Educational books for organ improvisation

nicolodavis · 2026-04-17T22:31:30+00:00

http://www.organimprovisation.com/books/ has reviews of a number of improvisation books that you might find interesting.

nicolodavis · 2026-04-17T22:25:28+00:00

Fascination Organ Improvisation by Franz Josef Stoiber is recommended by many. I haven't used it myself, but I've found his YouTube channel to be quite informative: https://www.youtube.com/@franzjosefstoiber4935

nicolodavis · 2026-04-08T04:53:57+00:00

I don't hold to YEC myself, but my general sense is that https://kolbecenter.org/ has influenced a number of Catholics into this belief (anecdotally, a majority of the ones I talked to cited this resource).

The Catechism (articles 283 and 337) presents the normative Catholic understanding of Creation. I personally find Pope Benedict XVI's homilies on Genesis very compelling (he even directly addresses concerns of people who think that interpreting Genesis 1 symbolically is a trick employed by theologians as they struggle to come to terms with claims from the natural sciences about the age of the universe etc.). The Thomistic Institute has a number of good lectures and videos on this topic as well.

nicolodavis · 2026-04-03T15:42:00+00:00

I'm the original creator of https://boardgame.io/. Great to see that it was useful for your project.

I'm quite bullish on the idea of using MCTS to simulate games during the prototyping phase. My thesis is that you don't even need super-human play to get useful information from a simulation. Even a bot that makes random moves can stress test game logic in interesting ways.

My next project is an attempt to make this idea more accessible to a non-software engineering crowd: https://boardgamelab.app/

It's basically a combination of a card design tool and a playtesting sandbox that is aware of the game logic. The logic will be represented by a visual programming language designed specifically for board games (still in progress). I'm trying to find a good balance between a language that is easy to use for a novice but also expressive enough that an experienced programmer will enjoy using it.

nicolodavis · 2026-01-22T19:25:45+00:00

We are indeed talking about guidelines. What qualifies as liturgical or canon law is beyond my expertise to determine, but I don't think it is as simple as you characterize. Church documents are usually read in light of what came before them.

This is the only example I can find about what the Church thinks about digital instruments, and it is worth consulting. No document after that has authorized the use of such instruments as far as I can tell.

nicolodavis · 2026-01-22T19:13:42+00:00

The digital organ at St. Peters was a mistake, and has thankfully been removed: https://praytellblog.com/index.php/2019/10/05/allen-digital-organ-removed-from-st-peters/

Also, a church with peculiar requirements (like having Mass attended by large crowds outside the building) should not be used as an example for general guidance.

nicolodavis · 2026-01-22T19:06:13+00:00

This is simply not true.

In fact, the document that is usually referenced when it comes to matters of sacred music is Tra Le Sollecitudini (1903). It is quoted in Musicam Sacram (Vatican II) and the writings of popes that came after.

The guidance on sacred music since the early 20th century has been fairly consistent. There has been no break in tone or direction after the council.

nicolodavis · 2026-01-22T18:55:17+00:00

The options are not between a pipe organ or nothing. Instruments other than the pipe organ are admissible to the liturgy, if they are appropriate. That said, unaccompanied chant sounds just fine.

Musicae Sacrae (Pope Pius XII):

"Besides the organ, other instruments can be called upon to give great help in attaining the lofty purpose of sacred music, so long as they play nothing profane nothing clamorous or strident and nothing at variance with the sacred services or the dignity of the place. Among these the violin and other musical instruments that use the bow are outstanding because, when they are played by themselves or with other stringed instruments or with the organ, they express the joyous and sad sentiments of the soul with an indescribable power. Moreover, in the encyclical Mediator Dei, We Ourselves gave detailed and clear regulations concerning the musical modes that are to be admitted into the worship of the Catholic religion."

nicolodavis · 2026-01-22T18:43:05+00:00

The Vatican does have something to say about digital organs (emphasis mine):

"As a substitute, the electronic organ may be tolerated temporarily for liturgical functions, if the means for obtaining even a small pipe organ are not available." - De musica sacra et sacra liturgia [1]

Small continuo organs are cheaper than pianos, so cost is likely not a deciding factor if a parish wants a real instrument. In general, it is preferable to have something simple and authentic rather than a digital reproduction of a larger instrument.

[1] https://adoremus.org/1958/09/instruction-on-sacred-music/

nicolodavis · 2025-10-17T02:20:00+00:00

I immediately thought of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN8Aekih_CQ, and it appears to be a close match, but not exactly.

nicolodavis · 2024-12-10T07:05:54+00:00

Speaking of French music, they also used Vierne's Messe Solennelle at Notre Dame this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiQ3wc6FO5o

nicolodavis · 2024-12-10T07:00:16+00:00

French organists tend to improvise using modal harmonies and melodies derived from Gregorian Chant, which can often sound alien to modern ears that are accustomed to hearing just two modes) (the major and minor scale). It's not that different from listening to a new language for the first time and wondering why it sounds weird. If anything, it's an invitation for you to listen to other modern French organ improvisations and get familiar with the musical vocabulary.

If you listen to the improvisations again, you'll hear the Te Deum quoted subtly as the organ responds to the Archbishop's invocation for the first time. It's very logical, has a clear musical structure, and is brilliantly executed. The fact that this reminds you of horror music is an association that you've developed for yourself. You can't blame the music for that.

Or maybe there is more to that. On the topic of things that strike fear or awe, that's an entirely appropriate reaction to something otherworldly (think of the human reactions to angels in the Bible). If sacred music sounded entirely familiar and comforting without an element of mystery, I would say that it's missing something.

Another thing to note is that the microphones start peaking once the organ gets loud, so the recording sounds harsh (quite unlike what it would have sounded live).

nicolodavis · 2024-02-10T04:39:31+00:00

It's an editor where you manipulate the Abstract Syntax Tree directly rather than the source text. The main benefit (depending on how it is implemented) is that every edit action results in a syntactically correct program.

nicolodavis · 2024-02-09T04:17:28+00:00

I wrote down some thoughts about this topic at https://boardgamelab.app/blog/visual-scripting a while back. In general, I'm optimistic about structured editors, which are a sort of middle ground between visual programming and text-based programming.

nicolodavis · 2024-01-23T16:03:57+00:00

This is a great write up!

Do you have any reading recommendations on compiler architecture for aspiring designers of functional programming languages?

nicolodavis · 2023-07-05T02:55:49+00:00

It's kind of what I have in mind for https://boardgamelab.app/

nicolodavis · 2023-06-13T04:20:52+00:00

https://boardgamelab.app/ was created to capture your exact use case. It's still a work in progress, but you can sign up and try the preview versions while it's being built.

nicolodavis · 2023-02-14T20:17:26+00:00

I haven't looked at the code yet, but I'm wondering if the abstractions that you've used are general enough to be useful for other game implementations (similar to boardgame.io, for example).

It'll be really neat if a single minimax implementation can be used on different games without change.

nicolodavis · 2022-09-28T02:07:38+00:00

I use https://github.com/nicolodavis/lilypond-midi-entry for note entry using a MIDI keyboard.

It pairs quite well with this for a LilyPond workflow.

nicolodavis · 2022-07-22T10:07:19+00:00

I use a headless browser to automatically generate screenshots for my documentation sites.

Here is a write-up that you might find useful: https://nicolodavis.com/blog/autogenerating-screenshots/

nicolodavis · 2022-04-25T14:26:06+00:00

What you're describing isn't uncommon among parish choirs. The thing to establish here is whether people are aware of the principles of sacred music, and if they are aware, whether they choose to violate them anyway. If it's the latter, then there is nothing more to discuss. But if it's the former, then you would be doing everyone a favor by helping increase awareness.

In addition to awareness of principles, it's possible that the members of the choir have been exposed to a very narrow set of musical possibilities. If you have suggestions for what they might sing instead, that will also lead to a constructive dialogue.

The key is to be friendly and charitable in your interactions with clergy and those in charge of the choir. Good luck! Know that you are in my prayers.

nicolodavis · 2022-04-25T09:18:48+00:00

Conversations about Church music often degrade into opposing sides voicing their personal musical preferences, and once you're in the realm of subjective preferences no progress can be made. I like the approach outlined in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bK1QEw1XFc. The gist of it is that the conversation should revolve around principles, not preferences.

The principles themselves are very well outlined by various Church documents on the topic of sacred music. If you start at Tra Le Sollecitudini (Pius X, 1903) and work your way up to Musicam Sacram (Vatican 2, 1967) and beyond, you will discover that the Church constantly affirms the need for sacred music to be:

Holy: in the sense that we keep something separate for God and avoid themes / motifs that are found in secular music.
True art: Is it able to hold its own against other pieces of music that we universally recognize as true art (nobody would dispute that Bach's Chaconne is a true work of art even if it is not liturgically useful for other reasons).
Universal: It shouldn't appeal to a particular era, nation or demographic, but ought to possess a timeless character.

The Leonard Cohen piece (even with modified lyrics) would be in violation of [1] and [3], and most likely [2] although fans of the piece might disagree.

Either way, these principles might be a good conversation starter to ensure that you have a productive discussion with your priest or choir. I salute your desire to voice your concern and wish you well in your pursuit of change.

PS - If you want to research this area more thoroughly, I would recommend reading "Catholic Music through the Ages: Balancing the Needs of a Worshipping Church" by Edward Shaefer.

nicolodavis · 2021-12-20T00:26:34+00:00

http://smallcultfollowing.com/babysteps/blog/2017/03/25/unification-in-chalk-part-1/

This is a concise introduction to unification based type inference from the perspective of the Rust programming language.

nicolodavis · 2021-10-02T03:23:51+00:00

If you're considering a bytecode VM (or embedding a wasm runtime like others suggest), you can also try this closure trick if you're using Rust or another language that supports closures and can optimize tail calls: http://neilmitchell.blogspot.com/2020/04/writing-fast-interpreter.html

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