1998 Fisk organ at Minato Mirai Concert Hall, Yokohama, Japan

Just like the fairy stories we once enjoyed, our childhood years provoke music both charming and challenging.

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

Perhaps from hanging around in the organ lofts near those bell towers, organ composers have amassed a fine pile of bell-music.

Christmas music from many lands is transformed by the colors of the pipe organ

…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.

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

…a collection of previously unheard recital performances from the Pipedreams Archive.