Organ Safari

Of all the big beasts on the Savannah, there is none larger than the Subcontra C of the principal 32’ of the Hofkirche St. Leodegar Organ in Lucerne. Join intrepid explorers Leah and Simon, and their guide Wolfgang Sieber, as they track down the world's largest organ pipe — a pipe that could swallow you whole.

Perhaps we should have called the episode "The Theatre Organ", because the specimens we examine are all American. Pith helmets girded tight, safariers Leah and Simon venture into the wilds of California to study this little-understood animal. 

In our many years of safariing, this is the craziest piece of pipe organ DIY we have ever come across. Brother Jorge's Organ San Patricio contains parts of dozens of other instruments and has been a lifetime in the making.

His stupefying single-mindedness yet again on display, Simon brings us another contender for the world's oldest organ—this time from the wilds of a Swiss mountaintop. Oldest or not, the organ at the Valère Basilia in Sion, Switzerland is a singularly fascinating beast.

Simon rolls a natural twenty on his charisma check to explain to Leah his visit to the wondrous workshop of the Fratelli Ruffatti, prominent international organ builders. In addition to the D&Desque forges and foundries, we learned about the Ruffatti-Canada connection and some inside stories from the Crystal Cathedral.

We examine a New World species, whose natural habitat is not a cathedral or a hockey arena, but rather it makes its home in the out of doors. The Spreckels Organ in San Diego is the world's largest outdoor organ, and playing and maintaining it can be quite tricky. Come and visit this American landmark with us.

Our safari takes us to a church that is keeping the organ popular, and an organ that epitomizes the Reform Movement.

The Norrlanda organ, currently in a museum in Stockholm, is reckoned to be the oldest surviving organ fragments in the world. There is a working replica at the Orgelbaumuseum in Ostheim, Germany—a paradisiacal museum dedicated to the building of organs.

We investigate the beautiful Renaissance Klangfarbe of a historic instrument in the Wilhelmsburg Castle at Schmaaaaalkalden.

Of all the weird species spotted on this safari, there is none stranger than the Europaorgel—a crazy chimera of sounds from all the countries of Europe. Plus some outlandish mutations.

All the beasts of the veldt, or so it seems, have gathered at the Sint Bavo waterhole in Haarlem for the International Organ Festival.

In an attempt satisfy his Captain-Ahab-esque obsession with finding the oldest organ in the world, Simon journeys to the St Andreas church in Ostönnen.

In the last episode involving our experienced wilderness tracker Ed, we visit the Schnitger organ in Hamburg's Jacobikirche. In the words of Albert Schweitzer: "This organ will become the pilgrimage destination of all organists of the old and the new world." Well, it has for at least one lucky Canadian.

Simon spends a day in the bush with the reknowned Walcker tribe, and learns much from their oral history.

Buxtehude and Bach, bombs and beautiful organs, and a blend of blood-curdling artwork—just in time for Halloween. Join safarist Simon and our guest, the mad trapper Edward Ocampo-Gooding as they visit the churches and organs of Lubeck, Germany.

After having disappeared for a month, Simon wanders out of the jungle with exciting tales of savage Dutch organs. Featuring the lovely Bernard Winsemius.

Simon's friend Edward has flown in to the veld to be our guide for the very wild ASLSP project in Halberstadt.

The 800-pound gorilla of the organ-building world, Cavaillé-Coll, built his first organ in Saint-Denis in 1841. To see it in the wild, Simon and Leah have to brave the harshest region yet on the safari: downtown Paris.

We have spoored a magnificent specimen of an endangered species, the French classical organ, in the cathedral of Poitiers.

Two weary travelers look back on a month in the Iberian Peninsula: its deserts, its organs and its misadventures.