The Organ Historical Society publishes books, a quarterly journal, an annual study of organs by locale, and also produces sound recordings on CD. Upon creation of the Society in 1956, publication of the quarterly journal began, with the annual study of organs by locale beginning shortly thereafter in connection with the Society's annual convention. The first book was published in 1984. |
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| Two organs built by the Fleming Gilles Brebos are documented in a surviving manuscript of the 16-th century, which contains details about their specifications, appearance and use. This book is a facsimile and translation of the manuscript, as well as an analysis of its importance and contents. | |
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| Celebrating the founding of The Organ Historical Society fifty years ago (our 50th year begins in the Summer of 2006), the OHS Press publishes an eclectic collection of essays in honor of Barbara Owen who is one of the Society’s founders who has served twice as its President. This hardbound book of 409 pages and 68 illustrations includes original writings in English by fifteen scholars of the organ. Click the headline for authors and titles of the essays, further description, and to order. | |
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| The Austin Organ Company reopened for business on Thursday, May 5, 2005, after having closed its doors on Monday, March 7, 2005. What was thought to have been an end to more than a century of organbuilding may now be the herald of a new beginning! This book published by OHS chronicles the firm through 1999. More than the history of one firm, this book is a history of the American organ in the 20th century! writes historian Barbara Owen. In 640 lavishly illustrated pages, author Orpha Ochse writes the first complete history of 20th-century America's premier organbuilder to "carriage trade" churches and institutions. Scores of major musicians had an Austin organ central in their creative lives, including Leo Sowerby and Edwin Lemare. The genius and innovation of John and Basil Austin are examined along with other key organ builders and examples of organs in each decade of the firm's existence. Austin’s great municipal organs of the 1910s and 1920s, exuberant expressions of civic pride, still thrill audiences with majestic tuttis, and rainbows of contrasting tone colors and are carefully discussed. Click to read a further description. | |
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| Chronicles the organs and the history of the area visited by the Fiftieth Anniversary Convention of the Organ Historical Society. | |
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| Published 4-times a year by OHS since 1956 as the nation's only journal dedicated to its organ history, back issues are available for $5 each; entire whole volumes with four issues in each volume are $18 each. An index is available for $7.50. Also click here for subscription information. | |
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| Latest Editions feature organs in Buffalo, South Central Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Boston, Montreal, and Denver. Published annually by OHS in conjuction with its national conventions, the Organ Handbook surveys historic organs in various geographical locations. Included are stoplists, photographs, recital programs, and historical information for up to three dozen organs per issue. Select from 28 editions. | |
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| Murray M. Harris returned in 1894 from his Boston apprenticeship with organbuilder George S. Hutchings to a booming Los Angeles where only eight pipe organs existed. Six years later, Los Angeles would have 154 churches in it and scores of new pipe organs, many of them built by Harris and Henry C. Fletcher became business partners and founded the city’s first organbuilding firm, Fletcher & Harris. From this beginning more than 100 organs were built by 1913, including the world’s largest for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and that would become Philadelphia’s famous Wanamaker Organ. David Lennox Smith (d. 1979) carefully gathered the history of Harris and his contemporaries and Orpha Ochse has updated Smith’s research with the help of colleagues Jack Bethards, Kevin Gilchrist, Jim Lewis, and Manuel Rosales to include an annotated opus list, listings of organbuilders from the Los Angeles City Directories, many stoplists and photographs, and technical details. 344 pages, hardbound | |
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| American organist and composer Eugene Thayer (1838-1889) inaugurated in 1874 a newspaper exclusively for organists – the first such publication in America and the forerunner to The Diapason, The American Organist, and The Tracker. Each issue contains commentary, reports and stoplists of specific organs in the U. S. and abroad, historical accounts, articles, and compositions for the organ by Thayer (28 pieces), Liszt, Rossini, Chadwick, Merkel, Guilmant, Lemmens, Hesse, Battmann, and many others. In 1877, Thayer published all of the issues as a set containing 242 pages, and a facsimile of that is what the Organ Historical Society has published anew, as a hardbound book with a very informative biographical introduction. Click the headline for more information and to order. | |
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| Published by OHS! . . . welcome this extensively researched and highly readable portrait of the organ's most enthusiastic and prominent proponent of the early part of the last century. reviews James Hartman in The Diapason, June 2001. American-born organ virtuoso Clarence Eddy pursued and developed an international career, living in Chicago and Paris for much of his life, playing frequently and enlarging his influence through teaching, writing, consulting on organs, and composing organ works. This fascinating American figure enjoyed a substantial career in Europe. This first major biography brings light to a brilliant figure and a founder of the American Guild of Organists. | |
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| Complied & Annotated by Allen Kinzey & Sand Lawn. This annotated list of organs built by the Skinner Organ Co., Aeolian-Skinner, and by E. M. Skinner after his disassociation with Aeolian-Skinner is now updated to September 1997. This enlarged Second Edition adds for each organ the number of stops, ranks, registers and pipes, new data gathered since the first publication of this work in 1992, and two new sections: organs built by Aeolian and subsequently moved or altered by Aeolian-Skinner and a sampling of repairs and modifications made by the firm. The organs are listed by opus number and by city and state. Enlarged to 264 pages, softbound. | |
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| BY FAR THE MOST POPULAR book about an organbuilder, this book reveals the personal life, the professional triumphs and defeats of this most original and influential of America’s organbuilders in the Twentieth Century. These 327 pages include a large collection of photographs from Ernest Skinner’s own camera and other sources and stoplists of 24 organs. Everyone devoted to the organ and its music will be fascinated. Hardbound | |
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| Writes Haig Mardirosian in the The American Organist, ‘‘For those of us who first opened their ears upon the sonic splendors of the organ in the Harrison era . . . Charles Callahan’s compilation of primary documents will not only serve to transport us back to our sweet youths, but to clarify and put into mature perspective much of the muddled memories and mistaken impressions . . .’’ The forces acting on the 20th-century American organ are revealed in more than 300 energetic and detailed letters written 1924-1958 by G. Donald Harrison, Henry Willis III, organ theorist Sen. Emerson Richards, and many others. Theirs was an organ world increasingly dominated by Æolian-Skinner and its American Classic Organ. Observing the revolution in their own correspondence are E. M. Skinner and the principals of Austin, Estey, Möller, Kimball, Welte, Wurlitzer, Casavant, Wicks and famous organists and theorists. 557 pages, many stoplists and photographs, hardbound. | |
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| EDWARD HODGES came to America in 1838, steeped in the English traditions and church music. The book traces Hodges’ introduction of this tradition in New York City at Trinity Church, Wall Street, affecting most denominations ever since. Hodges’ consultations on organs in England are detailed, as is his work with Henry Erben to build in 1845 America’s largest organ. 254 pp., hardbound, illustrated, stoplists. | |
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| Obsessed with invention, Robert Hope-Jones struck a pathway that led to the fabulous Wurlitzer theatre organs. David Fox surveys Hope-Jones’ many careers: as a builder of church and cathedral organs in England, as an inventor of organ devices and pipes, as a church musician, and as the impetus for the name Wurlitzer to reign supreme as the most widely admired theatre organ. Included are stoplists of 103 organs built 1887-1911, a compiled opus list of 246 Hope-Jones organs, a list of 122 Hope-Jones employees, and illustrated discussions of the organ devices invented by Hope-Jones and patented in the United States and/or England. 300 pages, hardbound, many photographs. | |
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| Reproduced in facsimile, the opus lists published by the Boston firm of E. & G. G. Hook, then Hook & Hastings, comprise 2,384 organs built 1829 – 1935. In addition, the compiler has arranged all of the organs by city and state. Reproductions of promotional literature produced 1857–1927 includes 45 stoplists, 120 engravings and photographs, and discussions of the firm’s history, placement of an organ, selection of stops, tuning and maintenance, terms of purchase, sample contracts, residence organs, automatic players, types of action, etc. Hardbound, 333 pages, illustrated. The Choir of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Indianapolis | |
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| The most useful and comprehensive resource that an organ committee could hope to read | |
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| How to specify leather that will last for 40-60 years or more. Especially important information for the construction or repair, or rebuilding of an electropneumatic organ. | |
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| If you have ever wondered what a voicer actually does, this 39-page book will tell you. Originally printed in 1881, it includes a description of voicing tools; an explanation of the relationships among materials used in pipe construction, wind pressure, and pitch; how to voice and scale metal pipes in the principal and string families, voicing stopped and wood pipes, voicing and scaling pedal ranks, the treatment of reed stops, methods of tuning, the order in which to tune various ranks, and the setting of temperament. | |
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| Regional surveys feature 17 to 39 organs in multiple-CD sets at low prices. Choose from these regions: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Boston, Montréal, Colorado, Oregon, Philadelphia, Michigan, Connecticut, San Francisco, Baltimore, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Maine, and Louisville. Historic Organs of Chicago Historic Organs of Pennsylvania Historic Organs of North Carolina Historic Organs of Boston Historic Organs of Montréal Historic Organs of Portland 35 Pipe Organs in Oregon and Washington Historic Organs of Colorado Historic Organs of Philadelphia Historic Organs of Baltimore Historic Organs of Michigan Historic Organs of Connecticut Historic Organs of Maine Historic Organs of Milwaukee Historic Organs of New Orleans Historic Organs of San Francisco Historic Organs of Louisville | |
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