Organ matters - Organs matter!

http://www.cathedralartsproject.org/Events.asp

Includes other events including a masterclass!

Enjoy...

Eric

Link to the Church's website, including concert schedule, in Organ Concerts section...
Eric

Hmmm.... One realizes there are TWO organs installed in  what is now called Boardwalk Hall... and the second, smaller instrument built by Kimball installed in the Ballroom, was capable of being played with paper rolls... The ACCHOS in their restoration of this instrument has modernized the  electric action with solid-state relays and the Kimball organ once restoration is completed (any day now) will be playable from a MIDI interface... The console was sent to Las Vegas NV for restoration and MIDI conversion, and if memory serves me if the pipework gets done first the organ can still be played from
a MIDI source.

Both Boardwalk Hall organs thus "blur the lines" between what one defines as a "theatre" versus "classical" or even "fair" organ based on previously postulated definitions... Especially the Midmer-Losh... as some of its manuals are fitted for Second Touch :o :o :o  has a full percussion section including a Grand Piano. :o :o :o

So... What exactly IS the world's biggest musical instrument?  My best guess is one could call it an "everything organ" :o and leave it at that ;)

Eric

http://www.rwgiangiulio.com/

I keep forgetting I am NOT the only one in the world with the slowest serviceable internet connection :D

That page fully describes the construction of both organs. 8) 8) 8)

QuoteThis builder looks far from amateur.

At the time he constructed the first one, he was "between jobs"... He now works for Martin  Pasi 8)

8)http://events.plu.edu/show-event.php?event_id=1040164 8)


Mary Baker Russel Music Center, Lagerquist Concert Hall

Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma Washington, USA

Following is a link to more information about this organ, along with reviews of a record made of this instrument:

http://www.gothic-catalog.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LRCD%2D1025&Show=TechSpecs

//

Eric
KB7DQH

Had a look at that builder's website...  Check out Opus 2... and its for sale 8)

Eric
KB7DQH

Well... Saw your invite "elsewhere on the web"... OK, all right, I confess... the Hauptwerk forum...
So I did as instructed prior to receiving instruction ;D ;D and here I am.

I am not sure how many other forums like this one exist but if you have gone to the trouble to start this one, I am guessing you were looking to build "something completely different" 8) (usually followed by Liberty Bell March  on a long-discontinued British TV comedy show ;D ;D

I have not joined the Hauptwerk forum mainly because of its narrow focus.  Commenting on Youtube videos is a bit clunky at best especially on a slow internet connection suitable only for text exchanges... with a newer old computer...  although I can venture forth with the "wireless apparatus" equipped notebook and enjoy a high-speed connection from time to time.

Be patient my friend, in time the virility that is the internet will likely catch on and things may get completely out of hand...  but that's why we are here, isn't it?

Eric

Pipedreams-- a two-hour weekly radio program carried by National Public Radio here in the USA and some programming available online also.  Check www.npr.org for programming information.
One has to root around on that site but information is there, somewhere,  like          http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/

Locally our "for-profit"  KING-FM, 98.1, carries an hour-long program featuring choral/organ music,
titled "The Organ Loft"... available over the air on Sunday evenings at Ten PM local time.

Will  have to dig around and see what the Seattle Symphony is getting up to, as their recently (within the last decade or so) built concert facility, Benaroya Hall has a fine example of a C. B. Fisk mechanical action instrument  installed there.

Got on the forum too late to report on the "Silent Movie Monday" activity at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Seattle, Washington.  They have a fine example of a well-maintained Wurlitzer Publix 1, which accompanies the movies.  (Much ad space purchased during the previously mentioned "organ loft" program ;D)   

And I am sure Pacific Lutheran University will at some point invite the public to Lagerquist Hall to hear the Paul Fritts Magnum Opus once again.  Link has details of the instrument and review of an album I wish to purchase, someday  ;)

http://www.gothic-catalog.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=LRCD%2D1025&Show=TechSpecs

Enjoy!
Eric

Occasionally the Organ will sneak into popular culture, "hiding in plain view" so to speak.

Some examples from my music collection include the first minute and twenty seconds of  an Alan Parsons Project "classic", "don't let it show" first appearing on their "I, Robot" album.  Use of a real pipe organ in the beginning of that piece brilliantly sets the stage for the whole song... A friend seemed to think they used a Moog synthesizer but on the CD one trained to listen for such things can clearly make out the sound of the tracker action!  Hauptwerk doesn't do that, at least on the performances I have downloaded from Contrebombarde.com... (Hmmm. topic for another day? ;)

Danny Elfman scored  Batman-The Motion Picture,  and along with the orchestra the organ appears.


All of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies feature some really good stuff...  and not just the Organ! 

And the "new-age" modified pedal harpist Andreas Vollenweider has managed to sneak his father
(and the Organ of the Grossmunster) onto a couple of his albums also.

Now it is possible to look at some of the "stats" on "who watches what" on Youtube, and the organ stuff seems to draw an encouraging audience, most of the vids seem to be enjoyed most by males
aged 13 to 18!  Kind of an interesting demographic, eh?

Eric

And "if you got the bread" there is a place that may still be for sale not far from here in Kirkland, WA,
home (not as big as Hammerwood ;D  1-1/2 acres,   home has concert hall complete with a Pasi Opus 5 pipe organ! 

I have the real-estate broker's online video favorited on my Youtube channel.

www.youtube.com/user/kb7dqh  should get you there, just scan down the favorites.

Eric
KB7DQH

Google Strikes again!  If nobody on the forum has experienced this organ in person (yet) I have found at least one online source of a CD with music featuring this organ ;D

at hbdirect.com 

More to follow...

Eric

No correct hits on Youtube but Google pulled up a gem-- but you will have to read about it in Inspirational Organs ;D ;D ;D

oops... :-[ Organ built in 2003, but no matter...  Glad my mucking about with a full head of steam in the search engine has been a benefit ;D

For the newbie music theoreticians out there the Wikipedia has some good background information on
temperament which I would think useful to anyone not familiar with the term.

I might have a go at throwing  "St. Cecilia's" and "organ" into the Youtube search and see what, if anything, pops out. ;D

Believe it or not,  that thing inspired me to completely rethink how I reproduce sound in my house!

I now have hacked four holes into an otherwise serviceable door, added plywood to reinforce, (hollow core construction :o   and four subwoofers I rebuilt by hand  which  anyone else would have pitched into the bin!   

Its a good thing the power amplifier that runs all that has overcurrent protection as it shuts down before the speakers bottom out if I run the gains up.  Likely this has saved the speakers from certain  destruction.   Moreover this functions as a hearing protection device as the one-meter SPL approaches the limits of my metering equipment 8) 

6666 pipes!  Someone uploaded some music by J.L. Krebs played on that instrument...  Wow!

I would have to agree, this instrument has a "sound like no other"... It speaks with an authority that
no other instrument I have heard can duplicate... despite any faults in the instrument or with the recording techniques used...

A shame really it has never been fully playable since the hurricane damage in 1944, and no publicly released recording sessions made prior to that date.

But the sound from just one of its chambers still chills the spine and tingles the nerves... and shakes the house with the stereo turned up, but then I have an Infinite Baffle subwoofer with four 12" speakers driven with about 400W rms...  Can't wait to hear it fully operational...

Eric

Which is why in 2005 a church in Nebraska installed a dual-temperament, mechanical action pipe organ...  Yes, a real, honest-to-God air-breathing pipe organ...

See www.pasiorgans.com/diapason.html

for details...