BIOS Reporter – Volume 5, No.2 – April 1981

In the last issue of the Reporter I spent some time discussing the attitude of many church musicians to the ASB. This may not have seemed directly relevant to the work of BIOS, but, in fact, I would argue that it is. One of the broad aims of the society is to promote appreciation of the organ, and more than that, to persuade church authorities that an organ is not a liability, but an asset. In the majority of churches (i.e. those which do not possess a genuinely historic instrument which merits preservation irrespective of its contemporary appropriateness to the liturgy) this means demonstrating to those who are largely uninformed on these matters that the organ is a necessary and appropriate accompaniment to the liturgy. Inevitably, “appropriate” implies that the organ is carefully thought-out to meet the musical needs of worship as efficiently and economically as possible…