''Zwölf Stücke'', Op. 80, is a group of twelve pieces for

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

Max Reger Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...

. He composed them in Munich in 1902 and 1904. They were published by

C. F. Peters Edition Peters is a classical music publisher founded in Leipzig, Germany in 1800. History The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the Viennese composer Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühnel ( ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

in September 1904.

History and movements

The pieces are character pieces of medium difficulty, as a contrast to his major organ works. Reger had written such works already as a student in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. He turned to the organ in Weiden. On a request of the publisher Henri Hinrichsen of

, Reger composed 15 pieces in Munich in 1902. Peters published twelve in

in August 1902 as Zwölf Stücke, Op. 65. Reger used the three still unpublished pieces (Fughette, Gigue, Intermezzo) and composed additional nine pieces in 1904, to form a similar set of works that can be played in sequence or individually. In Reger's lifetime, performers often combined movements from different collections. The twelve pieces were published by

in September 1904, in two books (''Heft'') of six pieces each. Reger dedicated the pieces of Heft 1 to Franz Grunicke, an organist in Berlin, and those of Heft 2 to Otto Burkert. The titles and keys are: # ''Präludium'' (

Prelude Prelude may refer to: Music *Prelude (music), a musical form *Prelude (band), an English-based folk band *Prelude Records (record label), a former New York-based dance independent record label *Chorale prelude, a short liturgical composition for ...

), E minor # ''Fughette'' (

Fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

), E minor # ''Canzonetta'' ( Canzonetta), G minor # ''Gigue'' ( Gigue),

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed for t ...

# ''Ave Maria'', D-flat major # ''Intermezzo'' ( Intermezzo), G minor # ''Scherzo'' ( Scherzo),

F-sharp minor F-sharp minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative major is A major and its parallel major is F-sharp major (or enharmonically G-flat major). T ...

# ''Romanze'' ( Romance),

A minor A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major. The A natural minor scale is: : Changes ...

# ''Perpetuum mobile'' ( Perpetuum mobile), F minor # ''Intermezzo'' (Intermezzo), D major # ''Toccata'' ( Toccata), A minor # ''Fuge'' (Fugue), A minor In the edition of Reger's complete works by the

Max-Reger-Institute The Max-Reger-Institute (MRI) is a musicological research institute and archive in Karlsruhe, Germany, dedicated to the work of the composer Max Reger, a representative of German music around the turn of the 20th century. An associated foundation, ...

, they were published in volumes 5–7.

Recordings

The organist Hans-Jürgen Kaiser recorded ten of the twelve pieces in volume 11 of the complete organ works by Reger, along with the Chorale Preludes, Op. 79b, played on the Rieger-Sauer organ in the

Fulda Cathedral Fulda Cathedral (german: Fuldaer Dom, also ''Sankt Salvator'') is the former abbey church of Fulda Abbey and the burial place of Saint Boniface. Since 1752 it has also been the cathedral of the Diocese of Fulda, of which the Prince-Abbots of Fuld ...

, while numbers 7 and 8 were played by Martin Wetzel on the Klais organ of the

Trier Cathedral The High Cathedral of Saint Peter in Trier (german: Hohe Domkirche St. Peter zu Trier), or Trier Cathedral (german: Trierer Dom), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the oldest church in Germany and the lar ...

and appear on volume 8.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

*
12 Stücke op. 80 / Heft 1
Edition Peters

(in German) max-reger-orgel.de
The Greatness of Reger—as Revealed by Paul Jacobs, Organist, at Juilliard
newyorkarts.net, 26 September 2014 * Ursula Heim
"... meine Orgelsachen sind schwer ..." / Ein Plädoyer für den «leichten» Einstieg in die Orgelwerke Max Regers, in Form eines fiktiven Interviews
rkv.ch
Reger – Organ Works Volume 11
prestoclassical.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Zwolf Stucke, Op. 80 Organ compositions by Max Reger 1904 compositions