Davids Trip to ND - Wanamaker Store Part I

Lunchconcert at the Wanamaker organ in Philadelphia. 6 manuals, god knows how many stops and a string manual with 60 strings, all of them tuned sharp and flat as well. Mengelicious!

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Travel & Events

Tags:

• Notre
• Dame
• University
• America
• Philadelphia
• Wanamaker
• organ

[jordaniraz]

well isn't the organ in Boardwalk Hall virtually unplayable now?

[acchos]

loudness wasnt the goal with the midmer losh.

The midmer losh was a bigger challenge than the wanamaker to built. The midmer losh is richer in harmonics as well. Most of the midmer losh is on 15-30" wind, but listening to it, you would know as the space it has to fill is so huge, 500ft by 300ft and 140ft high, or over 15 million cubic ft. The midmer losh is also an instrument which had to be capable of playing nearly every genre of music. The wanamaker was also built for volume.

[Organlover1960]

Thats because subtlety and sophistication was the goal of the buliders of the Wanamaker organ, not just loudness.

[edders05]

I know, but I am speaking of the idea that some people hold that an organ of, say, 200 stops, is automatically better than a 50 stop instrument.

[acchos]

WEll it really depends on where it is. A small instrument wouldnt fill teh building thats 500ft long, 350ft wide and 137ft high with sound, thats why the midmer losh is so big, it has to play music for every single event held in the hall, big show, racing, pageants, everything, so it has classical stops, baroque stops, theatre stops, romantic stops, symphonic stops you name it its there.

[edders05]

Do you actually mean that? Bigger certainly does not mean better! A 1235 stop instrument is an organ in technicality, but cannot achieve the tone and style of smaller instruments that are a pleasant whole.

[acchos]

The wanamaker organ was completed before construction on the midmer losh started.

At the time tese organs were being built every one wanted bigger, and that meant better. Emerson richards who designed the ML also had his aim of having the largest organ in the world right from the start.

[DaPianistwitBass]

say, the Wanamaker looks like a scaled-down version of the Midmer-Losh Organ. The String Division is like the three String Organs put together, the Ethereal is like the Fanfare, and the non-installed Stentor is like the non-installed Unenclosed Swell.

[acchos]

they have special concerts at night to allow the organ to be played to the max.

[acchos]

the organ in Boardwalk hall i at least 4 times louder than the wanamaker as well, it has 4 stops on 100 inches of wind pressure and several on 50 inches of wind, the wanamaker currently uses 25 at most.