BIOS Reporter – Volume 27, No.1 – January 2003

We are familiar with the two traditional roles of the organ, one as a liturgical instrument, the other for concert use. The pair seems to be as old as the organ (if one can include the sounds made in the gladiatorial ring in association with various savage and bloody practices). Nobody can doubt the contribution the organ has made to musical life over many centuries in these dual roles; during the last hundred or so years, the organ’s contribution to music-making away from the metropolitan centres of Britain has been legion and invaluable, ranging from organ recitals to providing the accompaniment to choral societies and much else of value. There is now a distinct threat that much of this will be brought to an abrupt halt…