ORGAN TRANSCRIPTIONS 



By George M. Chadwick 



The subject of organ transcriptions (arrangements for the organ of 

 compositions not originally composed for it) has always been open to 

 discussion. As a rule conservative musicians have been opposed to 

 admitting into organ literature compositions that are not strictly organ 

 works. This position, though in some instances too pedantic, can 

 in a measure be explained as a wise protest against the modern 

 tendency to transcribe almost everything within sight, without any dis- 

 crimination or sense of the eternal fitness of things. Such a state of 

 affairs may well excuse conservative musicians from recognizing any 

 compromise with the undeniable superficiality of that class of organists 

 who seem to possess no innate understanding of the true nature of the 

 organ, and are willing to give the public what it asks for — or rather 

 what they assume to know that the public wants — without any anxiety 

 about the state of their own musical consciences. Unfortunately there 

 is an almost total absence of authoritative literature on this subject, 

 which, by taking a comprehensive view of the entire range of composi- 

 tion, and by allowing for diversities of national temperament and the 

 varying conditions which have at different times influenced organists 

 and composers, can be considered as leading to a better understanding 

 of the matter. This paper is merely an attempt to define some phases 

 of the discussion and possibly to explain why there exists misunder- 

 standings. 



It is unfortunately true that since Bach and Handel, almost nothing 

 has been written by the greatest composers for the organ as a solo 

 instrument. The most important exceptions to this statement are 

 Mendelssohn's Preludes and Fugues, his Organ Sonatas, Schumann's 

 Canons, and also his Fugues on the name of Bach, and finally the 

 eleven beautiful and noble Choral-Preludes which Brahms composed 

 in the evening of his life — a worthy tribute to the organ, revealing again 

 to the world its rich inexhaustible possibilities. But alas, how small 



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