The organ sonatas of Ebenezer Prout and Charles William Pearce are significant in the literature for their musical content but also their use of chorale/chant which was not typical of organ sonatas during this era.

Both composers were noted for their theoretical publications and each sonata demonstrates a practical approach to the instrument that would have been within the technical grasp of many contemporary organists. Noticeably, the degree of pedal independence is carefully gauged.

The Prout sonata has contrasting movements but within an overall cohesive style. The Pearce sonata marks a pronounced departure into the realm of word painting. Not only is there an extensive text explaining the composer’s rationale at the beginning but the score includes references to specific texts as the piece progresses. Whereas these two sonatas join the tradition of works that could be convincingly played on both medium and large instruments and allow for creativity in registration, they are also pieces that could serve in a concert programme.

These works continue the legacy of English organ sonatas that had an important pedagogical role jointly inherited from Mendelssohn’s very practical and popular approach to the instrument and the continued European legacy of the lesson-sonata tradition whereby in learning a piece you also learned the instrument and vice versa. They are both idiomatically written and musically rewarding pieces that are imbued with the undeniably English harmonic language of the era that was to remain popular for several decades to come.