Guest Artist Interview with
Wayne Leupold
of Wayne Leupold Editions
Jeannine: This month's newsletter focuses on the future of the organ. Please tell us how your company, Wayne Leupold Editions strives secure a future for the organ in this country?
Mr. Leupold: The goal of my company is to interest and teach people about the organ at any age or skill leveland to provide materials that will carry them through a lifetime of learning and growth with the instrument. Our goal is to get anyone who is interested in playing the organ on the bench immediately—at any age—without the need for years of prior piano study.
Jeannine: More specifically, you have stated that the future of the organ is with the children. Please tell us more of your philosophy.
Mr. Leupold: Yes, I must tell you emphatically that the future of the organ is with the children. My goal is to bring the organ down to reach the children and to reach them at the very earliest ages just when they are beginning to study keyboard technique. With our materials, I have brought the organ to children to a degree that has never been done before in the history of our instrument.
For thirty years I worked on a critical urtext edition of Franck's organ music. I was nearly ready to publish this volume when it dawned on me that there would be no use for this edition if there was not a younger generation who could play this music.
It is now my belief that there is nothing more important than to get young people interested in the organ! With the shortage of organists we now have, we need to train more people to play the organ and we need to train them to play the organ at the beginning of their keyboard study and at much younger ages. The organ holds a tremendous fascination for children—the sounds, the multiple keyboards and the pedals are simply things not found on a piano. Those things appeal immensely to young children. We organists have not capitalized on this.
Jeannine: Please briefly describe materials created by Wayne Leupold Editions that are designed for children.
Mr. Leupold: First, it is important to get children interested in the organ. We offer Organ Activity Educators,coloring books for very young children following the adventures of church mice, Major and Melodia Octave, as they discover the organ. We also have several Organ Demonstrators targeted to the young audience.
Once the interest is there, we encourage teachers to get children on the organ bench and start their keyboard studies with Discover the Basics. Discover the Basics is the FIRST primer series ever published with its focus to the organ-–it is broad enough to use for a piano student or for use in a blended way, i.e. to practice at home on any keyboard instrument then using the organ for lessons. The music is idiomatic to the organ--not warmed-over piano music.
Following these four volumes, the young student then moves into our Discover the Organ series to continue the development of their organ skills. To aid in the development of simple pedal technique using tonic/dominant pedal notes, we have developed the PedXTEND—a device that raises the height of individual pedal keys allowing even four and five-year-olds the ability to play pedal notes.
Jeannine: This is a fascinating paradigm shift in organ pedagogy and one you have very convincingly portrayed as a necessity for the future of the organ. Before we conclude, please briefly describe your pedagogical philosophy in creating The First Organ Book. There are many organ methods available. What is different about yours?
Mr. Leupold: My goal with The First Organ Book was to create a more satisfying musical and pedagogical experience than those offered in other traditional legato organ methods. My pedagogical approach is to present a few exercises followed immediately by repertoire using those technical features in a musical context.
To succeed with this goal, I presented a challenge to 55 composers to write pieces using specific technical aspects that were also musically interesting and satisfying and most importantly would appeal to a younger person. Huge challenge! The result is a volume filled with self-motivating music—music that a student really wants to play! Personally, I think the pedal chapter is especially exciting with loads and loads of wonderful pedal solos! Truly, this is new repertoire for the organ!
Jeannine: Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for the organ, for providing organ materials for a lifetime of learning, and most importantly for setting a challenge to all of us to look to the children as the future of the organ.
_______________________________
Wayne Leupold
of Wayne Leupold Editions
Jeannine: This month's newsletter focuses on the future of the organ. Please tell us how your company, Wayne Leupold Editions strives secure a future for the organ in this country?
Mr. Leupold: The goal of my company is to interest and teach people about the organ at any age or skill leveland to provide materials that will carry them through a lifetime of learning and growth with the instrument. Our goal is to get anyone who is interested in playing the organ on the bench immediately—at any age—without the need for years of prior piano study.
Jeannine: More specifically, you have stated that the future of the organ is with the children. Please tell us more of your philosophy.
Mr. Leupold: Yes, I must tell you emphatically that the future of the organ is with the children. My goal is to bring the organ down to reach the children and to reach them at the very earliest ages just when they are beginning to study keyboard technique. With our materials, I have brought the organ to children to a degree that has never been done before in the history of our instrument.
For thirty years I worked on a critical urtext edition of Franck's organ music. I was nearly ready to publish this volume when it dawned on me that there would be no use for this edition if there was not a younger generation who could play this music.
It is now my belief that there is nothing more important than to get young people interested in the organ! With the shortage of organists we now have, we need to train more people to play the organ and we need to train them to play the organ at the beginning of their keyboard study and at much younger ages. The organ holds a tremendous fascination for children—the sounds, the multiple keyboards and the pedals are simply things not found on a piano. Those things appeal immensely to young children. We organists have not capitalized on this.
Jeannine: Please briefly describe materials created by Wayne Leupold Editions that are designed for children.
Mr. Leupold: First, it is important to get children interested in the organ. We offer Organ Activity Educators,coloring books for very young children following the adventures of church mice, Major and Melodia Octave, as they discover the organ. We also have several Organ Demonstrators targeted to the young audience.
Once the interest is there, we encourage teachers to get children on the organ bench and start their keyboard studies with Discover the Basics. Discover the Basics is the FIRST primer series ever published with its focus to the organ-–it is broad enough to use for a piano student or for use in a blended way, i.e. to practice at home on any keyboard instrument then using the organ for lessons. The music is idiomatic to the organ--not warmed-over piano music.
Following these four volumes, the young student then moves into our Discover the Organ series to continue the development of their organ skills. To aid in the development of simple pedal technique using tonic/dominant pedal notes, we have developed the PedXTEND—a device that raises the height of individual pedal keys allowing even four and five-year-olds the ability to play pedal notes.
Jeannine: This is a fascinating paradigm shift in organ pedagogy and one you have very convincingly portrayed as a necessity for the future of the organ. Before we conclude, please briefly describe your pedagogical philosophy in creating The First Organ Book. There are many organ methods available. What is different about yours?
Mr. Leupold: My goal with The First Organ Book was to create a more satisfying musical and pedagogical experience than those offered in other traditional legato organ methods. My pedagogical approach is to present a few exercises followed immediately by repertoire using those technical features in a musical context.
To succeed with this goal, I presented a challenge to 55 composers to write pieces using specific technical aspects that were also musically interesting and satisfying and most importantly would appeal to a younger person. Huge challenge! The result is a volume filled with self-motivating music—music that a student really wants to play! Personally, I think the pedal chapter is especially exciting with loads and loads of wonderful pedal solos! Truly, this is new repertoire for the organ!
Jeannine: Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm for the organ, for providing organ materials for a lifetime of learning, and most importantly for setting a challenge to all of us to look to the children as the future of the organ.
_______________________________