1912 Austin; Kotzschmar Memorial Organ organ at Merrill Auditorium, Portland, Maine

It’s an exciting discovery. On beyond the rock-bound coast, the lobsters and L.L. Bean, the state of Maine is a state of musicorgan music, specifically, as we reveal during a Down East tour with the Organ Historical Society of intriguing instruments from Saco to Stockton Springs. Thomas Murray plays the famous Kotzschmar organ at Portland’s City Hall, Marvin Mills explores a century-old Jardine organ in Yarmouth, Brian Jones plays a march in Turner Village, and Dana Robinson and Paul Tegels go the four-hand route on the 140-year-old Hook instrument at Saint John’s Church in Bangor. Join host Michael Barone for this idyllic trip through the highways and byways of Maine.

On this week’s Pipedreams program, we’ll visit the far northeastern United States to listen to some historic organs in Maine. We’ll hear instruments from Lewiston, Newcastle, Augusta, and Bangor, where at Saint John’s Roman Catholic Church a superb 140-year-old instrument by the famous Hook Brothers of Boston still stirs the soul. Plus, we’ll stop by Merrill Auditorium at Portland’s City Hall where the recently renovated 1912 Kotzschmar Organ, America’s first municipal pipe organ, entertains thousands visitors each year. Ray Cornils, the Kotzschmar organist, shares some insights and spreads the word about special summer events keeping popular interest in the pipe organ alive throughout the state. From up north and down east, our music’s from the state of Maine. It’s The Maine Thing this week on Pipedreams.

We tug on the rope of opportunity during our next Pipedreams broadcast, and rejoice in the tintinabulation of bell music. Organ composers are not alone in finding the sounds of bells and chime themes irresistible. Our timeless collection embraces the French Baroque, the British Cathedral, and even the hills of Hollywood, where such diverse artists as George Wright, Simon Preston, George Thalben-Ball and Thomas Murray celebrate with clangorous abandon the creativity of Louis Vierne, Percy Faith, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, and many others, fourteen composers all told, who have written carillon compositions which will jangle your chimes. Church bells, tower bells, carillons, winter sleighrides and even a Brazilian vacation are conjured up this weeks music for the King of Instruments. “Ring Those Bells!” a clangorous collection, this week on Pipedreams.

Seasons change, the days get shorter, and darkness seems more prevalent; it’s no wonder we become introspective at this time of year. Our next Pipedreams program plays with that theme, and the notion of expectation that comes as part of the package. Winter descends, and old chorales and chants for the season call out in earnestness and hope. We follow the Psalmist’s admonition and look to the hills for help. Is it all about hunger? In the end, music provides the key, and a dozen recitalists, plus choirs from Dallas, Texas; Bangor, Maine; Stockholm and Indianapolis ask the questions and resolve to find solutions—uncertainty, with a purpose, leads to an harmonious resolve. We acknowledge Advent Anticipation, this week on Pipedreams.

It’s time to take the organ out of its religious context, and enjoy it out of doors at Balboa Park in San Diego. We’ll also visit other venues where summer concerts win new friends for the King of Instruments. From the Methuen Music Hall in Massachusetts to the Mormon Tabernacle, from Balboa Park in San Diego to the Berks County Museum in Pennsylvania, we celebrate a season of adventure and discovery, a sampler of seasonal recital venues coast to coast. It’s all about having some Summer Fun.

This week’s show is a convenient collector’s guide to remarkable recordings featuring American performers and instruments.

A conversation with recitalist and recording engineer/producer Fred Hohman, who introduces performances from his enterprising CD/video label Pro Organo.

…celebrate one of America’s foremost veteran teachers, church musicians and recitalists with his own words and compositions.

…If you’re out and about across the country, some summer organ concerts could be part of your travel plans.

…on the occasion of the bicentennial of his birth, we enjoy some intriguing scores that Robert Schumann composed in 1845…originally not for the pipe organ!

…Selected performances from venues around the country where the pipe organ generates special attention.

…we prelude the upcoming centenary of the oldest working municipal pipe organ in the United States, the famed Kotzschmar Memorial Organ in Merrill Auditorium, the pride of Portland, Maine!

…the lively and lovely voices of resilient American pipe organs are celebrated by the Organ Historical Society throughout New England.

…celebrate one of America's foremost veteran teachers, church musicians and recitalists with his own words and compositions.

…we highlight a few of the famous pipe organs for which the summer season usually is particularly active.

…With reflections on and forecasts of some matters of consequence in the world of the &ldqou;King of Instruments”.

…A disparate grouping of mostly unusual opportunities for the acoustic embellishment of your June nuptials.

…Having fun with more of the recently revived original compositions and remarkable transcriptions of the once-most-popular organist, Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934) The highest paid organist at the height of his career, Lemare was resident music for the cities of San Francisco, Chattanooga and Portland, and the popularity he enjoyed has not been rivaled by any subsequent virtuoso.

…Going on Record....the spring quarterly sampler of recent releases in review.

A tribute to the oldest continuously functional organ-building firm in the United States, Austin Organs, Inc., of Hartford, CT.

portraits of four historic instruments, in Portland and Bangor, Maine; Ocean Grove, New Jersey; and Round Lake, New York, famous for their summer concert schedules.