Excerpt from The Organ Works of Bach This is, I think, the first systematic and comprehensive English book on the organ works of Bach. It comes from one who is both organist and musician. I hasten to explain. By "both" organist and musician" I do not mean what some rude scribes mean when they say of a singer, by way of the highest praise they can give him, that he is not only a singer but a musician. I would never dream of suggesting that there are organists who are not musicians. But it goes without saying that there are musicians who are not organists. I know the tribe exists, because I am a humble member of it myself. My own practical acquaintance with the organ has been limited to the rare occasions when I have sat by an organist friend who has allowed me to let my fingers wander idly over the noisy keys, as somebody's did in the song, and with the same futility. But though I cannot play the organ, I have studied a good deal of organ music: my own knowledge of Bach's organ works, indeed, is derived in the first place from study of them either at the pianoforte or with the score on my knees. There must be many others who have learned them in the same way. But what we learn of them in this way is obviously not all that is to be learned about them. They were written for a particular instrument, and cannot fully come to life except on that instrument. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.