The Village Organist

"The Village Organist: a series of pieces for church and general use" was a sequence of books of organ music published by Novello and Co between 1870 and 1907.

Rector of St Nicholas church, North Coates, Great Grimsby [1826–1910[1]] [...] Here are voluntaries by Professors Bennett and Ousley, Drs.

A second "and concluding volume",[3] also edited by T. R. Matthews, was published by Novello in 1872, issued in aid of the St Nicholas North Coates church organ fund.

[3] It was favourably reviewed in The Musical Times of 1 August 1872 as a collection that "pleasantly exemplifies the present state of musicianship in England, and will be found valuable for practical use where short voluntaries are needed, in towns as much as in villages".

The editors were John Stainer and F. Cunnigham Woods, who noted that they "have eneavoured to bring together a collection of pieces ... simple, without being uninteresting and effective where the instrumental resources are limited".