[net.music] Razor blades / classical improvisati

berry@zinfandel.UUCP (04/18/84)

#R:tekecs:-368900:zinfandel:8500027:000:1145
zinfandel!berry    Apr 16 13:19:00 1984

This has nothing to do with razor blades.  (All punk sounds alike to
me, and I'M RIGHT, but if y'all wanna listen to it, its OK with me.)

The director of my chorus is a remarkably talented pianist and organist.
At one of our concerts he was going to play the Bach 'Toccata, Adagio and
Fugue in C minor' (You know, it goes dum da da dum dee dee...) but
decided the pedal was too wretched (the cocert was a fund raiser for
organ maintenance, oddly enough.)

Instead, we decided to play 'Stump the Chorus' with the audience/con-
gregation.  He had someone in the audience select a hymn (or 2 or 3)
from the hymnall.  Then he improvised chorale preludes on those
hymn tunes, and we sight-read the hymns.  That improvisation was
impressive, especially when we decided to do two at once, and they were in
two different keys -- b-flat and d, I think.  The tenors were taking bets on
how he was going to work the modulation.

Later, at the post concert party he got hold of a piano and we wound up
improvising blues/rock versions of Elizabethan madrigals.  Wierd fun!  

Berry Kercheval		Zehntel Inc.	(ihnp4!zehntel!zinfandel!berry)
(415)932-6900