Updated 17 May 2007 – This page is not maintained and archival only.
A Few Selected Bookmarks
American Guild of OrganistsThe Royal College of Organists
AIO - American Institute of Organbuilders
Pipedreams Organ Music for Good Listening
Note especially the links at the bottom of this Pipedreams page.Back Online! Virgil Fox performs the Joseph Jongen Symphonie Concertante live in NHK Hall - Tokyo (June, 1977) 151 ranks of Schuke pipe organ and an excellent symphony orchestra! The video now has a new home on Google...along with a number of other videos of interest.
JAV Recordings specializes in Pipe Organ CDs
OHS Catalog Pipe Organ CDs - an extensive selection! Note especially the offerings by local organists, Robert Clark and Kimberly Marshall here.
Organ Builders Represented in the Metro Phoenix Area
Other Organ Builders
The world's largest organs with photos and specifications
Worlds Largest Pipe Organs (by number of ranks)
United States Pipe Organ Directory
Organs of United States and Canada Database
National Pipe Organ Register (NPOR) (UK)
Some organs mentioned by name in literature
Wikipedia's Pipe Organ entry
Note that Wikipedia also has many other entries of interest, including a number of organbuilders.A Young Person's Guide to the Pipe Organ
Encyclopedia of Organ Stops
Over 2000 stop names, with pictures and sound clips.Jeux Soundfonts
Turn your SoundFont-compatible soundcard into a virtual MIDI pipe organ.
Some Specific Organs
The Rieger organ in Christchurch, New Zealand.The Cavaille-Coll organ of St. Sulpice, Paris.
E.M. Skinner organ at Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio.
Organs in New York City, Present and Past.
Aeolian-Skinner and Casavant organs at Community of Christ Auditorium and Temple, Independence, Missouri.
Sydney Opera House Grand Organ (PDF introduction and specifications). The World's largest mechanical (tracker) action organ.
The largest Casavant organ built-to-date at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.
Photo and video journal of the renovation of the Beckerath organ at Stetson University, DeLand, Florida.
Organ Stop Pizza - possibly the largest Wurlitzer theater organ in the world, in Mesa, Arizona.
The Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Atlantic City Convention Hall - two organs, one supposedly the largest in the world; and their Preservation Society.
Bibliography
A soup-to-nuts bibliography (with some recordings) about the organ, acoustics, tuning, music history, theory, etc. Books that I suggest you might begin with are in red, asterisked titles are the books that I brought with me for your perusal at lessons, etc.If you are interested in the music of Pre-Bach composers, Bach, and later composers, Howard Ferguson's Keyboard Interpretation from the 14th to the 19th Century is an excellent place to start in learning about the music and styles of these eras. While it is not a book specifically for organists about organ music, it is still an indespensible and practical guide to more "authentic" and stylish performance.
Answers.com frequently has useful information about specific works/composers, for example, see this entry about Bach's Prelude & Fugue in E Minor (Wedge) BWV 548 or Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor BWV 582.Many libraries have portals to online databases and resources, such as the excellent Grove Dictionary of Music Online. Phoenix Public Library has a subscription to Grove and while it requires a current library card number and account on their website, it is otherwise free. Other universities and colleges will often have subscriptions to Grove Music Online and will allow access to those with valid library accounts.
MusicWeb International, while actually a classical CD review site, is another excellent resource for information about composers...especially if you would like to find recordings of their works. See this entry about Alfred Hollins.
MIDI 101-How to get started with MIDI is a reasonably good starting point to learn more about creating a basic home MIDI studio. MIDI sequencing, when it's all working right, can be a great (and fun!) way to learn new music and play duets with yourself on keyboard when there's not another two hands around to help out.
CD Sheet Music - 3 CD's of organ music (as printable PDF files) representing the complete organ works of J.S. Bach, a sizeable collection of other Baroque organ music, and a respectable anthology of French Romantic organ works. Usually available from various other music vendors, so shopping around for the best price is recommended, though still a very cost-effective way of acquiring these scores - not to mention the savings in space.
I hope you enjoy these links and find them informative and useful!
--- J. David James - Instructor, POE+ 2006