Well, I think I’ve finally cracked BWV 590. (Or possibly one movement from it; looking on YouTube, it seems to contain several parts, only one of which sounds anything like what I have on my sheet music.) Mr The Organist gave me the score and told me to go learn it. I think it was a good choice. It contains some beautiful harmonies. It’s complicated enough to be difficult to learn, but easy enough [and short enough] to be tractable.

This represents one of the very few times in my life when I’ve learned a score without knowing what the result is supposed to sound like first. From my research online, it appears that what I’m playing at least vaguely resembles how it’s supposed to sound.

A week or so ago, I took my first trip of the year to the village church to try it out. I didn’t stay for very long; sitting in an unheated stone building in the middle of January is not my idea of a fun time. I was there maybe 2 hours. The main reason for wanting to go was to play this piece together with the pedal part (which, obviously, I can’t play on my keyboard at home).

Not wishing to over-estimate my skill, I will say I was pleasently surprised to find that my feet manage to find the correct notes with little or no effort provided that the notes are sufficiently near the middle of the pedalboard. The pedal part for this piece is ludicrously easy (but pay attention; it gets harder half way through!) Given that working the pedals is something I’m rubbish at, I can now go away with the delusion that I’m making progress.