The Festival Toccata is relatively well-known among the works of Fletcher and is popular as a wedding piece and for encores. The brilliance of Festival Toccata’s surface disguises the fact that one does not need to be a virtuoso to play it well and effectively.Percy Fletcher was an English composer conductor and Orchestrator of prodigious output who made his career in the lively world of the London music theatre of the years of the late 19th and early 20th century. He was music director at many theatres including His Majesty’s Theatre for the last seventeen years of his life. He was the Orchestrator and conductor for the big budget spectacular theatre piece Chu Chin Chowwhich ran for five years a record that remained unbroken for forty years. In addition to his myriad works of light music Fletcher also wrote a serious church cantata The Passion of Christ as well as the delightful children’s work The Walrus and the Carpenter.

Par SCHROEDER HERMANN. Concerto da chiesa' is the last organ work by Hermann Schroeder (1904-1984). It was composed a few months before his death. The premiere was performed by Clemens Ganz, then organist at the Cathedral of Cologne, in memory of the esteemed teacher and college colleague. The work marks the end of a tirelessly prolific life with more than one hundred organ works of various characters, genres and possibilities of use in liturgy and concerts. The title 'Concerto da chiesa' reveals that this is a work for concerts, not for being used in services. The three-movement composition is an unmistakable 'Schroeder' work: emphasis of linearity according to high baroque standards, conciseness and sometimes impulsive gestures of the themes and rhythms, layers of parallel chords within a freely tonal modern harmony, not forgetting the plasticity of form and the motor functions which are surprisingly energetic for an eighty-year-old./ Répertoire / Orgue

200 fabulous new arrangements-How about this for a mouth-watering concoction: take 200 of the most regularly used hymn tunes ask the top church music composers to work their magic on them and gather them together in one bumper collection. What you have isLast Verse Extravaganza..

The organ part and reduced score Symphony No. 4 - An Organ Symphony (2008) by Poul Ruders. Full score: WH31186 Orch. parts are available on hire: hire@ewh.dk Preface / Programme Note When introducing a large-scale symphonic work not only as a symphony but as an organ symphony it would be impossible not to think of and perhaps compare it with Camille Saint-Saëns’s famous SYMPHONY NO. 3 popularly known as the Organ Symphony. Well that is a risk I am prepared to take – and live with the consequences.Saint-Saëns however listed his work as a symphony avec/withorgan. The organ only appears in two out of the four sections of thepiece. In my symphony the instrument plays a far more significant part and is featured in all four movements. But it is not a concerto for organ and orchestra rather a symphony with organo obligato - a symphony with an organ part of a soloistic nature. So an Organ Symphony it is. The first movement PRELUDE is exactly that: a foreplay to what is in store for the rest of the symphony. It is slow (very slow!) and predominantly hushed: the organ and the orchestra wake up side-by-side getting to know one another.The second movement CORTÈGE is a slowly moving processional and it evokes extreme solemnity and austerity. Later on the music takes flight and the atmosphere lightens considerably a far more playful music emerging.This leads to the third movement ETUDE an exercise in instrumental virtuosity and technical challenge.The fourth and last movement is called CHACONNE but I could just as well have named it passacaglia (the definition of those two terms seems to blur even among the learned). Bearing in mind the last movement of Johannes Brahms´s SYMPHONY NO.4 which is universally agreed on as being a passacaglia I chose to avoid the Wrath of the Gods and opted for

A sackful of music for the busiest season of the year!A real bumper collection of over 130 pieces for Manuals by the finest composers. Besides seasonal compositions The Great Big Christmas Book ForManuals also has carol-based pieces including preludes and last verses. All are sight-readable making this a must-have for the organist. And to make life even more comfortable at this busy time of the year we haveincluded many pieces in two keys to match different hymnals and carol collections!

Complete Organ Works Volume III: Organist at the Church ?La Madeleine?: Trois Pièces pour Grand Orgue (1890) Messe de Mariage:Cinq Pièces pour Orgue (1891)During his tenure at ?La Madeleine? in Paris Théodore Dubois composed a large number of Organ works. Volume III together with the already published Volumes II and IV brings Barenreiter's first complete Urtext edition of this body of music to a close. It contains Trois Pièces (Praeludium-grave Adoratio et Vox Angelica Hosannah) and the well-known and frequently performed wedding piece Messe de Mariage (Entrée du Cortège Bénédiction nuptiale Offertoire Invocation Laus Deo [Sortie]).Like thetwo previous volumes this volume contains many facsimile pages a Critical Commentary (Fr/Eng/Ger) a catalogue of sources and a detailed Foreword that sheds light on the composer?s life instrument-specific issues and performance practice.First complete Urtext edition of Théodore Dubois? Organ worksBased on the latest research findingsSuitable for church worship and concert performanceDetailed Foreword Critical Commentary (Fr/Eng/Ger) and facsimile pagesAlready published:Théodore Dubois: Complete Organ WorksVolume I: Early Works and Works with little or facultative pedal use BA8468Volume II: Organist at the Church ?La Madeleine?: Douze Pièces pour Orgue ou Piano-Pédalier (1886) BA8469 Volume IV: Organist at the Church ?La Madeleine?: Douze Pièces nouvelles (1893) / Ascendit Deus (1902) BA8471Volume V: His Last Organ Works: Dix Pièces (nouvelles) (1921) / Fantasietta avec Variations (1922) BA9208

This revised edition of Noel Rawsthorne’s famous collection of last verse harmonies matches the keys found in the most major recent hymn books as well as those that have been in use for many years. It now includes evenlower settings.

200 hymn improvisations by Malcolm Archer-After The Last Verse contains useful and attractive music in an attempt to aid Organists who have some difficulty in improvising after the last verse of a hymn. It provides 200 hymn improvisations - shortextemporary pieces which may be used to fill in after the hymn has finished. Ideal for moments like the offertory or when a procession still has a little way to go makes this volume suitable for lofts of all altitudes! Setfor Manuals and Pedals though the simple arrangements allow for smaller organs.

Alec Rowley (1892-1958) was an English composer organist and teacher. As well as his frequent Piano recitals and broadcasts he gained renown through his large-scale works performed at the Promenade Concerts but most of his compositions are miniatures and small-scale works appropriate for amateur forces. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music he later taught at Trinity College London for nearly forty years. The Symphony in B Minor for solo Organ was one of Rowley’s more ambitious works suitable for recital or performance. It was one of his last works to be published and the maturity which his compositional style had reached isself-evident.

Varied accompaniments for popular hymns-Most organists like a choice between the spectacular and the traditional type of hymn arrangement and Restrained Last Verses is intended as a contrast to our highly successful collection Last Verse Extravaganza .Both these books while respecting the integrity of the tune also encourage congregations to sing with purpose and excitement. Restrained Last Verses is conservative in its approach but will quickly become an essential aidto fine hymn singing.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) is known for his unique composition style. Incorporating complex rhythms harmony and melodies  Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité is no exception to the composer's popular distinctive style. Composed in 1969  Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité is an example of Messiaen's use of Serialism. The composer first used what he called his 'musical alphabet' in Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité where the alphabetincludes motifs for the concepts 'to have' 'to be' and 'God'. Furthermore 'sentences' depict the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. Messiaen's 'musical alphabet' which he also described as 'communicable language' is explained as a preface to the composition Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité. Divided into nine sections ('meditations') a typical performance lasts about 74 minutes. Messiaen'sMéditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité is essential to all advanced virtuoso and contemporary organists seeking to expand and vary their repertoire.

STILL. LEBENOrganist Eva Feldbc:ek had been asking me for a long time to write for the organ without the use of iron blocks extra stopping assistants etc .... unusual difficulties that belonged to my earlier organ music. I setmyselfthe task of Miting a ''handier'' kind of music for the organ.Once I had finished STILL. LEBEN I didn't think I had achieved what I was looking for. True the two movements did not involve odd things but 'handy' isn't really the word for them either. So I wrote the three movements in COUNTERMOVE to tidy up even more.And since I didn't think that was enough either I wrote the really simple pieces under the title IN TRIPLUM.Thethree series (eight pieces in all 2 + 3 + 3) sound very different but they all take their point of departure from the nature and tonal resources ofthe organ.Everywhere there is polyrhythm or hierarchical layering polychromaticism diatonics and melody (the last of these only sparingly and in some of the movements).Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen

Master Tallis's Testament No.3 from Six Pieces for Organ. Composed in 1940 Master Tallis's Testament unfolds Quasi lento teneramente in a gentle six-eight rhythm and in G minor. It consists of three variants of a theme which falls into three phrases (eight plus six plus four bars). The music rises gradually to a climax at the end of the third variant. A quiet echo of the last two bars supplies a coda and a peaceful ending in the major. The piece is one which its composer regards as most typical and with particular affection. Its title which pays tribute to a father of English cathedral music allies it to the twenty-four pieces contained in Howells' two sets of clavichordpieces the twelve of Lambert's Clavichord (the Lambert not being the composer Constant but the Bath photographer Herbert who in the Twenties published a set of portraits of British composers (including Howells) and the twelve of Howells' Clavichord (1951) the separate titles similarly evoke those of the Elizabethan Virginalists. © 1977 Felix Aprahamian

Prelude On Lasst Uns Erfreuen is a work by renowned contemporary composer Nico Muhly for Organ. Lasting around 6 minutes it was composed in 2007. The composition was dedicated to Alison Shafer commemorating 25 years of service for Christian Lane and the Evangelical Reformed United Church of Christ Frederick Maryland. In the September/October 2015 issue of Choir & Organ Stephen Farr writes that this work 'applies a variety of motivic treatments and a corresponding variety of rhythmic twists to the well-known melody...would be effective in either concert or liturgicalcontexts'.

The orchestral suite Symphonic Dances Op. 45 from 1940 is Rachmaninoff's last work. Almost at the same time, he wrote an arrangement of the piece for two pianos which he played with Vladimir Horowitz in a private setting. The French composer Jean Guillou has now arranged the Symphonic Dances for two organs. / Orgue