It is in the Place de la Musique, in Barrington, Illinois.
Website here.
The nucleus of the theatre organ, which was previously installed in the old music room (Wurlitzer opus #1571, built in 1927 for the Riviera Theatre in Omaha) has been expanded to 80 ranks of pipes. The overall result is the most versatile orchestral theatre pipe organ ever built. Behind the scrim are five chambers containing pipes, percussions, wind regulators and controls in a four-story-tall area. The console is patterned after the original from Chicago's Paradise Theatre; it is mounted on the original Peter Clark lift from the Granada Theatre, which raises it from the lower level cage enclosure up to concert playing position.
Mounted on the wall to the left are the 32' Diaphone pipes, and to the right are the 32' Bombarde pipes. A 32-note set of Deagan Tower Bells, the largest of which weighs 426 lb., hang on each side of the room.
They are activated by huge solenoids from their own console, the organ console, a roll player, and even the doorbell button. To the rear of the room, the 'Ethereal' pipe chamber in the attic echoes softly from the skylight area, while the brass 'Trumpet Imperial' and copper 'Bugle Battaglia' speak with great authority from the back wall. The organ is connected to a computer, which records the playing of the organist on computer disc, ready to be played back at any time. Spotlights and other lighting effects may also be recorded, so the lighting changes during a concert can be 'played back' with the music.
The grand piano connected to the pipe organ is a 9' Knabe concert grand with an Ampico 'A' reproducing player mechanism.
To the right of the console is a rare Deagan Piano-Vibraharp, which can be played by its own keyboard or from the organ console. Toward the rear of the room is a Spanish art case Steinway model A.R. Duo-Art reproducing piano, veneered in walnut with boxwood, pear and ebony inlay. A remote Duo-Art Concertola roll changer has been adapted to play Ampico rolls on the Knabe, or Duo-Art rolls on the Steinway, at the touch of a button on its control panel.
9 comments:
Very impressive. The fact that the console can rotate is, to me, even more impressive - how do you maintain connectivity to all the various, well, noisemakers, while the whole thing rotates. Excellent engineering, without a doubt.
Having played a pipe organ what I found most disconcerting was the fact that when you pressed a key the aural feedback was not instantaneous, as it is perceived to be, say, with a piano. Nope, you press a key, and eventually, the sound reaches your ear, after all the relays and other mechanical bits do their thing.
So, if you listen to hear what you played before proceeding, you have missed it. Or, if you just play, then you have to ignore the music that you are hearing. You have to choose one or the other. Otherwise you just kind of stutter along like a politician asked to tell the truth.
I steal from every musician I observe.
Learned a few bits from the organ player in this video.
Those folks need to hire me for a gig!
Hoffnung organ in action.
Some guys just like to display their organs on the internet.
Beware.
That is how Anthony Weiner got in trouble. Just sayn'
Theater organs are amazing things. Instead of just all the music parts they have a ton of sound effect parts too.
My dad buys, repairs, sells and installs pipe organs. He also repairs parlor (reed) organs.
He sits back and admires theater organs. :)
When very young I had some 10+ years of classical piano...but when I tried a large organ, it defeated me.
Shortly thereafter I gave up music for sports, like ice hockey and alpine ski racing.
The organ is a notoriously difficult instrument to master.
Even as an accomplished musician as Liberace could not master it. Because as you know Liberace played the piano but he sucked on the organ.
I spent a lot of time mastering a small Flentrop pipe organ, early English music (Byrd, Tallis, Gibbons ...) inspired by a Thurston Dart LP, long ago in college, on a forged Conservatory of Music ID.
Good on ya, rh - there is a Flentrop in Duke Chapel. Awesome reverb in that room - I used to spend Sunday afternoons in there listening to organ recitals. A Flentrop can be a great instrument in the right hands.
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