Michael Barone on discovering the Pipe Organ

Pipedreams host Michael Barone shared this with me after a 'Pipe Organ Discovery Day' at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Michael says the kids are always enthusiastic, but sometimes the responses of some of the adults are equally gratifying, such as this one from Margaret Gohman:

"You may appreciate this story about my participation as an adult

facilitator during Saturday's 'Pipe Organ Encounter.' What moved me to

tears was a young boy, I would guess him to be about seven years

old, playing on the chapel organ J. S. Bach's Prelude in C from

The Well Tempered Clavier. He was playing it so nicely, sustaining those

half notes in the beginning of each measure very well. And of course at the

organ those notes continue to sound, giving him a different experience of

the piece, perhaps what Bach had in mind. I was moved to tears thinking

that the music of Bach, and hopefully, all organs and organ music, will go

on.

It was very moving to me to think that a child so young had learned this

piece so well and that he was having the chance to play it on the organ, in

particular at that beautiful instrument. And I was hoping a spark will be

lit in him, as it is in so many of us, to love the organ and its music.

I might add that at one point he stopped, and said something like, 'Oh, I

don't know what the notes are here.' And I reached into my brain and ear

and said, 'Oh! You're doing really well; it goes like this.' And I showed

him the notes in that measure and he was able to play them and go on and

finish the whole piece! So it was that sense for him and for me that this

piece of music isn't just any old thing, but that you can go places and

another musician, in my case a much older one, will know what you're doing

and you'll be able to communicate with each other."