by way of Craig R.

by way of Craig R. Whitney. Public Affairs works (250 W. 57th St., Ste 1321 just discovered York, NY 10107), 2003. 352 pp $30

When organists want to make a massive healthy the full organ, they chance out "all the stops," allowing virtually each pipe to speak. Craig R Whitney's engaging and informative volume is actually an ensemble of relatively hardly any stops, focused on a quartet of men whose personalities, musicianship and creativity affected the course of organ building and playing during the first three-quarters of the twentieth centenary He has set up his narrative as a pair of dueling duet The first is between the orchestral organ designer E M Skinner and his younger colleague, the English-influenced G Donald Harrison. The secondary concerns the extraordinary organists E Power Biggs, searching for a more authentic baroque performance, and the flamboyant Virgil Fox who slipped to such a degree far into heresy as to embark in succession "Heavy Organ" tours with electronic organs and light events Many other "stops" are plucked and pushed throughout the chapters, as scores of other builders, musicians, philanthropists, composer critics, family and friends are introduced, occasionally in any depth, but Whitney devotes the main part of the main division to these four men.

Whitney places his drama as a contest for the "soul" of the organ. Nowadays, many might shrug and say, "Who cares?", if it were not that Whitney reminds us in the next to the first chapter that during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries the pipe organ was immensely popular. Famous organists drew throngs in the thousands, sometimes more than ten thousand, to the churches, concord halls, pavilions and even department stores with grand organs. Talented musicians accompanied the silent films forward the colorfully voiced theater organs installed in many movie houses. in such a manner while these pairs of conflicts in prospect do not rise to the flush of Brahms/Wagner or Stravinsky/ Schonberg, they certainly did influence a significant substream of American music.

While All the Stops is aimed primarily at organ enthusiasts, the main division has appeal to a broader audience. Whitney avoids technical jargon concerning the instrument. When the occasion requires a musical space of time not likely to be Familiar to the nonorganist, he explains it straightforwardly. The situations and actions of the main players have all the drama, passion and ridiculousness of real life, and Whitney readys them in a conversational and sometimes humorous tone. If a certain of his conclusions are debatable, for instance that the decline of the organ's appeal is a ensue of an internecine conflict between the purists and romanticists, or that there is now a resurgence in interest in the instrument, the main division is nevertheless a good read for those of us who have the advantage [i]or[/i] blessing of the organ and organ music. Reviewed by the agency of Benjamin Gryk, New Britain, Connecticut.

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