Sigfrid Karg-Elert's 66 Chorale-Improvisations for organ have been described as "monumental" to "highly original." Listed as opus 65, the sixty-six fantasias were composed between 1908 to 1910. Organist and Karg-Elert biographer Wolfgang Stockmeier has said that "the 66 Chorale-Improvisations brought an end to more than a hundred years of dormancy of what lapsed into an uniteresting genre." Many consider Karg-Elert as having attained the apex of contrapuntism when he breathed new life into the old organ-chorale, essentially updating the form that found expression in the works of J. S. Bach, Sweelinck, Praetorius, and others.

Around the time Karg-Elert had been working on his Chorale-Improvisations, the composer was in the midst of composing an entire repertoire for the harmonium d'art (or kunstharmonium), for which over a hundred pieces for the instrument may be attributed to him. Other works of the same period include the Sonata in A, Op. 71 for cello and piano; Gedichte, Op. 63—a collection of songs; and Sequenz No. 1 for organ. By the time Karg-Elert began work on the Chorale-Improvisations, he had decided to leave teaching so that he could devote all of his energy to composition. A meeting with Max Reger encouraged Karg-Elert to write for the organ, and to transcribe some of his harmonium works for organ.

As a musical form, the chorale is distinctly a product of the German Protestant Baroque era, and may be traced to Martin Luther (1483-1546). To a large extent, Luther's reform movement took music seriously, and the development of a repertoire of singable melodies (chorales) occupied the thoughts of many composers. Many of these hymns or chorales were also given a polyphonic setting, excluding congregational participation. Therefore, from the earliest days of the Reformation, composers took chorale melodies as the basis for larger and more complex works, resulting in cantatas, oratorios, and even improvisations.

Typical of Karg-Elert's creative method was the simultaneous following of a time-honored tradition and its subsequent innovation. Like the redefination of the canzone and partita, his idea of the organ-chorale was shaped and developed to include these ingenious chorale fantasias. Here, the composer aptly demonstrates his skill in the art of polyphonic writing, or Baroque musical practices, and displays his deep understanding of the organ proper.

The genius that is Karg-Elert's shines forth, in these, his miniture masterpieces for the organ.

© Franklin Stover, Rovi