Keyboard Resource Guide

In this fascinating investigation, Peter Williams considers where the organ was placed and why; what the instrument was like in 800, 1000, 1200 and 1400; what music was played, and how. He re-examines the known references before 1300, covering such areas as the history of technology, music theory, art history, architecture, and church and political history. Central to the story he uncovers is the liveliness of European monasticism around 1000 AD and the ability and imagination of the Benedictine reformers.

This historical book surveys, analyzes, and discusses the major national styles of 17th century European organ music. Due to the extraordinarily extensive body of literature produced during this 100-year period, this text includes 350 musical examples to illustrate the various styles. The book also includes brief discussions of the various national styles of organ building, an appendix about the various notational methods used in the 17th century.

An interdisciplinary approach to modern organs constructed according to the classical organbuilding principles of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Examined are the elements of the classical organ (both functional--the tonal, wind and control systems--and structural, the similarities and differences among organs), the nature and behavior of the classical organ that follow, and the implications for the organists.

Also available online.
James E. Frazier traces Duruflé's musical training, his studies with Tournemire and Vierne, and his career as an organist, church musician, composer, recitalist, Conservatoire professor, and orchestral musician. Drawing on the accounts of those who knew Duruflé personally as well as on Frazier's own detailed research, Maurice Duruflé offers a broad sketch of this modest and elusive man, widely recognized today for having created some of the greatest works in the organ repertory -- and the masterful Requiem.

Also available online.
Widor is considered one of the greatest organists of his time, a prolific composer in nearly every genre, professor of organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory, academician and administrator at the Institute of France, journalist, conductor, music editor, scholar, correspondent, inspired visionary, and man of deep culture. An appendix constitutes the most complete listing ever compiled of Widor's oeuvre.

May 1986 is the century of Dupre's birth. This splendid biography of a master musician, organist of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, 1934-71, is an excellent resource. The discography and catalog of works sum up Dupre's international career as performing artist (over 700 recitals in the US), composer, editor, teacher, and director of the organ department of the Paris Conservatorie (1926-54).

This engaging book discusses the colorful personalities and beloved music of the French romantic organist-composers. Michael Murray draws vivid portraits of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811-1899), the greatest and most influential organ builder of his time, and of seven other musicians with connections to Cavaillé-Coll and to one another: Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921), César Franck (1822-1890), Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937), Louis Vierne (1870-1937), Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), Jean Langlais (1907-1991), and Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).

Described by his teacher Marcel Dupré as "a phenomenon without equal in the history of the contemporary organ," Pierre Cochereau is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest French organists. This book tells, for the first time, the full story of his extraordinary life and glittering, worldwide career. Biographer Anthony Hammond draws from a variety of of prominent primary sources, notably Marcel Dupré's papers in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, but also from Cochereau's surviving family and friends, and uses recordings and previously overlooked archive films in the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, France to construct this definitive account and critical appraisal of one of France's most distinguished organists.

Official journal of the American Guild of Organists and the Royal Canadian College of Organists. Official magazine of the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America.

"An international monthly devoted to the organ, the harpsichord and church music."
Includes music.

"A quarterly review for its makers, its players and its lovers."

Handbook for 1983 covers joint convention of the Organ Historical Society and the Regional Convention of the American Guild of Organists.