Top ten organ works ever written...

[giovannimusica]

Dear MIMF'ers,

Which, in your own mind, are the top ten finest organ compositions ever written, past or present? My list is not in order of preference:

J.S. Bach: Passacaglia & Fugue in c-minor
Cesar Franck: Grande Piece Symphonique
Franz Liszt: Fantaisie & Fugue on *Ad Nos Ad Salutarem Undam*
Wilhelm Middelschulte: Passacaglia in d-minor
Louis Vierne: Symphonie No. 3
Max Reger: Fantasy on *Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme*
Dupre: Le Chemin de La Croix
Cesar Franck: Choral in b-minor
Charles Tournemire: L'Orgue Mystique
J.S. Bach: Prelude & Fugue in e-minor aka *The Wedge*

Cheers!

Giovanni

[acc]

Here are mine. A very personal list, obviously.

Widor: Symphonie Romane
Franck: Prière
Dupré: Chemin de la Croix
Franck: 2nd Choral
Widor: Symphony #8
Bach: Passacaglia in c
Tournemire: Symphonie-Choral
Bach: Choral "O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde groß"
Vierne: Symphony #5
Tournemire: Triple Choral
Liszt: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

But just in case, ask me again tomorrow.

[Krummhorn]

In no preferential order, my list is:

JS Bach: Praeludium et Fuge "St. Anne"
Franck: Prelude, Fuge et Variation
Franck: Chorale #3 in A Minor
Mendelssohn: Sonata I
Vierne: Carillon de Westminster
Hindemith: Sonata II
Mozart: Fantasia in F Minor
Widor: Symphony #6
Reger: Fantasia on "Wie Schon Leuchtet Morgenstern"
Alain: Litanies

[Thomas Dressler]

Well, I guess we could debate what we mean by "greatest," but here is a quick list without thinking it over too much. (I could spend days fine tuning such a list!) For me to qualify, they have to be pieces I like (personally) and at the same time have some kind of significance, as in either influence or originality, or perhaps nobility of message. This is somewhat in order of preference but not entirely.

Bach--Dorian Toccata and Fugue
--Double Fugue in F (but NOT including the Toccata in F, I like it but don't consider it as profound as the fugue)
--Chorale Preludes on Nun komm der Heiden Heiland (collectively)

Alain--3 Dances

Franck--Chorale in A minor

Sweelinck--Chromatic Fantasy

Brahms--O Welt, ich muss dich lassen

Tournemire--Improvisation on Victimae Paschali Laudes

Durufle--Prelude and Fugue on the name of Alain

Schlick--Maria zart

If I thought about it for any length of time, I'm sure there are some I've missed and I'd have to bump something off the list. . .but these are the first ones that come to mind.

[giovannimusica]

Acc, Krummhorn and Br. Tom,

Thanx for sharing those which you realise to be really great organ works. As Tom so presciently pointed out, one can spend a few days *fine-tuning* the list but on the other hand it's fun to see what one reaches for in the first moments...

Cheers!

Giovanni

[Krummhorn]

... but on the other hand it's fun to see what one reaches for in the first moments...

Quite true, Giovanni and Thomas ...
In retrospect, my list began with 4 compositions that I've performed in concerts.
I did not realize that this was so until I reread the posts today. Well, as you say, they were ones in close reach at the moment. They are still, IMO, topmost in my mind as being great works of music for the organ.

Lars

[Thomas Dressler]

Haha, well my list includes 6 pieces I perform, and 4 that I WISH I could perform! Well, there's still time. . . Most of them, however, are pieces I would mention without hesitation as my favorite organ pieces. But I do have other favorites I didn't mention!

[giovannimusica]

I wonder if anyone on this hallowed forum has tried to tackle *Christus* by Francis Pott. Supposedly it is a very involved symphony for organ. I've heard some snippets of it in sound files that have been sent to me but they are not enough to really get a firm handle on the work.

I am half-way through Sorabji's Second Organ Symphony - whew, what a hard slog. One can't really say that the melody motifs of that symphony are one's that cause one to whistle them whilst taking a walk in the woods. If I were to compare the form and texture of that symphony with some great work of Architecture, it would look like a hybrid of an riotous baroque/rococo abbey and an intricate but imposing gothic cathedral.

Cheers!

Giovanni

[yury habrus]

Bach -- Passacaglia
Bach -- Fantasia et fuga ex g
Vierne -- Symphonie h-moll N 6
Reger -- Introduction, passacaglia und fugue in e-moll, op.127
Reubke -- Sonata on 94th psalm
Buxtehude -- Passacaglia ex d
Liszt -- Fantasia on "Ad nos..."
Franck -- Grande piece symphonique
Messiaen -- "L'Ascension"
Buxtehude -- "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist" BuxWV 209


But only 10 it is too little!!!

[giovannimusica]

Hi Yury,

I have many other works which I think are among the greatest ever written and which I play. Yes, the limit was set arbitrarily since I surmised that the top ten in an organists mind, those he/she would immediately reach for, would nominally encompass ten pieces. Please don't feel bad since there was no intention of making someone feel that they came up short.

Lets try a different angle: What are the five pieces that encapsulate your own belief system, your *weltanschauung*, express your commitment to the art, those which you have committed to memory, and how you wish to be remembered.

My top five are:

Bach: Passacaglia & fugue in c-minor
Bach: O Mensch Bewein Dein Sunde Gross
Liszt: Fantasy on *Ad Nos*
Reger: Fantasy and fugue on *Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme*
Tournemire: Sept chorales-poems d'Orgue pour les sept paroles du Xrist


In sum total: Which works express your whole being - raison d'etre - existential cause?

Yes, it is an intimate question. I have shared of myself now - anyone else care to make a leap of faith into the Universe? Into Space and Time? Into Eternity?

Music is the language of God, to which the angels dance... ---Martin Luther

Cheers!

Giovanni

[yury habrus]

Hi, Giovanni.

Your questions become more and more difficult. Because the top 10 and "raison d'etre" pieces are not the same. The choice of the latters presumes to be of more subjective character. And such pieces are not of the same status during the whole life. Sometimes you may became acquainted with a new piece which stresses you so much, that you think that it is for ever. But than the time passes and you see that your passion for the piece became calmer. My example of this situation is Fantasia und fuge uber BACH by Reger. I love this piece very much and now, but it don't me crazy as earlier. And in some other cases I can find that some pieces I can listen all time and I'll not be tired, though the effect after listening of them is not probably so strong from the very beggining of acquaintance with them. A part of these pieces I included in my top 10.
And of the top 10 I can leave now only 2 for being my raison d'etre:
it is
Symphonie N6 by Vierne
and Buxtehude's "Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist" BuxWV 209
Other:
Bach -- Partita "Sei gegruesset, Jesu guetug" BWV 768
Bach -- Prelude and fugue c minor BWV 546
Buxtehude -- Prealudium in E major BuxWV 141
and I want very-very much include in this list (partially, because of advertising purposes) as a bonus to point 5:
Passacaglia in Es-dur on the theme of latvian folk song "Put, vejini"("Blow,wind") by Romualds Jermaks

Despite I named in my top 10 mostly romantic repertoire, the baroque repertoire is more correspondant to my mind.

But to my opinion, it is easier to me to name organ composers, whose musical language I will never accept and understand .

[giovannimusica]

Hi Yury,

Yes, the top ten and raison d'etre are not the same, therefore I mentioned a different perspective. Of course one will discover new pieces that makes one's heart sing. Again, I was looking for the five pieces in the current moment which one would want to use as a *testament * to one's musical being. The five I have mentioned are ones which I have been acquainted with for thirty years and they never cease to captivate me and I'll always use one of them in any concert or recital I play.

Cheers!

Giovanni

[Krummhorn]

Hi Giovanni,

Fountain Reverie (Percy Fletcher)
Aria (Randy Runyon)
Agnus Dei (Georges Bizet)
The Lost Chord (Sir Arthur Sullivan)
Schmücke dich o liebe Seele (JS Bach)

I realize that these are not major works - but these (with the exception of the Runyon piece) are the ones, like Giovanni, I have played for so many years, and these are the ones that tug at my heart when I play them - even in practice alone, the feeling is always the same for me. The Runyon Aria was a recent acquisition from a website I stumbled across one evening while surfing the net.

[Thomas Dressler]

Now this is something different!

Let's see, mine would probably be:

Bach--Dorian Fugue
--Ich ruf' zu dir (Orgelbuechlein)
Brahms--O Welt, ich muss dich lassen
--O Gott, du frommer Gott
Franck--Chorale in A minor

(The bonus one I can't leave out is Rheinberger's 19th Sonata)

These are all pieces I have performed many, many times (except the Reinberger, which I have performed several times--it's emotionally exhausting for me to perform the whole thing. . .) and they speak to me in an incredibly intimate way.

[giovannimusica]

Hi Krummhorn,

That Runyon piece - you've got me curious...


Hi Br. Thom.

I am of one accord with you on the 19th by Rheinberger - A wonderful piece but emotionally I feel like a wrung-out dishrag after playing it. I like your other selections.

Cheers!

Giovanni