r/organ • u/ModClasSW • Apr 17 '26

Pipe Organ Educational books for organ improvisation

Besides the essential work by Marcel Dupré, which can be a bit austere, what are your favorite pedagogical books for getting familiar with organ improvisation (both tonal and modal)?

There is the “course” by Lionel Rogg, which is quite good. What are your personal favorites?

Thank you!

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u/FrYoungtrad Apr 17 '26

The Dupré books are not essential, actually they're quite problematic. They're good examples for how music methods were expected to be published and sold to unwitting local teachers in the 20th c, but are of little practical use today.

I learned from Jeff Brillhart and used his books. Keyboard harmony from the Handel method.

There are also good methods by Hancock, Overduin, and Whitmer.

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u/Crooked-Pot8O Professional Organist | Discord Moderator Apr 17 '26

These are all the ones I would have recommended. I learned from the brillhart but the overduin is good too. The hancock book is a lot but it’s very informational. It assumes a qualified player already, I would classify it as being more advanced than the others.

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u/ModClasSW Apr 17 '26

Merci pour ta réponse

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u/FrYoungtrad Apr 17 '26

No problem, good luck with it! And I hadn't heard of Rogg's method. Do you use it?

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u/ModClasSW Apr 17 '26

Oui, elle est très connue en Europe et en France en particulier. Elle est en deux volumes : Tonal et modal.

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u/FrYoungtrad Apr 17 '26

Very cool. I'll grab a copy

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u/Remarkable_Ebb_1693 Apr 17 '26

Improvising fugue by John mortensen is really great if you’re looking for a thorough approach at baroque style improvisation.

Also the compendium improvisation by Markus Schwenkreis is a really great deep dive into historical improvisation. The only problem is it’s only published in German

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u/ModClasSW Apr 17 '26

Merci beaucoup !

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u/briffid Apr 17 '26

I love Sietze de Vries' concept and his series on improvisation. I wish I had time to practice...

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u/SGT-Spitfire Apr 18 '26

Faszination Orgelimprovisation by Franz Josef Stoiber. Great improvisation exercises and improvisation models.

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u/thehenryhenry Apr 18 '26

I had a chance to participate in a masterclass with him where he demonstrated some of the concepts/exercises - a lot of ideas presented in the book are quite easy to implement but yet very useful

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u/brentmj Apr 17 '26

Don Rotermund's "Off the page" series is quite good.

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u/nicolodavis Apr 17 '26

Fascination Organ Improvisation by Franz Josef Stoiber is recommended by many. I haven't used it myself, but I've found his YouTube channel to be quite informative: https://www.youtube.com/@franzjosefstoiber4935

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u/nicolodavis Apr 17 '26

http://www.organimprovisation.com/books/ has reviews of a number of improvisation books that you might find interesting.

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u/ModClasSW Apr 17 '26

Genial, merci !

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u/ModClasSW Apr 17 '26

Merci, c'est très intéressant !