Max Reger's Monologue for organ, Op. 63, otherwise known as the 12 Pieces, was composed in 1901 and 1902, just at the very beginning of his sometimes frustrating, but nevertheless still very productive, residency in Munich. The Monologue is in three books, each dedicated to a different friend or colleague.

Book A begins with a florid, chromatic Präludium in C minor, then continues with a four-voice Fugue in the parallel major built on a winding, suspension-filled subject in 12/8 time. A quietly rustling Canzone that just once makes it as high as mezzo-forte, dynamic-wise, ends in a barely-audible pppp. A Capriccio whose rowdy A minor sixteenth notes are briefly interrupted in the middle by a few measures of calm chorale-like music completes the book.

Book B contains an Introduction, followed by a Passacaglia in F minor, whose eight-measure bass ostinato repeats over and over, surrounded by music that grows ever more active and ever louder, until finally the organ seems as though it might explode. An A major Ave Maria is a complete contrast, warm and even loving. The book concludes with a Fantasy in C major.

Finally, Book C begins with a Toccata that is a study in rapidity and finger/foot dexterity (one solo pedal passage in particular is simply astounding). The Fugue in E minor makes use of all but two of the 12 chromatic scale degrees. A Canon in D major is very like the canon found in the Op. 59 set of organ pieces in that the distance of the imitation is two beats (in 3/4 time, thus making the first voice's downbeat into the second voice's upbeat), but now with an imitation at the ninth below. A nearly 200-bar Scherzo in D minor ends the book.

© Blair Johnston, Rovi