The Orgelbüchlein Project is a collective composition project aiming to complete Bach's unfinished manuscript known as 'Orgelbüchlein'. In the 'Little Organ Book', Bach laid out a complete hymnal of short organ chorale, 164 in all, but only completed 46 of them. Why the remaining 118 were left as blank pages, with only a title at the head, remains a mystery, but they inspired organists William Whitehead to found the Orgelbüchlein Project, in which contemporary composers are invited to contribute a piece to completing the collection. The resulting collection, to be published in eight volumes, represents a cross-section of the most interesting composers at work today across Europe. More information about the project is available at www.orgelbuechlein.com. List of Composers: Nigel Allcoat, Johann Sebastian Bach, Sally Beamish, Christian von Blohn, Timothy Byram-Wigfield, John Butt, Stephen Hough, Just? Janulyt?, Simon Johnson, Jonas J?rkunas , Daniel Kidane, Till Alexander Körber, Ronny Krippne, David Matthews, Nico Muhly, Anthony Powers, Tarik O'Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Poul Ruders, Sven-David Sandström, Robert Saxton, Peter Shepherd, Andrew Synnott Zsigmond Szathmáry William Whitehead / Orgue

While organ music of the 19th century was not highly regarded in Germany a few years ago [with the exception of a few outstanding works], our understanding of it has grown during recent years. In other countries 19th century organ music has retained its place in the repertoire to a far greater extent. This three-volume collection presents playable organ works of high quality for both liturgical and concert use. Most of the pieces have not yet been available in new editions [at the time of publication], and are made accessible to a wider public for the first time. The first two volumes contain pieces which were composed in, or introduced to, the German-speaking area of Europe between1800 and 1900; some of them point back stylistically to the 18th century. The focus of the third volume is on works by French, British, and American composers. There are also organ pieces from Bohemia, Belgium, Denmark, and even Brazil./ Répertoire / Orgue