Author: Matt Dixon

Fortuitously this issue contains references to the preservation and restoration of historic English organs, some of them in Australia. This is a happy chance, for it already seemed that it would be a good idea to devote the Editorial to the same subject…

Our understanding of organ building and culture in Britain in the nineteenth century still largely rests on a view, cultivated in the early twentieth century, that Willis was the most important pioneer and the true precursor of the style adopted by following generations. This is by no means false, but it is an approach to…

At the time this issue of the Reporter was going to press, BIOS was about to hold a day conference at Reading University in collaboration with the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders and the Federation of Master Organ Builders. This will have been the first occasion of any kind at which BIOS has met these…

The Diocese of Leicester has drawn up a policy document covering ‘the restoration of organs of historic significance’. It was put together by the Organ Advisers and this final version was edited by the Bishop of Leicester: “The instrument should be returned completely to one of its historical states, though not necessarily its original state.…

In the April Reporter I suggested that a wide-ranging appreciation of different styles of organ building would limit the amount of ill-considered meddling with old organs that still passes as ‘improvement’. Only if we can understand the thinking that went into the design of an instrument will it release its full musical potential; once this…

This month will find the International Congress of Organists in residence in Cambridge; it is a rare pleasure to see such a concentration of organ-playing talent in this country, and an honour for BIOS to be one of the organisations jointly hosting this ten-yearly event. The programme for the congress looks fascinating, and there can…

Why is it that a country like Holland has so many fine old organs? Certainly many other European countries have lost instruments through accidents of history – war, revolution or religious upheaval. But, as one is forced to admit when looking at the relatively scarce survivals from before 1850 in this country, changes is fashion…

Most of us have mixed feelings about the arrival of new organs in this country from abroad; the best are instruments of outstanding quality, and their influence, both musical and on our own organ-building industry, is often beneficial. The less good examples – and there certainly are some – make a negative contribution. Interest in…

The wind of change blowing through the administration of BIOS is still with us. It originally arose on the retirement of our former Chairman and last year reached the office of Treasurer. We were however fortunate then in obtaining the services and experience of Richard Hird in place of John Bowles who had made such…

One further issue of the Reporter and we shall have completed ten volumes. The first began to appear in January 1977, but the conception dates back a little further, to the inaugural meeting of BIOS in Cambridge the previous year. So, the Reporter is virtually ten years old: and, after ten years in the chair,…