1899 Tronci organ at the Church of St. Michael, Corsicano, Italy

The impulse is inexorable, and it’s not just the organist’s feet that want to move out. Our next Pipedreams program celebrates the ceremonial and the aerobic opportunities of music in the manner of a march. Some pieces have the expected pomp and circumstance, but others are majestic, or joyous, or somber, or even side-splittingly funny. Siamese children, archers, marionettes, three kings, and even penguins get into the act, as we step right out according to rank and file. Whether stepping out to a little number by Bach, or a grand romp by Sousa or Elgar, we’ll get our legs and ears in shape and take advantage of an energy which makes you want to move. Ready? Start with your left left-right organ music for a parade. We March Forth!, this week on Pipedreams.

We trace back root causes on this week’s show, exploring composers in Italy, who laid the foundations for much of what we enjoy in classical music today. And organbuilders, too, whose instruments in Bologna, Treviso, Turin and Pistoia retained an unparalleled degree of simplicity of design and purity of sound across four centuries of European history. Their unique character blooms in the special idioms of Frescobaldi, Pasquini, Valeri and others, as we discover during A Sojourn in Italy.