THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH ORGAN Stephen Bicknell Cambridge University Press, 1999 ISBN: 0 521 65409 2 (paperback)/0 521 55026 2 (hardback) £17.95 US$47.50

On the face of things, the history of organ building in Britain seems less rich and varied than on the Continent. The rise of Puritanism and the Commonwealth saw many early English church instruments smashed beyond repair in an orgy of destruction from which reparation took a century and a half. Few builders constructed instruments of worth and, in a second pogrom that was initiated not by religious bigots but in the name of progress, yet more instruments were destroyed. Apart from one instrument in a private house in Cheshire, no complete organ of the seventeenth century exists; the remainder became incorporated into larger instruments with orchestral pretensions that, on the whole, were badly placed and, in the cases of many of the organ firms that sprang up during the century, were badly built. There were, of course, exceptions to the rule; 'Father' Henry Willis, for example, developed instruments in which pipework and action were superior to anything else available at that time, but even he owed a debt of gratitude to his French 'cousin' Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.

Stephen Bicknell's book The History of the English Organ tracks all of these details in an historical and useful account. This is the first publication that deals specifically with English instruments for over a quarter of a century, and, despite the plethora of articles that have appeared in print in such periodicals as the Journal of the British Institute of Organ Studies, The Diapason and The Organ, it is, on the whole, an accurate and illuminating book. However, little of what is said is original; in fact this is one of the main drawbacks of publications that, on the face of it seem scholarly, but which turn out to be little more than a conglomeration of others' researches and publications. Bicknell has said nothing new, and although bringing together a large quantity of source material, is only useful insofar that it quickens one's own researches. However, a book that deals with any specific subject for the first time in many years should at least contain a modicum of fresh information. But Bicknell has not returned to original source material for his research: rather than examine it in an attempt to find a new angle, which in the case of many early English manuscripts is often possible, he has quoted verbatim translations that have appeared elsewhere. Instead, original material comes in the form of observations made whilst examining individual instruments, a dangerous thing to do since a century and a half of dirt and the tinkering of myriad organ builders can take its toll on any instrument.

There is another aspect to this publication that gives cause for concern; Bicknell discards the Commonwealth in just a few sentences, basically dismissing the chamber organs of the period, instead concentrating almost solely on those of the church. Any scholar of seventeenth-century instrumental music will attest to the importance of the organ as a continuo instrument. There is no doubt that during the period 1645-1660 (not 1642 as Bicknell asserts), organ builders and technicians were active throughout the major centres of population, especially in London which, by 1650, had become a cosmopolitan centre for Continental musicians. Instead we are given an 'Interlude' that looks at the works of Dallam in France. Why, I am not certain. Imagine thinking of Handel as a German musician - we know that his training was far from English for, had it been, his impact on English music of the high Baroque would have certainly been lesser. Nevertheless, he has become the quintessential English composer. In the same way, treating an English-born organ builder (with French pretensions), who lived in France and built French instruments as anything other than French is irrelevant.

Thus, should one want an overview of the history of English organ building and its place in a varied musical culture, Bicknell's book is a worthwhile purchase. However, should one require instead a volume that goes deeper and provides a modicum of new material or which re-examines others' researches in a new light, then one has to wait until a more worthy example becomes available.

Jonathan Baxendale