2000 Casavant at Incarnation Lutheran Church, Shoreview, MN

The professional journals show an incredible stream of new organs, but when the national newspapers herald the installation of some lovely instrument, you get a convincing sense that the pipe organ is still a viabile medium for our modern times. In this week’s program, we celebrate two new instruments in Minnesota: the Noack organ at Saint Paul Seminary Chapel, and a new Casavant at Incarnation Lutheran Church, a Saint Paul suburb. We’ll also travel to the cathedral in Treviso, Italy, for a continental perspective. With music from Mozart to Messiaen, David Jenkins, Diane Belcher and Eric Lebrun put three new organs through the motions, proving that the art of the king of instruments is alive and well in the 21st century.

For hundreds of years, the pipe organ was played by mechanical action, with a direct and tangible link called a tracker between keyboard and wind chest. Late in the 19th century, electricity entered the scene and took over the roost for the better part of half a century. Electrity still is with us and has its place, but on this week’s show we return to tradition and review some recent instruments from across the country. Each organ was built with that tried and true mechanical linkage that works well in antique repertoire, of course, but also in romantic and contemporary works, too. Whether in a 19th century Bolero, a 20th century partita, or an 18th century concerto, modern mechanical action pipe organs maintain a time-honored tradition. With instruments in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Shoreview, Minnesota and Tacoma, Washington, we salute history and celebrate tomorrow in the company of our friends, the Tracker Backers.