RWA Online Blog Fantasias and Fugues, Variations, Sonatas, Suites 1894-1901 – Introduction (RWA vol. I/2)

Fantasias and Fugues, Variations, Sonatas, Suites 1894-1901 – Introduction (RWA vol. I/2)

Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage

1.

The second volume in the series of organ works includes, in chronological order, the fantasias and fugues, variations, sonatas and suites Max Reger composed between October 1894 and May 1901 in Wiesbaden and Weiden:

  • Suite in E minor op. 16 (1894/95)
  • Fantasia and Fugue in C minor op. 29 (1898)
  • 1st Sonata in F sharp minor op. 33 (1899)
  • Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor WoO IV/6 (1899)
  • Fantasia and Fugue on B–A–C–H op. 46 (1900)
  • Variations and Fugue on The English National Anthem WoO IV/7 (1901)
  • Symphonic Fantasia and Fugue op. 57 (1901)

They can be classified mainly as organ works for concert performance in the “grand style”.1 In these works, Reger pursued his ambitious artistic aims with regard to both compositional technique and aesthetic effect.2 He regarded the organ “indeed as a concert instrument” (letter dated 25 January 1900 to Anton Gloetzner) and proceeded with his compositions on a terrain which, towards the end of the 19th century, appeared both unencumbered by music history as well as in need, and capable of development. Organ music was considered on the one hand “as a relic of bygone times, to which leading composers since Bach’s days had contributed at best individual works ‘in the old style’”,3 and on the other hand, it was a genre which was distant from the factional musical struggles then being contested in orchestral and chamber music.

1
Here Reger refers to op. 29.
2
See, among others, Burkhard Meischein, Aspekte der Weidener Orgelwerke Max Regers, in Reger-Studien 6, p. 337.
3
Susanne Popp and Susanne Shigihara, Max Reger. Am Wendepunkt zur Moderne. Ein Bildband mit Dokumenten aus den Beständen des Max-Reger-Instituts, Bonn 1987 (= Schriften des Arbeitskreises selbständiger Kultur-Institute, Vol. 7), p. 51.
About this Blogpost

Authors:
Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage

Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)

Date:
15th December 2011

Tags:
Module IVol. I/2

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Citation

Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage: Fantasias and Fugues, Variations, Sonatas, Suites 1894-1901 – Introduction (RWA vol. I/2), in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00045, version 4.0, 18th December 2025.

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