Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ - a glimpse of the great instrument

[issueagent]

Wow! Is that Chelsea Chen?!?

[PerrrfictKats]

Organ was blown apart with a stick of dynomite

[Shogunmiyuchan]

Is there a stoplist/specification list somewhere??

[GlamRockCowboy]

@Shogunmiyuchan The AGO magazine did quite a fine article on this instrument when it was first installed--including a complete stoplist. Search on the phrase "walt disney concert hall organ" and the link you need should come up without any problem.

[Zylstra555]

@Shogunmiyuchan Google "Organ Historical Society" and use the database (find it on the left-hand menu). It often has stop-lists and information about many organs.

[MrsNewguy]

from a distance... it looks like a "super-size" container of McDonald's fries!!! Too Funny!

[Kaledrums]

Kind of has that Aeolian Skinner sound

[jvdurante84]

pls tell us who built this organ.

[MANTLEBERG]

BRILLIANT THANKS.

[Silverdaddy101]

Every time I see a pic of that organ, I just wanna go in there and stand those pipes upright. Who created this mess?

[Owdfolkie]

I like the way they've arranged the console as an homage to Cavaille Coll!

[105Aries]

@lovemetuheartbtrue pls. write more defending me vs. aries  thank u thank u

[105Aries]

@heartbtrue thank u

[shyboston]

Does anyone know if any of the pipes came from other organs? For some reason, I have it in mind that a wonderful organ was removed from a condemned theater in San Francisco (1960s??), the pipes went to storage and ended up in the Walt Disney Theater. Does this general story ring true for anyone with knowledge of the Walt Disney organ? Thanks!

[firefighter14530]

@shyboston The organ you are thinking of is the San Francisco Fox Wurlitzer. That organ is installed in the El Capitan theatre in Hollywood...Which is indeed owned by Disney.

[Cillitpeng]

What a bombastic design!

[jdale1259]

Interesting story but imagine how much better the video would be if Phil Smith's commentary was separated more by the sound of the organ itself!

[desabrac]

amasing and gorgeous

[acoustics101]

I'd love to someday hear this instrument live!

[artieness]

itachisharkak, many apologies I accidently clicked on remove rather than reply to your comment.

In answer to your question of this unique and exquisite organ pipe facade, the curved wooden pipes (the frenchfries as most describe but I must tell you its a work of art as well as fully speaking pipes) are the 32' Violonbasse and 32' Contre Basson ranks :) Love this instrument!

[thetriumpharch]

@artieness I really think it's a shamefull that you people don't wright who actually BUILT the instrument!!! Manuel Rosales was in charge of voicing and tuning!!! NOT of building the instrument or even for puting it together!!! It was built by GLATER GOETZ ORBELBAU, a german company... and Frank Gehry certainly did not design the instrument... he made sketches for the visual aspect of the facade of the organ!!! In fact, I seriously doubt he knows anything about organ building at all...

[astrokmb1]

I was at the hall last night (halloween) for the showing of the original Nosferatu with organ accompaniment....OMG, it was an absolutely incredible experience! i'd never heard a pipe organ performance before; what a way to introduce myself to the instrument. WOW!

[bombarde1701]

Ives worked on this organ a couple times.

[KE5RHD]

The Carillon-Sortie was one of the first tunes that I heard and took interest in the pipe organ.

[carlsjoseph13]

very different pipe organ!!! i think it is oune of a kind...

[Larsky1010]

You can see why some people refer to this instrument as the "French fry organ"! Imagine the size of the Coke that would come with this!

[Irmaherms]

hopefully no one takes offence to this, being that I my self am an Organist.

the organ looks like a bomb went off in the middle and now all the pipes are out of whack

pretty cool

[passacaglia28]

What an amazingly awesome organ!

[ShesInLosAngeles]

I attended a viewing of the 1925 version of the Phantom of the Opera at the Disney Concert Hall last year. The organist and the organ were really the stars of the evening. Moving. Thrilling. Wonderful.

[bombarde1701]

and theres Chelsea Chen playing the Carillon-Sortie...this must have been in preparation for her recital a couple months ago...a great recital I was there!

[bombarde1701]

Hey theres Phil!! I've worked on this organ

[artieness]

I love Phil, he's such a sweetie and funny :) Our church has hired him to play with our choir a couple of Bach cantata's now. :)

[virginiaorganbuilder]

There are no tin/zinc alloys in organs (if that's even possible)!

[halfblack72]

no that's actually very common. i play on an organ that is a tin/lead alloy

[virginiaorganbuilder]

Right! Tin and lead, but not tin and zinc...at least not mixed together as an alloy,

[halfblack72]

oo my bad i thought you wrote tin/lead

[artieness]

Lol, no you are indeed correct. Mind you, I believe it is the editor(s) at CNN cutting this video together that wouldn't know what Phil is talking about re the metals. The audio bites and video was filmed on location so it's obvious his interview was cut and reduced for editing purposes. But thank you for pointing it out ;)

[virginiaorganbuilder]

Reporters and organ builders have always had an uneasy relationship. I'm certainly glad for media coverage, but I grit my teeth every time in anticipation of the inevitable errors!

[KawhackitaRag]

Very nice sounding organ!

[tyuru2]

...and this is a concert hall owned by Disney?

[artieness]

No, it's owned by the City of Los Angeles. It's so named because the major donor, Lillian Disney, named it after her late husband, in honor of his contribution and passion for performance arts.