IMSLP Forums

Hey IMSLP,

I am a member of a community orchestra and we are currently planning our November concert which will be in a venue that has an organ so I was looking for suggestions for orchestral pieces that have organ parts so we can take advantage of this opportunity. We are already planning to do Albinoni's Adagio for organ and strings and have ruled out Saint-Saens' Symphony #5.
The orchestra size is somewhere between a chamber group and a full symphony orchestra. We can usually find augmenting players to cover any necessary parts but do not have the numbers in the string sections to be heard over a huge brass section.

Most works with organ need quite a big orchestra. Elgar has a few including Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, and two of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. There's also Liszt's Hunnenschlacht, Roman Festivals and Pines of Rome by Respighi, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, Taras Bulba by Janacek, or Also Sprach Zarathustra and Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss (admittedly these may be all for too big an ensemble)! I have always liked the ballet music Job by Vaughan Williams which has a big climax with organ in the middle, and his Sinfonia Antartica also has an organ part. With a smaller orchestra, if you have a high quality organist, you could think of the concertos by Handel, Haydn or Poulenc.

It's not public domain at the moment, but Elgar's English Dance for Organ & Orchestra should work for a smaller orchestra. We performed it earlier this year. It's a rental work from Schirmer.

Widor and Guillimant both wrote some pieces, and I believe at least Widor uses a mostly smaller wind section at least.

Copland Organ Symphony
Poulenc Concerto
Hindemith Concerto
Handel Opp. 4 and 7

I can't think of others that haven't been mentioned off the top of my head

panda wrote:Most works with organ need quite a big orchestra. Elgar has a few including Enigma Variations, Cockaigne, and two of the Pomp and Circumstance Marches. There's also Liszt's Hunnenschlacht, Roman Festivals and Pines of Rome by Respighi, Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony, Taras Bulba by Janacek, or Also Sprach Zarathustra and Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss (admittedly these may be all for too big an ensemble)! I have always liked the ballet music Job by Vaughan Williams which has a big climax with organ in the middle, and his Sinfonia Antartica also has an organ part. With a smaller orchestra, if you have a high quality organist, you could think of the concertos by Handel, Haydn or Poulenc.

Don't forget Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" and it's "Organ"smic climax! There's also Respighi's Suite in G Major for Strings and Organ and the John Stanley Organ Concerti, Op. 6.

And of course there's always the Handel concerto(i?) for harp or organ.