is an organist. Really frustrated.

These things happen, and performers just have to learn to take it on the chin, methinks.

Funnily enough I remember having an informal chat with one of the examiners (who knew nothing about the organ) a few days after my first year performance exam. Despite the fact that I got the highest performance mark that year, he told me that he was disappointed that my registration in a piece of Buxtehude was inauthentic. I asked him why - wondering what enlightenment I was going to get from him. He told me that I was obviously using some big metal pipes and that organs in Buxtehude's time only had small wooden pipes in them.

Well, I put him right, but you do wonder about people like him examining across a wide range of instruments, especially at degree level.

Incidentally, the organ in question was a small neo-baroque job by Roger Yates which had no metal pipes bigger than bottom C on a 4' Principal!

you are lucky that you've got the highest mark. that always goes to either a pianist or violinist in my year.

what's the point of having only one specialist examiner while the other two are so going to over-rule what he's going to say; or otherwise, pretend that they know about organs and give you useless comments.

i'd rather be assessed by three cathedral organists, at that rate, i will feel better.

I guess a lot of it just comes down to money. It would cost a lot to get in three specialist examiners for each instrument. And they'll argue that the other examiners are supposed to be able to put it in some sort of context in the wider musical scene or whatever.

At least you'll have organists examine you for your ARCO even if, perhaps, they never took/passed it in the first place.

well...it shouldn't be that difficult. there's at least a professor acting as specialist and the department is just 5-minute walk from rncm.

Sorry to hear that you are not happy with the feedback.

How much practice time were you able to get on the exam instrument? I don't think a 5-minute warmup and a 15-minute warmup would make much of a difference, if the articulation and registration had been worked out thoroughly before the recital.

When the examiners said that the Mendelssohn sonata lacked dynamics, I wonder if they meant articulation instead of variety of registration. To be sure, changes of registration help to highlight the overall structure of a piece. Within a phrase, however, dynamics is created by articulation. It is the subtlety of articulation that creates the illusion of dynamic shaping. For me, that is the hardest thing about good organ playing.

around 3 to 4 hours, which inlcuded registration settings. everything had been worked out nicely: registration and all the rest. i can't help it if they can't hear the differences. I had to change registration for like 6 or 7 times for the Mendelssohn organ sonata no.2 (don't think i can do more than that, or otherwise it won't be mendelssohn).

i did ask some organ friends (outside uni) to read my feedback sheet. the whole thing was filled with contridiction. clearly, other than the specialist, the other's hadn't got a clue what they were talking about.

Can i be honest LK? i think you're very bitter.

Performance exams are marked on exactly that. Performance. It's not totally about the technical ability, but the way a piece is communicated. Maybe the Mendellsohn sounded laboured? I have never had a violin lesson in my life, but i can still tell a good violin PERFORMANCE from a bad one, even if i cannot describe it in terms of bowing styles etc. Have you never critiqued a fellow performer? Do you work with other performers at uni and suggest how they can improve their part in a piece you are playing?

And five minutes warm-up should be more than sufficient if the piece has been set up before hand

5 minute is never enough, not when you are playing on a "foregin" instrument at 9am!!!! even ARCO exam has like 1.5 hr warm-up. having pre-set the registration before hand doesn't mean the playing can go smoothly without a glich.

i always critique fellow performers. and being the only organist in the music department sometimes doesn't help at all. but still, i'd rather have three cathedral organists telling me off rather than academic professors.

Do you mean 'warm up' or 'set up'? FRCO/ARCO don't allow ANY warm up. You have a couple of minutes to check the pistons and generals at FRCO (not allowed to use them at ARCO). Yes you get set up time, but this can be quite some time before. My FRCO practice time was 10 days before the exam, and I didn't get to touch the instrument again until I walked in the room.

Registration is undoubtedly an important aspect of organ playing, but I tend to think of registration to an organist like orchestration to a composer.

A good organist should be able to communicate the overall structure of a piece and show dynamics--through the use of different articulations--with only one stop on each manual and pedal.

Registration, no matter how effective, cannot transform a mediocre performance into a wonderful performance.

And how many registrational changes should there be in Mendelssohn? Ok, he was looking towards the Romantic era, but he had to perform on very basic instruments....

sorry guilmant, got things mixed up here.

anyhow, they complained the movements of the sonata didn't hang together that well and the ending (which is a fugue) was weak. They had suggested that more registration changes (or dynamics) would have helped to hold the sonata together. Hardly any comments about my articulation though. They said my technique was well-balanced and well-prepared.

what sort of comment would you have liked? That your articulation was wonderful? They're interested in the overall picture, not the finesse

i don't need the praises, but i want something constructive (for improvements), not comments filled with absolute contradictions.

I completely disagree on this point.

If you're really that bothered about the comments not being constructive enough then why not speak to someone about it and ask for additional comments (via a mark sheet or just verbal)?

A whole university panel of specialist examiners is hard to come by. Be thankful you had one - I've never had a specialist in any of my recitals throughout my three year degree. Also, it is really subjective (and quite political at times) in universities and it's just something, unfortunately, that you have to put up with.

Why? To my mind (though obviously we are all diffrent) the only time that is needed would be to check that everything has remained the 'same' and that the manuals are in tune with each other. If it is an organ with a reed known to move in and out of tune, perhaps this would need testing but thats it.

Warmups such as scales can surely be done on a diffrent instrument, such as a piano? The organ murders technique in this respect anyway, so i'm never convinced with doing them at the organ.

I think that it has something to do with the non-standardization of organ consoles. Certainly, before recitals, I like to have opportunity to spend 10-15 minutes say 45 minutes beforehand just running through one or two pieces. I'm never terribly keen to accept bookings when you have time to practise the day before, but not on the day itself.

Well, quite. I liken it to an athlete.. they warm up before a performance and so should we. Personally I like to play the _whole_ program through as a warm up before an exam. Yes, that is probably over the top but psychologically it is helpful too. Thus far, it seems to have been a successful approach...