BIOS Reporter

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 […] read more

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 […] read more

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 […] read more

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, […] read more

Our plans to launch an Endowment Fund for BIOS have met with a ready and generous response from our members, and for this, the Council is most grateful. The initial results will be announced at the official launching of the appeal at St James, Clerkenwell, on May 24th, and we trust that many members will […] read more

We must begin with an apology to BIOS members for the failure of the October 1985 issue of the Reporter to appear. This was due to a combination of family circumstances and professional commitments on the part of the editor, who is also responsible for the typing of the journal. Whatever the reasons, the non-appearance […] read more

The arrival recently of the third annual issue of The Organbuilder prompted various reflections, and as (we think) this journal has never been noticed in these pages before, it will perhaps be appropriate to mention some of them. The Organbuilder is described as ‘a journal for the Organ building trade’. It has as its ‘patrons’ […] read more

When in September 1982 the society honoured me by electing me to the office of Chairman I set myself a programme of activity designed to build on the firm foundations laid by my worthy predecessor. I remember describing this programme as encompassing a policy of coordination and consolidation, together with an effort to provide a […] read more

Our last Editorial ended with a paragraph alluding to the unprecedented number of civic concert organs threatened with redundancy and possible destruction. Such instruments are a great anxiety to us: with one or two noble exceptions t hese organs are grossly under-used, and they suffer from being housed in old civic halls which have no […] read more

This must be an editorial in two parts. First, to conclude our remarks on the Report of the Faculty Jurisdiction Commission. What we had to say in our last issue was chiefly of a complementary nature – though we avoided the question of whether the precise proposals went far enough. This time, we will appear […] read more