Ed Pepe
organist and organ historian

Synopsis

Ed Pepe spoke of the organ culture of Mexico. He said that, although many in authority have no interest in the organs and are sometimes even hostile to them, there are many others now in Latin America who are trying to change this approach. Latin America has a fascinating history of organ building from the 17th through the 19th century. In some states of Mexico, for instance, almost all of the existing pipe organs are relatively authentic and date from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Many rural organs, as elsewhere, were at some time reduced in size but urban organs, like those built by Joseph Nassarre in the 1730s for the Cathedral of Mexico City, were on a large scale and of great importance.

Today, organisations are being set up for conserving, documenting and sometimes restoring the old organs, as well as for building new instruments. But a shortage of trained organists and the disruption in the tradition of using the organ, especially in the countryside, means that restoration might not always be a priority. At present, it makes more sense to focus on locating, cataloguing, studying, and publishing documentation on these instruments, while at the same time putting in place conservation programmes.