All the Stops: The Glorious Pipe Organ and Its American Masters

I received this book as a Christmas present this past year. It didn't take me long to read it from cover to cover! Whitney provides a great history of the pipe organ from E.M. Skinner's era up through today, including two very informational biographies of both E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox, the organ showmen of the 20th century.I would highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the pipe organ. Whitney has a very easy writing style to read, often incorporating definitions of the organ terms he uses as he goes along. He also includes a glossary of other terms at the end for further clarification. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!And just as an end note, I believe that those who review books online (such as Bob Myers, July 14 2003, below) should remember that this is a chance to voice OPINIONS. Nobody can judge an opinion, such as his statement that this book is "boring." But it would be much more accurate for him to state that this book is, in HIS opinion, boring... rather than possibly giving someone who would very much enjoy this book the wrong idea before they even read it.

As Whitney quotes one expert, organists are an odd lot for musicians: They often work out of sight, and almost never show much interest in other classical music. So I doubt this book will become a mainstream best-seller, but it has much to recommend it.Whitney manages to combine a history of the pipe organ in America, especially its flourishing from about 1925 to 1975 with the personalities of the builders (Skinner, Harrison and Fisk) and two performers who defined the age. Patrician, starchy E. Power Biggs (b. 1906) who came to represent the "back to basics" German school of playing, and the flamboyant Virgil Fox (b. 1912) who promoted the romantic orchestral sound of the organ.There's just enough background to understand the different schools of organ building (North German, English, French and American Eclectic) without getting bogged down in stoplists. Whitney is a keen observer of the instruments and the politics, so this book ends up being a combination of artistic testament, business history and social commentary. Quite an achievement and nicely readable too! This would make a fine gift for any young organ player, and should be read by every church musician. It belongs in every school library too.

Craig R. Whitney, a superb writer (his "day job" with the N.Y. Times has included assignments as correspondent, foreign editor and now assistant managing editor) and an enthusiastic pipe organ expert (and, one would expect, performer as well) has written what I believe to be the authoritative book on the history of organs and organists in America. And he's written it so well that it can't fail to interest both pipe organ aficianados and the general public as well. There are two stories interwoven together here, set against the cultural milieu that gave rise to the popularity of pipe organs in America in the first third of the 20th century, then a slow decline in interest with the advent of alternative forms of entertainment ("talkies," the phonograph, and radio and television), and, quite recently, a renewed interest in the design and installation of new instruments and the preservation and restoration of older ones. The first story is that of the instrument itself, and of the people "who made it happen": the organ designers/builders who were central to the development of the pipe organ in America. Whitney singles out the three most influential 20th century practitioners - Edward M. Skinner, G. Donald Harrison and Charles B. Fisk - without ignoring the influences of either their domestic predecessors (George H. Ryder, E. & G.G. Hook) or their international competitors (Cavaillé-Coll, Casavant Frères, Flentrop, Ruffati). The efforts by these three, affecting the sounds of pipe organs in all sorts of installations (places of worship [obviously], but also concert halls, museums, theaters, and even retail stores and private residences), can be summarized as the search for "eclectic" organs, i.e., organs of sufficient versatility that they are "at home" playing music written for the instrument from virtually any historical period (and certainly from the baroque period of Bach, through the French romantic period, and on to the current repertoire). The organ part of the story leaves out nothing of importance, including changes in musical taste over time, and how that taste was affected by the instrument's practitioners and composers, as well as bankruptcies and mergers and acquisitions (the most famous of which was the joining of the E. M. Skinner Company with the Aeolian Company to form Aeolian-Skinner, perhaps the largest 20th century force in the industry). Whitney leaves us at a point in history - now - where eclectic organs utilizing both baroque-era tracker mechanisms and modern-day electropneumatic actions are largely the "norm" and where new instruments incorporating such hybrid features are finding their way back into the concert hall. The second story is that of the two instrumentalists who, over a period exceeding three decades, defined organ performance for most of us and who most directly affected organ design and performance style: E. Power Biggs and Virgil Fox. It is hard to imagine two people more different than Biggs and Fox, and

This book is the best thing to happen to the pipe organ since the Erzähler. "All the Stops" can be read by anyone that just enjoys classical music and serves as a thorough, enjoyable introduction to the King of Instruments. Organists will enjoy Craig's book as it brings together under one cover a well researched history of the American Pipe Organ. Every organ professor should make this book mandatory reading for their students! The United States has an organ history as rich as Europe's.Just buy all the stops.