For nearly two centuries now, the organ anthology has been catering for the needs and interests of the beginner and intermediate organist, and it’s good to see in the twenty-first century that publishing houses still have faith in the anthology – that is, a carefully curated collection of bread-and-butter music for parish use, rather than pinnacles of the organ repertoire.
The treasure trove of short pieces for the organ that has accumulated over the centuries is quite overwhelming: personally I’m delighted for some editor to filter and organise my music for me, and so I’ve enjoyed being introduced to a series of three volumes entitled Sonntagsorgel, from publishers Bärenreiter.
It’s refreshing to pick up an anthology put together by two editors working in a slightly different tradition to the Northern European organ culture that tends to inform the music I head for as a matter of course. Works by less-well-known (but still good) composers tend not to travel. The difference of idiom is subtle, but my thanks to Armin Kircher and Marius Schwemmer for introducing me to organ works composed in their part of Europe – Southern Germany and Austria, along with music from France, Italy, England. Marius Schwemmer is currently Director of Music at the Cathedral in Passau, on the German border with Austria, and his colleague Armin Kircher led the church music department of the Archdiocese of Salzburg in Austria, and was organist at the oldest preserved organ in the city of Salzburg in the Kajetanerkirche, before his early death in 2015.
I like the way the three books (with over 100 pieces in total) are organised thematically: the first two volumes around style and mood (festive, fugues, meditative, pastorals) with the third volume focussing on chorale settings, indexed both by chorale or hymn title, and by season of the church year.
Most of the music is three-stave, but with easy pedal parts. The typesetting is clear, with helpful translations into English of any musical terms that might be unfamiliar. For established organists they would be straightforward to sight read, as the music is not enormously technically demanding. It is also ‘real’ organ music for the beginner or for teachers to offer their students, and at £8.50 per volume, good value.
SONNTAGSORGEL
Volume 1 Festive music, fugues and trios BA 9297
Volume 2 Meditative music, pastorals BA 9288
Volume 3 Chorale settings and hymn arrangements BA 11206
Each £8.50
Available for next day delivery from Bärenreiter’s UK Music Store online www.barenreiter.co.uk
En passant Andrew McCrea of the Royal College of Organists gives a short history of the organ anthology in the first of a series of films on the A-Z of the Organ: find it here on the RCO’s YouTube channel.
feature image of the organ in the St Stephansdom, Passau, Bavaria, by Tobi 87
