Orgelstücke I

In January 2008 the Max-Reger-Institut (MRI), located in Karlsruhe, Germany, has initiated the first ever scholarly-critical edition of works by Max Reger. The Reger-Werkausgabe (RWA) is sponsored by the Mainzer Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur and with its design as a hybrid edition breaks new ground in the editorial techniques. The Werkausgabe encompasses three areas of Reger's creative output: organ works, Lieder, and choral music (choruses), and, for the first time, Reger's arrangements of works by other composers.

For the first time, this well-founded new edition combines the printed music with a digital counterpart. Each volume will be accompanied and supplemented by a digital data storage medium (presently DVD) containing facsimiles of all relevant sources presently available. With the aid of the software program Edirom these will be compared and contrasted with commentary. This means differences between the sources will be immediately visible.

Furthermore, an encyclopedic section, likewise in digital form, offers primarily information and illustrations relevant to the history of the work(s), as well as information about the dedicatees of the composi­tions, those musicians who participated in the first performances, and much more. Thus, for a clearer under­stand­ing of Reger's creative output his works are placed in their necessary historical and biographical context.

The sixth volume in the series of organ works includes, in chronological order, the organ pieces Max Reger composed in between April 1902 and spring 1903 in Munich.