T<\/span>here\u2019s no denying that choral music steals the limelight at Christmas, organ music allotted a few paltry minutes at the end of the service. By then, most of the congregation has headed for the exit and a warming glass of mulled wine, the organist\u2019s final bars accompanied by the clunk of a west-end door.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019re all missing out. The organ repertoire is, in fact, a cornucopia (or should that be cornopean?) of thrilling festive works that deserve wider currency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The best cathedral and abbey choirs across the UK<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
What are the different parts of a pipe organ?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
The most unusual pipe organs in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Six of the best pipe organs in the world<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Five facts about the Royal Albert Hall organ<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
It is time, then, to shine a light on the very best Christmas organ music \u2013 pieces that will hopefully inspire both organists and congregations. From JS Bach\u2019s ingenious, ear-grabbing chorale preludes to Messiaen\u2019s vast nine-movement La Nativit\u00e9 du Seigneur<\/i>, there are centuries of Christmas organ masterpieces to explore and enjoy. Here are 12 of the best.<\/span><\/p>\n
The best Christmas organ music<\/h2>\n
Buxtehude <\/span>Chorale Fantasia on \u2018Wie sch\u00f6n leuchtet der Morgenstern\u2019 (c 1690)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n\nWhen the 20-year-old <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/johann-sebastian-bach\/"\">JS Bach<\/a><\/strong> secured a leave of absence to hear the doyen of the North German organ school on his home patch, it was not an undertaking for the faint-hearted. The round trip to make Buxtehude\u2019s acquaintance in L\u00fcbeck entailed a blister-inducing foot slog of 500 miles. Hardly surprisingly, Bach extended his stay and was able to savour the Advent and Christmas music in the Marienkirche, including the famous Abendmusik concerts arranged by Buxtehude. Given the season he might also have heard the aged organist play his extended Fantasia on the Epiphany hymn \u2018How brightly shines the morning star\u2019, a multi-sectional work including a meteor shower of swirling figuration and a joyous jig fugue.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">JS Bach <\/span>Canonic Variations on \u2018Vom Himmel hoch da komm\u2019 ich her\u2019 (1747)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nBach and Christmas probably start with the clarion call of Wachet auf<\/i>, a <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-is-a-cantata\/"\">cantata<\/a><\/strong> movement enshrined in the embrace of a famous chorale arrangement, published by Sch\u00fcbler. And for the big day itself, the chorale preludes on In dulci jubilo<\/i> either roar (BWV 729) or playfully scintillate (BWV 608). But for an extended example of Bach bringing all his contrapuntal firepower to bear within a work that never fails to twinkle, the 1747 Variations on Luther\u2019s Christmas hymn \u2018From Heaven above to earth I come\u2019 is a show-stopping tour de force<\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\nDemonstrating compositional prowess to the max, it nonetheless fancifully struck 19th-century biographer Philipp Spitta as \u2018like the gaze of an old man who watches his grandchildren around the Christmas tree and is reminded of his own childhood\u2019. Stravinsky added baubles of his own in a festive 1956 reworking for choir and orchestra.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Daquin<\/span> Nouveau Livre de no\u00ebls (c. 1757)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nHe might be best known for that delightful little harpsichord miniature Le coucou<\/i>, but Daquin (1694-1772) was one of the greatest organists of the age and pipped Rameau to a church post in 1727 before ultimately taking charge of the organ loft at Paris\u2019s Notre Dame cathedral. Not to miss out on the French craze for no\u00ebl<\/i> arrangements, around 1757 he brought out a book of keyboard pieces based on the folk-like carols traditionally woven into the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. A Musette recalls the Shepherds and their bagpipes, while a dancing \u2018Suisse\u2019 finale concludes the set in bombastic high spirits.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Brahms <\/span>Chorale Prelude on \u2018Es ist ein Ros entsprungen\u2019 (1896)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n<a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/johannes-brahms\/"\">Brahms<\/a> <\/strong>expressed an early ambition to become a virtuoso organist, but he wasn\u2019t the first to discover that fluent piano skills don\u2019t necessarily translate. And after a modest clutch of pieces composed in the 1850s, he turned his back on the instrument until, in the year before his death, he embarked on a set of chorale preludes, a postscript to the late piano pieces. Among them is a tender meditation on that Lutheran Christmas favourite, Es ist ein Ros entsprungen<\/i>, its noble melody artfully disguised and supported by a pillow of yearning chromaticism.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Ives <\/span>\u2018Adeste fidelis\u2019 in an Organ Prelude (1897)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nAfter his riotous 1891 Variations on America<\/i> for organ, it might have been expected that, six years on, when <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/charles-ives\/"\">Charles Ives<\/a> <\/strong>(1874-1954) turned to the jubilant strains of<a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/o-come-all-ye-faithful-lyrics\/"\"> O Come, All Ye Faithful<\/i><\/a><\/strong>, he would pull out all the stops to evoke its rejoicing. In the <\/span>event \u2018Adeste fidelis\u2019 in an Organ Prelude<\/i> (Ives\u2019s spelling), turns out to be just as subversive, if differently so. To a hushed, shimmering accompaniment, the theme mournfully uncurls upside down before righting itself over harmonies more mystical than \u2018joyful and triumphant\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Karg-Elert <\/span>Chorale Improvisation on \u2018In dulci jubilo\u2019 (1912)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nAlthough mostly associated with the organ these days, spurred on by Grieg, Karg-Elert (1877-1933) started out composing for piano, and found his way to the King of Instruments by way of the harmonium. The music he wrote for it \u2013 like that of Max Reger, his predecessor as professor of composition at the Leipzig Conservatory \u2013 revels in the sonorities of a large Romantic organ. Complete with double pedalling and dense textures, his big bear-hug of an improvisation on the 14th-century carol is no exception. A festive workout for player and instrument alike.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Dupr\u00e9<\/span> Variations sur un vieux No\u00ebl (1923)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n<iframe title=\""Ken\" cowan=\"\" plays=\"\" marcel=\"\" dupr=\"\" variations=\"\" sur=\"\" un=\"\" vieux=\"\" no=\"\" op.=\"\" at=\"\" rice=\"\" university=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pyVjJPvu2_c?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nThe 18th-century French love affair with elaborate organ variations on Christmas carols by no means ended with the deaths of Daquin, Dandrieu and Balbastre. One of the most ingenious and virtuosic sets of the 20th century emerged in 1923 from the pen of Marcel Dupr\u00e9 (1886-1971), a composer-performer schooled by the formidable trinity of Guilmant, Vierne and Widor. Based on No\u00ebl nouvelet<\/i>, it engineers thickets of contrapuntal complexity concealed beneath a disarming surface enchantment. By way of preparation for the inevitable fugato and grand toccata, Variation Nine sounds as if it\u2019s gone a little too liberally at the Christmas sherry. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Langlais <\/span>La Nativit\u00e9 (1932)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nNot be confused with Messiaen\u2019s extended epic, Langlais\u2019s La Nativit\u00e9<\/i> is the second of three Po\u00e8mes Evang\u00e9liques<\/i> written in 1932 for a composition competition \u2013 Langlais\u2019s first organ music to make it into print. The set is bookended by representations of the Annunciation and the Entry into Jerusalem, while the central nativity tableau, a serene pastorale, falls into three sections. After the angels have brought their glad tidings, the shepherds are invoked in an old song, Salut, \u00f4 sainte-cr\u00e8che<\/i>, remembering Langlais\u2019s native Brittany, before the music peacefully subsides into contemplation of the Holy Family.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Messiaen<\/span> La Nativit\u00e9 du Seigneur (1935)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nMountains, medieval stained glass, birdsong and a profound knowledge of theology collide in arguably the most important single organ work \u2013 certainly the most extended \u2013 pondering the Christmas story. Composed in 1935, its nine \u2018meditations\u2019 embody Messiaen\u2019s latest thinking about rhythm, melody and harmony. And they range over the pictorial such as the worshipping Shepherds or journeying Magi, and abstract reflections on the meaning of the unfolding story. \u2018Dieu parmi nous\u2019 wraps everything up in a final festive flourish.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Distler <\/span>Partita on \u2018Wachet auf\u2019 (1935)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nWhile this Partita by the German organist and composer Hugo Distler (1908-42) is roughly contemporaneous with Messiaen\u2019s La Nativit\u00e9<\/i>, it couldn\u2019t be more different. Whereas Messiaen\u2019s work breathes the incense of mysticism, Distler in his preface demanded that composers should \u2018blend the spirit of the present day\u2026 with the hierarchical and strict art of the past\u2019, a credo that shines through every neo-Baroque note, its title nailing its colours to the age of Buxtehude and Bach. Flanked by a toccata and fugue, even the central movement is called \u2018Bicinium\u2019, which invokes the two-part inventions of the Renaissance and early Baroque.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Maxwell Davies <\/span>Fantasia on \u2018O magnum Mysterium\u2019 (1960)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n<iframe title=\""Maxwell\" davies:=\"\" fantasia=\"\" on=\"\" magnum=\"\" mysterium=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""150"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eJpRNsKG-Do?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\nBetween periods studying in Rome and America, Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016) taught music at Cirencester Grammar School where, in 1960, he composed a sequence of carols and sonatas for the students on the Christmas Day plainsong O magnum mysterium<\/i>. He described the work as a contemplation on \u2018the wonder and promise of the Nativity\u2019, and at its conclusion placed this mighty 15-minute solo organ Fantasia. Moving towards and from a powerful climax, it\u2019s a sparse, austere antidote to Christmas excess.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\""p5"\">Eben <\/span>Variations on Good King Wenceslas (1986)<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\nCzech composer Petr Eben (1929-2007) could be forgiven for an outburst of national pride underpinning his 1986 Variations, but in fact the choice of theme was all about bridge-building. Commissioned to write a piece for the unveiling of Chichester Cathedral\u2019s newly-restored organ, he looked for something that would connect his homeland to the UK. Then he remembered the English medieval dance-carol subsequently adapted to extol the virtues of his nation\u2019s saintly monarch: <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/good-king-wenceslas-lyrics\/"\">Good King Wenceslas<\/i><\/a><\/strong>. Problem solved! Theme ingeniously teased out, the variations are punctuated by regal fanfare interjections to show off the Chichester reeds.<\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> <ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/christmas-classical-music-the-best-festive-pieces-of-all-time\/"\">Christmas classical music: the best festive pieces of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/17-lesser-known-pieces-of-christmas-music-that-deserve-more-recognition\/"\">17 lesser-known pieces of Christmas music that deserve more recognition<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-christmas-operas\/"\">The best Christmas operas of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/25-greatest-christmas-carols-all-time\/"\">The 25 best Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/recordings\/the-best-christmas-classical-music-albums\/"\">The best Christmas classical music albums and recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-christmas-ballets\/"\">The best Christmas ballets of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/best-christmas-musicals\/"\">10 of the best Christmas musicals<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Paul Riley Published: Wednesday, 08 December 2021 at 12:00 am There\u2019s no denying that choral music steals the limelight at Christmas, organ music allotted a few paltry minutes at the end of the service. By then, most of the congregation has headed for the exit and a warming glass of mulled wine, the organist\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":7675,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"7"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time.jpg",1200,901,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time-768x577.jpg",768,577,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time-1024x769.jpg",800,601,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time.jpg",1200,901,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2021\/12\/best-christmas-organ-music-of-all-time.jpg",1200,901,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Paul Riley Published: Wednesday, 08 December 2021 at 12:00 am There\u2019s no denying that choral music steals the limelight at Christmas, organ music allotted a few paltry minutes at the end of the service. By then, most of the congregation has headed for the exit and a warming glass of mulled wine, the organist\u2019s…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/7674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}