As Corpus Christi approaches, I am reminded of all the great music that is associated with this particular solemnity. One of my absolute favorite pieces for the occasion is the Prelude on Adoro Te Devote by Gerald Near.

This piece consists of a prelude along with a handful of interesting variations on the beloved melody “Adoro Te”. I’ll share some samples below.

For those unfamiliar with this text, here’s the translation of the first verse (from the Parish Book of Chant):

Devoutly I adore thee, hidden Godhead, who truly stayest hidden under these forms: to thee doth my whole heart subject itself, because, in contemplating thee, everything [else] is found lacking.

Sample Recordings

Here are a few samples of my favorite variations from this piece (recorded on a Viscount Virtuoso 350). If you can, try to listen on headphones or literally anything else other than tiny phone speakers (because physics).

Variation 1

Variation 2

Variation 4

When to Use

This piece works especially well as a prelude or communion meditation. You can leave out any of the variations or play them all together (if there is time). You can also insert specific variations between verses of the sung chant with a choir or cantor. This has worked very effectively for me in the past.

Because of the Eucharistic nature of this piece, you can pretty much use it anytime, especially during Communion. However, you might consider it for Corpus Christi, any First Holy Communion Masses, throughout Easter, and so on.

Where to Find

You can find this piece as part of the St. Augustine's Organbook collection. This resource consists of 10 pieces based on chant melodies. I use almost all of the pieces from this collection with regularity. In fact, I would say that this particular resource is one of the most useful resources in my collection!

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I am always on the lookout for useful musical selections that are accessible while still contributing to an atmosphere of reverence and dignity. If you are a church musician in the same camp, subscribing is a no brainer!

However, you might also subscribe if you want to learn about beautiful and interesting repertoire for the organ.

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I realize this might ruffle the feathers of some of the purists out there, but I recently made the transition from a Hauptwerk-based home organ setup to a Viscount instrument.

I know there are folks out there who will think I’ve gone mad. It might come as a further surprise that I actually consider this move an upgrade!

In this post, I’d like to give you a quick overview of my experience. If there is interest, I am happy to go into more depth later on.

Hauptwerk vs Viscount

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Hauptwerk is a software application that runs on Mac or PC. It uses recorded samples of actual pipe organs to create virtual instruments. Users can play these instruments by connecting keyboards and other hardware to create an organ setup.

In contrast, Viscount organs are complete packages. The Physis versions run their own proprietary software and use modeling as the mechanism of generating sound. While some older Viscounts do use sampling, the Physis versions do not.

Until this point, it has been widely accepted that Hauptwerk has the best sound and the most realistic experience. I have been running a Hauptwerk-based setup for many years and I am inclined to agree with this.

Hauptwerk does an excellent job of placing you in the room of some specific church with a specific instrument. You can change this at will by installing additional organ packages. The software itself is deep and quite powerful.

However, there is nothing simple about using Hauptwerk. It certainly comes with the potential for frustration, and it is in no way minimal. My experience with Hauptwerk has caused me to look forward to the day where I can acquire a complete instrument that works out of the box. I just needed to wait on the technology to reach the point where I wouldn’t be sacrificing so much sound quality.

Viscount Physis Plus Organs

As I mentioned before, Viscount organs that are equipped with Physis technology use modeling rather than sampling. While the previous version of Physis was impressive, Hauptwerk still easily won the sound competition.

With the second iteration of Physis (known as Physis Plus) along with some of the new lower cost options from Viscount (such as the Cantorum models), I can honestly say that Viscount organs should be strongly considered as suitable instruments for practicing at home.

The organ I chose to replace my Hauptwerk setup is the Viscount Virtuoso 350. This is the American version of Domus series. This series, along with the Cantorum line, uses the new Physis Plus technology, which is good enough to move me off of the Hauptwerk platform.

At first, I was very nervous about this transition. Physis plus was brand new at the time, and very few people had a chance to try it out. I heard a few recordings, and I decided to take a chance. Now that I have had the instrument for more than a year, I am quite pleased with my decision.

Minimalism vs Realism

Now that I have kids and clutter everywhere in my house, I have started to appreciate a more minimalist lifestyle. I find myself gradually selling and giving away items and slowly undoing all of the accumulating that I have been doing in my adult life.

The nature of a Hauptwerk setup is inherently more cluttered. You have the organ console itself, which in my case consisted of multiple Midi keyboards, a pedalboard, and a desktop from Ikea. Additionally, the setup also requires an audio interface, speakers (or headphones), a subwoofer (if using speakers), along with a computer running Hauptwerk.

In contrast, the Viscount is a complete package. You turn it on and it works. In the past, this has resulted in giving up the more realistic sound of a Hauptwerk instrument. It’s also worth mentioning that the Viscount instruments have been prohibitively expensive in the states until the Cantorum line was introduced. It was pretty clear why everyone recommended going with Hauptwerk instead.

Some folks even purchased Viscount consoles and used them to run Hauptwerk so that they could have the best of both worlds. In this case, they would be skipping all of the Viscount internals and Viscount sound in favor of Hauptwerk, but they would still use the physical hardware to control everything.

With the Physis Plus technology and corresponding library of stops, I no longer feel that Hauptwerk is the obvious winner. I really enjoy the Physis Plus stops. They have warmth, personality, and feel incredibly realistic.

Additionally, the speakers equipped on these organs are absolutely outstanding. The Virtuso 350 has a seven speaker system with two 10-inch woofers. I no longer feel the need for additional speakers and a subwoofer, which has really cleaned things up. While the organ can still connect to these speakers, I have found it unnecessary in my specific environment.

Issues with Reverb? Not Anymore!

When the Viscount organ first arrived, I realized pretty quickly that the simulated acoustic was lacking. While Viscount has an amazing “dry pipe” sound (probably the best on the market), I didn’t feel the reverberance models were nearly as strong…at least out of the box.

However, thanks to a recent update, this is no longer the case. The new acoustic modeling is far more realistic and practical in addition to being very customizable.

The Clarion Call of the Organ

My favorite aspect of the new Viscount instruments is the clarity of the sound. You can hear every little detail from the onset of each note, the valve noise, release detuning, and so on. The sound is incredibly clear and present.

This is really the ideal practice instrument. I don’t want to be surrounded by the organ equivalent of holding a piano damper pedal down while I play. I need clarity and feedback from the instrument. I need the instrument to punish and reward my musical decisions, and I really do feel that Viscount does it best.

If I played in a very reverberant space, perhaps I would change my tune. Unfortunately, I have yet to find suitable settings that correctly simulate this. The more reverb I use, the less realistic the instrument sounds. Besides, there are many benefits to practicing in a dry environment where everything speaks very clearly.

If you’d like to hear a few audio samples, check out the post linked below:

What are Your Thoughts?

For anyone who stumbles across this post, I would love to hear about your experience with Hauptwerk and Viscount. Have any of you chosen Viscount over Hauptwerk?

Also, would you be interested in a more thorough look at the Virtuoso 350? I am happy to make some recordings and share the amazing sound from this instrument!

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Looking back upon my experience of getting a music degree, I am often surprised at how little I was told about actually making money as a classically-trained musician.

Now that I can comfortably say that I have “made it” as a musician, I must admit that I make an income in a totally different manner than I anticipated. If there is one piece of advice I can give to folks who recently graduated as well as those considering a music degree, it would be this: Be creative and be prepared to work for yourself.

Getting a Degree in Music

Much of the process of getting a degree in music is centered around becoming the best and most well-rounded musician possible, given your specific skill set. What you actually do with those skills is up to you, and there are many options. You may be briefly exposed to a few of these options, and if you are wise, you’ll turn a few of these opportunities into streams of income before you leave school.

As it turns out, I wasn’t immediately prepared for the reality of working as a professional musician until after I graduated and explored my options. In summary, I have learned that musicians often work for themselves as freelancers. This could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

Many students are counting on landing a full time position in a school, church, or similar institutional setting. However, these positions aren’t consistently available. You very much need to be in the right place at the right time (with the right experience).

Until then, what should you be doing? Working at Chilis? This is what I did until I figured out that teaching piano was far more lucrative for the time. Someone should have told me early on that I could make a good living as a piano teacher! I would have certainly leaned in from the start.

Musical Income = Part Time Income Streams

There are countless ways to make money as a trained musician. However, most musicians will typically have to diversify by combing several income streams together to form a single full-time income. Outside of teaching, it can be very difficult to make enough as a musician by focusing on any one thing.

In my case, I started out by teaching piano lessons and accompanying church services (and I still do to this day). Considering my personality and interests, I very much enjoy the way that I make my living. I generally set my own hours and my income is split across several sources. I can scale up or down as needed. I can make a full-time income with part-time hours. Overall, I’d say it’s been an interesting and rewarding experience.

One thing I particularly appreciate with this way of doing things is the variety in my workweek. My church position (as an organist) reduces the number of piano lessons that I need to teach. At the same time, my lessons limit the amount of services that I need to accompany. Not only does this offer me variety, but it also offers financial security as well.

I will definitely talk a fair bit about my experience playing for churches later on, because that is a big part of what stabilizes my income from month to month. However, it is worth mentioning at this point that the church position comes with the ability to play for funerals and weddings, which provides additional income opportunities.

None of this was explained to me while I was in school, even though many of my professors had this same arrangement worked out for themselves. Unfortunately, it just didn’t come up in any notable way throughout my educational experience.

Leaning in on Teaching

If I had to pick one thing (considering income potential), I would pick teaching. In my experience, teaching income is most scalable form of income that I have access to, and I have the most control over my work-life balance compared to other options.

Also, I particularly love that sharing the gift of a musical education can be such a lucrative endeavor. As it turns out, our current society needs music teachers far more than concert pianists. You have to be insanely skilled to be a concert pianist, and even if you are, you’ll have a difficult time bringing enough income by performing only.

In contrast, you don’t need to be nearly as skilled as a player to teach. You do need to have good musical skills for sure, but your ability to explain and break things down for students is more of the focus. Most folks looking for piano lessons are either new or have limited experience, and so this places even more value on your ability to teach rather than perform. This means that becoming a teacher is far more accessible, realistic, and reliable for most musicians.

Also, each student represents an individual stream of income. The consistency of this income depends on your policies and the way that you structure your pricing. With the right mindset and studio standards, you can do quite well as a teacher!

For example, if you charge $60 dollars per hour and teach 40 weeks out of the year, you can make 24k annually for every 10 students that you maintain in your studio. You can increase this by charging more and teaching more often. You can also pick some other part-time income stream to supplement this.

Reading Music Well is Incredibly Valuable

One last thing that I would like for you to consider is the value of being skilled at reading and preparing music. In my experience, especially as a church and “gigging” musician, being able to prepare music quickly (which relies on your sight-reading ability) really pays.

You would be surprised at how far I managed to make it in music school without being a particularly skilled reader. While I was able to get by, I certainly didn’t go out of my way to take on any opportunities that required good reading skills. In fact, I remember avoiding eye contact whenever one of my music professors needed a pianist to play an example for something in class. This ended up working to my disadvantage.

Luckily, I landed my first church position after graduating (and these folks really needed someone fast). This resulted in my rapid acquisition of sight-reading skills, and the rest is history!

This is a taste of the sorts of things that are floating around in my head. Subscribe if you are interested!

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At some point during my career as a pianist, I was asked to learn to play the pipe organ and assist a church who had a sudden vacancy. This ended up turning into a long term position, which offered me a stable income and unparalleled musical enrichment. I jokingly say that I became an organist on accident because I fell into this line of work completely unintentionally.

I have noticed many pianists finding themselves in a similar situation of "accidentally" becoming organists. Many pianists may be offered such an opportunity at some point in their lives. Sometimes, it seems as if there are more church organ positions throughout the country than organists who are prepared to accept such a call. Despite this field being so specialized, it remains accessible to those who possess strong keyboard and accompaniment skills.

The Overlap Between Organ and Piano

Since the piano and the organ are both keyboard instruments, there is some overlap between them, technically speaking. It's quite possible to develop a proficiency for both instruments simultaneously. I like to think of the organ as a symphonic version of everything one might love about the piano. The instrument can fill a large space quite unlike a piano, which makes it uniquely suited to a liturgical setting. The organ essentially enables a pianist to experience a different sense of scale in their musicianship.

I had the pleasure of studying with many great pianists, almost all of whom were organists at some point. As it turns out, there is a relatively long standing history of this sort of overlap. You would be surprised to learn how many famous piano composers held church organist positions throughout their lives.

Pianists need to know that there are many practical, musical, and financial advantages to holding an organist position, even if they are primarily dedicated to other endeavors. The musical history of keyboard music in general is very connected, and focusing only on piano repertoire certainly misses the bigger picture.

Advantages of Organ Playing and Church Work

There are countless benefits associated with church accompaniment work and organ playing. Here are just a few considerations:

• You will dramatically increase your sight reading ability

• The right organist position offers a long term financial stability to your life

• There is an entire world of musical history that will reveal itself to you once you study organ repertoire

• You will be a more capable pianist by learning the required techniques of the organ

• You will have frequent opportunities to work with other musicians and feel like part of a team

• You will find yourself in beautiful churches exploring amazing instruments

I have really enjoyed my experience as an organist, and I strongly recommend all serious pianists consider making themselves available for such an opportunity at some point in their lives.

In many cases, an organist position can offer more financial stability compared to teaching piano or other accompaniment work. It also enables pianists to develop their musicianship in a totally different way, a way which often improves the ability at the piano as well.

Preparing to Study Organ

For anyone considering studying the organ, I strongly recommend picking up some keyboard skills first. It is my opinion that the organ has too much going on to be anyone’s first instrument.

With this in mind, here are a few other helpful suggestions:

• Study plenty of baroque material without relying on the damper pedal

• Practice exercises and pieces that improve legato playing (in the hands) and finger substitutions

• Practice reading 4-part chorales or hymns

• Listen to organ repertoire from organ composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Vierne, Widor, Duruffle, and others.

• Consider finding an organ teacher and a practice instrument (sometimes these can come together)

In the mean time, I would like to encourage anyone who has questions about this line of work or organ playing in general to leave a comment for me (and also subscribe to this newsletter).

I am particularly experienced with Roman Catholic Liturgy, so I can certainly assist you if you are finding yourself in a similar situation as I did. I would be glad to help you however I can!

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The Music of Interstellar

Hans Zimmer has done a wonderful job with the music for Interstellar. Viewers of the film will notice a blend of instruments including strings, piano, and of course, the pipe organ. As a pianist and an organist, I always appreciate the tasteful use of these instruments in modern settings.

The pipe organ is well known for its ability to create dramatic volume and intensity changes. If you watch the film, you will definitely notice the dynamic range of the sound during tense moments. The pipe organ was used very effectively to enhance the feeling throughout the film.

The Making of Interstellar Musical Soundtrack

The Virtual Pipe Organ

Hans Zimmer used the software sampling technology known as Hauptwerk to create some of the sounds and plan the organ’s role in Interstellar. This software allows a user to recall samples of individual organ pipes using a keyboard. The end effect is a simulated or “virtual organ” that models a specific pipe organ.

While it may not be visually obvious, many large pipe organs have thousands of pipes. Each one of these pipes would be recorded multiple times and loaded into this program. In many cases, sound engineers can capture the acoustic of the building with each pipe sample. The end effect realistically recreates the features of many pipe organs from around the world.

I’ve spent a few years working with this amazing technology. I have found that recordings of pieces using a Hauptwerk organ compare very convincingly to recordings on actual instruments.

The Real Pipe Organ

In addition to the use of a virtual organ, Hans Zimmer also made use of a real pipe organ when creating his soundtrack. He visited the Temple Church in London and worked with the resident organist, Roger Sayer, to have his compositions recorded. Many of the sounds you hear during the soundtrack are from this organ (pictured below).

Keyboard Magazine published an interesting interview with Hans Zimmer and Roger Sayer. You can read the full interview here. When asked about the unusual role of the organ in Interstellar, Roger Sayer had this to say:

I think it’s such a breath of fresh air. It gets away from this idea that the organ is something that just plays hymns and leads the congregation. Of course it does do that, but as you and I know, the organ, particularly when it’s in a building with fine acoustics, can capture almost every emotion possible. To put it bluntly, it’s an orchestra in a box. It has all colors you need from an orchestra. And it’s the sort of instrument that people have the wrong idea about. Here, we’re showing that it can live and breathe in the 21st century. It can tell a story; you don’t need words.

The Timeless Pipe Organ

For me, the organ references the divine. It can transcend its own space. We have had hundreds of years of intricate and beautiful music composed for the organ. Many compositions are particularly suited for placing the listener into a certain emotional place. I appreciate Hans Zimmer’s clever use of the instrument for this purpose, and I hope to see more references to the organ in our current culture. If you have yet to see Interstellar, I would recommend checking out the movie itself for the full experience.

Pulling out all the stops

In modern usage, this phrase means to reserve or hold back nothing. This is actually a reference to pipe organ terminology. Pulling out all the stops on a pipe organ would allow it to be as loud as possible.

What is a stop?

A stop is a control mechanism which blocks (or stops) air from traveling through a set of pipes on a pipe organ. Pulling a stop allows air to flow to certain pipes when a keyboard note is depressed. Stops are typically engraved with numbers and names corresponding to different pipe ranks.

Each stop corresponds to a set of pipes (called a rank) that associate with a particular instrument sound. Organists can engage various stops in combination to create certain new sounds. The largest organs have the most possible permutations of stop combinations.

This video is an excellent demonstration of how different organ stops can sound:

The organist plays several musical examples using different stop combinations. The video is just over 35 minutes but well worth your time.

What do the names on each stop refer to?

The names on each stop refer to the name of the instrument associated with the stop. Most stops on the organ belong to one of four families:

• Flutes – Flute stops sound warm and imitate members of the flute instrument family.

• Strings – Pipes in this family produce a string-like sound. Pipes in this family can be combined to create an orchestral sound.

• Principals – Principal pipes are unique to the organ and do not directly imitate other instruments. They are harmonically balanced and are characteristic to how an organ sounds.

• Reeds – This stop family uses a pipe with a vibrating component to produce sound. Stops in this family cut through other sounds of the organ by being louder or pointier than other stops.

Why are there numbers on each stop?

The number on a stop refers to the length (in feet) of the longest open pipe of a particular rank. Stops marked with a higher number use longer length pipes and speak at lower pitches.

For example, 8′ stops use pipes with the longest open pipe measuring eight feet. These stops speak at the same pitch as many other instruments (such as a piano or flute).

In contrast, 4′ stops use pipes that are half as long, and sound much higher than 8′ stops.

From Piano to Pipe Organ

Although I originally obtained my degree in piano performance, I was hired as an organist and learned on the job. One of my passions is sharing my love for the pipe organ with other musicians, especially pianists.

There is so much utility, practicality, and satisfaction to be found when playing the pipe organ, especially when one finds themselves in a good sacred music program!

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