Organ sheet music

Pedals, manuals and registration

Organ scores are written on three staves — two for the hands, one for the feet — unless they are manuals only, in which case two staves suffice. Manuals-only collections exist precisely because many church and practice instruments have no pedalboard, and they are a large and useful part of the catalogue rather than a beginner's compromise.

Registration — which stops to draw — is where editions differ most. Some specify in detail for a particular historical instrument; others give only a general indication because no two organs are alike. Neither approach is wrong, but a score registered for a French Romantic instrument will need rethinking on an English parish organ.

Liturgical and service music

A great deal of organ publishing is functional: voluntaries, hymn accompaniments, service music and seasonal collections. These are bought for use rather than study, and the practical criteria are length, difficulty and whether the piece fits the moment in the service it is needed for. Collections are usually better value than single pieces here.

Hymnody in particular is heavily out of copyright, and the free archives we index hold enormous quantities of it, including full harmonisations.

Bach and the core repertoire

The central organ repertoire — Bach above all, then Buxtehude, Franck, Widor, Vierne and Messiaen for the later period — is well served by both scholarly editions and free scans. For Bach specifically the editorial questions are real: ornamentation, articulation and even attribution differ between editions, and the free nineteenth-century scans reflect performance practice that has since been substantially revised.

For reading and for learning notes, a free scan is entirely adequate. For anything you will perform, a modern edition is worth the outlay.