E. Power Biggs
Edward George Power Biggs (
March 29,
1906 -
March 10,
1977), but always known as
E. Power Biggs, was one of the most influential
classical organists of the
twentieth century.
He was born in Westcliff-on-Sea,
England, and trained in
London at the
Royal Academy of Music. After a 1929 tour of the
United States with a London chamber group, he immigrated there in 1930. In 1932, he took up a post in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he lived for the rest of his life.
He did much to bring the classical
pipe organ back to prominence, in particular with a weekly radio broadcast on
CBS which he gave from 1942 to 1958.
He was an important influence in the modern development of the pipe organ in America, and in particular was a force behind the
tracker organ movement after the middle of the century. In
1954, Biggs made his first tour of Europe, playing (and recording)
Sweelinck,
Buxtehude, and
Pachelbel on organs that these composers might have played; and, in 1955, he returned to make a similar tour of
Mozart organs. These journeys completely changed Biggs's
raison d'être. He returned to America and became its most vociferous and indefatigable spokesman for classic organs analogous to Europe's
Orgelbewegung.
An influential early new organ to which Biggs gave prominence was
G. Donald Harrison's
Baroque-style un-enclosed, un-encased instrument with 24 stops and electric action, produced by
Aeolian-Skinner in 1937, and installed in
Harvard's
Busch-Reisinger Museum. By
1958 his association with
Dirk A. Flentrop had led to the installation of an equally influential instrument in the Busch-Reisinger, a 3-manual tracker
Flentrop, on which many of his recordings were later produced. A polar opposite of performers such as
Virgil Fox (who loathed him), Biggs not only strove for the correct historical instruments for the works he performed, but also for the correct historical style of playing, insofar as his research was able to determine what it had been at that time.
With his inimitable charm and contagious spirit, Biggs reached back in time to the old classic instruments, contemporaneous with the composers, and in particular the instruments of
Arp Schnitger, whose work he helped make familiar to the modern audience when he released a recording of
Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works played on many of the surviving Schnitger instruments. With his infectious enthusiasm and clever wit (he invariably wrote the program notes to his own records), he converted many thousands of American music-lovers to the sounds of those forgotten instruments. Perhaps the "Early Music Movement" would have eventually caught on with or without Biggs, but it is incontestable that E. Power Biggs was the strongest and most persuasive force behind it.
In the midst of heavy concertizing, recording, music editing, and other activities, Biggs found time to teach at the
Longy School of Music and the
Peabody Conservatory, and encouraged young composers to produce works, which he would then perform. His exacting technique and deep interest in early organ music set new standards for modern organists, and he left behind a considerable body of recordings, all too few of which have been transferred from LP to CD.
For his contribution to the recording industry, E. Power Biggs has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6522 Hollywood Blvd.
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
*
Vittorio Negri (conductor), E. Power Biggs & the
Edward Tarr Ensemble for
Glory of Gabrieli Vol. II - Canzonas for Brass, Winds, Strings and Organ (
1969)
Barbara Owen,
E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, (Indiana University Press, 1987)
