Am I playing too fast?

One of our parishioners informed me recently that I play the hymns too fast. He followed up our conversation with a letter in which he listed some considerations I should keep in mind to play at the proper tempo. In our parish, he is not alone in his opinion. This is nothing new for me; in a previous church, one of the sopranos often told me (generally with a good dose of contempt for my lack of musicality) that it was obvious that I was not a singer. If I were, I would understand that my tempos were too fast.

I think that my tempos on the hymns are just right. Otherwise I would play them at a different tempo.

More seriously, they raise a question that is important for anyone who accompanies hymns. Are you going to play it safe, do nothing that will offend anyone? A lot of players do this – perhaps they have been beaten up too much over the years by parishioners and clergy. All stanzas on the same generic registration, a nice safe middle-of-the-road tempo on every hymn, no matter what the music or text might suggest. And they probably get fewer complaints than I do.

I do not worry about playing too fast. I worry more about playing too slowly – not on the hymns so much as with the organ repertoire. I seem to play almost everything slower than other people. I am not doing so because I cannot play faster; I play at what in my judgment seems to be the correct tempo.

Here is an example; my postlude at today's choral service. It is the manuals-only setting of the chorale Aus tiefer Not from Bach's Clavierübung. This afternoon, I checked YouTube for other playings of it; a search turns up lots of them. Of the dozen or so that I sampled, mine was by far the slowest. Most of them are on much larger registrations than my single 8' flute – I found only one other that agreed with me on registration; this one, by Jonathan Wessler. It is a fine performance, considerably faster than mine. I had not intended to post my version, knowing that so many others have this repertoire online. But I see that mine is at least unusual, whether it is any good or not.



At the contemporary service today, my improvisation was another attempt at sonata form, using two hymn tunes that would occur in the service. The first was “Deo gratias,” to the text “O love, how deep, how strong, how high,” in the key of E Dorian. For the second theme grouping of the form, I used the Shirly Erena Murray hymn “Touch the earth lightly,” which was a comment on the Old Testament lesson about Noah and the rainbow, and God's covenant with all living things. The tune is by Swee Hong Lim, sweet and gentle and very much in contrast with “Deo gratias,” and I put it in C major to allow the transition that you will hear. I like the uncertainty at first as to what mode it is - it is only after a few measures that one hears clearly that it is in major.

I think that the Exposition of these two tunes worked adequately. There were some good ideas in the Development too, but it was too long for the time available – for these improvisations do not occur in a vacuum; I am to finish precisely at 9:00 a.m. Thus, the Recapitulation was too abrupt. I wanted to give “Touch the earth” (now in the home key of E) two more variations as I did in the Exposition, but there was no time, and that was a musical flaw; the piece would have been more balanced with that extra playing.

I do not know if these efforts of mine are recognizable as sonata forms. Perhaps the idea of using two hymns in this manner does not work with the form. But it seems to push me in an interesting direction, and I hope to keep making the attempt from time to time.

And perhaps the point of tonight's essay is this: we never know with any certainty whether we are on the right musical path. We cannot adequately evaluate our own work. But we must go on the best we can.