I am playing for a nieces' wedding in late summer. It is not a mass. The church is a beautiful stone building. The only instrument is a small pump organ which is one manual and lacking in a variety of tones or stops. I am familiar with all sorts of organ repertoire, most of which would be difficult to adapt to the instrument. My idea is to play short voluntaries of the "Old English Voluntary" style. If anyone has additional ideas about music for this instrument, I would greatly appreciate them. Please, no bashing of this limited instrument as it actually fits the space and Victorian architecture very well.
Franck wrote "L'Organiste" which has 59 pieces written for the harmonium - a reed organ. Much of the French Baroque literature has limited or no pedal parts which would be playable on a reed organ. Some of the Flor Peeters Little Organ Book is for manuals only. The John Stanley pieces were written at a time when English organs lacked pedalboards. I suspect there is much more out there that could be played on that pump organ.
There is a FANTASTIC wedding March by Valenti which is one of my go-to pieces of wedding rep. Works well with or without pedal (was originally arranged for harmonium, I believe).
Guilmant’s L’Organiste liturgiste and L’Organiste Pratique are also very useful; the pieces are written to be played either on harmonium or organ. Many are based on [rhythmically-smoothed-out, sometimes-corrupted, but still] Gregorian themes, and odds are high that there will be something suitable in there for any occasion.
Registrations are suggested for harmonium with numbers inside circles, like (2) (6). This corresponds to what French makers like Mustel were putting on their stopknobs, and I’m not sure that it’s transferable to North American harmoniums, which are a different kind of instrument altogether. But at least Guilmant gives the pipe organ registrations too which make it possible to decipher if you need16’ or 8’ pitch, loud or soft.
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