Listening to Organ Music
The organ is called the king of instruments for a reason. It is capable of producing some of the most powerful and beautiful sounds you can imagine. It is like having an orchestra at your fingertips, with flutes, clarinets, oboes, trumpets, tubas, strings, chimes, and dozens of other instruments and permutations at your beck and call. You can not only arrange your own orchestrations, but play every instrument at the same time. Because of that, it requires your entire body to play, with hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mind constantly engaged and working with synchronicity.
I love listening to the king of instruments as often as possible. Perhaps this is because I’m a self-taught organist. Listening to great performances or inspired performers helps me understand the potential of this mighty instrument. I watch videos to observe pedal techniques, chord fingering, and the registration strategies used throughout a performance. I explore different arrangements of the same song that highlight different aspects and bring color to the performance. And as I do this, I feel a sense of peace, happiness, and joy.
Favorite YouTube Channels
Favorite Music Streams
Pipedreams is a production of Minnesota Public Radio and was founded in 1982 by host Michael Barone. During the program you can listen to well-constructed recitals of organ music from their comprehensive broadcast archives, and follow live concerts with downloadable program listings.
BBC Choral Evensong This is a weekly broadcast of Choral Evensong, the BBC’s longest-running program. It features the Anglican service of choral evensong (sung evening prayer) live from cathedrals, university college chapels and churches throughout the United Kingdom.
Organlive is a listener-supported internet audio station focusing on classical organ music: as each track is played you get plenty of information and links around the music, the album, the organ and the organist.
Positively Baroque is a sister station to Organlive, streaming only organ music of the Baroque period.
The Organ Experience plays 30 minute to 2 hour blocks of classical organ music round a theme, such as, Organs by Mander, Music from North America or Organs of Quebec.
Organroxx was founded in 2016 by Nico Declerck, who is based in Belgium. The playlists are organized around a daily theme, such as a particular organist, instrument, or composer.