1977 Brunzema-Casavant organ at Maternity of the BVM Parish, Saint Paul, MN

We pick up the contrapuntal thread from last week and continue with some additional adventures. Bach left Die Kunst der Fuge incomplete, perhaps by design, perhaps by oversight, perhaps due to ill health. Should one resist the temptation to imagine a conclusion? We don’t.

It’s a game of getting-to-know-you. First a few notes, then some others and before you know it, we’re into a new adventure in sound. For hundreds of years, players have explored the limits of their instruments and of their own techniques in works that evolved from the sheer tactile pleasure of pushing down the keys and seeing what happens. Marius Monnekendam in the Netherlands, Robert Elmore in the United States, Girolamo Frescobaldi of Italy, J.S. Bach in Germany and many others have written some of their most exciting music following this scheme. Tactile and tantalizing, our program explores four hundred years of repertoire, instruments from three centuries, and the delights of things done by hand. Better than a good massage, with a tingling sensation guaranteed, we Reach out and Touch the Art of the Toccata, this week on Pipedreams.

This is fair and pleasant music, grave yet rapturous, from the pen of Marcel Dupré, a collection of introspective Vespers Antiphons which began as improvisations and proved to be so compelling that he was commissioned to later write them down. On our next Pipedreams program, these and other such works by Benjamin Britten, Larry King, and William Mathias provide startling contrast to outspoken scores by Percy Whitlock, Daniel Gawthrop, Barbara Harbach, and Brent Weaver, where heraldic brilliance calls us to attention and involvement. It’s a program of contrasts, brilliant and subdued, theatrical and introspective, with instrumental and choral pieces dedicated to color and collective prayer. From the Cathedral in Mallaga to Trinity Church, Wall Street, delight in variety Fanfares and Antiphons, this week on Pipedreams.

This week we’ve raided the Pipedreams archive and have come up with a few surprises in celebration of history’s foremost pipe organ master.

This week we celebrate the 125th anniversary of Canada’s most prominent organ maker: Casavant Frères.

…concert performances from the 2008 National Convention of the American Guild of Organists.

…revisiting some engaging mechanical-instruments in Minneapolis-Saint Paul neighborhoods.

A summing up of the past year, with celebrations and memorial tributes, highlights of some exceptional recordings, and some glimpses into the future.