BIOS publishes a quarterly Reporter newsletter and magazine and a yearly Journal. Both contain articles on organ history, the Journal hoping to attract mature studies, the Reporter offering a place for exposure of interim or conjectural work.
The Journal archive is available under the ‘Resources’ tab but only to BIOS members. For technical reasons, four editions of the Reporter are not yet available through the website but work is ongoing to fill these gaps.
If you are looking for uses of a particular word, the BIOS guide to ‘searching by keyword‘ may be helpful.
BIOS Reporter – Volume 4, No.1 – January 1980
“Small is beautiful” is one of those ugly, ungrammatical phrases – a piece of advertising jargon – which has wormed its way into contemporary parlance. It’s an irritating little phrase, which is far too neat to be (entirely) true, but it is devilishly clever too, for it sticks in the memory and cannot be cast out. Its author used it… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 3, No.2 – April 1979
We are most grateful to those members of BIOS who responded to the appeal in the last issue of this journal for offers of help with its production. By the time the next issue of the Reporter appears (on time, we hope) we should have embarked on a new system of production and mailing which will ease the burden upon… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 3, No.1 – January 1979
It is with some (understandable) pride that we embark upon the third volume of the BIOS Reporter. Following last year’s precedent, we feel that this may not be an unsuitable moment to look both backwards and forwards, to see how BIOS has progressed, and how it may be progress in the future… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 2, No.4 – October 1978
The faculty of hearing is one which we tend to take for granted. Not simply, that is, in the sense that we do not appreciate it until deprived of it, but also, in the sense that we frequently fail to make proper use of it. A person who is used to the noise and bustle of the city can learn… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 2, No.3 – July 1978
This issue of the Reporter has turned out to be rather dominated by William Hill. Ho doubt this reveals something about the Editor’s tastes, but it also underlines Hill’s central importance in the history of English organ building. Perhaps we may venture – without any wish to tread on the Reverend B.B.Edmonds’ toes – to say a little about this… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 2, No.2 – April 1978
Central to the Aims of BIOS is the need to preserve the best examples of British organ building. They are the material sources for the appreciation of the art of the British schools of organ building; without them, we should be unable to form a complete impression of the British tradition of organ composition and performance; as works of art… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 2, No.1 – January 1978
Some of the longer-standing members of BIOS may recall a sentence from our original manifesto: “The committee does not intend to strive for a large membership”. What was meant by this was that sheer head-counting should not be a preoccupation; the Foundation Committee hoped that those who joined the society would be prepared to take an active part in its… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 1, No.4 – October 1977
This editorial will close our remarks (for the time being) upon the subject of the Church of England diocesan advisory service. Having mentioned some of the problems of the system in our April issue, we went on to consider a striking example of the penalties which those who infringe the faculty jurisdiction in respect of organs might well incur were… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 1, No.3 – July 1977
In our last issue we commenced a discussion of the working of the Faculty procedure in the Church of England as it affects work on organs. Despite deficiencies in the system (upon some of which we commented) a recent Judgement in the court of the Chancellor of Southwark diocese has encouraged us to hope that matters are improving… read more
BIOS Reporter – Volume 1, No.2 – April 1977
One of the matters of crucial importance to those of us concerned with the preservation of the best British organs and the promotion of standardsof excellence in modern organ building in this country is the functioning of the faculty procedures within the Church of England. There are significant historic organs in the chapels of the Free Churches; there are others… read more
