Publications

Improvisation: Revealing the art by John Riley

Booklet produced for the ESO talk on 18 November 2023

History of the Scottish Federation of Organists

Over a year of research and compilation has resulted in this remarkable history of the Scottish Federation of Organists. Founded in 1956 the SFO and the affiliated local organists’ societies remain the only charitable bodies to encourage and represent the organists of Scotland no matter where in the country they work and no matter whether they play in one of the major city cathedrals or in one of the hundreds of small rural churches.

Price: £4 + £2.50pp; available to ESO members for just the cost of postage. Please see details below.

Organs in Edinburgh

by David A Stewart

"Organs in Edinburgh" by David Stewart is a guide to the pipe organs in the city as at March 1991. There are five main sections:

1. a brief survey of Edinburgh organ builders past and present;
2. lists of the 171 organs by current location with dates of installation, maker, number of manuals and speaking stops, and subsequent changes;
3. lists of the over 200 organs no longer extant, with the same details;
4. chronological list of organ installations from 1466 to 1991; and
5. list of each organ builder's work in Edinburgh.

"It presents a vast amount of data in compressed form about every instrument known to have been installed in the city.....it should see service on the desks and in the briefcases of organ sleuths"

(British Institute of Organ Studies Journal, Volume 15, 1991)

"These 56 pages are packed with well-presented and easy-to-find information, with especially useful notes on Edinburgh organ builders"

(Musical Opinion, May 1991)

Published by the Edinburgh Society of Organists, 1991, 56pp, £4 + P&P (£3 + P&P to members of ESO), ISBN 0 9510675 1 6

A few copies are still available: please contact us at eso-website@edinburghorganists.org