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Nothing the Internet can offer gives the same feeling as a good book. The Library offers personal reviews of a selection of books on the pipe organ, most of which are currently available. Don't just stop there, though, as many public libraries have a selection of out of print books on the pipe organ, and you may find unexpected mysteries such as this letter.

Pencil drawing of a 16' Spillregal pipe, made by Maurice Forsyth-Grant on a visit to the Geisecke pipe-makers in 1964

Organ building and design

Poul-Gerhard Andersen, 1969, George Allen and Unwin Ltd

The Art of Organ-Building

George Ashdown Audsley, 1905, now reprinted by Dover

The History of the English Organ

Stephen Bicknell, 1996, Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge Companion to the Organ

edited by Nicholas Thistlethwaite and Geoffrey Webber, 1998, Cambridge University Press

Pipes and Actions

and other books by Laurence Elvin

Twenty-One Years of Organ-Building

Maurice Forsyth-Grant, 1987, Positif Press

The Organs of Britain

John Norman, 1984, David & Charles

The New Grove Organ

Barbara Owen and Peter Williams, 1988, Macmillan

The Organ

William Leslie Sumner, 1962 (3^rd edition), Macdonald

The Making of the Victorian Organ

Nicholas Thistlethwaite, 1990, Cambridge University Press

Journals and Magazines

There are also a number of journals and magazines dedicated to the pipe organ where all kinds of information can be found. In the United Kingdom, there are three main magazines. Choir and Organ is the most recently founded, with a dual focus evident from the title, and also has a number of American articles and adverts. The author of pipe-organs.net is also Web Editor of The Organ, a wide-ranging magazine about which no more will be said here to avoid charges of favouritism. The oldest magazine by a few years is Organists' Review, about half of which is dedicated to reviews, but which also has some interesting technical articles. Also published in the UK is the scholarly British Institute of Organ Studies Journal and the associated quarterly BIOS Reporter. Organbuilding is a recent publication of the Institute of British Organbuilding, and is both an annual summary of activity in the UK and a forum for technical articles.

Further afield, Het Orgel is a Dutch magazine, and the United States of America has a number of journals. The Organ Historical Society publishes The Tracker, the American Guild of Organists publishes The American Organist, and another magazine the author is familiar with is The Diapason. There are doubtless more magazines published in other countries, but these are mentioned here as a starting point for the curious. Many also offer international subscriptions.

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