Barbara Owen Archive

Houghton Chapel, Wellesley College
CB Fisk, Opus 72, 1981

This page features articles by organ enthusiast Barbara Owen, reviews of her books, and her reviews of books and recordings. Over three quarters of a century, a flood of essays, reviews, and books poured from her pen, typewriter, and computer, including numerous periodical and anthology articles, entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music, and several books.

She served the American Guild of Organists as a regional councillor and Boston chapter dean, was president of the Organ Historical Society, a trustee of Methuen Memorial Music Hall, and served as an organist, lecturer, and organ consultant. She also worked as a pipe voicer for the CB Fisk organ firm for many years.

The biographical information below is a compilation of material issued in a notice by the Organ Historical Society following her death in 2024, and a 2023 article honoring her at age 90 in The Boston Musical Intelligencer.

BARABARA J. OWEN

 Born in Utica, New York on January 25, 1933, Barbara Owen earned a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in 1955 and a master of music degree in musicology from Boston University in 1962. She pursued advanced study in Europe at the North German Organ Academy and the Academy of Italian Organ Music. In 1963 she began a 40-year tenure as director of music at the First Religious Society of Newburyport. Massachusetts. In addition, she was a voicer for C.B. Fisk, Inc. from 1961 to 1979.

As a young woman in her early 20s during the 1950s, Ms. Owen defined and mapped a new sub-discipline in American musical scholarship: the study of Anglo-American organs, organ design, and organ music. In 1956, she and a handful of other American organ enthusiasts founded the Organ Historical Society; she became the founding president and served in several capacities. She was honored with the OHS Distinguished Service Award in 1988, and was designated an honorary member in 1998 in recognition of her contributions both to the society and to scholarship. The American Musical Instrument Society honored her with its prestigious Curt Sachs Award in 1994. She served the American Guild of Organists as regional councilor and chapter dean and was a trustee of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. She was the founder and initial curator for the Organ Library of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, located at Boston University.

Few have served and influenced a profession in as many aspects as Barbara Owen. Throughout seven decades she was an organ builder, organ restorer and preserver, researcher, author, advocate, consultant, musician, music editor, lecturer, hymn writer, and librarian. In addition to a constant flow of articles in scholarly journals, her books include The Organ in New England, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, The Mormon Tabernacle Organ: An American Classic, The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, The Great Organ at Methuen, and Pioneers in American Organ Music 1860 – 1920: The New England Classicists. Her work is internationally known and respected, and she is generally regarded both here and abroad as one of the top half-dozen scholars in her field.                                      

Perhaps most characteristic of Barbara Owen was her unfailing generosity. She selflessly advised and aided other researchers with her encyclopedic knowledge about her subject, and the voluminous files of material she had collected. Over the years, she inspired and encouraged countless other music historians and fostered scholarship in American church music and organ literature among students and seasoned scholars alike.

Barbara J. Owen, 1933-2024

Barbara Owen Archive

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Old State House, Boston