Anne Marsden Thomas's Organ Lesson )OO(ll:C.S. [ang, Ttrba Tune
in D MairAnne Marsden Thomas gives detailed practical guidance to
theamateur organist on the preparution of a piece from "Sunday
bySunday."Reprinted from the September 2005 issue o/ Church Music
Quar-lerly, the journal of the Royal School of Church Music, by
permis-sion of the author and the editor. Adapted by the author
forTAO.INTRODUCTION
This piece is an ideal postlude for happy occasions. Its
familiar,tuneful melody sends the congregation away singing, and
the lilt ofits compound meter dances cheerfully, with its bold
D-maior tonal-ity and widely spaced grand sonorities. Best of all,
it is not at all dif-ficult to play.REQUIREMENTS
Tuba Tune is currently set for Grade 5 (Associated Board of
theRoyal Schools of Music). If you can coordinate the right hand,
Iefthand, and pedals, each with independent articulation, this is
anideal piece for you. Even ifyou have small hands, you should
notfeel deterred; although the chords look large, they can be
reduced ifnecessary.
Although intended for a large organ with a tuba stop, the
piecesounds delightful on any organ, even an organ with no reed
stop.You only need a minimum of two manuals with at least an
octaveand a half of pedals.EDITIONS
The copyright is held by Cramer Music Ltd., who publishes
itsingly. It is also available in both A Graded Anthologlr of
Music,B o ok 5, ard The Organist's W e dding Album fr om the same
publisheror from .REGISTRATION
There are registration suggestions at the outset but these are
in-complete. The right hand begins on "Tuba" and the left hand
beginson "Gt. Diaps., Full Sw." There is no regishation indicated
for thePedal. On a large organ this registration scheme probably
means:R.H. Solo manual: Tuba uncoupled.L.H. Open Diapason 8';
Stopped Diapason 8'; Principal 4'; Flute 4'
on Swell and Great plus Swell Reeds 16', B', and +'. Swell
toGreat,
Pedal Open Diapason 16'; Bourdon 16'; Principal 8'; Flute 8';
Swellto Pedal, Great to Pedal.
On a smaller organ find a loud registration in which the "tuba"
isconsistently louder than the accompanying manual, and in whichthe
Pedal balances the accompanying manual.
As the swell pedal opens on page three, it may be best to
beginwith the swell pedal closed. Alternatively, you could close
the swellin the rest at the end of m. 13.LEARMNGTHENOTES
Begin with the Pedal. Lang's articulation marks suggest slurs
plustwo t5rpes of non-legato: staccato (indicated by dots), and
not-quite-legato (unmarked notes). The gaps between the staccato
and not-quite-legato notes allow the same toe to take consecutive
notes, evenwhen those consecutive notes leap, as in the first
measure.Ex. 1: m. 1, Pedal
Practice leaps like this with a relaxed leg, maintaining your
toe'scontact with the pedalboard as you travel. Thus your toe will
re-member the precise distance traveled.
Example 1 shows you how a brief silence between two consecu-tive
notes allows the same foot to play both of these notes. Example2,
which gives my suggested pedaling scheme for the whole piece,shows
many more examples of this. You may also notice that myscheme
limits the pivoting of the lower body, and promotes antici-pation
of foot positions. Don't forget to operate the swell pedal inmm. 20
and 21a. Your right foot should move to the swell pedal
au-tomatically after playing Bt in m. 19.
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Ex.2: Pedal part (complete)
Sometimes students are nervous of playing bottom D (mm. 8, 9,73,
17-19,21). Certainly a misfire on this bottom D sounds
catas-trophic in the finished performance. Here are the best
methods to se-cure an elusive note. Use m. 13 as your model and
practice all thesemetlods in succession. Although in performance
the successful per-former uses all three methods simultaneously,
you may find it help-ful to choose one on which to concentrate
while you play:
1. The left toe's journeyPlay mm. 12 and 13, but only the notes
played by Ieft toe. Main-tain contact with the pedalboard
throughout. Thus you train theIeft toe to regard bottom D in
context- one note lower tlan Eb,and a fourth down from G.
2. The interval between the feetPlay the last note of m. 12
(right toe A), then m. 13 (D, with lefttoe). Check that your knees
are together, and your leg muscles re-laxed. Thus you Iearn the
angle ofyour lower legs that ensures theinterval of a fifth.
3. A point in spaceRegard bottom D as a point in space. Using
any location method,find and play D with your left toe. Check your
position by slidingyour toe forward to make contact with the two
black keys, C{ andD*. Continue to sustain D, checking that your leg
and your lowerbody are in the most comfortable position possible.
Close youreyes, listen carefully to the sustained note, and
associate thesound with the position of your body; convince
yourself that D isthe natural home of your left toe. Now release D,
and, using bothfeet, play t}rough mm. 11 and 12, always feeling
that you are trav-eling home to D.
Now we will explore the manual parts. Here, too, the slurs
andother articulation marks are important, but their
implementationmay be less obvious. Slurs applied to a single voice,
for example,right hand mm. 1 to 9, should be applied precisely. But
the lefthand's part looks alarmingly stretchy: full of three- and
four-notechords, joined by slurs, which no normal human hand could
hopeto interpret literally. A quick survey of other Bnglish organ
compo-sitions from this era confirms that Lang and his English
contempo-raries habitually used slurs to indicate phrasing or
accents, and thatsuch phrasing and accents do not necessatily imply
legato. You mayask, "How do I know when a slur means legato?" The
answer is: useyour own judgment, experimenting with legato touch,
and assessingits practical application. For example, in mm. !4 to
77 ,left hand, aquick experiment confirms that legato is
impossible; you cannotmove smoothly from one three- or four-note
chord to another withonly five fingers!
Tur Ar'ltpnrcnru Oneerust
Ex. 3: mm. 14-17, left hand
So we may assume that, when the composer used slurs in thisway,
he intended an illusion of legato. You can create this illusionby
slurring the pedal but making tiny convenient breaks in the
hand.Ex. 4: mm. 1rt-17, left hard and Pedal
With small breaks between the left-hand chords, your Ieft
handshould always be able to maintain a comfortable position, often
withthe thumb on the top note of the chord. However, very small
handsmay need to delete a note sometimes. When selecting which note
todelete, Iisten experimentally to find t}le note whose
disappearanceis least noticeable.
The composer's detailed articulation marks on the Tuba
melodyIine (right hand throughout, except in mm. 10 to 13 where the
lefthand takes over the melody) demand very close observation. For
ex-ample, in m. e, right hand, Lang presents three different
articulationpatterns within the first nine eighth notes. What
character thisbrings to an otherwise predictable line of notes!Ex.
5: m. a, right hand
Take care that you do not gather speed when playing staccato
(itis often tempting to try and close up the gaps between the
notes);think of the staccato notes as sharp, sparkling little
diamonds. Notehow the melody twice invades the alto voice in m. 16.
Generousbreaks (invited by Lang's slurs) in the lower voices remove
any pos-sible collision, and allow access to an easy fingering
pattern:Ex. 6: m. 16, right hand
Take a pencil and insert a little fingering, so that you play
thepiece accurately from the first day. Where there is a sequence,
it isusually helpful to use sequential fingering.
Ex, 8: m. 2-3, right hand
Tied notes suggest a hand position that encompasses all
thechords involved:Ex. 9a: m. 17, left hand
Ex. 9b: m. 19, left hand
In mm. 10 and 11 the unslurred right hand can step the same
fin-gers from chord to chord.
Ex. 10i mm. 10-11, right hand
Now that you have tackled so many fragments in detail, I
recom-mend you put them together. Register the piece as you will
performit and practice the manual changes at the same time. First,
Iearn eachhand separately; as soon as each hand is absolutely
fluent andsteady, although at a slow tempo, combine the Ieft hand
and Pedal,right hand and Pedal, and right hand and left hand. Then
combineall tllree staves in two- or tlree-bar segments, gradually
increasingthe length of ttre segments until the piece is
complete.
TOWARDS THE PERTORMANCEA common error is to rush from one phrase
to the next in mm. 13,
75, t7 , 1.9, ard 27; the music needs to breathe here! Feel the
impactof the fourth beat of the measure, insert a generous
human-sizedbreattr between the phrases, and perhaps use your
metronome todouble-check your rhythm.
I believe that Lang's tempo of .1.= 126 is much too fast for
almost
all situations. Try.J.= 100 instead. The piece even sounds
effectiveat a much slower tempo, for example J.= 80. More important
thanthe metronome mark is the mood direction, Allegro con brio
(lively,with a bright mood). Even at this slower tempo your careful
work onarticulation and the confidence you have gained through
methodi-cal note-learning will guarantee a performance brimming
with lifeand brilliance!
Exftacts printed by kind permission of Cramer Music Ltd., 23
Gar-rick Street, London, England WC2E 9RY.
Anne Marsden Thomas, BMUs, FRCo, FRscM, ARAM, is director of St.
Giles In-ternational Organ School based in London, U.K.; .She is
also a concert organist, author of several books for the student
organist,and director of music at St. Giles Cripplegate Church,
London.
In m. 11 (third beat), too, the soprano melody invades the
alto's D.I suggest the following interpretation, which includes a
tie to pre-vent an interruption of the top voice's slur.Ex. 7: m.
113-a, right hand
SrpreMsen 2006 65
