September 2026: I have just completely revised this manuals-only repertoire listing. It has always been one of my most popular pages, but it had been assembled piecemeal over the years, and I decided it was due a shake-up.
For the beginner organist, and particularly the pianist-to-organist, I focus on ‘real’ manuals-only music for the organ, of which there is a great deal. There is absolutely no need to play dismal arrangements and transcriptions just because you are not fluent on the pedals! I’ve given publishers were appropriate, but I can’t guarantee that music is currently in print: some publishers print their older stock now to order. For out-of-copyright music search IMSLP.
Some of the excellent anthologies mentioned below can often be found in second-hand listings online. Their editorial notes or introductions are always worth reading for guidance on registration, ornamentation and performance style.
Manuals-only doesn’t necessarily mean easy, of course! There are all levels of keyboard competence required in the music below, so check before buying.
Early Music and Baroque
This is a hugely fertile period for exploration for manuals-only music. ‘Keyboard’ music in the renaissance and baroque was fairly interchangeable between harpsichord and organ, with only a few pieces specifically titled ‘for organ’.
As a pianist you may well have already learned movements of Bach and Handel’s suites on the piano (or the 48 Preludes and Fugues and the Inventions) which will transfer nicely to the organ keyboard. (From personal listening experience, I would just be wary of essaying fast-moving harpsichord music on the organ – Scarlatti springs to mind – particularly in a resonant church, when it turns into a bit of an aural mush.)
Look out for the Faber Early Organ Series edited by James Dalton, from the 1980s: 18 volumes in total covering European organ music of the 16th and 17th centuries (England, Germany, Italy, Spain). I think it’s still available print to order, and individual volumes often crop up in second-hand listings online.
If you find a personal favourite composer in the series, you can track down more pieces on IMSLP.
We all want to play Bach on the organ! – but much of his music requires excellent pedalwork. However some suggestions:
The J S Bach Short Preludes and Fugues (not to be confused with the Short Preludes and Fugues BWV 553-560 which have full pedal parts) are an excellent introduction to the Inventions or the Wohltemperierte Klavier, and were composed by Bach for this very purpose. They make good short service voluntaries – some are quite easy, others less so. Mine is a Peters Edition (Nr 200a), and you’ll probably find them catalogued under piano music.
Daniel Moult’s Easy Bach Organ Album includes some manuals-only Bach pieces. My review here.
I would recommend whole-heartedly Anne Marsden Thomas’ anthologies for OUP:
Oxford Bach Books for Organ, manuals only, Books 1 & 2
Book 1 (36 short pieces), Book 2 (16 slightly longer pieces), graded for difficulty, with excellent editorial notes on each piece.
Handel: Some of the music in the recent Bärenreiter Easy Handel Organ Album, edited by Daniel Moult, is manuals-only though much is arrangements of orchestral or other pieces (like the Water Music)– see my review here
Attributed to Handel: 7 Kleine Fugen fur Orgel oder Cembalo
Download from Werner Icking Music Archive
Handel The Aylesford Pieces
This is a slightly miscellaneous collection of pieces – some like the Toccata are great little miniatures, others are a bit humdrum. Download from the Mutopia Project website. (And if you browse around the Mutopia site you may well find other pieces that take your fancy.)
Grab another piano-playing friend to rock through Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus arranged by John Marsh (1752-1828) for 4 hands at the organ. Available from Fitzjohn Music Publications. (And go on, one of you line up a bottom D on the pedalboard for the final chord.)
For something to fill a short gap (lasting only 8-10 bars) try the Anon 11 Versi per organo from a manuscript in the Civico Liceo Bibliografico Musicale Bologna, and dating from the end of seventeenth century. Download from the IMSLP website here. And here are some similar short pieces from Zipoli: 1716ZipoliVarious (At my church, these little pieces of music are just the right length to get the choir and the clergy up the aisle and settled in their seats at the beginning of a service.)
The French Classical Organ School
This is a genre of music from the late 17th and early 18th centuries which is inextricably linked to the French organs of the day, and includes a large body of pieces mainly on a small scale, for the alternatim practice in church services. It’s worth reading up about registration, ornamentation and performance traditions in this very individual style of music, in order to play it convincingly.
Composers to look out for: Nivers, Marchand, de Grigny, Lebèque, Dandrieu, though there are many more to be found on IMSLP.
Try L-N Clérambault Livre d’Orgue, or look in the Faber Early Organ Series mentioned above, Volumes 7-9.
Some of the anthologies below include individual pieces by these composers.
Classical(ish) period
As you may have already discovered, the classical oeuvre for the organ is a bit thin on the ground. Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn wrote little or nothing for the organ.
In England, though, organ building (in particular the development of a serious pedalboard) got off to a slow start in the eighteenth-century, leading to a specific English repertoire of pieces for manuals-only. This ranges from the simple to the quite demanding, and an ideal introduction is:
18th-century English Organ Music, a 6-volume anthology from OUP, graded for difficulty, edited by David Patrick
Old English Organ Music, Book 1, edited by C H Trevor, practically lives in my organ bag, for when I want something cheerful to fill a gap. It’s the first in a graded series of 6 books, published by OUP, available online from for example Forwoods ScoreStore.
And explore the catalogue of Fitzjohn Music Publications with volumes dedicated to individual composers of the period – clearly identified when manuals-only.
Romantic and early 20th-Century
For nineteenth-century manuals-only music, your cue is ‘written for organ or harmonium’ on the title page, as composers tried to expand their market into the domestic home, and write pieces that could be played with or without a pedalboard. This includes some very distinguished composers:
Jean Langlais – 24 pièces pour Harmonium ou Orgue, Book 1 (Editions Combre)
Louis Vierne – 24 pièces en style libre Op 31 (Durand)
Cesar Franck‘s L’organiste is a collection of 59 short works written in 1889 and 1890 for the harmonium, but often played on organ. He originally intended to produce seven pieces for each note of the (chromatic) scale, but came to a halt in the middle of A flat. Download a public domain facsimile of the original edition published by Enoch (Paris) in 1892, here
Maitres contemporains de l’orgue from IMSLP is an extensive collection of French music, published in 1912. A few pieces need pedals but many not. They vary widely in difficulty- look at books 1 and 2, which include Dupré, Gigout, Guilmant, Boulanger, Massenet and Vierne.
On the subject of Dupré: the first two of his Sixteen Chorales (Le Tombeau de Titelouse) are manuals only, and I often play them as communion pieces.
Elgar Vesper Voluntaries Op.14 are just about playable manuals only, though if you can put in an occasional pedal note that helps. They can be found in various free editions online, but I recommend Peter Horton’s 1987 edition published by Faber.
Caleb Simper wrote reams of harmless manuals-only organ music, and it’s published by Stainer & Bell. Full details in my recent review here.
I get a few raised eyebrows, but I am a fan of Henry Coleman! Look out for his books of Voluntaries for American Organ or Harmonium.
Anthologies and other listings
The Oxford Service Music for Organ series compiled by Anne Marsden Thomas (Books 1 and 2, Manuals only) is pretty much essential for the beginner church organist looking for suitable repertoire.
Preludes & Verses, a collection for manuals, edited by Adrian Vernon Fish has music by Buxtehude, Bach, Couperin, Sweelinck, Reinhard. Published by Kevin Mayhew.
And another Kevin Mayhew – A French Collection for piano, organ or manuals. Eases you into the French repertoire, from Couperin and Charpentier to Boellman and Franck.
Finally, here’s a listing from the Royal School of Church Music (originally published as part of their Sunday by Sunday package for church organists) of organ music for manuals only, including much from the early English repertoire, with suggested editions, and also German, French and Italian music from the 16th to the 20th-century. This listing remains copyright of Royal School of Church Music. It was last revised in 2011 so prices and availability will have changed, but it covers a great deal of ground for you to continue your research.
Organ_music_for_manuals_only RSCM
Transcriptions and arrangements
I can’t get excited about many of the pieces in the huge number of Kevin Mayhew books of new music written for manuals-only organists. However their Essential Organist for Manuals has been a life saver (particularly the very first piece in the book, which is a manuals-only transcription of Jerusalem). I had no problem in using easy transcriptions, while I found my feet – the congregation would rather hear an easy piece played well, than listen to someone struggling.
This is a very personal selection drawn from my own music shelves – find suggestions from other organists in the comments at the bottom of Survival skills for the reluctant organist, and please add your own discoveries!