okay... big trouble... i need some help....

i have an audition at rncm on Wednesday, 12 Nov 2008 11:20 and am only allowed warm-up time at 9am-9:20am.... please can anyone tell me how on earth i'll be able to warm-up and register 7 pieces in 20 minutes time....

(while typing up this post, i'm very nervous and want to cry.)

Register the pieces 'now' - i.e. get out the stop list, work out what you want, and what the generals are currently set to.

Then in that 20 minutes 'top and tail' the pieces. Just practice the start, page turns / stop changes and the end. If there are any bits that are 'shaky' then practice those too

okay, will do that. found the eben's moto ostinato and demessieux's te deum quite hard to set.....

Well the Demessieux does have the registration written in the score...

It doesn't seem reasonable to have only 20 minutes to register an audition programme. Is your teacher familiar with that organ, or could he refer you to someone who knows that organ?

It's too late to change the audition pieces now. Is practice time absolutely unavailable before the audition?

Even if everything is worked out and practised in advance on another organ, you will still have to respond to the acoustics and the balances between various stops, etc.

What is your RNCM programme again?

7 pieces seems like an awful lot. Why so many? Surely 3 would be enough for the college to get a feel for where you are at?

Please let us know the pieces. Agreed, 7 seems too much. Why so many?

the reason why i have 7 pieces, is because i have to prepare an hour's worth programme and the panel will select 15 minutes out of that at the audition. (this is the post-graduate audition requirement to prepare an hour's long programme).

from the official rncm webpage:
Postgraduate

Organ: you should submit a 60 minute programme of music in a variety of styles, including a major work by J S Bach and an important romantic or 20th century work. Up to 15 minutes of music may be selected from this programme at audition.



Here are the pieces:

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in a minor (BWV 543)
Nun komm , der Heiden Heiland

F. Couperin: Offertoire sur les grands jeux (mass for the convents)

Mendelssohn: Organ Sonata no.2 in C minor

Langlais: "Nazard" from Suite Francaise

Eben: "Moto Ostinato" from Sunday Music

Demessieux: Te Deum

Ok. Thanks for those details.

Several points come to mind. Firstly, which organ are you playing at the RNCM? NPOR lists several instruments.

Secondly, can you request more time on the organ? Whereas that amount of "warm up" time would be acceptable just as warm up time, it doesn't make allowance for an organist to register on an unfamiliar instrument. I'm sure that they would recognize this and allow you more time.

Thirdly, fortunately, the earlier pieces in your programme should be straightforward enough to register, and even the Mendelssohn shouldn't present much of a challenge if there are registrational aids on the instrument. So, if the worst comes to the worst and you aren't able to have more time on the instrument, I'd concentrate on registering the more modern works.

will be auditioning on the organ at the concert hall. i have also sent them a nice long e-mail explaning the difficulties about the 20 minutes warm-up time. Hope they will reply me soon. the actual playing won't be as daunting, however, the hardest registration i have to do is the eben and the demessieux (though there's set registration written down by the composer)....

Good luck. I'm sure they will be reasonable, and will make exception for organists. Well, somebody has to!

I've just looked up the instrument. It has a comprehensive spec and plenty of generals, along with a sequencer so you should be fine once you've programmed in your registrations.



Yes, indeed.

okie, i've got the reply from rncm admission. here it goes.

I understand your concern.
The warm-up time you are allocated on CUKAS is only the warm-up you get at the Concert Hall, where your audition will be held.
You will have another 20 minutes warm-up time just before your audition in the organ room.
Unfortunately we will not be able to offer you longer warm-up at the Concert Hall.
The auditions are based on competition. All postgraduate applicants are offered the same amount of warm-up time so you should not be disadvantaged.

clearly no one cares about organists..... but I WILL SHOW THEM THAT I CAN PLAY VERY VERY WELL..... THEY WON'T DESTROY MY SPIRIT, I'LL WORK HARDER.....

Are you this dramatic in performance? They are not trying to destroy your spirit, they are just constrained by the resources available and doing their best to provide a level playing field for all concerned.

Good luck btw!

sorry. i didn't mean to scare you guys off like that. yea, i'm quite dramatic when it comes to performance, but i don't do anything drastic.

Then it's a good opportunity for you to show how you can economize on your time at the instrument (what an awful expression) and just sort out the registrations which need sorting. Most of those pieces could probably be played on the departmental pistons if not by hand. Any organist assessing you will understand this.

Good luck!

The concert hall organ has tracker key action. If you normally practise on an organ with electropneumatic key action, you should try to practise more on an tracker instrument!

initial shock is now over. have worked out the registration for 5 out of 7 pieces..... hm... anyways, i love playing tracker organs, i really do....

Sounds like you are making great progress here. Although I enjoyed playing tracker organs as well, I'd be super nervous if I had to audition on a tracker instrument just because I don't get to practise on one.

The concert hall organ looks like a fairly large instrument, but not so large such that one has to spend a lot of time to find the most appropriate 16' pedal reed or a solo 8' flue stop on the manual, etc.

Hopefully the various stops will sound more or less as expected!

i don't practise on tracker organs. in fact i mainly do my practice on music department chamber organ and the organ at the uni graduation hall (the links are in another topic, you'd find them).

it would still be relatively scary on the day, but i think i'll just play my very best and enjoy the whole audition.

Just saw the links in your other post. At least you get to take lessons on an organ with tracker key action (the tutorial room organ at the uni).

rncm audition today:

the head of keyboard and a member of organ staff were on the panel, as well as somebody else.

they allowed me to choose my first piece and i went with Te Deum (Demessieux). It is a massive piece and they didn't interrupt me. It didn't go as well as normal, i found the action a bit too heavy on the organ and some bits were really difficult to play.

they then chose bach's prelude and fugue in a minor (BWV 543) and Mendelssohn organ sonata no.2. Both went well and got stopped before i got to the end.

sight-reading was fine, think my tempo was slightly slow.

the chatting bit was good fun. the head of keyboard was trying to get me to change my mind, ie: from a PGdip to a MMus. However, they were in shock when they found out whom my organ tutor is (it's actually one of their colleague) and couldn't stop laughing.

Now i have the daunting process: wait. really hope i get into college, because i really really (trillons of really) want to go there. there's another post-graduate applicant and he's from college. They normally would offer 2 or 3 places, i really hope i can make it.

Best of luck - hope you hear good news soon.

Mel

(Must find out what a tracker organ is one day)

It's an organ which follows its various organists around in order to see what they get up to....

You mean like Thing?

Sounds like you had a very good audition. Hope you hear from them soon.
Yes, why would you go for a PGDip if you are qualified to do a MMus in performance?

Hope you're successful, l_k and that you don't have too long to wait

Jen

Good question!!

Good Luck L_K. I can understand why you want to go there, it's an amazing place. I'd love to do a course there in something, however haven't the right qualifications to do what I want.
One day though...
Keep us posted

The reason why i didn't go for a MMus is becacuse i'm sick of academic work. But since they are re-vamping the whole programme of the graduate school. If they accept me, I think i'm going to change to MMus from PGdip.