Organ Repertoire - 20th Century

20th Century

During the 20th century, there were a number of independent trends in organ repertoire:

• Composers making a major contribution to the organ repertoire include Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, Herbert Howells, Jean Langlais, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen and Kaikhosru Sorabji.
• The theater organ achieved a brief period of prominence from about 1900–1935, and had its own repertoire.
• The Hammond organ was used in jazz, popular music and rock, especially from about 1950–1975.
• There was an evangelical organ style derived in part from the southern gospel movement, with composers including Fred Bock, Lani Smith, and Harold De Cou.
• Transcriptions of previous works, and improvisations based on hymn tunes, continued to be written in a fairly traditional style by organist-composers such as Searle Wright, Dale Wood and E. Power Biggs.
• Organ works written for organ quartet.