All you pipe organ fans...

[sweetbeats]

Enjoyed an informal concert by Rick Parks on this pipe organ Sunday. WOW!

It was a treat.

Impressive to watch Mr. Parks and awe-inspiring to feel the sound.

 

[Bguzaldo]

Just looked him up on youtube, that must have been a great show! That wurly sounds amazing

 

[technoplayer]

That must have been amazing. I have been facinated by pipe organs since I was a kid. There was a huge roller rink called The Hub on Harlem avenue in Chicage we used to hang out at. The place was the size of an aircraft hanger. They had a Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ in a loft over the skating floor that provided the music to skate by. The sound of that instrument in that huge building was something I'll never forget.

 

[hilltop studios]

Hey Sweet !
My Dad played the pipe organ back in the silent movie days in many of the theaters in New York city. Sadly I wasn't born yet so I never got to witness any of that. I do remember some friends of his discovered that one of the very same instruments he had played on was rescued by a pipe organ buff who owned a bar in Surf City NJ. He had the console installed behind the bar and built some rooms around the bar with glass windows so you could actually see some of the instruments working as they were triggered from the console. My Dad's friends took him there as a surprise and I remember he had tears in his eyes playing it again after some 30 years had gone by. I seem to remember that the console was white but I don't remember what kind it was. Perhaps a wurlitzer ? Not sure if there were other brands as well. Sadly so many of those great instruments met the wrecking ball when talking movies came out. Regards, Dave

 

[leddy]

My church has a great organ and a very talented music director. You don't get to feel bass like that in your chest very often (that does not come from a subwoofer, anyway).

If I were wealthy, I would have one in my home.

Along with a nice B3 of course.

 

[briank]

"The organ now has 26 ranks, for a total of 1,778 pipes. The pipes range in size from a pencil up to 16’ in length. The four chambers above the proscenium arch contain 11 tons of pipe organ! "


I'll bet that was spectacular!

 

[Muckelroy]

My church has a great organ and a very talented music director. You don't get to feel bass like that in your chest very often (that does not come from a subwoofer, anyway).

There's nothing like it. No matter how hard you try, there's nothing like the real thing.

Actual air vibrating across harmonically balanced pipes (thousands of them) at the same time.

You can get a similar feeling when standing in front of an arch of brass musicians, say in a drum and bugle corps. But not to the capacity of 16', 32', or even 64' long pipes from a pipe organ. No instrument is so huge. Some of these pipes push at or near 20 Hz. Like a subwoofer, but so much more natural, and "what the crap is happening? Why is my whole body resonating?" kind of bass.

I used to take organ lessons. I was, still am, and always will be fascinated with pipe organs. Hammonds are nice too, but nothing beats pipe organs.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yah...and its not just the bass but dense chords of 4ths and 5ths shake the emotions too. He played excerpts from Phantom of the Opera and any concert etiquette about being silent during the performance went out the door as I uncontrollably uttered "Hoh my goodness!"

And even just the thrill of watching the mastery of an accomplished organist...how he can manage the three keyboards and the multiple pedal arrays and hit the different switches to change settings throughout each piece...so much finesse in the settings as well as the playing...it is a rediculously expressive instrument.

 

[zorf]

Our own HR moderator mshilarious is involved with pipe organs.
IINM, he may have even made his own.