Beginning and intermediate organists can sample a wide variety of composers and styles with this excellent collection. Ranging from Palestrina's 16th-century Ricercare to latter-day works such as Sigfrid Karg-Elert's Improvisation on "Nearer, My God, to Thee," it spans more than four centuries of music.
Selected from authoritative sources by musicologist and organist Rollin Smith, this compilation features such famous works as J. S. Bach's Pastorale, BWV 590; Couperin's Chaconne in F; and Handel's Concerto No. 13, "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale." Other well-known selections include compositions by Brahms, Gounod, Haydn, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Vierne, and Widor.

Pastorale, BWV 590 / J.S. Bach
O Welt, ich muss dich lassen, op. 122, no. 11 / Brahms
Voice humaine on the first tone, op. 2 / Chaumont
Trio par contrefugue on the sixth tone, op. 1 / Chaumont
Chacone in F major / L. Couperin
Offertoire for Easter on O Filii et Filiae / Jean-François Dandrieu
Cantilène / Arthur Foote
Andantino in G minor / Franck
Offertoire in G minor / Franck
Offertorium / Gounod
Communion / Gounod
Prelude and Fugue in D major / Handel
Concerto No. 13, “The Cuckoo and the Nightingale” / Handel
Andantino / Hadyn
Choral, op. 37, no. 4 / Jongen
Improvisation on “Nearer my God, to Thee” / Karg-Elert
O God! Hear my sighing / Krebs
Verset in F major / Lefébure-Wély
Weimar’s Volkslied / Liszt
Andante with Variations / Mendelssohn
Ricercare / Palestrina
Visione / Rheinberger
Improvisation, op. 105, no. 3 / Saint-Saëns
Offertoire in C major / Ambroise Thomas
Arabesque, op. 31, no. 15 / Vierne
Ayre / Ward
Méditation / Widor