Catch-up 2: "Organchik"

It has been a while since Troy has shown great interest in one particular picture in his Handel book.
That picture depicts Handel as a boy playing the organ in an old dark chapel at the Grand Duke’s. This is a very important picture because it shows probably the most defining moment of Handel’s life.

Of course, you all remember that as the Duke overheard the boy play, he was so impressed that immediately offered a major monetary gift to his father, so Handel could study music with the best music teacher in Halle.

As Troy gets older, he starts seeing the importance of that page in the book and always looks at it and talks about it.

One day it struck me: he went to the Meyerhoff and saw all the musical instruments. All but one! The organ.

Thus, without further delay, one morning we went to a place that has enough organs to the happiness of the most demanding musician: Washington National Cathedral. It’s hard to say exactly how many organs they have there. Roughly, about 7… And of course, besides the beautiful organ concerts, several times a week they hold organ demonstrations which help you learn about the unlimited capacity of this great instrument. (To me, the King of instruments)

From the main huge organ in the sanctuary to a tiny kid-size one, WNC offers organs of every possible size, shape and age. Some are much older-looking than others. Some look quite antique.

In the crypt (basement) level there is a small wooden chapel with that rich intoxicating smell of old wood, history and time. It’s always dark and partially draped with heavy burgundy portieres. You can’t actually walk in, but you can look. The organ in that chapel is relatively small, but for Troy this is IT. He calls it Handel’s organ and is majorly fascinated with that place.

During that visit Troy made an important discovery and immediately verbalized it: Organ is like piano, but sound coming from pipes!

Upon Troy’s arrival from his recent trip, a very special musical surprise was waiting for him: a little triple chime that I got for him on one of my visits to Kennedy Center.
He looked at it, turned it vertically and screamed from the top of his lungs:” Organchik – organchik-organchik!!!!” In Russian the suffix “chik” would stand for the word “little”.
Even though Troy knows how to say “chime” and sometimes says it, he is positive that he owns a little organ now and can play it whenever he feels like it.

And now to the funniest part.

Every morning Troy walks up to the window in his room ( with vinyl blinds on it), places both hands on the window sill, announces “Organchik”, and starts “playing”. Somehow he gets to pretend that the strings that hold the blinds together are the organ pipes.

On another note, my friends, this weekend we are taking Troy to Ocean City for a little vacation. So the next time you’ll hear from me would probably be when I put together our vacation update.
Happy Friday, everyone!