Organ improvisation – a hybrid workbook from George Baker

A core skill for an organist since the Baroque era has been the ability to improvise. It is a required element of the ARCO and FRCO examinations and rightly so. Over the years I have attended a number of workshops on the development of the skills of improvisation but any improvements are usually short-lived! To be sure there are at least a dozen books on the topic, notably from brilliant executants such as Marcel Dupré, Naji Hakim and Gerre Hancock but in my experience working through the exercises in these books can be a sterile process.

A few months ago I discovered an Organ Improvisation Workbook created by George Baker. Between 1973 and 1975 George traveled from the USA to Paris to study with Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Jean Langlais, André Marchal, and Nadia Boulanger. In 1975 he earned the Prix de Virtuosité with Maximum Mention from the Schola Cantorum in Paris, under Jean Langlais (1975). Since then he has given recitals around the world and written some fairly spectacular compositions. His Evocation II will give you a sense of his style!

Now George has turned his attention to providing a self-teaching hybrid workbook that provides all you may need to improve your improvisation skills at whatever level they are at present. Why do I I use the term ‘hybrid’. For $50 you get a 280 page pdf of the workbook itself, and I’ll come back the workbook shortly. George also offers Micro Lessons which are typically 15-20 minutes in duration and illustrate and build on the content of the workbook. Take a look at Micro Lesson 1 for an introduction from George of his approach.

The Workbook has 16 chapters and makes no assumption about the level of skill of the player. The first four chapters are very clear expositions of the use of church modes in improvisation. After this introduction to the fundamentals the author moves on to illustrate different approaches to creating toccatas, an introduction to modulations, secondary dominants and hymn re-harmonisations, variation frameworks and the Classical French Suite.

In the final seven chapters George Baker analyses the styles of Franck, Vierne, Tournemire, Duruflé, Langlais, Messiaen, Alain and Cochereau. The objective is not to turn you into a master improviser but to show how these organists built on the basic elements of improvisation.

The beauty of this approach is that you can put your iPad on the music desk and work through the Micro Lessons and the appropriate sections of the workbook in parallel. A 280 page workbook is a bit unwieldy so I have printed it out into three sections and wire-bound them. However, it is not easy to work out which Micro Lesson goes with a specific topic in the workbook and this can be a touch frustrating.

The workbook also includes a number of short compositions which illustrate the text of the workbook and also give you a chance to build on these yourself. The Toccata chapter in particular is a very good example as there are nine different approaches to creating a toccata from the hymn tune Hyfrydol!

Overall this Workbook and the associated Micro Lessons provides a very thorough introduction to the art of improvisation. I have found the sections on creating a toccata and on the Classical French Suite especially useful. The $ price comes in at just under £40 and that price it represents very good value for money. The Workbook has had a very positive impact on my confidence in embarking on an improvisation at any point in a service. I am certain you will have the same experience.

(On reading the review George Baker has commented “The Micro-Lessons were never meant to serve as video correlations with the various chapters of the Workbook. Those are separate and distinct and completely free for the taking. Of course, I talk about many of the same concepts discussed in the Workbook, because the principles of music theory are timeless and well-proven. I mention the Workbook at the end of the videos for people who wish to dive deeper into the art and science of improvisation”. I appreciated that but failed to make it clear in my review.)