The composer Max Reger is almost completely forgotten today. However, during his lifetime he was very well known in Germany. While he only lived for 43 years, he was extremely prolific, nearly reaching Op. 150 by the time of his death. His oeuvre is extremely diverse, ranging from simple piano miniatures to large scale organ works and everything in between. His organ music can be considered some of the greatest in the organ repertoire, even though it is regularly overlooked or ignored.
Reger wrote roughly 200 pieces for the organ, distinguishing him from other composers at the time who hardly wrote for the instrument. While many of these pieces are lengthy and very complicated, Reger also wrote many smaller pieces more accessible to new listeners and musicians. Among these is the Präludium in c moll, WoO VIII/6, a short prelude for organ consisting of only seven measures. This prelude, which was written in 1900, is sometimes referred to as the Limonadenpräludium due to a story in which Max Reger wrote the prelude in exchange for a lemonade. The piece itself begins with a series of chords played on the full organ, followed by an ascending sequence leading to a dense polyphonic section which makes up the remainder of the piece. The piece was finally typeset in 1943. Since then, the Präludium in c moll has remained very obscure, but it has been recorded several times recently. While this prelude stands alone, the manuscript has a short melody at the bottom of the page, suggesting that a fugue or contrasting section could follow.
This organ work was only recently rediscovered. It has since been published by the Reger-Werkausgabe and by G. Henle Verlag. However, the piece is not available online. For that reason, I decided to make my own edition of this piece, complete with a preface and critical notes. This edition consults the autograph manuscript and the first edition of 1943, and includes all of the extra writing present on the manuscript that is not part of the prelude itself. It is freely available online, and can be found by searching on IMSLP or by using this permalink.