BIOS Reporter – Volume 16, No.2 – April 1992

It is easy to be pessimistic about the future of the organ as a living musical instrument. With the world-wide decline in church attendance and the influence of religion on the daily lives of the majority, there are fewer and fewer composers for whom the organ is a central part of their work. The recent death of Olivier Messiaen has taken from us one of this century’s most creative sacred thinkers. Is our repertoire not increasingly one of music by dead composers? Even those once considered daring and modem now lie in the immediate past. Are there young writers coming forward to replace them? The revival of early music has extended the repertoire significantly in one direction, but is the creation of new music balancing this gain in the other direction?…