Barcelona features a rather mild climate during the winter months, where temperatures during afternoon may reach about 18°C. So, just like me, many visitors may have prolonged their Xmas holidays to escape their cold homelands, so the whole city was quite crowded.

Many of you may be aware of the incredible works by Antoni Gaudí, the most popular being the Sagrada Familia cathedral. The most essential ticket includes the cathedral audio-guided electronically, plus the exhibition in the cellar (don’t miss it), excluding a visit to one of the towers or a tour guided by some human being. The audio guide consists of an app you should install to your handset before the visit, and you probably may also want to have your earphones at hand. Guided tours and tower visits are both on high demand. Three days in advance, I had bad luck getting a guided tour in german or english language. Hence I strongly recommend to book your tickets online at least one week in advance.

Further works of Gaudí can be found at various places, e.g. the Park Güell (containing the Casa Museu Gaudí), Palau Güell, Casa Batlló or Casa Mila (“the quarry”). I visited the first three of the four and can recommend them. The entry fees at least partly are noteworthy, the most expensive being the Casa Battlló. Even the cheapest online tickets are well above 30 €, except for inhabitants of spain, who can save 50%. Silver and gold tickets, including augmented reality or access to the private family rooms of the building, cost even more.

Of course Barcelona has much more on offer, to name just a few:

• Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC).
• Museo Picasso
• Museu Marítim de Barcelona
• Music in churches
• Organ recitals and other events in the Basílica de la Mercè
• Organ recitals in Barcelona Cathedral
• The ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya) Vespres d’Antiga concert season in Santa Maria del Pi
• The Museu de la musica, exposing historic instruments from all over the world, including pipe organs, synthesizers, and even an Atari 1040 ST, a computer with built-in MIDI Interface which helped to revolutionize how music is being composed using software sequencers.

As you can see, a fistful of days aren’t enough for a deep dive. I immediately felt the need to return rather sooner than later.

Since several decades, my core musical taste focusses on Jazzrock resp. Fusion music. Via Chick Corea and Al di Meola I also got in touch with spanish music, e.g. the works of Paco de Lucia.

On sunday evening I had the occasion to attend a concert featuring the Barcelona Guitar Trio (Alí Arango, Xavier Coll, Luis Robisco), a percussionist (Lucas Balbo), and two dancers (Carolina Morgado, José Manuel Álvarez) at the Palau de la Música, performing various works, including many of Paco, but also Chick’s Spain (recorded at the very same place, the palau de la musica, in 2007), plus works of Manuel de Falla, Federico García Lorca and others.

Frankly, this was an absolutely outstanding concert, performed by real masters. Have you ever heard four musicians playing one single guitar? There are further upcoming events, so get your ticket :) .

In baroque organ music, I sometimes stumble upon weird intervals which obviously are impossible to play (unless someone is blessed with giant hands). So what do those notes want to tell us?

Recently, I had the occasion to visit the console of the historic Schnitger organ in Lüdingworth, which is equipped with a short octave. In early music, the bass range of instruments was more and more enhanced. However, due to the mean tone temperament, the notes C#, D#, F#, and G# of the great octave were almost never used. As a consequence, they were dropped and several systems of short octaves used. The one of Lüdingworth was quite common. The following figure shows the – from today’s point of view rather odd – arrangement of the low octave (german notation, where B is labeled as H and B flat as B).

In case someone wants to cope with that, one obviously needs to practice the pieces anew, since the fingering is different than the one one would use on a modern instrument. And if using a short octave instrument (or a virtual instrument reconfigured accordingly) one can also play the abovementioned intervals with ease, since D actually resides on the key of F#.

Zufällig habe ich mitbekommen, dass die Orgelakademie Stade am Freitag (Allerheiligen) eine Exkursion zu den »3 Königinnen in 3 Bauerndomen« veranstaltet, von denen das Otterndorfer Gloger-Instrument frisch restauriert erst vor wenigen Tagen wieder in Betrieb genommen wurde. Am Samstag sollte es deshalb an letzterem zusätzlich ein Konzert geben. Von den Instrumenten in Lüdingworth und Altenbruch gibt es von Sonus Paradisi (Lüdingworth, Altenbruch) jeweils Samplesets für Hauptwerk, die ich beide für alte norddeutsche Orgelmusik nutze.

Ich bin deshalb am Donnerstag sehr spontan aufgebrochen, um die Instrumente sehen, hören und näher kennenlernen zu können. Der Reiseaufwand war zwar nicht ganz unerheblich, hat sich aber sehr gelohnt. Ich bin den Veranstaltern, insbesondere Martin Böcker, sehr dankbar für ihr enormes Engagement.

About 9 years ago I started to play baroque pipe organ music. I rather focused on french but on german composers, and as a consequence, I also got in touch with iberian composers like Juan Cabanilles. French baroque organs are different than german ones, and iberian baroque organs are different than french ones. Here are the main differences:

• Often, the space for the organs is extremely limited. As a consequence, the organs often have no or a very limited pedalboard, and the organs often have only one or two keybeds.
• Stops usually are split in the middle of the keybed, so the descant and bass can be registered differently. This compensates for the lack of keybeds, and several iberian baroque organ music expects the instruments to be built like this; the left half of the keybed can be used for accompaniment, the right for solo voices.
• Some reed stop pipes are placed horizontally in the facade of the instruments, providing special timbres. Sometimes such stops can also be found on classical french («Trompette en chamade») or 20th century german instruments (»Spanische Trompete«). But still, the typical sound of iberian reeds is unrivaled.
• Sometimes, in bigger cathedrals, two organs are placed face to face on either side’s wall (not to mention Mafra, where you’ll find the incredible amount of six instruments).

I have read about those instruments, listened to recordings of them, and played a sample set (I do neither have a relationship with the provider, nor do I get paid for this link) of the Segovia organ. Despite digital tools, there’ s still no thing as the real thing. So I spent a couple of days visiting important instruments in portugal.

Obviously, portugal hosts several typical iberian baroque instruments. I had good luck so as to listen to three of them. In case you want to attend some concerts as well, events in Mafra can be found here, and the organ festival will be continued in 2025. There are concerts being organized by Coimbra, Arganil, Cantanhede and Miranda do Corvo. This page also lists instruments found in Coimbra. Concerning concerts at the cathedral of Porto, this page may be helpful. Finally, there’s the »Festival Internacional Orgao & Musica Sacra«.

Am Mittwoch Abend konnte ich an der Stellwagen-Orgel in Stralsund ein tolles Konzert von Thomas Ospital hören. Hier das Programm:

• Charles Racquet (1598-1664)
  • Fantaisie du 8ème ton sur le Regina Coeli
• Jean Adam Guilain (ca. 1680-1739) – Suite du premier ton
  • Plein jeu
  • Trio
  • Duo
  • Basse de trompette
  • Récit
  • Dialogue
• Thomas OSPITAL (1990)
  • Improvisation I
• Antonio de Cabezon (1510-1566)
  • Diferencias sobre el Canto Llano del Caballero
• Pablo Bruna (1611-1679)
  • Tiento de segundo tono sobre la letania de la Virgen
• Thomas OSPITAL (1990)
  • Improvisation II
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) – Concerto d-moll nach Antonio Vivaldi (BWV 596)
  • Allegro
  • Grave
  • Fugue
  • Largo e spiccato
  • Finale Allegro
  • Toccata und Fuge d-moll (BWV 538, “Dorische”)

Gestern spielte zum krönenden Abschluss der diesjährigen Vespérales Maria Esslová ein tolles Konzert. Auch hier das Programm:

• Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Apparatus musico-organisticus
  • Toccata prima
• Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)
  • Aria detto baletto
• Josef Ferdinand Norbert Seger (1716-1782)
  • Toccata e fuga d moll
• Jürgen Essl (1961)
  • Reple corda
• Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
  • Choralpartita »Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan« (9 Teile)
• Jean-Francois Dandrieu (1682-1738) – Magnificat du Premier Livre de Pièces d’Orgue
  • Plein jeu
  • Basse et Dessus de Trompette
  • Récit de Trompette séparée ou de Cromorne
  • Dialogue
• Marie Esslová (1987) – Improvisation: Freie musikalische Miniaturen
  • Luft
  • Feuer
  • Wasser
• Georg Muffat (1653-1704) – Apparatus musico-organisticus
  • Toccata duodecima et ultima

Es waren auch sonst dieses Jahr wieder einige außergewöhnliche Konzerte dabei. Ich freue mich bereits jetzt auf die Saison 2025.

In two weeks, I’ll attend the masterclass with Aude Heurtematte at the Dubois organ of Sts. Pierre & Paul in Wissenbourg. Here’s what I’ll probably prepare:

• Joan Cabanilles (1644-1712) – Tiento Por A la mi re
• Abraham van den Kerckhoven (1618-1702) – Versus primi toni – Cocquiel-Manuscript N° 033, 037, 048, 050, 052, 055, 058, 157, 158, 162
• Dieterich Buxtehude (ca. 1637-1707) – Passacaglia in d minor (BuxWV 161)

I learned a lot during last year’s course in Kaufungen with Torsten Laux, and so I will do during those two days with other organ enthusiasts.

Via Jazer Lee, I recently got known to the Pomodoro Technique:

It uses a kitchen timer to break work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.

I immediately tried it out during my recent practice sessions and am rather impressed by it’s effect. It massively helps me to focus on the task currently at hand and to ignore any distraction until the end of the pomodoro. The most interesting thing about those distractions is: I do not work on them at the end of the pomodoro. Instead, I enjoy the 5 minutes break and restart practising immediately after it. Obviously most distractions don’t require immediate action.

Admittedly, it is damn hard to practise four pomodoros (roughly two hours) in a row. At the end of the third pomodoro, my concentrativeness decreases significantly. And that’s absolutely OK. The pomodoros grant me much more focused and intense practise sessions than ever before, regardless wether i use three or four in a row.

Almost exactly 13 years ago, I bought a Gudereit LC-R, which a german biking magazine had labeled as “Rohloff rocket”. It served me very well (I’m still using it) and was the perfect bike for the quite flat upper rhine plane. But 18 months ago I moved to a rather hilly region. As a consequence, my biking activities dropped down to near zero. A replacement was mandatory.

The Möve Voyager features a Pinion C1.12, a Gates Carbon Drive, a Neodrives Z20 (40 Nm) and a battery with 36V current and a capacity of 625 Wh. I immediately did a test ride of about 18 km this evening, including 2 inclines I never had taken before. So at first glance, I’m quite content.

Im Rahmen der Silbermann-Tage konnte ich mehrere Konzerte hören, unter anderem gestern Mittag an der großen Silbermannorgel im Freiberger Dom «Le Goût Français à Freiberg» mit Pieter van Dijk sowie heute Mittag an der Silbermannorgel in der Schlosskapelle Augustusburg »Beziehungsweisen« mit Afonso Torres. Bei beiden Instrumenten hat man das Gefühl, dass sie perfekt an den Raum angepasst sind. Pieter van Dijk hat unter anderem eine französische Orgelmesse von Guilain ausgewählt, die sich auf dem Instrument erstaunlich authentisch wiedergeben ließ. Beeindruckt haben mich außerdem die Interpretationen von Afonso Torres, der unter anderem »Mein junges Leben hat ein End« von Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck auflegte (ich kann die Aufnahme von Matthias Havinga sehr empfehlen).

Im Silbermann-Museum Frauenstein findet sich eine Kopie eines einmanualigen Instrumentes von Gottfried Silbermann. Nach mehreren Eigentümerwechseln steht das weitestgehend in den Originalzustand zurückversetzte Instrument heute im Bremer Dom. Das Instrument im Museum kann man spielen, sofern man bereit ist, dafür 20 € auszugeben. Das ist viel Geld (und ich hatte leider nur eine gute halbe Stunde Zeit), relativiert sich aber, wenn man bedenkt, was ein solches Instrument kostet.

Das Instrument hat 8 Register und einen Tremulanten (der 10. Zug ist ein Blindknopf) auf einem Manual ohne Pedal (sic!). Dafür finden sich zwei Quinten (Quinta 1 1/2 und Nasat) sowie eine Terz (“Sesquialtera”). Man hat also einen reichhaltigen Obertonaufbau zur Verfügung. Nachteilig ist, dass der Organist beim Spielen sehr viel Direktschall abbekommt. Andererseits ist das Instrument durch die kurze Traktur sehr leichtgängig und lässt sich fast schon spielen wie ein Cembalo. Erneut hat sich ausgezahlt, dass ich neuerdings viele Werke erarbeitet habe, die ohne Pedal auskommen, wie beispielsweise die von William Byrd.

Dass ich in Frauenstein vorbeigekommen bin, war einem Zufall geschuldet, um den ich im Nachhinein sehr dankbar bin. Ich habe mir vorgenommen, wiederzukommen. Dann aber besser vorbereitet und mit ausreichend Zeit.