Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) was a prolific composer in almost every field, but he found in the organ the medium best fitted to his genius and temperament. This seems to be proved by the fact that his reputation as an organ composer has grown and is now firmly established, whereas his position in other branches has declined.
His twenty sonatas and numerous other short pieces make up one of the most important contributions to the organ repertory. It may indeed be claimed that in the maintainance of a high level of quality and interest throughout a long series of works of both large and small scale, his position as an organ composer is second only to that of Bach.