Playing the Organ



Yun Kyong Kim - November 5, 2010
First United Methodist Church, Middletown, Ohio


My mother and I took my 91-year-old grandmother to hear an organ recital performed by accomplished organist Yun Kyong Kim. We knew she'd enjoy it because she's always liked the organ. In fact, she used to play. But she doesn't remember that anymore. The dementia has erased that memory along with so many others.

When I was young, I always asked my grandmother if I could play the organ during our visits. I loved the varying tones, the smooth feel of the keys, and the simplicity of playing hers since it was an instructional organ with the notes labeled above the keys. When she moved from her apartment, she gave the organ to my parents and suddenly we had this magical musical instrument in our very own house! I played it nearly every day. I could read music well enough and played one-handed songs from the songbook she'd given us. Here is where I learned such classics as "Danny Boy," "Jealous," and "Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella." I played the songs slowly, experimenting with different keyboard sounds and wishing that I knew how to play the accompanying chords with my left hand.

I credit those early days at the organ with my later love for music. I became a pretty good flute player and still appreciate classical music and listening to concerts. My grandmother seems to still enjoy it, too, but she doesn't really know what she likes and what she doesn't anymore. She listened to the organ concert today with a pleasant, if somewhat blank, expression on her face.

Yun Kyong Kim played "A Menagerie of Animals," "Passacaglia in C Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, and jazz tunes to round out the complexity of the organ. But none of those songs brought back my grandmother's joy of the organ. She didn't remember even having one. I almost wanted to run up to Yun Kyong Kim and ask her to play "Jealous" or "Danny Boy" - songs I was sure would spark some sort of memory in my grandmother's mind. Except that it wouldn't. It would only spark memories in my mind, and I have to be okay with that. Because whether my grandmother remembers it or not, she taught me to play the organ, and she introduced me to a world of creating music. It's enough that I remember.