Unsung Organ Repertoire

[Alkanator]

This is a somewhat tricky topic, since much of the organ repertoire seems not to get a lot of exposure these days, unless one happens to attend a church where the organ is regularly played. And there seem to be a fair number of composer names which to others would seem unsung, but are household names amongst organists.

However that may be, having recently taken up organ (with previous piano training), and being in the process of looking for repertoire to learn, I would be interested to hear recommendations from other forum members.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Anything by Widor, Vierne, Mulet, Dubois, Lemmens, Lefebure-Wely, Lanquetuit, Alkan, Rheinberger, Guilmant, Gigout. But these are probably all well known to organists.

[Alan Howe]

What would you recommend by Lemmens, Lefebure-Wely or Lanquetuit, Gareth? They're not even names to me...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Lemmens' Marche Triomphale is good. There is also a "Fanfare" which is quite famous and some Preludes. Lefebure-Wely wrote, among other things, two outrageously vulgar Sorties. The E flat is very camp and silly - great fun. And Lanquetuit's Toccata is a magnificent example of the high romantic virtuoso French organ piece. It is up there with Mulet's "Tu es Petrus". There are also the Tuba Tunes by C.Y. Lang and Norman Cocker respectively which are effective and relatively easy.

[Alan Howe]

Great - thanks, Gareth. Would it be fair to say that these are 'pot-boilers'?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Not really pot boilers. Mostly showpieces designed to conclude a church service in grand style. The Lefebure-Wely pieces some might call pot boilers I suppose. There is a story that when he was organist of The Madelaine in Paris the canons objected to the, as they saw it, insouciant nature of some of his pieces. One day after Mass one of the canons asked Lefebure-Wely: "May I ask when you are going to compose a decent piece of music?" To which he is supposed to have responded: "When I hear you preach a decent sermon, Mon Pere."
By the way I noticed that my auto correct had changed Lanquetuit to Lanquetwit after I had posted. I corrected these interferences.

[Martin Eastick]

I would strongly recommend Otto Olsson's Sonata in E Op38, which I tried many years ago when playing the organ (rather inexpertly - I might add!). This is the most impressive of his rather extensive output for organ. Perhaps Carl Reinecke's Sonata, or even those by Camillo Schumann may be worth exploring. Also for a bit of fun - try Percy Fletcher's Festival Toccata!

[eschiss1]

for a fairly large list of things to consider there's always works uploaded to IMSLP in a generally Romantic style for organ solo.

[jerfilm]

Here's a way to sample some if not unsung, surely unknown, organ composers.  Using google Chrome, put in a name such as Gustav Merkel.  Open a new tab in YouTube and paste his name and you'll get a list of his copositions that are out there.   When youre done with him, go back to the previous tab and right below the bio info you'll see "People Also Search For" and to the right you'll see "view 15+ more"'  Click on that, the screen refreshes and near the top wil be pictures of many similar (usually) composers.  And you're off and running.

Jerry

[Gerhard Griesel]

I think some (but obviously not all) unsung organ composers are often well known in their countries of origin, but not elsewhere. With a wealth of unsung organ compositions available on Youtube but not always commercially, I have downloaded works by Lefébury-Wély, some brilliant works by Andriessen, and Boëllmann, Bossi and Gigout. Commercial CDs are available of unknown organ works by sung composers, which make for fascinating listening if one knows some of their other compositions. Examples in my little collection are i.a. Bruch, Busoni, Glazunov, Glinka, Khachaturian, Liszt, Lyapunov (unsung?), Martucci, Respighi, Satie, Schumann, Sgambati, Taneyev and Vaughan Williams.

[sdtom]

good advice Jerry

[Alkanator]

Some good leads here. I'll definitely be looking more into Merkel and Olsson.

Lefebure-Wely wrote, among other things, two outrageously vulgar Sorties. The E flat is very camp and silly - great fun.

Wow, you weren't joking. That is something I would much sooner expect to hear from a merry-go-round than as part of a church service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W3X2Itj5MU

One composer I've come across that I've enjoyed quite a bit: Percy Whitlock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9ZHuPaEmjs
Reminds me a lot of Vaughan Williams, who was, incidentally, his teacher. Mind, he was also inspired by an English folk tune for this piece, as the title implies.