Improvisation Workshop with Robert McCormick

On Monday, March 8, 2010, the Potomac Chapter of the AGO met at Little Flower Catholic Church of Bethesda, Maryland for an Improvisation Workshop. Here we are gathering in the rear gallery. The new Casavant organ is installed on both sides of the gallery. The right side is fronted with the basses of the Pedal 16' Principal and the Great 8' Principal. The left chamber is fronted with the basses of the Pedal 8' Octave and 4' Choral Bass.

Inside the left chamber; the facade pipes are winded through flexible tubes. The smaller pipes of the 4' Choral Bass are on the chest to the left, along with more tubes to facade pipes.

The wooden pipes are the Great and Pedal 16' Bourdon. The printed specification said that the pipes were a mix of wood and pipe metal (22% tin), but they appear to be all of wood. In front of them, to the left, at the basses of the Pedal 16' Trombone.

The Trombone plays in the Pedal at 16', 8' and 4', with 56 pipes. The empty space in front is for the future 32' Contra Trombone pipes to be added.

Another view of the Choral Bass pipes and the tubes to the facade pipes.

The main body of the organ is on the opposite side. The Pedal 16' Principal and Great 8' Principal facade pipes hide the shades of the Swell division, the big wooden structure. On top of the Swell and the Great and Solo divisions. The Great ranks are an 8' Chimney Flute with 12 stopped wooden bass pipes, and then the 4' Octave, 4' Spire Flute, 2 2/3' Twelfth, 2' Fifteenth and the Mixture IV-V. The Solo chest on the other side of the tuner's walk has the 8' Clarinet in front, and then the big hooded 8' Festival Trumpet, and the 8' Harmonic Flute at the back, with the bass octave offset on the right side and not visible in this picture.

Robert McCormick is Director of Music of St. Paul's Episcopal Church (K Street) in Washington, DC. He began by distributing copies of a paper he had written with the basic concepts of improvisation that he uses.

He began by making up a little melody and then suggesting how it might first be modified, and then harmonized. Jonathan Hellerman, Organist of Little Flower Church, is assisting him in registration.

Here Mr. McCormick is demonstrating different registrations for the same melody. The console layout of the new Casavant console is unusual. The far right group of stop knobs is for the Pedal, and then the Great knobs in the usual position. The Swell is to the left in the usual position, but the far left division is the Solo. The Great is the bottom keyboard, the Swell is the middle, and the Solo is the top manual.

Susan Burkhalter volunteered to improvise. Here Mr. McCormick is talking about the selection of key and meter.

Once you decide on the key and meter, then you work on a melody, and think of a simple form or style to use.

It is important to improvise the same way we play written works, with a steady tempo; here Mr. McCormick is conducting and counting the rhythm.

Always remember the key, and think about relative keys or minor keys, so that the improvisation has tonal interest.

We were joined by Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi, Pastor of the church, and Ron Frezzo, the Choir Director. Msgr. Vaghi spoke of how the organ has stimulated the musical life of the church. he also made some requests for examples of tunes to be used for improvisations.

Host Organist Jonathan Hellerman ended by demonstrating how he plays the hymns and what variations he uses.

We finished by expressing our appreciation to Msgr. Vaghi and Little Flower Church for letting us have our program there. The next concert in the Little Flower series features James David Christie on Sunday, April 25, 2010, at 4 PM.

Gerald Piercey, Editor

Heel & Toe, Potomac Chapter, AGO