All Episodes

The old tunes have their charm, and the old instruments, too, as we revisit the beginnings of organ music; play on pipes that have been singing persuasively for four, five, and six hundred years; and remember that the matter of age directly relates to attitude. This week on Pipedreams you’ll hear instruments dating from the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries - instruments from Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands - including the oldest in the world, still going strong.

It’s all so familiar but also the beginning of an uncharted adventure. This week’s Pipedreams program explores wedding music in its broader implications. We’ll have traditional processionals, historic works in celebration of a joy-filled day, exotic pieces from Finland and the Czech Republic songs and ballads about true, perfect and wondrous love, an anthem about an amiable dwelling place, and even a warning lest fools rush in. For June brides or newlyweds at any time of the year, it’s music which proclaims This is the Day.

They all have two things in common. One is their youth, in their teens and early twenties. The other is enthusiasm. Hear a pair of organ scholars from Oxford, Paul Weber and other students from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, AGO O’Neal, and the acclaimed 14-year-old German phenom Felix Hell. They play up a storm and make it plain to hear that they are “not just kidding around.”

Contrary to the notion that the organ is old-fashioned, this week’s Pipedreams broadcast takes a look at organ repertoire today, with a sampler of some engaging and accessible modern compositions from the upper Midwest. Leonard Danek plays his little bouquet, Flowers, David Cherwin shows us some of his hymn-preludes, John Eggert discovers an amazingly diverse collection of styles right in his own backyard, and Diane Meredith Belcher premiere’s Libby Larsen’s Aspects of Glory at an Organists Guild Convention.

This week on Pipedreams host Michael Barone gathers some friends together at House of Hope Presbyterian Church in Saint Paul for a concert in celebration of Pipedreams’ first compact disc release. It’s sort of a show-and-tell affair, with performances by Leonard Danek, Edward Berryman and Michael Ferguson in of some of their own works, one of which takes a Bachian-challenge to its triumphal conclusion. Monte Mason leads his splendid choirs, and Melanie Ninnemann teams up with Michael Barone for a sonorous organ duet. And Michael will even play a solo or two.

Sometimes faith is all that’s left. And all that’s needed when disaster strikes. All is not lost, and on the next Pipedreams broadcast, our music represents the rekindled spirits which responded to the horrific bombing in Oklahoma City, the devastating tremors of a Los Angeles earthquake, a hurricane in Charleston, South Carolina, and a chapel fire in Kent, England. Out of the rubble and despair rises harmony and new enthusiasm. Scott Raab, Wayne Foster, Kevin Bowyer, and Thomas Harmon show us the way with music of hope rekindled.

It’s all about friends having fun. On this week’s Pipedreams program, Sarah Hawbecker plays the urban and urbane music of Leo Sowerby, Timothy Albrecht and John Cook. Alan Morrison explores works by Atlanta-based composer William Krape. Norman Mackenzie performs a virtuoso sonata written for him when he was just a younger guy, and Elizabeth and Raymond Chenault prove that a harmonious home life also leads to lively harmonies at the organ console, when American Public Media host Michael Barone visits with five of Georgia’s finest recitalists in a special program recorded in 1998 at Central Presbyterian Church.

On this week’s Pipedreams broadcast we feature a splendid instrument recently inaugurated in Tacoma, Washington. A musical college kid with high ideals, but more adept in a woodworking shop than the practice studio, Paul Fritts makes music by connecting one component to another. We’ll listen to the result - his magnum opus built at the new concert hall on the campus of his alma mater. Resident artist David Dahl and guest recitalist Craig Cramer play the old masters on the handiwork of a young one - a program of Bach and Schumann, Messiaen and Cindy McTee.

Trumpet fanfares and other bracing measures spice up this week’s broadcast as we celebrate spring with improvisations and anthems dedicated to the festival of rebirth. Marilyn Keiser plays a Festal Flourish, Kevin Bowyer borrows from Bach’s Little Organ Book, James Culp asks a pointed question, Craig Philips contributes a song for a special morning awakening, and everywhere sons and daughters sing. With instruments in Texas, Italy, and our nation’s capitol, and choirs from Beverly Hills and Britain, we offer Music for an Easter Uprising.

a profound reflection upon the saga of Christ’s crucifixion, a progression through fourteen poems by Paul Claudel with originally-improvised musical commentary by Marcel Dupré.

It’s kind of like a test drive. This week’s Pipedreams program is a review of a dozen recent compact discs, including one from an obscure - and ravishingly lovely - parish church in Waltershausen, Germany. We’ll visit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, the old Paramount Theatre in Brooklyn, a lavish museum near Los Angeles, and Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. We’ll have music by Bach and his pupil Krebs, a French organ symphony rediscovered, and an introduction to the explosive improvisational talent of Wayne Marshall, who takes George Gershwin for a ride.

The optimistic and engaging music of American composer and performer Emma Lou Diemer, whose original works and hymn-tune arrangements never fail to uplift the spirit.

Awaken to the coming of spring and simultaneously celebrate a most important anniversary this week on Pipedreams. We honor Johann Sebastian Bach while enjoying his music - both youthful escapades and mature profundities - as played by Simon Preston, E. Power Biggs, Jonathan Dimmock and Kate von Tricht. Other composers offer unusual homage, too, and Håkan Hagegård, Rupert Gough, and Stewart Foster provide a few unexpected surprises. Dress casually, come with a friend, but bring no gifts; the best ones are already on the table.

We offer a gamut of the organ experience on this week’s Pipedreams program, from some of the simplest to the most challenging of music. Climb up the scale with the eight Little Preludes and Fugues by J.S. Bach - student music with a heart - as we pair those with contrasting works by the greatest German organ composer AFTER Bach, Max Reger. It’s a confluence of contrapuntal ingenuity, from serene to seismic, and performances on a pathbreaking organ at a splendid cathedral in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

This week on Pipedreams host Michael Barone visits with one of the world’s foremost recitalists, Gillian Weir. She talks about her fascination with the organ and the challenges and responsibilities of a global career, and plays from her repertoire - which covers pretty much anything from the late Renaissance to the modern-day. Hear instruments in Denmark, England, Wisconsin, the Netherlands, and Texas, and discover how artistry and charm go hand-in-hand. When the magnificent Dame Gillian plays, it’s proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing like a Dame.

Some things ARE mysterious - yet we’ll clarify any confusion on this week’s Pipedreams program, as we explore five centuries of the little-known history of music by women composers for the pipe organ. Dr. Barbara Harbach is our tour guide, introducing us to works by historic figures such as Elizabeth Stirling, Amy Beach, and Jeanne Demessieux, and present-day folk like Mary Jeanne van Appledorn, Marga Richter, and Edith Borroff. From Preludes to Psalm Tunes, Solemn Dirges to Celebratory Alleluias, it’s a world of emotion and expression, recorded on location at All Saints Episcopal Church, Atlanta.

Like a new car in the driveway, the installation of a new pipe organ is always a time of pride and celebration, and this week Pipedreams visits three churches in host Michael Barone’s neck of the woods where the folks are very, very happy. Lynn Dobson’s instrument at Saint Paul’s Episcopal, Minneapolis, offers plenty of color and power in a deceptively modest package. The new Casavant at Saint Louis Roman Catholic Church in Saint Paul boasts a splendidly-carved and decorated case which matches its vibrant voice, and Charles Hendrickson’s design for Wayzata Community Church builds on the ideal of an American Classic. Christopher Herrick, Daniel Roth, and Diana Lee Lucker play inaugural concerts on these three fine instruments.

Their contributions may not yet be as familiar as those of composers of the German Baroque or French Romantic eras, but the recent works of African-American musicians impress at many levels. On our next Pipedreams program, you’ll be able to hear pieces by Mark Fax and Thomas Kerr, Nol DaCosta, Henry Sexton, and Charles Coleman, which take as themes simple, beautiful original melodies, gospel hymns, and our nation’s racial history. Herndon Spillman, Mickey Thomas Terry, Eugene Hancock and David Hurd spell it out in black and white, our African American organ tradition.