The organ decides

Canadian organ player Isabelle Demers is a Juilliard alumna and Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at McGill University in Montreal. She has a doctorate from the former, studying Bach’s St. John Passion. Thus, it is safe to assume that her teenage reluctance towards her instrument passed.

Her mother suggested the change from piano to organ, thinking Isabelle would thrive. But the transition was not a case of love at first pedal step.

– It was a bit like learning to walk again, she says.

But as her taste in music matured, so did her instrument preference. From enjoying the great romantic pieces, she discovered her love for Bach and what she refers to as more cerebral music, often with a mathematical element. In addition to, of course, the wide range of timbres in the organ.

– I’m someone who really likes to play with sounds and colours. My pianist friends hate it when I say that!

She adds that, of course, one can play with colours on the piano, too, but they will still be in piano sound.

– With an organ, the possibilities are endless, and every instrument is different. The organ is a really physical instrument, where you play with your legs and your hands. I enjoy that aspect of it as well.

Isabelle already knows Scandinavia, and she has been to Norway several times.

– The people are the friendliest on the planet. Everyone gets along, she says when comparing it to the competitive environment you can find in some places.

She is impressed by the sense of community, such as the typical coffee and cake after a Norwegian service.

– It’s almost like a big family to me whenever I come. People are very welcoming.

In the midst of what is loosely known as the church music crisis in Norway, Isabelle offers a different perspective.

– It’s always been amazing to me that you can have a really good life being a church organist, which is not necessarily the case everywhere else.

The Church of Norway estimates that there will be over 200 available organist positions in 20 years.

– As an outsider, I just find it amazing that you actually have 200 jobs for people. Here, we might have the students but not the jobs, so it’s a reverse situation.

Like in Norway, Isabelle says that the push is always towards sciences in North America. She wishes we would focus more on the fact that being a church musician can be a viable option instead of scaring people from doing it.

– I come from a family where everyone is in sciences, but you also need to do what makes you happy. And sometimes that’s music and the arts.

Mysterious Bach

Back to Juilliard—what is it like to study one piece for so many years?

– I studied how Bach used different devices to represent the theology of Luther. It’s a fascinating piece, and after so many years of studying it, I’m quite sure I still don’t understand it, she admits and chuckles.

But, Isabelle enjoys being able to play everything from the baroque and up to 20th-century music—and working in church forces you to learn different pieces all the time and thus discover little unknown gems. She thinks that makes you a more well-rounded musician.

Before her professorship at McGill, Isabelle taught at Baylor University in Texas.

What kind of teacher would you describe yourself as?

– If you ask my students, I think they would say I’m quite tough.

She laughs and elaborates:

– I make them play a lot and learn a lot of repertoire. If you work in church, you have to play something different every week, and some of it is quite difficult. So you need to get used to that intense pace, trying to get as good as possible in one week.

Students who are less passionate than her about this topic might think her standards are too high, she suspects. However, she emphasises how lucky she feels to have students who absolutely live for music.

– I think that’s the best thing for a teacher because it’s so inspiring. What I want for the students is for them to be the best version of themselves that they can be. If you have all that potential, you should really try to fulfil it.

Isabelle is not interested in making little copies of herself—she wants her students to find their own personal voice and speak that language.

– If that means completely different from me, that’s actually great. The world doesn’t need a lot of the same—we should all go in different directions.

Speaking of differences—being an organ player means adapting to a wide range of instruments. You can find cute little pocket-organs looking like they are packed into a briefcase—and huge organs with sounds that quite literally are meant to fill a cathedral.

Isabelle explains:

– Every one of those instruments will teach you something about the music and maybe even about yourself.

Her best advice is to ask the regular organist how their organ works upon arriving to play a new instrument. Maybe even ask them to play a little themselves and get a summary of how the sound spreads throughout the room, how the balance and the acoustics are and so on.

– An organist should be very flexible and have excellent short-term memory, she thinks.

Organ players will often do all the rehearsing on one instrument in advance and then have to play a whole new instrument in concert.

– One of my students described it as going on a date. You get two hours to get to know each other, and hopefully, you get along, but you don’t know, she laughs.

According to Isabelle, it’s better to go wherever the instrument tells you instead of fighting with it.

– It’s the instrument that decides. You are serving the organ, not the other way around.

You’re making it sound like an animate object.

– In a way, it sort of is. They all have their own personality.

What do you think about the organ in the Oslo Cathedral?

– It’s really gorgeous. I remember the action was a little heavy, so I figured that when I left, I would look like the Hulk, she jokes. – It felt like a really welcoming instrument. It wanted to be played!

Isabelle is no stranger to playing orchestra pieces on the organ. She has transcribed both Stravinsky’s Firebird and Petrushka herself and performed both pieces many times. The latter took her nine months to finish.

Petrushka is full of polyrhythms, which is naturally a challenge when you have to play all the parts simultaneously.

– You end up with pedal in four, your left hand in five, and your right hand in seven.

When learning it, it could take her a month to get through one page.

The Firebird was Isabelle’s pandemic project. She especially enjoys how the piece lets her use all the organ sounds as solo instruments.

Lastly—does she have a favourite organ?

– That is the worst question!

After a bit of negotiation, she agrees to make some honourable mentions.

– The Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia. It’s the world’s biggest functioning organ. It’s huge!

She also recalls a small organ in the Swedish town of Falun.

– It was tiny. Maybe 1500 pipes. But the sounds were so great.

Every instrument has its own expression, but the space in which you play also matters, she says.

– If you play in St. Paul’s in London, they lock you up, and you have the whole cathedral to yourself. How amazing is that? Who else gets to do this? Organists are truly the most fortunate of all musicians!