What Have I been doing?

Well, to answer, playing organs. Ill start my giant update on monday. I visited some organs with Egbert and then went back to his house. We ate a wonderful lunch. Egbert and Hari are great cooks. We had Pasta with spinach, mushroom and other good stuffs, with fresh salad and tea. We finished with Chocolate-Vanilla custard :) I then practiced harpsichord for four hours while Egbert went and taught. I was going to go to Groningen on monday night, but they kindly let me stay one more night and we went to the train station early in the morning tuesday. I took the following route. Coevarden-Zwolle- Groningen-Grijpskerk. Grijpskerk is a tiny tiny little village in the province of Groningen. It is a 15 minute train ride from Groningen Centraal. I met Sietze de Vries there and we went to the village of Kantens.

Now, for an epic side note. There are three things one needs to know about Groningen (the province). It is flat as a pancake, very very beautiful, and they haven't invented crime yet. There are also a lot of windmills and churches. The province has an interesting history. It is right on the Wadden/North sea. Thus, like all of the Netherlands, water is always a surplus item. So, before all the dikes were properly built the entire province would be flooded twice a year. This, naturally, is not a great situation. So, they dealt with it by building big churches. Makes perfect sense, eh? Actually, it does, because what they did was build first a hill that was maybe 2 metros higher than the surrounding plain. Then, they built a church big enough to comfortably house the entire village population, often including livestock. Now, why they had to build churches with very high naves and beautiful choirs, I'm not sure, but, nevertheless, most of these villages have a church, on a man made hill, with a tower and beautiful interior. Groningen is quite literally dotted with windmills and church towers. 

So, in the village of Kantens, there is a lovely tower that, due to a thousand years worth of soil settling, is starting to sink. But, it is sinking unevenly. Infact, it is tilted almost like the tower of Pisa is. So, they built an arch to help support it. It really looks quite unique. 

The church has a wonderful little organ as well. It has two manuals, short octave and is tuned in meantone. The four foot flute in the Ruckpositiv (the organ sitting in front/hanging off the balcony) is the nicest flute I have ever heard. I spent probably an hour with it. It is really a lovely instrument. The only thing is that while the restoration was quite good, the pipework and sound was lovely, the action does have metal in the rollarboards so, it doesn't have the most wonderful feel ever. IT feels very clean, just different. It was restored by Jurgen Ahrend in 2000 (if i remember correctly). It was originally built by the family that taught Schnitger the trade of organ building. 

After a couple hours with the instrument, Sietze came back and we went to Uithuizen. It is a village that is probably three km from the sea. Very old and nice. Sietze and I went to a cafe where we had kaasbroodje (cheese with bread) and apfelkoek (apple cake). Then we went to the organ. It is the best preserved Schnitger there is. Over 80% of the pipework is unaltered/original from 1700 or before. Sietze demonstrated the organ with a wonderful partita (improvised of course) and then took me through the organ a little. We looked at some of the old pipework and saw how it was built and restored. Then, he handed me the keys, told me to stay as long as i pleased, and left. I play for about four hours. It has a great sound. The church has very, very bad acoustics, so, the instrument is voiced very loudly. This means that the plenum sound will blast your ears to pieces when you are playing, and by the time you get to the middle of the church, it isn't loud enough. But, while you are playing, it sounds quite good. You just can't play a plenum sound for too long.  However, the mutation stops are amazing. The quinte 3' and siflet combine wonderfully with almost every stop, including the usual principles and flutes, as well as the foxhumana, and even the trumpet. I've never loved the cornet sound as much as on that organ.

I left the church and 8, stopped at an Albert Heijn and got some bread and Gouda cheese and some Hero jam and apples ( I believe in a balanced diet… ;) and then took the train back to Groningen, found my hostel (long walk) and got to sleep by 11. 

The next day, we had a similar program me of activities. I met Sietze in Grijpskerk at 10:19, we went to a village to play an organ and so one. But, it was hardly the same. First we stopped at the custodian's house to get keys. He is also an organ builder by hobby and woodworker by trade. He had a little Regal he had just built. Hand pumped bellows and on little keyboard. Interesting soond, but, even more amazing wood work. The guy is an artist! Then we went upstairs and looked at his little organ he is building. Beautiful inlaid wood and ivory and an amazing little reed stop. 

After this, we went to the church, talked about the organ, style of the case, etc. and then he demonstrated. The organ was built in 1798 and is a very different sound and case than the 1700 instrument in Uithuizen. It has pitiful mixtures, and lots of flutes etc. Not my favorite instrument but still very nice and pleasing. Sietze improvised on the Lutheran chorale "What God does is well done" I played for about an hour or so. It has manually pumped bellows (as well as a blower) so, I got to do that while he played. 

From there, we went to Martinikerk. Im not sure I should say anything other then that I was completely blown away. Heres a picture. it has amazing sound!!!!

We talked about the case, the facade and the style of the organ. It has pipes dating to c. 1450. It ha s an amazing 8' flute in the Oberwerk. It is scaled to a sixteen foot principle, but, stopped at 8' and has the widest, most vocal sound ever. It just fills the room with one single pipe! I should pause a minute to say something about the acoustics of Martini. It is actually a little smaller than I expected. The ceiling is not ridiculously high (like in Bavokerk) and the choir is separated by a glass screen. So, in essence, you have plastered walls (very hard, great reverb) and a short/small room, but a HUGE organ. It strikes a good balance, the organ completely fills the room, but not so much that you get a muddy sound. It is just right. The organ also has the only surviving 32' principle. These are the pipes in the pedal towers on either side. They go down to the F (octave and a half below middle c) then there are wooden ones for the very low notes. The interesting thing is that the pedal towers come out a really long ways, and have pipes all the way around them, so, when you are sitting at the organ you have a very stereophonic sound. you really hear the pedals quite loudly on either side.

The organ has three manuals with a 16' plenum on each one, as well as a complete reed section in the pedal (16' 8' 4' 2' with actually two 16' reeds a Bazuyn and Dulcian). Anyways, for me to critique the sound any more, would be pure intellectual snobbery. It is revered as an amazing instrument, and I finally have experienced it. It is not only a feast to look at (perhaps only topped by Bavokerk) but an amazing feast to hear. the Muller organ in Bavo simply does not sound this amazing. The other great thing about Martini is that the organ isn't spaced out like Bavo or Alkmaar. while both those instruments have larger cases and pipes that reach seemingly into heaven, Martini has a relatively compact Ruckpositiv, haupwerk and Oberwerk (three distinct divisions of the organ) with huge towers for pedals. Looking at it in a way betrays the scope of the instrument. But, the power within those pipes will move one to tears.

After talking about the organ, Sietze left to go demonstrate with me standing in the Nave. I casually asked for him to improvise on "A Mighty Fortress." Why", I don't know. It is what popped into my head in the moment. I was actually going to ask for my favorites," Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow"  and  "Praise to the Lord". But, I blurted out "Ein Feste Burg". Anyways, there was a lady, Canadian i found out, that was like "he's going to play that?!?!?!" yah. We chatted while he went up. Then i sat down, hit the record button, and listened. Probably about 15 or 20 minutes later, I was blown away and smiling. In awe of what God has given us. i looked back and the lady was crying. Sobbing actually. Sietze came down to let me into the organ gallery/loft  (a tiny door) and the lady came up to him. She thanked him profusely. Then she told her story. 6 months ago, her husband committed suicide, and three short weeks later, her brother died of cancer. She was moved by the beauty, but more importantly the comfort and assurance she received in some simple organ music. It was very meaningful to me to see yet again what music can do and how it can bring us closer to God.

What followed his atlast, my dream come true. I've dreamt of playing Martini since i first saw and heard the organ on CD. It was everything i ever imagined it to be and more. The action wasn't my favorite. But the sound was incredible. Utterly incredible. I played the Bach Toccata in C (564) the Fugue in C on "Allein Gott" (BWV 547) the D minor passacaglia by buxtehude. the Bruhns e minor praeludium and finally, my favorite, the Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. I think I may have died and gone to heaven. 

Now, while I write this, Im on a train from Groningen to Leers and then on to Hannover. Tomorrow I play in Melle (hopefully) and then in Amsterdam at the Oude Kerk. Today I didn't play in more organs. I went back to Martini and took pictures. about 300, actually, and just looked at the instrument. Theo Jellema was teaching some one. They played the passacaglia. Admittedly, they played it much better than I did. I limped through the piece because I haven't been practicing. But, I didn't not agree with how he played it. It did not flow. After that, I walked to Der Aa Kerk. I couldn't go in, but it was good to see. I stopped and got some stroopwafels and then walked to Pelstergasthuiskerk. It has A little Schnitger also, but, again, it is closed to public. 

Sunday I go down to Munich

A word about hostels. They are horrible. that is all.