"In All the Stops, New York Times journalist and editor Craig Whitney journeys through the history of the Americanpipe organ and brings to life some of the colorful characters who devoted their lives to its music.". "From the mid-19th to the early 20th century, organ music was wildly popular in America. Organbuilders could hardly fill the huge demand for both concert hall and home organs. Master builders such as Ernest M. Skinner developed elaborate organs with ingenious systems of pipes,stops, swells, pedals, valves, and keyboards, capable of replicating the sound and dynamic range of entire orchestras.". "With the evolution of the organ came celebrity organists.Artists such as the classical E. Power Biggs and the flamboyant Virgil Fox developed cult followings and bitterrivalries. Biggs - at first with builders such as G. Donald Harrison and later with others such as Charles B. Fisk - started a movement to restore to American organs some of the tonal clarity and precision that instruments of the baroque period had. Fox and his followers rejected that approach. Instead, Fox started playing electronic organs in rock concert halls to try to interest younger audiences in classical music."--BOOK JACKET.