Essential reading for anyone who is interested in organ music.

If you are a professional or an organ Major in Organ performance, this book must be in your library!

For pipe organists, students and enthusiasts only. Not a casual read. University level (it is Cambridge after all). This is one volume of a larger encyclopedic type series, The Cambridge Companion to... other instruments and perhaps other subjects. It is a bit pricey for a paperback, but unique. I put off purchasing it for a couple years, but wish I had gotten it sooner.

One will have a tough go of it if s/he does not have a basic understanding of pipe organs, and a smattering of several languages: British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish as many terms and song titles are not translated. To do so would make this weighty volume even larger. Use Google or other translator and you are good to go. The text is a compendium of extensively researched essays/articles by well known experts in the field. As a retired physics teacher with a lifelong interest in the physics of music, I found the chapter on the physics of pipes particularly interesting and I learned some things I had not read elsewhere. Most articles are independent or only lightly cross referential so one could skip around and/or read only those chapters which are of interest. I have spent some time slowly plowing through chapter by chapter and penciling in notes to myself as I go and a couple chapters left to read. Solid gold for someone like me.

An excellent read for organ enthusiasts!

Bought this for a course on the history of the Organ, and it arrived in a timely manner in perfect condition. More than that, it's also a good book. Excellent for enthusiasts and students alike.