English Organ Interview Essay

Today we are in great need of a solution to solve the problem of the shortage of human organs available for transplant. The website for Donate Life America estimates that in the United States over 100 people per day are added to the current list of over 100,000 men, women, and children that are waiting for life-saving transplants. Sadly enough, approximately 18 people a day on that list die just because they cannot outlive the wait for the organ that they so desperately need to survive. James Burdick, director of the Division of Transplantation for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services confirms, “The need for organ transplants continues to grow and this demand continues to outpace the supply of transplantable organs”. The

In addition, Bach was a virtuoso on the organ. He also served as an organ consultant, and composer of organ works, like toccatas, chorale preludes, and fugues. He had a reputation for having great creativity, and he was able to integrate many national styles into his works. Many of his works are said to have North German influences that were taught to Bach by Georg Bröhm. Bach also copied the works of many French and Italian composers in order to decipher their compositional languages. Later on, he arranged several violin concertos by Vivaldi for organ. Most experts of musical composition believe that the years, between 1708 and 1714, were his most productive. Within this period, he composed several preludes, fugues, and toccatas. During this span, Bach wrote the Little Organ Book, Orgelbüchlein. This book remains an unfinished collection of forty-nine short chorale preludes.

Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565, is a two-part musical composition for organ, written by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750), a German composer, and musician of Baroque period, is known for its magnificent sound, classic, state-of-the-art rhythm having methodological command, with artistic splendor and intellectual gravity. Bach's abilities as an organist were respected throughout Europe during his lifetime but at that time he was not recognized as a great composer until a revival of interest and performances of his music in the first half of the 19thcentury. Nowadays he’s regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. (Blanning, 2008)

Organs were traditionally used for Christian and Catholic Church services, that is why they are commonly referred to as “church organs”. Organs are ideally made to accompany human voices. It could be a soloist, choir, whatever, that is one of its key purposes. This first began in the seventh century with Pope Vitalian. At first people were not fond of having music and singing during church services but people quickly became accustomed to having an organ around because of the beautiful sound that complimented the songs of worship. The organ became a popular and much wanted necessity in years to come.

When Bach was in Arnstadt when he was younger, the organ ordinarily lacked a 16-foot register on the keyboard; consequently, it sounds an octave lower than the normal 8-foot register. Accordingly, in order to create the effect, Bach used octave doubling; consequently, he continued the resounding effect of the opening bars; conversely, there is no octave doubling in any of Bach’s later organ works; moreover, the fugue sounds furious with its uninterrupted series of fast notes. Also, Bach felt embarrassed about his crude style, and he put the work aside; consequently, Bach lost a lot of his other early organ work completely. Conversely, the Tocca and the Fugue has an unstructured form, and that means that keyboard players can let their imagination run wild; as a result, Johann Gottfried Walther described the Toccata as a long piece in which both hands alternate, sometimes accompanied by long pedal notes. For this reason, Bach connected the Toccata’s freedom to the stylus phantasticus; moreover, stylus phantasticus was popular in North Germany from the seventeenth century; in addition, people described this style of composition as “freed from all constraint”. Moreover, it’s remarkable that Bach paired the toccata with the prelude and the fugue because it’s subject to strict compositional rules; nevertheless, the fugue derives its thematic material from the preceding part.

Johann Sebastian Bach, a German composer in 16 through 1750. He was the youngest of eight children born in 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany. Bach was born into one of the greatest German musician families in the 17th and 18th century. It is said that his family writes for each other. His father was a trumpet and violinist. The rest of his family like uncles and cousins had played the organ. His mother and father had died when he was ten years old, Bach was alone. At this time, he moved in with his brother, where he has his first official lesson on the organ. Bach’s music is one of the greatest achievements in the history of music. Bch believed that the aim and final belief of music should be none else then the glory of god and the recordation

He began to write preludes for organs but did not cover large- scale organization, when two melodies interact at the same time. A few years after playing for the church, Bach made a visit to Dieterich Buxtehude in Lubeck. This visit reinforced Bach’s style in music with the works he has made.

By now Bach had high ideals for the church music of Germany. He began organizing the rather poor facilities of Muhlhausen; he started by making a large collection of the best German music available, including some of his own. The first result of these efforts was his cantata ‘Gott ist mein Konig’. This, incidentally, was the only one of Bach’s cantatas to be published during his lifetime. This success gave Bach the hope to put in a long and detailed report, proposing a complete renovation and improvement of the organ. The council agreed to carry the proposals out, and Bach was given the job as supervising the work, for not only now was he a brilliant player, but he became an expert on constructing organs.

First, in the baroque period vocal and instrumental music had the same importance, this allowed that the composers had a wide range in composition types. Some composers chosen more vocally style and others preferred the instrumental style, which generated an amount of balance in composition during this period. In addition, instruments were created with specific features to perform the baroque music, they presented a sound and form characteristic, they were built to sound full and rich, but in small-type-sized, mainly strings instruments. The bow and the technique to play this kind of music required a careful and distinct method which caused that its texture and timbre were unique and special for that era. The most representative instruments of baroque period were organ and harpsichord, however, in most of the compositions of this period strings, woodwinds and brass instruments were also used by the compositors, and these instruments were important for the baroque orchestra. Some instruments used in the baroque period were: violin, viola da gamba, lute, violoncello, oboe, bassoon and trumpet. Moreover, baroque orchestra was characterized as small number of instrumentalists, and it was form mainly by strings instruments with a few woodwinds and brass, which gave the colorful contrast in the orchestra, this was called chamber orchestra. On

Composer Howard Goodall looks at the extraordinarily productive musical period between 1650 and 1750, in which many of the musical innovations we take for granted today were invented. The orchestra; the overture, which led, ultimately, to the symphony; satisfying chord sequences, which gave music a forward momentum; modern tuning, which, for the first time, allowed composers to move from one key to any other they chose, and for different instruments to easily play together; the concerto, the oratorio, and, not least, the piano. In an age when Newton put in place the basic laws of science, musicians did the same thing in music. No wonder, in an age that also saw great advances in clock-making, that much of the music of this period sounds like

The Brandenburg Concertos are a collection of six instrumental works written by Johann Sebastian Bach for Christian Ludwig, the margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt. Ludwig loved music and Bach would write the pieces for him to gain extra support for his work. All six concertos have something different to offer. No.2 in F has a high trumpet part which is meant to be one of the most difficult pieces. This piece at first has a very fast tempo, which suddenly slows down then builds back up. With Violins and flutes joining and fading away at different times it blends well together giving the sense of decrescendo. It includes solo flute, trumpet, violin, and continuo. The continuo is never omitted, as it gives the harmonic foundation of the entire piece.

As the 19th century begins we see a huge transition in what composers call for in their instrumentalists. One major aspect of this that posed a problem for the bassoon is the increasing sizes and scores of the pieces being composed. One critical example is the sheer size of the pit orchestra for the multiple Wagner operas. These ensembles were massive in comparison to the ensembles of the 18th century and before both in the literal numbers and the way they are written for. The bassoon, being an instrument of extremely limited dynamic range, suffered at this time. The other main problem with the 18th century bassoon being played in 19th century music was the fingerings. While the 18th century bassoon

My musical selection was Chaconne from Partita in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by The Eroica Trio. I listened to this piece, lasting fourteen minutes and forty-eight seconds, through the online classical music library. This piece was composed in 1720 during the Baroque Era and exhibits many features characteristic of Baroque music, which will be analyzed later in this paper. This chaconne is considered to be one of the most intense pieces of music Bach ever wrote, according to the La Jolla Music Society. In order to fully understand this piece a variety of information will be presented including a synopsis of Bach’s life, background on the piece, a listening chart for this chaconne, the events occurring in society that impacted music and art in the Baroque Era and an analysis of the composition with reference to typical Baroque musical characteristics.

Have you ever thought about all the lives organ donors have saved? Maybe stopped to think about how families helped and friendships made through the act of receiving an organ in a crucial time? Thousands of people are currently waiting on organ donor registries. However, the number of donors is nowhere near equal to the number of organs needed. Organ donors should be compensated for their donation, because compensation would increase the quantity of available organs, decrease black market sales, and help grieving families with funeral costs.

If a billionaire at his deathbed offered you a million dollars for your left kidney so that he could keep on living, would you take the offer? Organ donors are scarce, causing an increase in illegal organ sales on the black market. In underdeveloped countries, living people are targeted for illegal organ trafficking because the dead are buried underground, unable to provide that extra kidney or liver. However, giving away a working organ costs money; the donor must pay off the medical bill and at times have to fly hours in an airplane to get to a hospital where the surgery will take place. After the operation, the donor must go through the recovery process which could take weeks. If organ donors were recompensed for their service by the government, more people would opt for donations because the expenses would be paid for. People want to be credited and awarded for their sacrifices. Organ donors should be given financial compensation because it can increase the rate of organ donations, can prevent illegal organ sales on the black market, and has the American people's support.