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 England, and trained in London at the Royal Academy of Music. After a 1929 tour of the United States along with a London chamber group, he later emigrated there in 1930. In 1932, he took up a post in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lived there 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, and in particular was a force behind the tracker organ movement in the 1950s. In 1955, Biggs made a tour of Europe, playing Pachelbel on organs that Pachelbel played, Mozart on instruments played by Mozart, and so forth and so on. This tour completely changed Biggs's raison d'être. He returned to America and became our most vociferous and indefatigable spokesman for the classic organs -- specifically, for playing music on organs (or copies of organs) that the composer of that music knew. (Though this change of philosophy undoubtedly strained Biggs's friendship with G. Donald Harrison, it infused tremendous vigor into the Tracker Organ Revival in America -- analogous to Europe's Orgelbewegung)

An influential early new organ Biggs was involved with was a 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. In 1957 -- having moved on the trackers as a result of the abovementioned European tour -- his association with Dirk A. Flentrop 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.

With his inimitable charm and contagious spirit, Biggs reached back in time to the old classic instruments, contemporaneous in time 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 personality and 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. 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.

For his contribution to the recording industry, E. Power Biggs has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6522 Hollywood Blvd.

Further Reading

Barbara Owen, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, (Indiana University Press, 1987)