BIOS Reporter – Volume 7, No.3 – July 1983

Why do musicians and the musical public still spurn the organ ? For spurn it, they (largely) do.

There are, of course, exceptions. This summer, in the great tourist centres, there will be series of organ recitals which are very well attended: at Westminster Abbey, in the Oxford and Cambridge college chapels, and so on. Many of those who attend these recitals will be people who are not in the habit of concert going. They will be making an annual expedition on the tourist trail, and will hear a largely unfamiliar instrument play completely unfamiliar music. In much the same way, evensong at King’s College Chapel is packed, day after day, with visitors for whom Anglican choral evensong and church-going in general are (and will continue to be) novel experiences. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Rather like the weekly organ recitals in the Victorian town halls, these occasions broaden taste, widen experience; they provide opportunities which would not otherwise arise…