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Ellie Bolander

MUS 115

Randall

October 24, 2013

Organ Recital Review

1. Tyler BoehmerTrio Sonata II, mvmt 1 (Johann Sebastian Bach)Tylers piece was quick and highly ornamented. He had good left and right hand correlation and

independence. His legato was good, but not great (unless the piece was meant to be played non-legato,

then he played very nice non-legato). He had bad pedal technique, his knees were not only open but

they were angled out and he played with flat feet. He didnt utilize stop changes at all which was good,the piece was light and bouncy, as well as a trio where it sounds like three instruments are playing at

once so a stop change would have ruined that sound.

2. Anna JudkinsFinale (Andante) from Sonata 6 (Felix Mendelssohn)Annas piece was slow and reverent. Her technique was okay, she spotted her feet as she played but

played with the outsides instead of her toe. Her breaks were good, not too long or too short, and she

had good legato. The whole piece is very legato so she did well. ASomething noticeable was that she

played the song as if she were playing on the piano, so her hands were delayed and didnt always play

together.

3. Valerie McDougalPrelude in C (Felix Mendelssohn)Valeries piece was very loud, minor, and fast. Her posture was very stiff the whole time she played.

Her shoulders were very tense and though she moved a lot her movements were jerky. Her foot posture

was good, though. She played the pedals quickly and with great exactness, and watching her feet move

so fast was impressive. A couple of times she played with the outsides of her feet, but her pedal playing

was fantastic.

4. Matthew BeesleyCantabile (Cesar Franck)Matthews piece was very, very slow. It was played in solo style, with the swell being the loudest

and the great and the pedals were simply sustaining the background accompaniment. He played with

great legato, but took too long of breaks in some parts. This piece utilized many drastic stop changes

and they were all very smoothly executed.

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5. Emily SmithChoral in B Minor (Cesar Franck)Emilys piece began slow but then increased in speed and volume dramatically. Her pedal posture

was great because she played with her feet pointed inward. The piece was played very articulately.

There was great legato in the pedal and she had a very good light touch in the keys, breaking at the right

times. The piece was very heavy in the pedals but light on the manual and she did a good job makingthat distinction with good independence.

6. Melanie RandallFinal from Symphonie 3 (Louis Vierne)Melanies piece was very fast and very dynamically dynamic, changing from piano to fortissimo time

after time. The pedal technique was fantastic. Pedals were played with the big toe and knees were

together. The pedal part was so fast and all over the place but very few notes were missed which was

impressive. The articulation was very good, with clean breaks and fast fingers. The legato was also very

good in places where legato was required.

7. Kymberly StoneLitanies (Jehan Alain)Kymberlys piece was odd. It was very fast and dissonant. The breaks were good and very clean. She

had good posture and played with lots of movement and emotion, more than normal for a classical

organ piece. At one point during her performance it felt like the tempo was lost. The melody was lost

and the notes seemed to be all over the place. It was an interesting piece and an interesting but

impressive performance.

The composer I chose to look up was Cesar Auguste Franck. He was a French composer, born in 1822.

Some of his best works were his organ pieces. He revered Bach and often used dominant discords of

high intensity in his music because he was inspired by Wagner and Liszt as well. His songs also makemany full stops and breaks, which some music theorists suggest are too many breaks and make his

songs sound choppier than they should.