Stars and Stops: An Organ Odyssey Across America (Part 2)

We’re shifting gears now—from our elegant 1893 Steere organ to this glorious beast: the L.W. Blackinton organ, currently the largest pipe organ in San Diego County. Let’s call what you just heard characterful chamber music. Well, now comes symphonic muscle with sparkle.

This half of the program moves us into other territory indeed: a teenage Charles Ives inventing musical chaos with patriotic flair, James Horner tugging heartstrings with a cinematic thistle, and P.D.Q. Bach doing… whatever it is that P.D.Q. Bach does. You’ll also hear powerful works rooted in African American history from Adolphus Hailstork and Florence Price before I wrap things up with a very grand, and naturally very American, take on The Star-Spangled Banner.

Ives' Variations on "America" (Selections)
0:00 Introduction
2:27 Movement IV
3:44 Interlude 2
4:09 Part of Movement V & Coda

Horner's A Gift of a Thistle (from Braveheart), arr. Jonny Music
5:27 A Gift of a Thistle

P.D.Q. Bach's Three Chorale Based Piecelets (Selection)
7:09 “Chorale Prelude on an American Hymn for the Last Sunday Before the Fourth Day of the Seventh Month After New Year’s Eve”

8:38 Hailstork's Oh Freedom!

11:51 Price's Adoration

Buck's Concert Variations on Star-Spangled Banner (Selections)
15:31 Theme
17:18 Movement IV
19:33 Movement III with improvised pedal ending

Thank you for joining me on this journey across American soundscapes—through hymns and humor, spirituals and songs, cinema and celebration. From the quiet dignity of Adoration to the bombast of Buck’s Variations, today’s program reflects the complexity, creativity, and courage of the American musical spirit. May these stops along the way offer both inspiration and enjoyment as we honor 249 years of independence—one note at a time.