Category Archives: Music

November 21, 2024 · 13:46

Whistles in the jar

A while ago, I posted a photo on one of my fediverse accounts which got some attention. The photo showed the jar in which I keep my tin whistles – currently 12 whistles of various keys and makes. And then I said I would make a video to introduce all of them.

This video has now been recorded and since I didn’t want to talk too much but still give some additional information on the instruments, I decided to write a blog post.

The first tin whistle (also known as penny whistle or Irish [high] whistle) I ever bought was a brass one by Feadóg in the mid 1990s at Dublin airport. It came with an instruction booklet and song book and I still have that song book somewhere and I also still have the whistle. It’s in D major, the most common key for this kind of instrument.

While you can, in theory (and depending on your skill level), play a chromatic scale on the whistle, it is actually a diatonic instrument which means that you will need more than one whistle if you want to play in other keys than, for example, D.

Which is a wonderful reason to add more instruments to the jar 🙂

At the moment, I have five whistles in D. The already mentioned Feadóg.

Two Clarkes: one Clarke Sweetone with plastic head/mouthpiece and one Clarke „Original“ with a very warm and rather breathy sound. Both Clarkes have a conical bore which is different to the cylindrical bore of the other whistles in my collection.

Then there’s my tunable TWZ Folk tin whistle, a very fine instrument. A lot more expensive than the Clarkes or the Feadóg, but you also get a lot of sound for your money.

And I have a McNeela AerFlo which is rather easy to play and has a nice sound, too.

I have two whistles in C: one by Clarke and the other is an Oak whistle (you can get these at McNeela’s and at other music stores). Both a tad different in sound since the Clarke has the conical bore and the Oak is cylindric, and the Oak is also a bit more pervasive in volume, but not piercing at all.

Then I have several Generation whistles: one brass in G (my highest whistle), one nickel in F, one nickel in E flat and one in B flat – and with this one we leave the „high whistle“ family and go to the altos or mezzos. The B flat has a very pleasant sound but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to absolute beginners due to the length of the instrument and the position of the finger holes. If you’re already playing alto recorder, a B flat whistle will be a good start nonetheless.

Last one in the collection and also the latest addition is my alto in A major, a Mac Nic in brass. The sound is warm and it’s quite a versatile instrument.

I said to myself that I wouldn’t get any more whistles for the jar, but I think my low whistle in D might need more friends, and who knows, I might come across other whistles that I find interesting and want to add to the collection, so stay tuned – it’s not impossible that this blog post gets a sequel 😉

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , ,

Oktober 16, 2024 · 11:23

Subtitles to my low whistle introduction video

Hello!

Welcome to today’s video, another one that I’m recording here in my office next to my old piano and you can guess from the closed lid of the piano that I’m not going to talk about any „key things“ today. But I’m going to talk about a new addition to my ever-growing collection of recorders, whistles and other types of flutes.

You might already have seen the video of me playing my new James Dominic low whistle in D. I’m going to put the link to this video in the description of this one.

Here it is!

My new and first ever low whistle in D.

I own quite a few high D tin whistles, this instrument is actually the very first one I ever bought, but I’m going to talk about this one and its story in another video. Just wanted to show it to you to compare the size.

High D – low D.

And, yeah, one thing that you as a recorder player have to get used to when playing whistles: not only – you don’t have a thumb hole, and you get into the next octave by overblowing,

but especially for the larger whistles like the low one in D you have to learn the so-called piper’s grip, which means that only your ring fingers close the holes as you know from the recorder,

and the other fingers, you just put them flat on the holes and close them like this.

And here is what this black beauty sounds like.

[Playing the scale upwards]

And the second octave

[Playing the high notes, and then downwards again]

It is not made of metal, it’s made from some kind of polymer, plastic, I can’t remember, honestly, what the material is called, so, sorry, James Dominic, if I’m saying something wrong now,

but anyway, it’s a very light instrument. That makes it easy to handle.

And the other good thing and why I wanted it is that it actually comes in two parts. You can move the upper and the lower part away from each other or bring them back together again to tune the instrument. So, if it’s too high, you can make it a bit lower and if it’s too low, you can make it a bit higher.

And with this warm and breathy sound it is really, really nice for slow airs and ballads and romantic songs, whatever. For example!

[Playing „Drink to me only“]

But of course you can also play lively, fast music, reels, jigs, marches, whatever – you can play them if you „can“.

Here’s another example.

[Playing „Portsmouth“]

So, this was a more or less short introduction to this low whistle in D.

Oh, yeah, I mustn’t forget!

Because I love size comparisons, obviously I brought a tenor recorder so that you can see they’re almost the same size.

The recorder has more holes and has one hole on the back and basically it looks different, it sounds different, it’s a different instrument. If you want to hear what this one sounds like, you can have a look at my other videos.

Thank you very much for watching today and thanks for your patience, because it has been a while since that instrument moved in and I just haven’t had time for a proper introduction, but here it is.

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for watching, and see you soon.

Bye-bye!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

September 2, 2024 · 09:35

Subtitles to the video about the small 3D printed flute

Hello!

Here I am again, sitting at my piano with my handbag full of flutes.

You might have seen this handbag before – I have already introduced several 3d printed instruments that live in that handbag and I have a new one!

So, say hello to this new instrument here.

It is not a telescopic flute like the others, but it’s still quite compact and small and you can put it in any handbag or put it in the bag of your trousers.

This one is tuned in F major.

(Playing „Oats, peas, beans and barley grow“)

Like all the other flutes from my handbag collection it doesn’t have a thumbhole and it has six holes on the front and you use three fingers of your right hand and three fingers of your left hand to play.

(Playing a scale upwards and downwards)

It overblows into the next octave, so it’s a pretty versatile instrument and if you would like to play more than just the F major scale or from time to time play B (flat) major or whatever, you can do a bit of half-holing here as well. So, you can play sort of a chromatic scale.

I’m trying to show it to you. Not sure whether the instrument will want it right now, but let’s see.

(Playing a chromatic scale upwards)

For the purists among you, yes, it’s not perfect, but it works and it just takes a bit of practice.

Speaking of practice, one thing that was really, really doing my head in when I started playing this instrument was that due to the design – going from here, then we bend and go there, bend again and go here – the position of the left ring finger and left index finger are switched.

Swapped around, if you like.

It takes a bit of getting used to this.

(Playing four notes)

Next note is not played by your ring finger but by your index finger.

(Playing the scale upwards and downwards)

Just for comparison, I’m going to show you a tin whistle in D major and the scale is played like this.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards)

Position number 4 is your left ring finger, 5 is your middle finger and 6 is your index finger.

(Playing a few notes)

And it’s the opposite here.

(Playing a few notes)

But I think it’s worth practicing this. I guess it’s good for your brain. I mean, music making is always good for your brain, and good for your heart and soul.

I’ve quite grown to like this instrument and I’m going to play you another tune that

[short moment of not knowing what I was going to say about the tune]

I like.

(Playing „Cockles and Mussles“, better known as „Molly Malone“)

Thank you for watching! And stay tuned. I’m not sure what I’m going to show you next time, but there are definitely more instruments that will appear on this channel.

Bye bye!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , ,

August 12, 2024 · 14:25

Subtitles to the D-major-3D-flutes introduction video

Hello!

Here I am again with my bag full of flutes.

3D printed flutes made by Mauri in Finland.

I already introduced this instrument here a while ago. It is a hexagon shaped flute in D major.

Just like whistles it doesn’t have a thumb hole.

Unlike whistles this one does not overblow into the upper octave. You can play any melody on it as long as you stay within one octave.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards.)

(Improvising a short dance-like tune.)

And just to confuse everybody, this was a tune in G major. Because that’s another scale that you can play (partly) on this instrument.

Now. The instrument I wanted to concentrate on in this video is not this one.

[But I love it, so I’m talking about it so much.]

It is this one.

Looks pretty similar. The colour is the same, it has this wonderful pinkish golden orange colour that looks really, really interesting.

It has one round hole here. It has two caps, one on each side and it also has two labiums. Now, why is that?

Taking off one cap, open it. We have six holes here and no hole on the other side, just like the other one. And it’s in D major as well.

(Playing a D major scale upwards and downwards.)

So, what’s behind that other cap?

Don’t worry! You don’t need a second pair of hands, because the other side doesn’t have holes – it’s a drone pipe.

It’s a drone in D major.

(Playing the traditional German melody „Weißt du wieviel Sternlein stehen“ – „Can you count the stars“)

And then you take it and put it back together, put the caps back on (you gotta choose the right side), put it in the bag of your trousers and go off and make music!

Kommentare deaktiviert für Subtitles to the D-major-3D-flutes introduction video

Filed under Music

Juli 18, 2024 · 14:40

Subtitles to the sopilka introduction video

(Playing a folk song in d minor.)

Hello! And welcome to today’s video where I’m going to introduce the latest addition to my ever-growing collection of recorders, whistles and flutes.

This is an instrument from the Ukraine and it’s called sopilka.

It is a soprano sopilka; they come in different sizes, basically just like your recorders and it’s made of maple wood.

I like the sound. It’s a bit airy and very rich in overtones and it’s a really nice instrument.

There are a few differences to recorders and whistles and I’m going to talk about these differences as I have experienced them so far.

First of all, we have 8 holes on the front of the instrument, so there’s an additional hole here for the little finger of the left hand which we don’t have on the recorder and also not on whistles. On whistles you have 6 holes on the front so your little fingers don’t have anything to do but here, they do.

The next difference is the head. It’s flat. Recorders have the head in the shape of a beak more or less. And on recorders and whistles the labium would be on the front whereas the sopilka has it on the back.

And also on the back we have not one, but two thumb holes. So the sopilka has 10 holes, one for each finger and this makes it possible to play a full chromatic scale on the instrument.

The first few notes sound like this. (Playing a chromatic scale from c to g)

and so on

The good thing is: when I bought this instrument, it came together with a fingering chart which is very, very helpful and I have to look at this chart still quite often.

To play up into the next octave, you overblow, just like you would do with a whistle.

(Playing c and c one octave higher, d and d, e and e.)

It takes a bit of practice. It’s an instrument that looks pretty simple, but, just like the recorder, there’s a lot more to it than you would think at a first glance.

I already said that you can basically play any kind of music with it and I especially like it for folk songs and I’m going to play another folk song for you. It is one of my favourite melodies.

(Playing the German song „Wahre Freundschaft“ – true friendship)

So, this is the sopilka – soprano sopilka. It’s about the same size as a soprano recorder. Just to show you.

This soprano is made of cherrywood and on the back of the instrument, one thumb hole on the recorder and two thumb holes on the sopilka.

Another difference is the bore of the instrument, so the size of the cylindrical hole down here. It’s rather wide compared to the recorder for the sopilka.

But there are recorders with a wide bore as well. For example this soprano recorder here is made by Mollenhauer from the Adri Traumflöte, dream recorder, range. And the bore here is rather wide as well.

But I’m going to talk about the soprano recorders another time.

Today I wanted to show you the sopilka.

Thank you for watching. And, as always, if you either have any questions or if you are an expert sopilka player and you found that something I said isn’t quite right, I would be happy to hear from you. I’m always eager to learn.

You can get those instruments in various shops online. I bought this one from Etsy but I guess there are other possibilities, too. And there are lots of videos out there of people playing really, really nice tunes on the sopilka, so, do a bit of research, if you like and check them out.

Thanks for watching today and see you soon. Bye-bye!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , ,

Mai 18, 2024 · 18:05

Subtitles to the telescopic flutes introduction video

These are the subtitles from the introduction video to my collection of telescopic flutes.

Hello!

I’m sitting next to my piano, but I don’t want to show you anything that has to do with keys, today.

I have here a handbag full of flutes.

Telescopic flutes from Finland.

You might already have seen the video I made about this flute here. This telescopic flute was the first one I got from Mauri and it is about the size of a soprano recorder.

I brought one, to show you.

It is tuned in a minor scale and doesn’t have a thumb hole at the back so you basically play it like, for example, a tin whistle.

(Playing the folk song „Vem kan segla förutan vind“ – „Who can sail without the wind“)

Fits in a handbag, fits in the pocket of your trousers, and when you’re done playing, you just put it back together and that’s it.

Now this one has an amazing sister: it’s a double flute! It is tuned in a minor scale as well and it has a drone pipe with it.

Look, twice the size.

This one is really a bit stiff.

Take the cap off, flick it open, maybe adjust it a little bit. You have to make sure that both ends have the same length, so that you actually get the same tone.

The drone on its own, and the melody side on its own, and together.

(Playing an improvised song in, I don’t know, late medival style perhaps.)

You can do all kinds of meditation with it, and improvisation, and I just like the idea. It’s 3D printed, that’s different to the wooden case of the piano here, but it is a real musical instrument.

I leave it here as it is because this one still needs to get used to being flicked open and put back together again.

Now, these two are in minor scales, but Mauri also has some flutes in major scale.

And this one is just looking so neat, isn’t it. The colour is pinkish-orange-golden, all kinds of colours, and it has a different shape, it’s a hexagon.

There we have it. And it’s tuned in a major scale.

(clearing my throat)

(Playing a major scale up and down again)

(Playing a jig, „The Old Favourite“)

Isn’t this a wonderful, warm sound? I love this sound, and it is a beauty!

The only thing I had to get used to is that some of the holes are placed right on the edges of the hexagon, so you have to get used to putting your fingers on the right place and also stretching my ring finger a bit to close the hole down there, but basically everytime I’m getting a new instrument I have to get used to it in a way.

This is this one, and you just put it back together and put it back in your bag (or on the lid of the piano).

There’s more!

The last one.

Now this is one of the coolest instruments ever, because you could put it on your keychain.

It’s a bit heavy, but in theory you could even wear it as an earring, which I don’t.

It has a kind of greenish colour and you take the cap off and flick it open and adjust it a bit. There it is. A tiny keychain flute.

(playing all six notes from low to high and back)

Large enough to play „Twinkle, twinkle, little star“.

(Playing the song)

And versatile enough to also play the „Bear Dance“, for example.

(Playing the dance)

Think about it – how cool is it to have a small instrument on your keychain and you can even play dance music with it.

The size of this one is of course much less than a soprano recorder, less than a sopranino, about the size of a garklein which is a very small recorder.

But, again, as you can see here, the recorder has a hole for the thumb on the back and the telescopic flute doesn’t.

So, yeah, this is a short introduction to these really, really nice instruments made by Mauri in Finland and who knows, he might think of yet another design that I just absolutely want to have and add to my collection and the good thing is: in this handbag, there’s so much space in there!

Thank you for watching. I hope you like it. You can find the link to Mauri’s Etsy shop in the description below and I’ve also made a German translation of what was said.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you for watching! Bye-bye!

Kommentare deaktiviert für Subtitles to the telescopic flutes introduction video

Filed under Music

Tagged as ,

Januar 23, 2024 · 11:13

Dogs and creativity

I would like to expand a bit on the „dogs and creativity“ topic I briefly touched in one of my recent weekly snippets (blog post in German)

I was reading „Show your work“ by Austin Kleon and he was talking about how to make your creative work seen on social media and in this chapter there was a list of things you shouldn’t show. This list included cats, dogs, sunsets and lunches and ended with focussing on your work instead. When I read about the cats and the dogs I was smiling and frowning at the same time and shared this in the fediverse saying that my dogs played a part in my creative work and that I felt I should include them when talking about my days. Quite a few people agreed and shared stories how their pets contributed to their work. One photographer mentioned that taking pictures of his cats and showing them actually was work and I can’t really disagree with them here.

So, what do my dogs contribute to creativity or to my creative work? My creative work is mainly music, but not only music. Teaching has creative aspects, and so has writing concepts and job descriptions, and trying to figure out the best way of dealing with communication and leadership issues in the workplace. Sometimes I need to take a break and think, or take a break and take off my thinking hat.

Dog walks are brilliant opportunities to get the cobwebs blown off your brain and to just „be“ instead of trying to do or to achieve something. That’s one aspect. Another is that most dogs love to be petted and getting some attention from their human, so whenever I need a distraction, I can spend a bit of time with the dogs and feel better for it.

Of course the work isn’t getting done by spending your day walking around in the neighbourhood or cuddling your pets, but a lot of people tend to forget about taking a break and then don’t get much done during their working hours either.

And I’ve had so many interesting ideas popping up in my head while walking the dogs that I started thinking about taking my small recording device with me to keep those ideas. At the moment, I’m concentrating on actually remembering the thoughts and writing them down when I get home and I find that this also works fine.

I wouldn’t want to post pictures of my dogs as my only content of my social media activitities, of course not, but I don’t want to exclude them either.

If you would like to share your experiences how your pets influence your creativity, I’d be happy to hear from you.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music, Sammelsurium

Tagged as ,

Februar 4, 2022 · 11:24

There are more than 200…

… names on my ever-growing list of women composers who have written for organ (or other keyboard instruments and whose pieces can be adapted to organs of almost any size and character).

In my own repertoire, I have music by more than 3 dozen women composers and I could easily fill two 90-minute-recitals with „ladies only“ works.

So – a lack of material can’t really be the reason why we still see so many recitals and concerts that don’t feature a single piece by a woman. And it winds me up when I read about „varied“ concert programmes that consist of music written by white men only. No music by women, no music from Africa or Asia, no music by any marginalised group. What is so „varied“ about that?

If you think quality is an issue, think again.

In this blog post, I’m going to talk about some great pieces that deserve to be played and heard much more often. I’ve played some of those pieces in my own recitals and can tell you that the audience appreciates them. Off we go 🙂

The Toccata op, 97 by Mel Bonis – you can play this on almost any instrument. It’s intended for three manuals but does work on two or even one manual. You need a full pedalboard, though.

The Prélude pour grand orgue op. 78 by Cécile Chaminade. Two manuals are needed, and you can let the organ whisper and purr and go all the way for the fortissimo at the end.

The Dialog („dialogue“) by Ester Mägi is great for showing different sounds – two manuals are necessary.

If you’re looking for a suite: the Exodus Suite by Sharon J. Willis and the Suite for organ by Pei-Lun Vicky Chang are interesting and fine pieces. And for variations, check out the Concert Variations on Greensleeves by Carlotta Ferrari – the audience loves this, because it’s a well-known tune in many places. Two manuals are a must.

You won’t necessarily need three manuals for the following pieces (two are enough, and if you feel adventurous, even one manual might be possible), but the number three plays an important role: Preludio, Allegro and Fantasia by Matilde Capuis make a nice triple, the Triptyque pour grand orgue by Germaine Labole has the number three in its name and so do the Trois Esquisses by Liv-Benedicte Bjørneboe. And one of my personal favourites is the trilogy Englar á sveimi by Bára Grímsdóttir.

Of course you might want to do a „big one“, too. I love the organ symphonies by Elfrida Andrée and Germaine Labole, both set in b minor and absolutely grand. Have a large organ available? Do it justice with one of those pieces!

If you want to have some pedalling fun, try the Maestoso by Elizabeth Stirling or go crazy with the Octaves by Jeanne Demessieux – only if you know what you’re doing 😉

I could go on and on and on, musing about the chorale settings by Ethel Smyth, or the Fantasia by Tamsin Jones, or In Memoriam op. 57 by Hedwige Chrétien for harmonium or manuals-only, or the harpsichord sonatas by Anna Bon di Venezia that work so well on smaller organs, or the many pieces by „anonymous“ that might have actually been written by women, or…

Coming back to the beginning of this post: I don’t see why we don’t get to hear more of those pieces, and I’ll continue doing my part and offering varied recital programmes that deserve that title.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , , , ,

November 24, 2021 · 09:56

Advent and Christmas music for the organ

I’ve been doing my personal #project5050 at the organ for several years now. This means that I choose music from both female and male composers for all the church services I play, be it the traditional Sunday service, a wedding, a funeral… In my „main“ church, I write a small poster with information on the pieces and the composers every time I play and put it up where the congregation can see it. And I’ve had quite a few good conversations about this over time.

Sometimes my 50-50 ideas lead to interesting conclusions among the parishioners. Once I had a piece by Pasi Lyytikäinen in my set, and someone asked, please, could I tell him which country Madam Pasi came from? And I said, well, it might be a lesser known name, but it’s not Madam in this case. 😉

Advent (and Christmas) is approaching and I thought why not share some of the names of female composers whose works could be played and thus made heard and known in one or more of the hopefully many services we organists have on our list.

So, here are some suggestions – and I’d be happy to hear from you if you have any additional names, resources, ideas…

Carlotta Ferrari has written many, many pieces for organ. I especially like her Pastorales, and you will find suitable pieces for both Advent and Christmas in her oeuvre.

Mel Bonis, Pastorale op. 156. A lovely, not too difficult piece in G major, playable on small and large instruments. Get the Edition by Georges Lartigau (Editions Fortin-Armiane) – the pastorale is in volume 2.

In Cécile Chaminade’s op. 171, La nef sacrée, you will find several pastorales, playable manuals only or with pedals. You can get this opus from B-note.

Emma Louise Ashford has written a lovely piece called „Christmas Chimes“ – unfortunately the website where I found the sheet music seems to be offline.

In the „12 Chorale Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes“, op. 8 by Jeanne Demessieux, there are two pieces for Advent and Christmas: the meditative „Rorate Coeli“ and the lively „Adeste fideles“. You need two manuals for both pieces. Op. 8 is available by Alfred Publishing.

Dorothy Wells is the editor of a collection of Christmas hym settings and adaptions published by de Haske and has contributed a version of „Away in a manger“ – not too difficult, and you will need two manuals.

Two pieces by Rosalie Bonighton and two pieces by June Nixon can be found in the Kevin Mayhew collection „The Christmas Organist“.

Margaretha Christina de Jong, another prolific contemporary composer, has written several Christmas season pieces, fantasias, variations… for a short manuals-only piece have a look at „Weihnachtsgedanke“ (Christmas thoughts) in op. 71 (publisher: Butz).

There’s a fantastic collection of modern Advent and Christmas pieces by Swedish Gehrmans Musikförlag („Lux Bethlehem“) which includes pieces by Maria Löfberg. Two or more manuals required.

Last but not least the marvellous „Tales of Christmas“ published by Certosa with contributions by Elizabeth Austin, Andrea Csollány, Emma Lou Diemer and Julia Schwartz. Some pieces need two manuals, others can be done on smaller organs, too.

This list could probably (hopefully!) be longer, and as I said before, if you would like to contribute, feel free to get in touch.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , , , , ,

Mai 3, 2021 · 09:37

May, music and more

Yes, yes, I know. It’s been ages that I’ve written a blog post.

So, here I am again, still trying to muddle through all the small and bigger challenges of this global pandemic that has affected the musical part of my life in a big way.

I don’t want to go on about how hard it is that concerts and recitals are cancelled and that livestreaming directly from „my“ churches isn’t possible due to slow internet connection and that I miss my singing students and my choirs and all the rest, but I want to keep my eyes on the future and on my plans.

There’s still the possibility that concerts and recitals will be possible this year, so I will continue to work on my programmes and I have lots of ideas for new pieces.

For this blog, I have decided that I will concentrate on writing about music. In the past, „musical“ blog posts have had more attention than everything else and one funny thing is that when I search e.g. for „organ music“ and „female composers“, my own blog posts come up in the „top 10“ of the search results, so I guess that’s pointing me into that direction, too. 😉 Of course I will still write about other topics whenever I feel like it and I will also make sure to write in both German and English.

I’m currently testing a new online format to bring organ music to people who don’t have the possibility to visit a church and listen to music there and as soon as I can say more about it, I will. I’m also working on offering online voice training, so if you’re interested in this, just drop me a line.

Today, I would like to share an article by my musician friend Erica Sipes where she writes about musical misperceptions and it’s really worth reading! The article resonated with me in several ways and I hope I’ll find the time to write something about this, too.

Until then, I hope you’ll come back to this blog every once in a while and thanks for reading!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Music

Tagged as , , , , ,