1982 Harrold organ at the Alfred Hertz Memorial Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California

On this Pipedreams program we cover 500 years of Iberian repertoire. From the 16th and 17th century antiquities of Antonio de Cabezon and Juan Cabanilles to the modern Easter outbursts of Jose Antonio de Donostia, we explore the seldom-played music of Spanish composers on Spanish-style instruments here in the United States. Trumpet fanfares from the Old Country take on a new aura played on stylish instruments in North Carolina, California, Ohio and Texas. From Cabezon to Donostia, we celebrate 500 years of Spanish Music in the New World, extraordinary sounds this week on Pipedreams.

We’ve scanned the continent for interesting sounds and have visited churches in California, Massachusetts and Illinois in search of exciting pipe organ installations. Among the choice morsels gathered include John Butt playing Spanish repertoire at the University of California, Berkeley; and Loraine Olson Waters exploring mostly French pieces at the little Mont Marie Chapel in Holyoke. George Edward Damp will also entertain us with english fancies at Saint John the Divine Chapel in Champaign, and Louis Patterson savors romantic moments at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest. The repertoire’s international and historic, but the instruments all were made in the USA. An array of artists celebrate the diverse organs built by American organbuilders Berghaus, Buzard, Harrold and Watersmith.

Beyond the familiar Trumpet Tune, this week’s broadcast features many pieces by one of England’s foremost masters, one of his contemporaries and some later imitators. He’s justly celebrated, but sometimes for not quite the right reasons. Henry Purcell, the foremost English composer of the late seventeenth century, is our particular fascination on the next Pipedreams broadcast, when we’ll listen to everything he wrote for organ, plus some pieces that he DIDN’T, but to which his name is traditionally and tenaciously attached nonetheless. With period instruments and grand cathedral organs played by Robert Woolley, John Butt, John Scott, Davitt Moroney, and even Virgil Fox, we go on beyond the familiar Trumpet Tunes to hear Voluntaries and Marches, Anthems, Songs, and Dances, looking back through 3 centuries in tribute to the memory of one of Britain’s famous past masters.

Today’s world culture is nothing new to the pipe organ, which has been importing and integrating international influences for centuries.

…focusing on Robert Bates’ new recording of Correa’s Facultad Organica (1626).

…a summer quarter sampler of recent releases of organ music, with emphasis on the unusual and the unusually attractive.

…A survey of recent recordings, focusing on sonic and emotional appeal and variety. This material also appeared as the Winter/Spring 1994 Fundraiser.

A visit with convivial scholar-performer John Butt of Cambridge, England, who plays in recital in Boston and on instruments in the O’Neill Collection of the University of California-Berkeley.