My initial reaction when asked to review a publication on improvisation concerned the large quantity of material on the subject that already exists: Overduin himself mentions eleven books, twenty articles, a commercially-available video master-class by Harald Vogler and two cassette tapes entitled Practicum on Service Playing and Improvisation by Paul Manz.

The optimistic Preface and Introduction ("Do not fear mistakes. There are none") contain much commonsense and illustrate the author's long experience as a teacher, and this approach should certainly encourage the timid or inexperienced reader. However, there are some anomalies in the order in which the material to be studied is presented. For example, the chapter headed "Harmonizing Scales and Melodies (1)" comes on Page 90 as Chapter 13 after Assignments dealing with "Harmonizing Melodies", " Improvising Hymns/Songs" and Binary Form. Dupré (and many others) make the ability to harmonise scales in any voice part from the bass up a prerequisite of free improvisation, which I would use as my own starting point. Similarly, Chapter 20, "Harmonizing Scales and Melodies (2)" is placed later than the sections dealing with the Chaconne (Chapter 15), the Passacaglia (Chapter l6), Ornamenting Melodies (Chapters 17 & 18) and Modulation (Chapter 19). However, the reader has always the option in which order s/he wishes to study the various sections and certainly there is no denying that all the advice offered throughout the book is sound. Chapter 32 ("Hymn - Anthems") is a mightily effective outline as to how to improvise introductions and interludes for congregational hymns, an interesting procedure that I have not seen discussed elsewhere. I found also that the comments on Jean Langlais as teacher (Overduin studied with Langlais in 1970-71) quite interesting, if somewhat removed from the 'mainstream' thematic flow of the remainder of the text.

Certainly, this treatise has much to commend it. It is down-to-earth, often witty and invariably encouraging. British readers may find the Hymn-tune examples somewhat difficult to unearth since not many will be familiar with the Lutheran Book of Worship, the Psalter Hymnal, Voices United or Hymnal - A Worship Book. However, this is a matter for the reader to resolve since examples of a similar and more accessible nature can be substituted.

On a more practical level, the book is printed beautifully (as is to be expected from OUP) and a (generous) spiral binding makes it easy to handle on the organ music desk - there are few things more irritating than books which will not stay open on those infuriating modern music desks with no grips. Also the majority (though not all) of the musical examples do not necessitate a 'turnover', which means that the thought process is not usually interrupted when attempting one of the assignments - although the length of some examples necessitates a two-page layout.

Overall, Improvisation for Organists creates a very favourable impression, and, if used intelligently and effectively, would certainly be a useful addition to the library of any organist.

Ronald Frost