Book Review| August 01 2014 Review: The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook, by Christoph Wolff and Markus Zepf. Translation by Lynn Edwards Butler. Introduction by Christoph Wolff. Published in cooperation with the American Bach Society. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2012. xxv, 208 pp.J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument: Essays on His Organ Works, by Russell Stinson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. xi, 203 pp.Bach's Feet: The Organ Pedals in European Culture, by David Yearsley. Musical Performance and Reception. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. xiv, 298 pp. Ernest D. May Ernest D. May Ernest D. May is Professor of Musicology and Organ at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is a contributor to the Neue Bach-Ausgabe, coeditor of J. S. Bach as Organist: His Instruments, Music, and Performance Practices, and author of articles on Bach organ music and the Breitkopf publishing house (Bach Jahrbuch, Bach Perspectives). His current research interests include the history of minimalism and postmodern music. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2014) 67 (2): 589–598. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2014.67.2.589 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Ernest D. May; Review: The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 August 2014; 67 (2): 589–598. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2014.67.2.589 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search Ever since the ancient Greeks, technological innovation has been a driving force in Western civilization. Inventions such as the repeating rifle, the battleship, nuclear weapons, and drones have revolutionized relationships and interactions among peoples, nations, empires, and alliances. Notation, the printing press, the invention and improvement of instruments, electronic synthesis, the computer, sampling, and the internet have successively disrupted and revolutionized the fields of music and musicology. Among musical instruments, the organ has been especially susceptible to technological changes—from the water organs of Egypt, to the powerful mechanical-action instruments of J. S. Bach's day, to the electro-pneumatic action pipe organs of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to analog, digitized, and sampled electronic instruments of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Three recent publications focused on one of the oldest topics in music scholarship—J. S. Bach as organist, organ composer, organ expert, and canonic culture-hero—offer new perspectives and insights. The Handbook... You do not currently have access to this content.