1882 Steere and Turner organ at Pullman United Methodist Church, Chicago, IL

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.

Our travels take us to Chicago this week, and the shores of Lake Michigan where American organbuilding traditions come alive on instruments from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bill Aylesworth showcases the oldest surviving of its kind in Chicago, built by the Hook Brothers of Boston for the Scottish Rite Cathedral. Contrast it with any of the organs listed below, and you’ll realize just how varied organ music can be. Tune in and you might get so excited you’ll want to visit the place for some exploration on your own. Nostalgic zephyr and blasts from the past as we audition instruments from as early as 1875. Bill Aylesworth, Mary Gifford, Wolfgang Rübsam and others respirate the past, as we explore Windy City History, antique organs in Chicago, this week on Pipedreams.

Sounds of some noteworthy and historic instruments in and around Chicago, as prelude to upcoming national conventions of the American Guild of Organists and Organ Historical Society.

…in anticipation of our thoroughly American holiday, these works by some thoroughly American composers.

…Another program in a continuing, irregular series devoted to our historic American pipe organ heritage, featuring recordings from the archives of the Organ Historical Society and comments from OHS executive director William Van Pelt. This program focuses on organs in and around Chicago.

…Another exploration of some of the interesting and sometimes curious old instruments in the Windy City, with performances recorded there during a convention of the Organ Historical Society.