This collection of essays discusses all aspects of the organ and its music. Early chapters tell of the instrument�s history and construction. Central chapters investigate the practical art of learning and playing the organ and discuss the thorny area of performance practice. The final section explores the vast repertoire of organ music by period and style. The essays, all newly commissioned, are written by experts in their fields, including the editors, Stephen Bicknell, John Mainstone, Christopher Kent, Kimberly Marshall, Edward Higginbottom, Christopher Stembridge, James Dalton, Geoffrey Cost, Patrick Russill, David Yearsley, Graham Barber, Gerard Brooks, Andrew McCrea, and Douglas Reed. A thorough review appears in The American Organist, October, 1999, page 76. Writes James Wallmann therein, "For scholarly yet accessible surveys of the major schools of organ music, [this book] stands alone." The reviewer writes that the authors achieve a lofty goal as stated in the frontmatter, ". . . so that even if the modern player is unable to play a particular piece on the most appropriate type of organ, he or she will be able to understand to a fair extent the music as it was conceived for a particular school of organ design and thus be able to reinterpret it as requried on the instrument available." A must for organ students, old and new! 340 pp., 39 illustrations. |