Birminghams Largest Pipe Organ

A little film I made about the organ in Birmingham's Symphony Hall, which stands five stories high!

Here's a brief overview:

The Symphony Organ was designed & built by hand using
traditional craftsmanship by Johannes Klais Orgelbau.
The organ has over 6,000 pipes, which stretch over 2½ miles when laid end to end & weigh more than 30 tonnes.

The pipes, ranging from 32 foot to 6 inches in length, are made from a range of woods and metals including oak, fir & pine plus soft metal alloys from tin, lead, & zinc.

It is 5 stories high & is nearly 65 feet tall, it contains wood from over 20 massive specially grown trees. The organ has 2 full playing consoles.

Thanks for watching!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• pipe
• organ
• Symphony
• Hall
• birmingham
• england
• darren
• pollard
• birminghams
• largest

[MrPipeCat]

Nice video. Nice piece as well. When was this filmed?

[darrenpollard1st]

@MrPipeCat 2004, cheers mate.

[Brandotuomikoski]

Hmm that is not the 1st or 2nd or even the 3rd largets organ in the world. There are several that are much larger. This is not near the top in size of organs. This is just a mid sized concert hall organ. The largest organ has over 33,000 pipes and a 7 manual console.

[darrenpollard1st]

It was the largest when I filmed it. Not looked into it since I made this, so thanks for the info!

[therhythmicmenace]

Nice little vid, were you allowed to play it?

[darrenpollard1st]

I never asked! I did go inside the thing though & filmed from the 5th story. A very impressive organ indeed! : )

[SystemPause]

It's an impressive organ, much like mine.

[RevolutionaryJam]

mine is bigger, har har

[CDB8939]

@Brandotuomikoski Unfortunately that organ in Atlantic City New Jersey has not functioned for some years so no longer counts as the largest. The largest playable organ is in Macy's, Philadelphia with 28,482 pipes. The Royal Albert Hall Organ, London was the largest in the world when it was bulit in 1871. It is now the 2nd largest in the UK with 9,997 pipes, the largest in the UK is once again is Liverpool Cathedral with 10,267 pipes. St Georges hall is 3rd, Birmingham has never been the largest.

[meknight77]

@darrenpollard1st

Sorry mate, but this Organ was never the largest in Birmingham, the UK, let alone the World.

I've no idea why the infatuation with size anyway!

It's a very nice instrument with some wonderful stops, but the biggest it is not!

Birmingham should be very proud of this concert Organ and more importantly, the music played on it!

[MeinnameistDreck]

I would like to have seen the organ without the camera spinning round throughout the video.....

[Electron1944]

Most amusing comment SystemPause, just be certain that if you jump into bed sporting a 16 foot Bourdon, it isn't mitred.

[goodchappy]

The Royal Albert Hall organ (9999 pipes) and the Organ in the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool (10268 pipes) are the largest organs in the UK!

[MrPipeCat]

@TheKingOfAmazement This was the largest at the time this video was taken.

[TheKingOfAmazement]

sorry but it isn't the largest pipe organ although its pretty big

[danielmkubacki]

You will hace to contend with the Wanamaker Organ and the atlantic city Bordwalk Hall organ thay are the larges organs in the world.