Posted on 09/21/2003 8:23:56 PM PDT by ovrtaxt
Posted Saturday, Sept. 20, 2003 5:56 PM EDT Man Wants Biggest Organ for His Living Room Jasper Sanfilippo, a collector of musical devices, doesnt play the organ and neither does his wife, but he does have the distinction of owning the biggest organ in the world, which is on proud display in an oversized living room of his estate in Barrington Hills, Ill., according to a feature in Forbes magazine.
While Radio City's Wurlitzer, the world's second largest, has 4,500 pipes, Jasper's has 8,000, says Tom Hazleton, an acclaimed theater organist. "If this doesn't blow your socks off, nothing will," Hazleton says.
Sanfilippo built a 27,000-square-foot living room in which to house the biggest Wurlitzer pipe organ in captivity. The immense instrument is feed air (10,000 cubic feet per minute) via a 50hp, 440-volt blower and can play "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" with the same ease as a Debussy delicacy.
Fortunately for the non-player owner, the organ has a feature permitting the capture of keystrokes, recalling every note of every artist who's played at the Sanfilippos' home, as well as the tonal settings he chose -- and even the lighting in the room.
Included are buttons that summon thunder, surf, tom-toms and a glockenspiel, and a 32-note set of bells (the largest weighing 426 pounds).
Scoff if you like, but experts agree that Sanfilippo has created something extraordinary, says organist John Giacchi.
Victory at Sea, a favored selection, has palpable 25-foot swells.
Here in Stockton, CA, we had a hardware store / lumber yard with a Theater Organ installed... seems to me it was about 8000 pipes along with glockenspiels, bass drums, traps, chimes, horns, and a host of other musical gadgets. The owner lived about six house from me... his widow still does. The organ was sold to a pizza house when the hardware store closed. Tragically, the organ was destroyed in a fire when the pizza parlor owner decided insurance fraud was more lucrative than pizza.
Sacramento also had a "Pizza 'n' Pipes" parlor.
I assume you're a "pipist", my new term for pipe organ lovers.
Let's stay in touch.
We're strictly into pipe organ talk here, primarily concert, but some theatre.
We're the pipists, if you'd care to join.
Almost every organ listed on this page has many more pipes than this guy. The largest listed claims 33,114
I'll stay occupied for hours!
I now live in Las Vegas, they wouldn't know a Wurlitzer if a pipe hit them in the head!
The Riverside Church, while not among the largest, has a "Great Organ," as testified to by the personnas who performed on it, namely Virgil Fox and Frederick Swann.
The auditorium organ at Atlantic City Convention Hall is the Boeing 747 of pipe organs, with a console as intimidating as a 747's cockpit. This huge instrument has 33,112 pipes in 455 ranks (including a full-length 64' Diaphone Profunda, ten 32' ranks, and a potent manual and pedal reed under 100" pressure). The organ is powered by newly-installed blowers that approach 1,000 horsepower! The console, located on the stage of the 41,000-seat auditorium, has 7 manuals, 1,255 speaking stops, and hundreds of additional controls. A tour of the entire organ takes 4 1/2 hours.
Unfortunately, this monumental organ has never been fully playable for various reasons, and the combination action (vital on an organ of this size) hasn't worked for decades; currently, about 140 of ranks are playable, and many of those are often far out of tune. It's no wonder-- it would require three technicians working full time to maintain this organ (to say nothing of repairing it), and there is only one curator.
Although this organ was built in America's "terrible 20's, " it has a surprisingly progressive design, with many mutation stops, mixtures, and other upper work, which results in a bright, broad, and full sound. The ensemble of the playable 140 ranks, mostly on 20" pressure or higher, has been described as a "massive wall of sound," even from the far end of the auditorium (and maybe from the far end of the Atlantic Ocean outside the front doors). Somewhere in there is claimed to be America's first low-pressure (3 1/2") Positiv division of 9 Baroque ranks (the Unenclosed Choir). Oh, that's not all-- the Convention Hall's Ballroom (itself larger than Radio City Music Hall) has an excellent 1931 4-manual 55-rank Kimball hybrid concert/theater organ in good playing condition. And there's a great-sounding reed organ in the organ maintenance shop backstage.
Scotty's Castle in Death Valley has a very nice player theater organ...
That's 610 pipes over a story-and-a-half high! And, of course, we have the two-story-high Profunda!
Surely some philanthropist could see his way to enabling all of these ranks. The challenge would then beckon an organist capable of exercising this beast.
I'd pay big bucks to see that!
Thank you!
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