Whitney's "exuberant" ("New York Times") history of the pipe organ introduces readers to the music and majesty of the organ. A "New York Times" 2003 Notable Book.

Edward Oster’s family has been planters of seeds for generations untold. But Edward feels a call to be a fisher of men. Along with his wife, Denise, their journey takes them from the rolling Midwestern prairies to blue Mediterranean waters, from the walls of San Quentin to the walls of the Kremlin, from fire tower on mountain top to the great pyramids of Giza. They dig through history in ancient Caesarea, and marvel at the monster machines digging North Dakota Black gold. They have people to love, a might Word to proclaim, and a Cross to hold high. Theirs is a journey of discovery and a husbanding of traditions as they remember the tumbleweeds of their youth and plant roses of hope for the future.

"Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind by showing that our current crisis of attention is only superficially the result of digital technology, and certain assumptions at the root of Western culture are the root of the cause"--

In Music from the Hilltop, Benjamin A. Kolodziej studies three significant academic musical figures to weave a narrative that not only details the role musical studies played in the development of Southern Methodist University but also relates a history of church music and pipe organs in Dallas, Texas. Bertha Stevens Cassidy (1876–1959), the first organ professor and the only woman on the faculty of the new university, established herself as a leader and veritable dean of the church music community, managing a career of significant performances and teaching. Her student and protégé, Dora Poteet Barclay (1903–1961), a Waco native, exhibited such musical potential that she was hired by SMU the day after her graduation. Taking over the organ program upon Cassidy’s retirement, Barclay broadened the pedagogical horizons for her students. The great French composer Marcel Dupré, with whom she briefly studied, extolled Barclay’s talents: “She is my best American student!” Many of her own students achieved great professional heights as performers and church musicians. With the hiring of Robert Theodore Anderson (1934–2009), SMU solidified its reputation as a school able to provide excellence not only in performance training but also in scholarship. A Chicago native who studied in New York and in Germany, Anderson represented a new, modern outlook to teaching and performance. He was intellectually able to bridge the gap between the theologians of the Methodist seminary and the performers at the Meadows School of the Arts. Through his example and guidance, organists were taught to think critically, whether about music or any other subject, and to attain excellence in the craft of organ performance. During the 1980s Anderson consulted with the Dallas Symphony to prepare for the installation of an organ in the new Meyerson Symphony Center, an organ that would influence concert hall instruments in subsequent decades. These three pedagogues played important roles in the development of the musical curriculum as well as the building of important organs on the SMU campus and around the city, each in their own ways nurturing the practice of sacred music in North Texas.

Interest in automatic organs is larger now than ever before. This comprehensive, yet easy-to-read, reference unlocks the mysteries of mechanical versions of the King of Instruments and its smaller counterparts. 79 color and 538 black and white photos display examples and the text explains how automatic pipe organs work, Italian water garden organs, barrel organs, orchestrions, and street and showground organs, as well as automatic organs of the 21st century and more. The list of makers, distributors, and inventors the world over has never been available before.