Composers Corner

Compositions/Arrangements

We have set this area up to look at various aspects of creating music for the organ. Examples and full compositions will be available here and these scores, unless otherwise indicated on individual pieces, will be provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareALike 4.0 International License.

 J. Robert Rix
Descants for the Anglican Church and United Church of Canada

Fr. Edward Wagner
The Good Old Way – New 07/2019
Hymn – Fierce Was the Billow Wild – Updated 07/2019​
Hymn – From Glory to Glory Advancing (St Bart’s Toronto) acct – Updated 07/2019​
Hymn – Lord You Give the Great Commission – Updated 07/2019
Earth’s Scattered Isles
I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say
Lighten the Darkness
There in God’s Garden
There in God’s Garden (Choir)

Information on Composing for the Organ

Like composing for any instrument as well as some of the basics, music theory, harmony, etc. we need to understand the abilities of the instrument(s) we are composing for. There are many useful resources on the web for composing, some good, some not so good. Additionally for the organ we need to understand about the playing style which differs from say, the piano, and the use of the various divisions and stop registrations.

​A couple of old, but free to download, resources are “The Technique and Art of Organ Playing” by Helen Dickinson and “Organ Registration” by Everett Truette. Both of there are also available as reprints from Amazon.ca.

If you would like to submit a piece to composers corner then please send it to the Composers Corner email. The best format to send it in is PDF. Don’t forget to include your details in the PDF and any overriding copyright, if you want one.

Other specific areas we will be covering are ..

Transcribing for the Organ 

The organ is well suited to transcribing orchestral works due to some of the imitative stops available (strings, flutes, reeds, etc.). A good read is the “The Art Of Transcribing For The Organ” by Herbert F. Ellingford. If you like a physical copy you can buy a reprint on Amazon etc., or it is available as a scanned copy on several archives for free, such as archive.org.
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Improvising for the Organ

This is an interesting area and although it may seem a spontaneous activity there are lots of things one can learn to help put a structure to the activity and help out if your improvisation is heading to a dead end. There is a useful website dedicated to Organ improvisation here and there are some useful YouTube videos from the AGO. A useful read is “Improvisation On the Organ” by Hennie Schouten. This is available as a free download from archive. org, or you can get a physical reprint at Amazon.