Aspiration

The second of today's "Titcomb Trio," this HIGH ROMANTIC offering was published by H.W. Gray in 1959 as part of it's St. Cecilia Series.

"Aspiration" was dedicated "to my friend, Dr. Max Miller, FAGO" and is representative of Titcomb's late works. It is, utterly romantic and "beautifully sweet" in the best sense of the word...;-)

Wanting to give myself a "test," I decided to see if I could "just play this" without setting up all kinds of general pistons, and just relying on the "graded system" of mostly divisional pistons.

By "graded system" I mean that each successive pistons is a little louder or softer. By "coupling" Great & Pedal combinations, the Pedal also increases or decreases in proportion to the stops on the Great. Of course, you do have to set your pistons, but I usually leave the divisionals essentially unchanged. That way, I can play anything in a reasonably "colorful" manner.

That's certainly the way we did it at Ripon. There were NO generals, and you HAD to rely on the divisionals. You couldn't always get as "fussy" as you might want to, but once you mastered the idea, you really play anything.

This is the 2nd or 3rd take on this piece, and it came out OK. It's not quite as fussy as I would or COULD have been, but it's still PLENTY romantic enough.

This piece was also sent to me by Carson Cooman. He must think that I'm a VERY schmaltzy (sp?) kind of a guy!

Actually, I MUST be, as playing this "style" of music feels completely natural to me. What does THAT say?!?

Anyway, see what you think... ;-)

THANKS, Carson!