BIOS Reporter

It seems inevitable that annual meetings are not the most popular events in the calendar of any society: BIOS is, in this respect, no exception. Add to this the fact that BIOS AGM’s normally happen in the course of the annual residential conference and this essential constitutional feature of our society’s life becomes remote from the experience of nine-tenths of… read more

When BIOS was founded, it was the intention that regular meetings of members would take place, usually in the form of day conferences. Not that these meetings were intended to be purely social: it was hoped that each event would have a theme, would give opportunity for discussion, and would have an educational object in mind. As things have worked… read more

It is always encouraging for an editor to know that something he has written has evoked (or even provoked) a response among his readership. Consequently, when a little flood of material descended on me following an appeal last year for contributions to the Reporter I was delighted. (Please don’t recline on your laurels, though: we have used up most of… read more

“Most of us believe in conservation until we have to live with the consequences of it”. So we concluded, our previous Editorial. It will serve as a text for this one. Organists are awful fidgets. They will not leave things alone. Most of us will learn to live with the shortcomings of a house or another person, but all too… read more

One of the cries which we sometimes hear from organ builders in these conservation-conscious days is “What about our artistic instincts? How are we to be ourselves if we are constantly tied to the practices and the tastes of the Past?” They have a point. The true organ builder (that is, one who is master of all aspects of the… read more

In the last issue of the Reporter I spent some time discussing the attitude of many church musicians to the ASB. This may not have seemed directly relevant to the work of BIOS, but, in fact, I would argue that it is. One of the broad aims of the society is to promote appreciation of the organ, and more than… read more

We understand that, despite the fire earlier this year, plans will go ahead for the reinstatement of the Willis organ in the Alexandra Palace. The Restoration Appeal launched in the Spring is to continue and work has already begun. Most of the organ’s interior had been removed from the Hall before the fire and damage to the organ was therefore… read more

Conservation is a growing preoccupation of Western Society. Two hundred years ago antiquaries pottered around the survivals of former ages with a detached enthusiasm which was regarded as merely quaint by many contemporaries. When engaging upon investigations, they not infrequently destroyed or marred the object of their study. A century later polemics began to replace curiosity. Survivals were not merely… read more

The great Marathon is over. Three hundred and fifty German organophiles are, we trust, safely on their way back to their native land, carrying with them a variety of impressions formed during their six-day stay in Oxford. What are those impressions?… read more

BIOS is grateful to Mr E.A.K. Ridley, of Barbican, London, for obtaining a microfilm (to be kept in the EOA at Keele) of the late Harry Shapley’s organ index, the original now being the property of the Horniman Museum in south London. Mr. Shapley, of Darwen, Lancashire, compiled a vast index of thousands of organs in Britain with their builders… read more