Listen to Meditation MIDI
Listen to March MIDI
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Little Suite for Organ is a suite of three improvisations for solo organ. None of them are overly difficult, although they all come with their own particular challenges. These pieces can be used singly or together, although they're not especially useful (except perhaps the Meditation) as service music.
Each of these pieces is built around a concept used for improvisation, usually applied to a preexisting piece of music. Instead of abusing hymns with these improvisational methods, however, I've chosen to write original melodies. These pieces were written separately and weren't intended as a single suite, but when they were put together, they worked well.
The first movement of the Suite is the Scherzetto. This piece is based on a cross-rhythm pattern, having a 6/8 metre in the right hand against a 2/4 rhythm in the left and pedals. As the name implies, it is a "little joke," a light piece calling for a light touch both on the keys and with the registration. The right hand is to be played either on a 4' stop alone, or at the octave above.
The middle piece is a Meditation, built up on stacked open fifths to create an open-yet-stable sound. I've used this pattern frequently for softer, slower hymns or plainchant melodies; as such, this is the most serious of the three pieces and the most likely to be useful in a church service. Both hands need to be able to reach a ninth, and set up the harmonic space for the work. The pedals have to carry the melody for half the piece; due to this, the pedal is supposed to be played on a 2' stop alone, although it could be played on a 4' stop and up an octave.
The March is far more Prokofiev than I'm used to writing; one friend calls it "sarcastic," and he's not wrong. While written with an open key signature, as the previous two movements, the March is technically in F. Technically. And very loosely. The improvisational pattern is the march rhythm and the scale pattern and triads found in the left hand, which I used for the Rondo on Beach Spring. The March rounds out the suite and finishes on a strong, triumphal (if somewhat facetious) note.
All in all, the Little Suite makes for a nice, short addition to a programme, as does each of these pieces individually. As far as technical challenges go, these pieces make far more of the manuals than of the pedals, requiring some tricky hand movement but only a basic level of foot technique. The Suite makes a good piece for a pianist beginning to learn the organ.