Editing Max Reger (section)

== Works ==
{{Main|List of compositions by Max Reger}}
Reger produced an enormous output in just over 25 years, nearly always in abstract forms. His work was well known in Germany during his lifetime. Many of his works are [[fugue]]s or in [[Variation (music)|variation form]], including the ''[[Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart]]'' based on the opening theme of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart)|Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331]].

Reger wrote a large amount of music for [[organ (music)|organ]], the most popular being the ''Benedictus'' from the collection [[Max Reger works#59|Op. 59]]<ref>Anderson, Christopher S. 2013. ''Twentieth-Century Organ Music''. Routledge. p. 123. {{ISBN|0-203-14223-3}}</ref> and his ''Fantasy and Fugue on [[BACH motif|BACH]]'', [[Max Reger works#46|Op. 46]]. While a student under [[Hugo Riemann]] in [[Wiesbaden]], Reger had already met the German organist, [[Karl Straube]]; their association as colleagues and friends began in 1898, with Straube premiering many of Reger's organ works, such as the [[Three chorale fantasias, Op. 52]].

[[File:WelteMaxReger1913.jpg|thumb|Recording session with Max Reger for the [[Welte-Mignon|Welte]]-Philharmonic-Organ, 1913]]
Reger recorded some of his works on the [[Welte-Mignon|Welte Philharmonic organ]], including excerpts from [[52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67]]. He also composed various secular organ works, including the [[Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue]], Op. 127. It was dedicated to Straube, who gave its first performance in 1913 to inaugurate the [[Wilhelm Sauer]] organ at the opening of the [[Jahrhunderthalle, Breslau|Breslau Centennial Hall]].{{sfn|Mühle|2015}}{{sfn|Biography 1913|2016}}

Reger was particularly attracted to the fugal form and created music in almost every genre, save for [[opera]] and the [[symphony]] (he did, however, compose a [[Sinfonietta (symphony)|Sinfonietta]], his Op. 90). A similarly firm supporter of [[absolute music]], he saw himself as being part of the tradition of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] and [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]]. His work often combined the classical structures of these composers with the extended harmonies of [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]] and [[Richard Wagner|Wagner]], to which he added the complex [[counterpoint]] of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]. Reger's organ music, though also influenced by Liszt, was provoked by that tradition.

Some of the works for solo string instruments turn up often on recordings, though less regularly in recitals. His solo piano and two-piano music places him as a successor to Brahms in the central German tradition. He intensively pursued Brahms's continuous development and free [[modulation (music)|modulation]], whilst being rooted in Bach-influenced polyphony.

Reger was a prolific writer of vocal works, [[Lied]]er, works for mixed chorus, [[men's chorus]] and female chorus, and extended choral works with orchestra such as ''[[Der 100. Psalm]]'' and ''[[Requiem (Reger)|Requiem]]'', a setting of a poem by [[Christian Friedrich Hebbel|Friedrich Hebbel]], which Reger dedicated to the soldiers of World War I. He composed music to texts by poets such as [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]], [[Otto Julius Bierbaum]], [[Adelbert von Chamisso]], [[Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff|Joseph von Eichendorff]], [[Emanuel Geibel]], [[Christian Friedrich Hebbel|Friedrich Hebbel]], [[Nikolaus Lenau]], [[Detlev von Liliencron]], [[Friedrich Rückert]] and [[Ludwig Uhland]]. Reger assigned opus numbers to major works himself.{{sfn|Biography|2012}}

His works could be considered retrospective as they followed classical and baroque compositional techniques such as fugue and [[Figured bass#Basso continuo|continuo]]. The influence of the latter can be heard in his chamber works which are deeply reflective and unconventional.