Man Wants Biggest Organ for His Living Room

newsmax.com ^ | 9-20-03 | With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[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, doesn’t 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 Forbe’s 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.

[kylaka]

Maybe you will enjoy this. (Pipe Dreams)

They've upgraded their feed so that is now listenable, but still just short of recorable, and they have lots of nice pictures of pipes.

[ladyinred]

I get ads for them in my email all the time. They are useless to me, would be glad to forward them to him! :-)

[sinkspur]

I am sincerely pleased to meet you. My friends look on me as some kind of antiquarian or oddity, since I tell them when my wife and I are attending an organ concert at the Morton Myerson Hall in Dallas (which has a magnificent concert organ whose creator escapes me).

Speaking of smaller organs, Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church in Lake Charles, La., has a small Wicks installed, and the organist had me enthralled with his postludes to the Christmas Mass last year. He played "Adeste Fideles" a la Virgil Fox-- which means lots of pedal and multi-keyboard dominance.

I don't mean to bug you, but which are your favorite organs? The best installations, large and small?

[ovrtaxt]

heheh . You said 'virgil'.

[fqued]

You may find this amusing, but I am very enthralled with the smaller mechanical (tracker) organs.
two of my favorites here in the Denver area are a small Ott tracker in Christ Church, and a moveable 4-rank Casavant positif organ owned by St. John's Cathedral.
I was highly impressed by a new Shuke tracker organ just installed at the University of Denver. We toured it during the tonal finishing stage, before the frand opening.

If you can get ahold of a copy of Blanton's book, "The Organ in Church Design," he has numerous photographs of some of the fine organs from around the world.

[ovrtaxt]

Useless?

Oh, you mean the ads.

[fqued]

Grand opening, not frand opening - I should proofread.

[sinkspur]

I figured this would be nothing but a thread of silly wanker jokes, and you organ nerds showed up and hijacked it! I feel outnumbered. :)

No need to shrink. Perhaps we can work this in parallel.

Phallic references are bound to spring forth when discussing organs.

I had no idea there were other pipe organ afficionados on FR.

[RadioAstronomer]

I too love organs. Thank you so much for the info. :-)

[calico44]

It's good to see so many organists and/or organ lovers here! I especially like the adding of stops during the postlude. It sounds like you may have experience doing this yourself. Effective........isn't it?

[kylaka]

Lemmie try again: Pipe Dreams

And that should be "recordable".

[sinkspur]

I couldn't get the link to work.

I'd love to see it.

[tophat9000]

The immense instrument is feed air (10,000 cubic feet per minute) via a 50hp, 440-volt blower

That a big organ /smirk off:>

[geedee]

My girlfriend wouldn't like that.

[fqued]

The immense instrument is feed air (10,000 cubic feet per minute) via a 50hp, 440-volt blower That a big organ /smirk off:>

You laugh, but I have been around a measly 25-hp organ blower, and it is rather terrifying.

[Nan48]

Life just ain't fair. Here's a guy who isn't an organist, but has this huge organ in his home. I AM an organist and would love to have my own pipe organ in my home to play. Isn't that the way it goes?

[ovrtaxt]

There's a couple of ladies across the street who have a 50hp, 440v blower. Or sucker. Or something. At least, I think it has a kick start...

[tophat9000]

Those things feel like a 30 pound bag of wet cement .........don’t ask;>

[calico44]

Some day I'd like to have a small organ in my home (2-manual, full 32-note pedalboard). I haven't begun to research, but I'm curious - what's the starting price range for a good quality but small, home-sized instrument?

[ovrtaxt]

You laugh, but I have been around a measly 25-hp organ blower, and it is rather terrifying.

I'll bet it's terrifying. Can you imagine 25 horses all blowing at once? You could end up in the emergency room.