Franz Liszt composed his lyrical-meditative organ fantasia on the Ave Maria von Arcadelt in Rome in 1863. In contrast to his major virtuoso works this charming genre piece can even be easily played on smaller (double-manual) instruments even without swell-organ and reeds. The 'Liszt organ' at the village church of Denstedt near Weimar which was built by the Peternell brothers in 1859/60 and has survived in its original state may be used as an example. It did not become known until in 1927 that the Ave Maria attributed to Jakob Arcadelt (around 1505-1568) was a revised version by the composer Pierre-Louis-Philippe Dietsch (1808 1865) who used the melody of Arcadelt'schanson Nous voyons que les hommes which he then harmonized into his own Romantic four-part choral setting and to which he added the sacred text as a contrafactum. Our separate edition wants to make this rather 'poetic' yet quite easy-to-play organ work without any major technical difficulties accessible to a large circle of interested people.

Beginning and intermediate organists can sample a wide variety of composers and styles with this excellent collection. Ranging from Palestrina's 16th-century Ricercare to latter-day works such as Sigfrid Karg-Elert's Improvisation on 'Nearer My God to Thee ' it spans more than four centuries of music.Selected from authoritative sources by musicologist and organist Rollin Smith this compilation features such famous works as J. S. Bach's Pastorale BWV 590; Couperin's Chaconne in F; and Handel's Concerto No. 13 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale.' Other well-known selections include compositions by Brahms Gounod Haydn Liszt Mendelssohn Vierne andWidor.Dover Original.