All Episodes

The pipe organ’s participation in religious worship has been an important facet of its tradition. This week, we’ll explore one of those traditions, the organ’s role in the sacred liturgy of the French Mass. From the colorful registrations used by Nicolas DeGrigny in his 17th century versets to the provocative images of Olivier Messiaen, the voice of the pipe organ adds immeasurably to the enhancement and the elevation of spiritual consciousness.

With more than $50,000 in prize-money, the Dallas International Organ Competition attracts top-grade talent. This week, we’ll listen to three superb finalists, each with musicianship worthy of international exposure. Jeremy Bruns hails from Muleshoe, Texas, but now directs the music program at All Saints Church-Ashmont near Boston. Sarah Baldock, from England, is the assistant at Winchester Cathedral and is also on the Calgary Academy Faculty in Canada. Bradley Hunter Welch is the organist at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. On the Fisk organs at Southern Methodist Unversity and the Meyerson Symphony Center they perform pieces from the French repertoire, plus works by Reger, Bolcom and Bach. Enjoy young artists in award-winning performances From the Dallas Competition.

What do a city auditorium in New Zealand, an historic church of in Manila, a Scandinavian university science project and the Tennessee Valley Arts Commission have in common? Each celebrates the art of the organ. This week we’ll savor performances from Christchurch Town Hall, the parish of Las Pinas in the Philippines, the Hamburg Baroque Organ Project of Gothenburg, Sweden and the Unitarian Church in Knoxville where pipe organs, old and new, excite the imagination with ear-intriguing sounds. The proof is in the playing. Enjoy some sonically beguiling CD releases while we’re Going On Record with organ music in review.

Some folks think of the pipe organ as a musty antique that is old fashioned and out of the mainstream. I don’t agree, but just to confuse the issue, we’ll listen to four instruments that live in museums, at the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, the Nethercutt Collection, San Sylmar in Los Angeles, and the Museum Center at Union Terminal in Cincinnati. Don’t be misled. These pipe organs provide provocative harmonies in picturesque settings. Creating their own attractive, interactive displays these are true Museum Pieces.

With six keyboards, four hundred stops, and more than 28,000 pipes, this organ offers a universe of opportunity. This week, we visit with the man who takes advantage of that opportunity virtually business day. You can hear it whenever the building’s open, but rather than buy a ticket to Philadelphia, why not join us for music of every sort, from Mussorgsky’s portrait of a Night on Bald Mountain to excerpts from a Wagner operas. Who needs singers, when the world’s largest musical instrument is under your control? From Leonard Bernstein to sonic blockbusters, we’re stopping at the Lord & Taylor department store in Philadelphia. You’ve never heard anything like Peter Richard Conte and the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ.

…we celebrate composer Ned Rorem with performances of his music in anticipation of his 85th birthday. On this week’s show, we visit with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem and celebrate the remarkable and envigorating repertoire that he has composed for organists and choirs. Is it strange that an agnostic son of Quaker parents should write so compellingly for the church or is everything under the sun just a concert celebrating creativity? Insights from the artist with his art, it’s Rorem on Rorem.

One of London’s historic landmarks, Saint Paul’s Cathedral is the masterpiece of architect Christopher Wren. It’s also the musical home of John Scott, who began his work there nearly a quarter century ago just out of university. Starting out at Saint Paul’s as Associate Organist, he was appointed Organist and Director of Music in 1990. John talks about his experiences, leads the choir, plays the cathedral’s mighty instrument, and discusses his adventures as a touring recitalist. Come along as we visit Saint Peter Mancroft in Norwich and the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola in New York City. Experience an amiable and able artist, John Scott Scott Free.

…Usually three ‘p’s mean pianissimo, but this program resounds with an exultant trio of exciting modern works for organ and instruments, one of them a premiere. This week’s broadcast features new music for organ and instruments. Starting with Richard Proulx’s Concerto for Organ and Strings, we’ll hear its premiere played by Jonathan Biggers, in concert at Saint Olaf Roman Catholic Church in Minneapolis. A multi-functional Suite for Organ, Brass and Percussion by California composer Craig Phillips and the increasingly popular Concerto Number 1 by Stephen Paulus have added to the compelling concert repertoire for the King of Instruments. Three ‘p’s usually mean pianissimo, but now they stand for a pair of fine concertos with orchestra and a marvelous suite with brass and percussion. They are colorful contemporary works for organ plus by Paulus, Philips and Proulx.

For hundreds of years, the pipe organ was played by mechanical action, with a direct and tangible link called a tracker between keyboard and wind chest. Late in the 19th century, electricity entered the scene and took over the roost for the better part of half a century. Electrity still is with us and has its place, but on this week’s show we return to tradition and review some recent instruments from across the country. Each organ was built with that tried and true mechanical linkage that works well in antique repertoire, of course, but also in romantic and contemporary works, too. Whether in a 19th century Bolero, a 20th century partita, or an 18th century concerto, modern mechanical action pipe organs maintain a time-honored tradition. With instruments in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Shoreview, Minnesota and Tacoma, Washington, we salute history and celebrate tomorrow in the company of our friends, the Tracker Backers.

One problem a few lucky organists don’t have to deal with is knowing where they’re going to practice. This week, we go to the homes of several fortunate organists and organ lovers to experience the instruments that they have had installed. While some are modest and have only a few stops, others are as big as a house and even play themselves. Each providing incredible enjoyment to all who listen. Whether in an English manor room, a musician’s private studio, or the parlor of a successful American businesman, our music comes from neither church nor concert hall. These are pipe dreams come true. Has the King of Instruments been domesticated? Find out, as we visit The Organ at Home.

After sixty years as a church musician, Frederick Swann is hanging up his organ shoes. We celebrate his art as he reminisces about his life experiences. He came to prominence first as organist at the Riverside Church in New York City. This week, we’ll review the remarkable career of Frederick Swann, one of the most highly regarded American organists, as he reflects on his sixty-year career in the spotlight. In music by Franck and Farnam, Clarence Dickinson and some of his own compositions, we’ll hear Fred at Riverside, the Crystal Cathedral and First Congregational Church, Los Angeles, all churches with pipe organs of more than 200 stops each. Even as a kid he knew what he wanted to do, and has done it masterfully a life fully lived Frederick Swann. Tune in for his Swann Song, with every verse an adventure.

The organist of Notre Dame Cathedral played its inaugural recital back in 1927 but that wasn’t enough to guarantee this instrument a long and happy life. At least not in its original location. Forlorn and nearly forgotten in storage for 16 years, this vintage Casavant organ with 7000 pipes has been reborn as the musical centerpiece of a new church sanctuary in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. Bill Chouinard, the prime mover behind its renewal at Saint Andrew’s Lutheran, tells the story and demonstrates the instrument’s remarkable range of color and dynamics in selections from Bach to Broadway. Once a mute memory, these grand sounds were Saved By Grace.

We’re traveling south this week to churches and chapels in Virginia, Florida and South Carolina to sample some recently installed instruments. We’ll visit Rollins College in Winter Park, where Randall Dyer and Associates have worked their magic on the 1936 Aeolian-Skinner. At Saint James Episcopal, Richmond, National Cathedral organist Eric Suter demonstrates Opus 112 from the Massachusetts shop of C.B. Fisk, a recent addition to an impressive list of contemporary tracker-action organs in town. And at First Presbyterian in Greenwood, Robert Glick shows off the new Goulding and Wood organ, both as soloist and composer. The music tells the story, and the venues guarantee the pleasure of Southern Comfort.

His name is nearly ubiquitous because of a strangely beguiling piece of chamber music. This week, we’ll leave that piece alone and explore more of the music by the late 17th century master Johann Pachelbel. First in Eisenach, then in Erfurt, Pachelbel maintained friendly ties to the Bach family, and was the principal teacher of Johann Christoph Bach, who in turn used Pachelbel’s music as ideal example when teaching his orphaned younger brother, Johann Sebastian. Barbara Harbach, Antoine Bouchard, Joseph Payne, Wolfgang Rübsam, Marilyn Mason and Olivier Vernet explore the many nuances inherent in these variations sets, fugues, toccatas and fantasias, and reinvigorate these pages from centuries ago. Tune in for the Pachelbel Players.

Whenever the sound of organ music is not quite enough, the King of Instruments always has plenty of friends to augment the harmony. This week’s program celebrates exactly that situation with a collection of familiar and unusual works scored for the pipe organ with other instrumental resources. Organ with trumpet, organ with string trio or chamber orchestra, organ with choir and synthesizer and even electronic tape. Michael Murray, Leonard Raver, Peter Hurford and others call on their colleagues to play works by Marcel Dupré, Thomas Augustin Arne, Monte Mason and J.S. Bach. It’s a scene with unlimited horizons; music for Organ Plus.

No questions are asked when the name of Bach comes up. He is the undisputed master of organ music by worldwide acclaim, and this week, we offer a multi-national celebration of Bachian art, works of amazing grace and glorious intensity. From across Europe and the United States come a host of players, from Albert Schweitzer to David Schrader, Aram Basmadjian to Pierre Bardon. From England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France and America, our retrospective celebrates universal appeal and border-crossing cooperation. It’s Bach International.

Join us this week in a celebration of the memorable creations of Englishman Herbert Howells, whose splendid works for organs and choirs delight our souls and senses alike.

Gear up for a super-sonic adventure, as Stephen Adams of the American Theatre Organ Society joins me for a selective survey of organ music in popular mode. We’ll listen to top American talent Lyn Larsen on Wurlitzers in public arenas and private music rooms. Legendary British greats Reginald Foort, Quentin Maclean and Sidney Torch recall the styles of yesteryear, while the inimitable George Wright presents his indellible art at the San Francisco Fox and in three different metamorphoses of instruments custom designed to match his magic touch. Hasten to recall that before it’s involvement with the church, the pipe organ was an instrument of the people, as we listen to The Art of the Theatre Organ.