BIOS Reporter – Volume 35, No.3 – July 2011

The chapel of Cranleigh School has recently been graced with a brand-new Mander organ built to a very high specification, both tonally and technologically. It was against the backdrop of this fine instrument, during a recent IBO meeting, that I was given the somewhat daunting task of extending some thoughts on the provision of organs in state schools that first appeared in a BIOS column in Organists’ Review. The rarity of pipe organs in state schools, combined with the fact that more than 90% of children receive their education in that sector, means that not only are most children less likely to think of playing the organ but that they also are much less likely to see and hear an organ in the flesh than their contemporaries in the private sector. It seems, therefore, that one of the tasks that we have before us is to take the organ and its music out into the wider world if we are to interest a new generation of builders, players and listeners. Over an excellent lunch at the IBO meeting I was fascinated to hear from John Mander of a group of musicians who tour around schools in Japan introducing the organ to primary school children in a very imaginative way that makes use of traditional role of the flute in Japanese music. Soon after, I came across a novel scheme organised by the German organbuilders Freiburger Orgelbau, in which ‘Kinder-Orgel-Clubs’ (Children’s Organ Clubs) can visit workshops to see organs being built as well as attending organ concerts (see www.freiburgerorgelbau.de/kinderclub.php?neue=1 for more details). Nearer home, the Derbyshire and District Organists’ Association (DDOA) has been running a well coordinated scheme for a few years in which a team of organ-builders and organists visit schools. A tiny demonstration organ built by Derby organ-builder Ed Stow allows children to see the inner workings of the action as well as hearing the combined sounds of various pipes (more details in a recent DDOA newsletter available at www.derbyorganists.co.uk). Just as politicians have learned to take nothing for granted, as exemplified by the adage ‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’, then perhaps we in the organ world should take as our clarion call ‘the price of our interest in organs is eternal outreach’…