Between 1820 and 1870 a number of influences combined to bring about a radical transformation in the design and use of English organs. This important book provides a comprehensive survey of English organ building during those innovative fifty years in its history. It is richly illustrated with photographs and specially drawn diagrams and contains an invaluable appendix of organ specifications. This is a documentary source book and history that will be indispensable for all those, professionals or amateurs, that have an interest in the organ.

This important 1990 book provides a comprehensive survey of English organ building during the most innovative fifty years in its history. Between 1820 and 1870 a number of influences combined to bring about a radical transformation in the design and use of English organs. Thistlethwaite considers most of the major church, cathedral and concert organs built during this period and the work of individual builders is discussed, especially that of William Hill, whose career forms a linking thread to the narrative. The book contains valuable sections dealing with business organisation and workshops, the provision of organs in churches and chapels, and questions of performance practice. It is richly illustrated with photographs and specially drawn diagrams and includes an invaluable appendix of organ specifications. This documentary source book and history is indispensable for all those, professionals or amateurs, who have an interest in the organ.

This Companion is an essential guide to all aspects of the organ and its music. The early chapters examine the instrument's history and construction, and consider the scientific basis of its sounds, pitch and tuning. Central chapters investigate the practical art of learning and playing, and introduce the complex area of performance practice, while the final section explores the vast repertoire of organ music, by country, focusing on a selection of the most important traditions. The contributors are all experts in their field, making this the most authoritative reference book currently available.

The London firm of Gray (later Gray & Davison) was one of Britain's leading organ-makers between the 1790s and the 1880s. Established for the building of keyboard instruments, by the mid-1790s the workshop of brothers Robert and William Gray had become one of the leading organ-makers in London, with instruments in St Paul's, Covent Garden and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Under William's son John Gray, the firm built some of the largest English organs of the 1820s and 1830s, as well as exporting major instruments to Boston and Charleston in the United States. In the early 1840s, with the marriage of John Gray's daughter to Frederick Davison - a member of the circle of Bach-enthusiasts around the composer Samuel Wesley - the firm became 'Gray & Davison'. Davison was a progressive figure who reformed workshop practices, commissioned a purpose-built organ factory in Euston Road and opened a branch workshop in Liverpool to exploit the booming market for church organs in Lancashire and the north-west. Under Davison's management,the firm was responsible for significant mechanical and musical innovations, especially in the design of concert organs. Instruments such as those built in the 1850s for Glasgow City Hall, the Crystal Palace and Leeds Town Hall were heavily influenced by contemporary French practice; they were designed to perform a repertoire dominated by orchestral transcriptions. Many of the instruments made by the firm have been lost or altered; but the surviving organs in St Anne, Limehouse (1851), Usk Parish Church (1861) and Clumber Chapel (1889) testify to the quality and importance of Gray & Davison's work. This book charts the firm's history from its foundation in 1772 to Frederick Davison's death in 1889. At the same time, it describes changes in musical taste and liturgical use and explores such topics as provincial music festivals, the town hall organ, domestic music-making and popular entertainment, the building of churches and the impact on church music of the Evangelical and Tractarian movements. It will appeal to organ aficionados interested in the evolution of the English organ in the later Georgian and Victorian eras, as well as other music scholars and cultural historians.