Author: Matt Dixon

Manfred Bukofzer’s description of the latter half of nineteenth-century music, quoted in January’s editorial, has attracted some comment, particularly with regard to exaggeration. It would be easy to list organs from the period which meet this description, but there is some danger in doing this without referring to contemporary musical events…

The organ as a machine has fascinated its students and builders sometimes to the extent of blinding them to its function as a musical instrument. For example, the latter half of the nineteenth century saw a general concern over the tierce rank in mixtures and which was expressed by Hopkins and Rimbault; while not proscribing…

Those around Bernard Edmonds have for some time been encouraging him to relax a little and to adopt a less demanding role in the world of organ scholarship, and at the end of May, only a few weeks after his ninety-first birthday, he wrote to me, announcing his retirement and giving notice that the ‘Notes…

BIOS members have laboured for twenty-five years to improve the status and lot of British organs; all too often their efforts have been rewarded by official indifference, ignorance and even hostility, with the demolition men hovering like vultures over valuable instruments. There has been some progress, the occasional organ case being listed for its artistic…

The question of suitability is not one to be dismissed summarily. It can lead to regrettable results when misconceived notions are applied, as in the so-called ‘Bach organs’ of forty or so years ago. A blunt approach leads to the all-purpose organ allegedly able to play everything in the repertoire; if it were a car,…

In this twenty-fifth anniversary year of the founding of BIOS and the publication of the Reporter, it was felt appropriate to hand the Editorial to the Chairman, Professor Peter Williams, and to a former editor of the Reporter, Stephen Bicknell…

The concept of authentic performance is a veritable minefield, whether it be of the music of J.S. Bach in this anniversary year, or of any other composer. Committing to paper ideas on authentic performance is to invite contradiction, a fate which inevitably befell the editorial in the July issue. One member pointed out somewhat irately…

Those of us who studied assiduously the chorales of J.S. Bach for Advanced Level Music will be aware of Bach’s predilection for organising his chords so that each one is the dominant of the next, producing a drive towards the cadence. The simplicity of the procedure is its strength, with a consequent sure-footedness and finality…

Elsewhere in this issue we report on the conference recently held at Reading and which gave pride of place to the recently restored Town Hall organ. The restoration is a milestone in that, apparently unfettered by financial considerations, a serious attempt has been made to evaluate the significance of this instrument and to do justice…

What is a British organ? A simplistic answer is that it is one conceived and made in the British Isles, within certain limitations as to stop nomenclature, chorus design and so on, although that definition immediately stumbles over the neo-baroque efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, and the political position of Ireland. Organ literature is…