Wurlitzer organ at Organ Stop Pizza, Mesa, Arizona

Some questions shouldn’t need asking twice, not after the encouragement we provide on this Pipedreams broadcast. It’s an aural array of amorous melodies designed to stir the heart and unlock the emotions. Our Valentine’s Day prelude features great tunes by Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, and Franz Liszt, dealing with first loves, impossible loves, deep loves, and love’s dreams. Featured organists are Bary Baker, Lew Williams, Simon Gledhill, and Lyn Larson. Happy or sad, impossible or inevitable, at daybreak or twilight, you’ll enjoy our melodious bouquet of Love’s Old Sweet Songs.

Our annual reflection on world happenings, with highlights of instruments, young artists, and exceptional recordings.

Falling in love is easy to do, especially with the music of Richard Rodgers as accompaniment. Rodgers’ melodic gift in conjunction with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein, gave new song to three generations. Folks flocked to such shows as The Boys from Syracuse, The Girl Friend and South Pacific, and tunes from those and dozens of other productions still resound throughout the land. It’s a celebration of a great American composer with some of his most famous and most obscure works played organs in theatres, naturally, but also in a home, a high school auditorium and a pizza restaurant. George Wright, Rob Richards, Tom Hazleton and many others will keep you On Your Toes with a Richard Rodgers Centennial Tribute, this week on Pipedreams.

Put some spring in your step with this week’s show, and perhaps even respond to the urge to get on your feet and troop around with these parade pieces and processionals for diverse occasions. Whether it be a pompous processional from Paris, or a splashy sound-off by Sousa, our program guarantees to make you move up out of your chair, fall in and straighten that rank and, in response to irrepressible rhythms and March Again.

A treat for the whole family, this week’s broadcast features organ arrangements of famous classical works and original compositions used in Fantasia and other Walt Disney films.

A 50th anniversary celebration of the ongoing activities of the American Theatre Organ Society. Theatre organs, invented to provide accompaniment to ‘silent films’ in the early days of the 20th century, found themselves unneeded in their original line of work by the mid 1930s. Yet their novel and engaging sounds continue to fascinate and entertain. Check next month’s A.T.O.S. National Convention, July 1-5, 2005 in Los Angeles, CA. Contact the Organ Historical Society Catalog for access to a large variety of theater organ recordings on compact disc.

…share in humoresques, scherzos, fantasies and other compositions done up with a sense of fun and surprise. Who says the organ must always be so serious. It’s not all solemn processionals. The king of instruments does have a sense of humor, too, as you’ll discover on our next Pipedreams program, where wry wit, sardonic satire, and a general joviality prevail. Bill Albright’s nifty narration provides a key element, as do songs by Stephen Sondheim and Henry Mancini, scherzos and fantasies played in Souvigny and San Francisco, and a humerous hornpipe played in Sydney Australia. That’s but part of the fun. We’ll also sample concert instruments in Dallas and Yokoyama, theatre organs in Kansas and Arizona, and one of the finest French antiques from the 18th century, still capable of a big smile. Curious chords prove that the Joke is On Us - humoresques for organ, this week on Pipedreams.

…birds and bees, squirrels and wolves bring smile as we listen to the sounds of this fanciful bestiary.

…from Gounod to Gershwin, we offer a collection of melodious, mobile music guaranteed to keep you on your toes.

…an all-American program that explores the sonic and virtuosic freedoms and possibilities of pipe organs and those who play them.

…a spring survey of some recent CD releases from American producers in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

…a sampler of American music, both patriotic and sacred, in celebration of our nation’s favorite holiday.

…who knew that when wind blew through an organ’s pipes the results would be, among other things, ‘the blues’?

…our traditional summing-up of some of the previous year’s happenings in the world of the King of Instruments.

…an entertaining glimpse at the show-biz cousin to the “king of instruments,” the theater organ, once the ubiquitous accompaniment to the action on the silver screen, now a popular attraction in its own right. Guest commentator Karl Eilers joins host Michael Barone in examining just what a “theater organ” is, and what it can do.

Celebrating PIPEDREAMS’ fifteenth anniversary and the season of Epiphany, with audio postcards of the year’s events, letters from listeners, projections for the future, and reviews of some new recordings.

A trio of historic instruments, a contemporary piece for two to play, and a centenary bouquet for a past master of melody.

…an entertaining glimpse at the show-biz cousin to the “king of instruments,” the theater organ, once the ubiquitous accompaniment to the action on the silver screen, now a popular attraction in its own right. Guest commentator Karl Eilers joins host Michael Barone in examining just what a “theater organ” is, and what it can do.