Oxford Service Music for Organ: Manuals and Pedals, Book 1

Excellent collection of mostly sight readable pieces ( grade 5 + ish.) covering a huge variety of styles. If you need a fill in piece of music you should have this available on your organ shelf. Very carefully selected pieces with the addition of suggested registrations. This takes some of the guesswork away. The majority of pieces can easily be played on a two manual instrument with a swell box for expression. If you have three manuals that makes playing some of the items even easier as you do not have to change registration mid way. There are quiet reflective pieces and a few which will raise the roof as they benefit from the use of the reed stops. I know I will be going back to this little book, over and over.Thirty three pieces to enjoy, some very short but these can easily be played again on a different registration or you can try transposition if you are brave. I look forward to getting hold of book three now and hope I can do them justice as wellSteve Robson - Dibden Purlieu

It looks very useful indeed - much new material in spite of already having just about all other (easy!) manuals only books already. The only reason for the lack of one star is nothing to do with the content, but the staples are very slightly misplaced meaning that it has to be dealt with severely to keep it open for use. (However, I can manage.)

Fantastic! Wish I had bought this earlier. As a pianist learning to become a church organist, this book is essential. Can't wait to get the others. So many pieces to work with, of all different lengths. I love it!

Useful book for church organists with limited ability on the pedals. The pedal parts are very simple often just a long pedal note.

This is a brilliant anthology of playable and attractive organ music with simple pedal parts, covering a wide range of periods and suitable for a wide range of occasions. Many of the pieces are difficult - or impossible - to find elsewhere. For more experienced organists, the pieces will be sight-readable; for the less-experienced, they will help to develop pedalling skills without being daunting. And at the price this is really excellent value.

I was a little disappointed to find how much of the music in here is a duplicate of material I already have, but with that caveat it does offer a good selection of sight-readable material, very useful in a crisis, and including a few composers I'd never heard of!

Quite a lot of the pieces are simple and short. More information as to content would have been helpful before buying. However, I think I would have bought it anyway as it is quite useful and easy to sight-read.

Highly accessible