3<X) UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



in quantity is the above list of works when compared with the other 

 instrumental compositions of the masters ! 



Hence there are two questions one may well ask. Why did not the 

 composers of the latter half of the eighteenth and first half of the nine- 

 teenth centuries write more for the organ ? And since they did not, 

 shall organists be condemned for resorting to transcriptions rather than 

 omit from their repertoire the greatest composers of that period ? Possibly 

 the first of these questions can be answered as follows: The composers 

 of that period were less closely identified with the organ than were 

 Bach and Handel, one reason being the development of the orchestra 

 and the evolution of the piano from the clavichord and harpsichord to 

 the modern instrument. It would require an exhaustive article on this 

 alone to explain satisfactorily this neglect of the organ by the great 

 composers for almost a century. I merely add this suggestion that had 

 the organs of that period been more distinctly solo instruments in the 

 modern sense, the case might have been otherwise. However magnifi- 

 cently some of those old organs could interpret a fugue, their clumsy 

 mechanism and limitations in the matter of fine tonal shadings and 

 contrasts did not invite the creation of new forms, such as the modern 

 sonata. In fact, one feels that by common consent the composers 

 recognized that nothing more could be written after Bach. When 

 Mendelssohn at last broke the silence and gave to the world his own 

 organ compositions, so beautiful and perfect, he sounded a prophetic 

 note almost revolutionary in its full meaning — certainly revolutionary 

 for Mendelssohn. 



The second of these questions we can only hope to discuss and 

 leave unanswered. The transition from the organ style of the early 

 part of the eighteenth century to that of the orchestra must be con- 

 sidered from two standpoints — the difference between the organ and 

 orchestra as a medium of musical expression, and those outward influ- 

 ences already exerting a force in the compositions of Bach's son, Carl 

 Philipp Emanuel — influences of court life amounting to almost a reaction 

 against the profound musicianship and earnestness of Bach. This is 

 not the place to discuss the evolution of this style from the early sym- 

 phonies of Haydn to its full development in Beethoven. A musician 



