Josef Gabriel Rheinberger

12 short organ works without opus numbers

As well as 20 organ sonatas and seven collections of stand-alone organ pieces with opus numbers, Rheinberger composed a whole range of smaller works for organ methods or organ collections for his favorite instrument, mainly at the request of colleagues and friends. They are ideally suited for mass and organ lessons.

This organ volume brings together twelve compositions Rheinberger wrote for different occasions and at various points during his career. Included in the collection are seven short pieces in different keys that date from the early 1860s. Rheinberger wrote these at the request of his teacher Herzog and others for several organ collections of "easy, performable" pieces - and they are rewarding pieces for liturgical use. The works without opus numbers (WoO 10, 37, 56, 70) can no longer be regarded as early works. The Fugue in F minor WoO 10 of 1867, with its tendency to translate counterpoint into expressive chordal writing, already displays many characteristics of the late Rheinberger, the Canzonetta WoO 77 is a late work from autumn 1899, whereas the Romanze WoO 70 is a second version of no. 1 of the Miscellaneen op. 174 in the easier to play key of C major.

Separate edition from Supplementary Volume 3 of the Rheinberger Complete Edition