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Wedding music


John Robinson

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I wonder whether I might prevail upon members here to offer some suggestions for wedding music...

 

...with a big difference!

 

My neice is getting married soon and has sent us all a message asking for suggestions for music for her reception.

 

She asks for "favourite songs to:

 

- dance to

- chill out to (I believe that this means to relax to, rather than putting in a freezer)

- eat to"

 

Of course, I'm sure she expects us to suggest some 'pop music' (or whatever it's called these days) but I thought, just for a bit of fun, I'd list some suitable organ music! At least her grandfather, who is an organist, might appreciate them!

 

Any suggestions? Perhaps not too obscure, or she won't have a clue what I'm talking about.

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I am a disgrace to my profession....

 

The Dean's elder son got married a couple of weeks ago. Both he and his beloved are avid sci-fi fans. They wanted a certain French toccata as they went out, but asked if I could play the main theme from Star Wars as well. I managed to do the toccata on the manuals and Star Wars on the pedals.

 

I'm thinking of calling it Darth Widor....

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I am a disgrace to my profession....

 

The Dean's elder son got married a couple of weeks ago. Both he and his beloved are avid sci-fi fans. They wanted a certain French toccata as they went out, but asked if I could play the main theme from Star Wars as well. I managed to do the toccata on the manuals and Star Wars on the pedals.

 

I'm thinking of calling it Darth Widor....

 

:ph34r:

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I wonder whether I might prevail upon members here to offer some suggestions for wedding music...

 

...with a big difference!

 

My neice is getting married soon and has sent us all a message asking for suggestions for music for her reception.

 

She asks for "favourite songs to:

 

- dance to

- chill out to (I believe that this means to relax to, rather than putting in a freezer)

- eat to"

 

Of course, I'm sure she expects us to suggest some 'pop music' (or whatever it's called these days) but I thought, just for a bit of fun, I'd list some suitable organ music! At least her grandfather, who is an organist, might appreciate them!

 

Any suggestions? Perhaps not too obscure, or she won't have a clue what I'm talking about.

 

Trois Danses - Jehan Alain

 

Pastorale from Sonata I - Alexandre Guilmant

 

Music while eating? No thanks. Maybe something played after the blower has been switched off. (Just a bit of a rattle to match the sound of clattering cutlery).

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Trois Danses - Jehan Alain

 

Pastorale from Sonata I - Alexandre Guilmant

 

Music while eating? No thanks. Maybe something played after the blower has been switched off. (Just a bit of a rattle to match the sound of clattering cutlery).

 

======================

 

 

The Toccata by Georgi Mushel is basically a Cossack dance; Mushel being Ukranian in origin rather than Russian (where he studied/lived) or an Uzbekistani, (where he worked).

 

Now a Cossack dance really sorts out the men from the boys and the youths; most of the men dropping dead before the end!

 

Highly recommended if you want a day to remember and an interesting photo-album.

 

Other, gentler ideas, include anything going by the name "Sarabande" and, of course, the Bach "Gigue" Fugue. (There's the Buxtehude one for the less skilled organists among us). I think there is also something written on "The lord of the dance"....isn't it something to do with "A shaker hymn" set of variations. I believe it is American.

 

For the ultimate in chill-out music, there's Flor Peeters delightful "Lied to the flowers," which no-one ever seems to play, but which just gorgeous. Very approriate for weddings, I would have thought.

 

Still working of the food one, but has anyone ever written a CP on the tune to "At the lamb's high feast we sing?"

 

MM

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Hello,

Still working of the food one, but has anyone ever written a CP on the tune to "At the lamb's high feast we sing?"

there is a short toccata on "At the Lamb's high feast" by Paul Manz.

 

Cheers

tiratutti

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======================

 

 

........but has anyone ever written a CP on the tune to "At the lamb's high feast we sing?"

 

MM

 

Gerald Near - possibly.

 

A

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Glad you've come round to my way of thinking, MM. :)

http://www.mander-organs.com/discussion/in...amp;#entry19230

 

==========================

 

 

Now don't start counting chickens, because we may both be very, very wrong. It may be good to have a fellow companion in the midst of failure or misinformation, but no sooner had I written about "Cossack Dances," I discovered a rather ominous line relating to the said work, which read:-

 

"The Toccata comes from a Suite of three organ pieces.......each based on UZBEK melodies."

 

This was, after all, part of his brief when Mushel (Muschel?) left Moscow for the conservatoire at Tashkent; the usual modus operandi of the communist authorities being to embrace the music of local people, as part of the communist drive forward in the former USSR.

 

I suppose I should now be investigating the tribes and castes of the Uzbeks, the history of the USSR, the actiivities of the Cossacks and the origins of Tashkent's population.

 

Don't hold your breath!

 

MM

 

 

PS: Bright idea which will spare me the rest of my life. Mushel combined Uzbek melody with Ukrainian "Cossack Dance" rhythms.....that would make sense!

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I wonder how distinctive was the folk music of these various "tribes". I have no idea - but at any rate, misguided (or not), it is certainly not difficult to imagine a Cossack-style dance being performed to the Toccata.

 

I have the Aria and Toccata from this suite in a Peters volume. I'd love to see the whole work. A Russian pupil of mine once asked what I would like her to bring me back from a visit back home and I asked her to try to track down the suite. I wasn't surprised that she failed. I got a bottle of vodka instead.

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I wonder how distinctive was the folk music of these various "tribes". I have no idea - but at any rate, misguided (or not), it is certainly not difficult to imagine a Cossack-style dance being performed to the Toccata.

 

I have the Aria and Toccata from this suite in a Peters volume. I'd love to see the whole work. A Russian pupil of mine once asked what I would like her to bring me back from a visit back home and I asked her to try to track down the suite. I wasn't surprised that she failed. I got a bottle of vodka instead.

 

=======================

 

I think that the Suite (a term normally reserved for dances isn't it?), has just three pieces; the last of which is a Fugue, if my information is correct.

 

Even more interesting, is the whereabouts of the four other works for organ which Mushel wrote, which I bet no-one has ever heard or played.

 

I'm not surprised you didn't get a copy, because many of the Russian publishers went out of business when state-support was withdrawn, and although the copyright is technically held with them, and presumably "the state party," it means that they cannot be published elsewhere. There was talk of the entire works being published in America, but I don't think it ever came to anything. So all we've got are the original Peters edition, (possibly out of print now), and the re-print of the Toccata in the familiar organ-collection published by OUP (?). (Wasn't it enitled "Modern organ music" or something?)

 

Of course this has absolutely nothing to do with the wedding, unless the groom intends to fling the bride around the room, then jump up and get his legs horizontal at the same time, before spinning like a top and landing on one knee.

 

It's the sort of thing I used to do......

 

MM

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I don't have any Russian myself, but according to John Henderson's "bible", the movements are:

 

1. In memoriam

2. Nocturne

3. Intermezzo

4. Improvisation (I'd still like to know what the subtitle means though)

5. Praeludium

6. Fuga

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Hello,

4. Improvisation (I'd still like to know what the subtitle means though)

the subtitle на народную узбекскую тему says something like "over a well-known uzbek theme" (über ein bekanntes usbekisches Thema).

 

Cheers

tiratutti

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Well, here are his Six Pieces: http://nlib.org.ua/score/organo/organpieces2.pdf

 

 

============================

 

 

How wonderful! I now have all 7 of Mushel's (Muschels?) organ works....thank you!

 

I've been looking for these for years and had just about abandoned hope. The trouble is, I don't understand Russian, but I was aware of the Norad web-site, which is quite a gold-mine for things academic.

 

I shall enjoy looking through them, and who knows, I may be able to incorporate some of them into my next "East European Tour recital" whenever that may be.

 

Now the next challenge is to get hold of Klement Slavicky's organ music, and those ravishing Mezzo Soprano settings of the Psalms, with organ accompaniment.

 

Beyond that, the music of Sokola and Weiderman........

 

MM

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I wonder how distinctive was the folk music of these various "tribes". I have no idea - but at any rate, misguided (or not), it is certainly not difficult to imagine a Cossack-style dance being performed to the Toccata.

 

=========================

 

 

I tried to read up a bit on Uzbek music, and apparently, the origins are Iranian and Indian. The rhythms are quite exciting, judging by what I listened to, but the use of microtonal intervals, pentatonics, homophony, monophony, (but absolutely no polyphony), sounds strange to our ears.

 

It may well be that the Toccata is actually quite ethnic Uzbek, but I'll read on and see if I can discover more.

 

 

MM

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How wonderful! I now have all 7 of Mushel's (Muschels?) organ works....thank you!

Not quite all! According to John Henderson's book, the full list is:

 

Uzbekistan Suite (Aria, Toccata, Fugue)

Preludes (unpublished)

Poem (for violin or cello + organ; unpublished)

Samarkand Suite

Six Pieces (as above)

 

(Sorry for continuing the off-topic diversion.)

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