Sieben Stücke, Op. 145

Sieben Stücke
für Orgel
Organ music by Max Reger
Reger playing the Sauer organ in the Leipzig Conservatory in 1908
Catalogue	Op. 145
Based on	chorales
Composed	1915 (1915)–16
Published	1916 (1916)

Sieben Stücke für Orgel (Seven organ pieces), Op. 145, is a collection of seven compositions for organ by Max Reger. He composed the work in three groups in 1915 and 1916. The titles of seven individual character pieces reflect aspects of World War I and Christian feasts. The compositions are based on traditional German hymns, sometimes combining several in one piece. Reger's last work for organ, it was published, again in three installments, in 1915 and 1916.

Reger was raised Catholic but was fascinated by the variety of melodies of Protestant hymns, and used quotations from them throughout his life. He was deeply affected by the World War and wrote an unfinished Latin Requiem in 1914 and the setting Requiem of a German poem in 1915, thinking of the victims of the battles. He composed next the seven pieces for organ in Jena, based on Christian hymns. He wrote numbers 1–3 in July 1915, then additionally, on a request by the publisher, 4–6 in October 1915, and the final 7th in February and March 1916. in 1900 Reger commented to his friend, the organist Gustav Beckmann, on the commonly held view of the difficulty of his organ works: "Meine Orgelsachen sind schwer, es gehört ein über die Technik souverän herrschender geistvoller Spieler dazu" (My organ pieces are difficult; they need a skillful player who masters the technique).

The seven pieces were published by H. Oppenheimer in Hamelin in three sets, as they were composed: 1–3 at the end of 1915; 4–6 at the beginning of 1916,; and 7, the last one, in Spring 1916. All the pieces had their first public performances in 1916, the year that Reger died (on 11 May). Hermann Keller played No. 4 in Weimar in April 1916, and No. 1 in Stuttgart on 30 May 1916. Georg Winkler performed No. 7 in Leipzig on 1 December 1916. They were published by Breitkopf as Sieben Orgelstücke, Op. 145. They were also published in 2015 by Carus in volume I/7 of the Reger-Werkausgabe, the complete edition of Reger's works.