I want to put together a list of useful resources for organists, organ students and would-be organ students.

If people post their recommendations to this thread, I'll collate them into this first post. If we end up with a nice useful collection, I'll see if we can get it Pinned.

Suggestions on what sort of resources to include and how to group them would be welcome.

I'll put a few things in just to get it started and will add more later.



Tutor Books

Note: Many tutor books assume that you can already read music and have reasonable keyboard facility.

C.H. Trevor - The Oxford Organ Method (OOP, but can be found secondhand)
David Sanger - Play the Organ Volume 1 (suitable for people without previous keyboard experience)
David Sanger - Play the Organ Volume 2 (follow on to vol 1, or possible starting point for people who already play the piano)
Percy Buck - The First Year at the Organ (useful exercises, but not much text)
Roger E. Davies - The Organists Manual (but be aware that some works included have been messed around with)
Flor Peeters - Ars Organi (3 volumes)

Books

ed. Thistlethwaite & Webber - The Cambridge Companion to the Organ
Arthur Wills - Organ (Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides)
Peter Williams - Organ
Peter Hurford - Making Music at the Organ
Barry Williams & Robert Leach - Everything Else an Organist Should Know


Keyboard Skills

General:
Brings et al. - A New Approach to Keyboard Harmony

Score Reading:
C.S. Lang - Score Reading Exercises (vols 1 & 2)
Morris & Ferguson - Preparatory Exercises in Score Reading

Figured Bass:
R.O. Morris - Figured Harmony at the Keyboard (Parts 1 & 2)
David Ledbetter - Continuo Playing According to Handel

Improvisation:
Jan Overduin - Making Music: Improvisation for Organists
Gerre Hancock - Improvising: How to Master the Art

Transposition:
Sumsion - Transposition Exercises at the Keyboard



Useful Websites

The National Pipe Organ Register
http://www.npor.org.uk/

The Royal College of Organists
http://www.rco.org.uk/

The Royal School of Church Music
http://www.rscm.com/

Incorporated Association of Organists
http://www.iao.org.uk/

Organ Recital Listings
http://www.organrecitals.com/
http://www.londonorgan.co.uk/

Dan and the Magic Musician
http://www.danmagic.org/


Repertoire

Anyone willing to help put together some lists of repertoire?
Maybe a list of graded stuff, a list of "essentials" and a list of "useful books for church use"?
Any other ideas of lists that might be useful?


Legal sources of free sheet music

There's a list of many of these in the main forum FAQ, but here are some that are particularly useful for organ and/or choral music.

Choral Public Domain Library
http://www.cpdl.org

Werner Icking Music Archive
http://icking-music-archive.org/


Suppliers of organ sheet music

Details of specialist suppliers of organ/choral sheet music to be added pending confirmation from EdGJ that it's OK.

Organ Recordings

Details of specialist suppliers and producers of organ recordings to be added, pending confirmation from EdGJ that it's OK.


Other Stuff

What else would people find useful?

What do you mean? I think the Davies book is very good, and less pricey than Harold Gleason's Method of Organ Playing, which is another widely used textbook in North America.

For keyboard skills, I would add R.O. Morris' book on figured bass realisation, as well as any edition of Bach chorales printed in open score using C clefs.

Don't forget Ars Organi by Flor Peeters. It looks as though it's still in print
http://www.schott-music.com/shop/1/2/20001/show,89012,s.html

Ses

Ah, yes, Ars Organi, the book I used as a beginner!

If we're allowed to, a link to Roger Molyneux's website, he has a great selection of second hand organ music, and also maybe Allegro and the IAO would be useful.

What about some of the specialist organ recording companies, like Priory, Delphian and Regent.

I never said that it wasn't good. It's just that I've been advised to be careful with it because a few of the pieces in it have been edited. It's things like 2 stave pieces being rearranged over 3.

I was told to avoid those pieces completely, but I don't see why other people can't use them if they want to, as long as they're aware of what's been done.

So the book is recommended, but with a caveat.

"It's things like 2 stave pieces being rearranged over 3."

Hmm!!

Almost all of Bach's organ works were written on two staves, even though they are clearly intended for playing with the pedals. This gives rise to alternative readings in items such as 'In dulci Jubilo' where editors give different notes to the pedal lines.

Barry Williams

I think they were talking about 2 stave things that weren't originally intended for playing with the pedals.

Same for Buxtehude?

Having never seen a Buxtehude manuscript I do not know. Conjecture suggests that the disproportionately great cost of manuscript paper in those days would have led to any reasonable economy. Can anyone help on this point please?

I greatly enjoy playing arrangements of Old English Organ Music on a modern organ with pedals. We know for certain that the scores with just two lines of music were invariably filled in, albeit on a pedal-less English organs of the time. Expanding the score to include the pedals does not please the more scholarly, even it would have pleased the composers.

The ascetic approach may have much to commend it, particularly those pieces that were written for organs that never had any pedals. However, Harry Wall's arrangments give me much musical enjoyment, just as orchestral arrangements do. They may be naughty but they are nice!

Barry Williams

No autograph copies of Buxtehude's organ music survive and I think that the surviving sources are quite varied in nature, some being written in tablature rather than staff notation. Buxtehude himself probably wrote in tablature. It's not a subject I have ever studied, however.

The most recent (and excellent) edition of Vicent Lübeck's keyboard music, published by Bärenreiter, uses only two staves.

I also have a recent, urtext edition of a Böhm Prelude and Fugue which is also on two staves.

Without going and looking up all my more diplomatic (in the paleographic sense) urtext editions, I suspect that where the Germans used staff notation, two staves was the norm and three staves the exception - but I am only guessing.

I can heartily recommend "Organ"(!), from the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guide series, which is written by Arthur Wills. It's a very good reference.

The Werner Icking Music Archive is very good indeed for downloading sheet music... http://icking-music-archive.org/

Hope these two are useful!

I think you'll find most of it in tablature, hence the numerous different readings one can obtain of it from different publishers.

Oh, crumbs, Barry! That must be the sweeping sentence of the year! Whilst some of them implied that additional notes could be included (most noticeably around cadence points), if you look at most of the organ music of that period (John Stanley being a good example), you'll find that this just isn't the case. The two-part counterpoint is entirely what's intended and further additions would just get in the way and spoil the counterpoint.

I don't think its the two part counterpoint movements that Barry is referring to (sorry if it is...), but those slower homophonic opening movements where to keep consistency, I think some of the chords require a little thickening.

I would certainly hope so!

I am grateful for the erudition. It seems that there is as much disagreement over the performance of Early English Organ Music and there is over English Church Choral Music composed between about 1590 and 1870.

However, I will continue to play utterly decandent arrangments by Harry Wall, (sorry folks,) but probably only in private now!

Barry Williams