Friday, August 14, 2009

Wanamaker / Macy's Department Store Organ Philadelphia



In its present configuration, the Wanamaker Organ has 28,482 pipes in 461 ranks.[2] The organ console consists of six manuals with an array of stops and controls that command the organ. The organ's String Division forms the largest single organ chamber in the world. The instrument features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago.[2] The organ is famed for its orchestra-like sound, coming from pipes that are voiced softer than usual, allowing an unusually rich build-up because of the massing of pipe-tone families. The artistic obligation entailed by the creation of this instrument has always been honored, with two curators employed in its constant and scrupulous care. The organ, with its regular program of concerts and recitals, was maintained by Wanamaker's throughout the chain's history, even as the company's financial fortunes waxed and waned. This level of dedication was maintained when corporate parentage shifted from the Wanamaker family to Carter-Hawley-Hale Stores to Woodward & Lothrop to Lord & Taylor to Macy's.

LISTEN TO THE ORGAN:



Music played in the above program

SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN: H.M.S. Pinafore Overture

ROBERT HEBBLE: Homage to Fritz Kreisler (Londonderry Air)

LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Candide Overture

MARCEL DUPRÉ: The World Awaiting the Savior, from Symphonie-Passion, Op. 23




Music played in the above program


SIR EDWARD ELGAR: Empire March

ELGAR: Nimrod, and Finale, from Enigma Variations, Op. 86




Music played in the above program


LOUIS VIERNE: Toccata, from Pieces de fantasie, Op. 53

MARCEL DUPRÉ: Nativité-Crucifixion-Résurrection, from Symphonie-Passion, Op. 23

The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest operational[1] pipe organ in the world, located within a spacious 7-story court at Macys Center City (formerly Wanamaker's department store). The largest organ is the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ (which is barely functional). The Wanamaker organ is played twice a day, Monday through Saturday, and more frequently during the Christmas season. The organ is also featured at several special concerts held throughout the year, including events featuring the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble.









History

The Wanamaker Organ was originally built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, successors to the Murray M. Harris Organ Co., for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was designed to be the largest organ in the world, an imitation of a full-size orchestra with particularly complete resources of full organ tone including mixtures. In addition to its console, the organ was originally equipped with an automatic player that used punched rolls of paper, according to the Los Angeles Times of 1904.[3] It was designed by renowned organ theorist and architect George Ashdown Audsley.

Wild cost overruns plagued the project, with the result that Harris was ousted from his own company. With capital from stockholder Eben Smith, it was reorganized as the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, and finished at a cost of $105,000, $40,000 over budget. The Fair began (in late April, 1904) before the organ was fully installed in its temporary home, Festival Hall. It still was not entirely finished in September of that year, when Alexandre Guilmant, one of the most famous organists of the day, presented 40 very well-attended recitals on the organ.

Following the Fair, the organ was intended for permanent installation by the Kansas City Convention Hall. Indeed, the original console had a prominent "K C" on its music rack. This venture failed, bankrupting the L. A. Art Organ company after the Fair closed. There was a plan to exhibit the organ at Coney Island in New York City, but nothing came of this. The organ remained in its original home, the 1904 World's Fair.







The organ languished in storage at the Handlan warehouse in St. Louis until 1909, when it was bought by John Wanamaker for his new department store at 13th and Market Streets in Center City, Philadelphia. It took thirteen freight cars to move it to its new home, and two years for installation. It was first played on June 6, 1911, at the exact moment when British King George V was crowned. It was also featured later that year when U.S. President William Howard Taft dedicated the store.

Despite its then-unprecedented size (more than 10,000 pipes), it was judged inadequate to fill the seven-story Grand Court in which it was located, so Wanamaker's opened a private organ factory in the store attic, which was charged with enlarging the organ. The first project to enlarge the organ was the addition of 8,000 pipes between 1911 and 1917.

Wanamaker's sponsored many historic after-business-hours concerts on the Wanamaker Organ. The first, in 1919, featured Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra with organist Charles M. Courboin.[2] Every sales counter and fixture was removed for the free after-hours event, which attracted an audience of 15,000 from across the United States. Subsequently more of these "Musicians' Assemblies" were held, as were private recitals. For these events Wanamaker's opened a Concert Bureau under Alexander Russell and brought to America master organists Marcel Dupré and Louis Vierne, Nadia Boulanger, Marco Enrico Bossi, Alfred Hollins, and several others. (This agency, which worked in partnership with Canadian Bernard R. LaBerge, evolved into the Karen McFarlane Concert Agency of the present day.)



During his first recital on the organ, Dupré was so impressed with the instrument that he was inspired to improvise a musical depiction of the life of Jesus Christ. This was later published as his Symphonie-Passion.

In 1924, a new project to enlarge the organ began. Marcel Dupré and Charles M. Courboin were asked by Rodman Wanamaker, John Wanamaker's son, to "Work together to draw up a plan for the instrument. Use everything you have ever dreamed about." They were told there was no limit to the budget.

This project resulted in, among other things, the celebrated String Division, which occupies the largest organ chamber ever constructed, 67 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 16 feet high. During this project, the organ's current console was constructed in Wanamaker's private in-house pipe-organ factory, with six manuals and several hundred controls.

By 1930, when work on expanding the organ finally stopped, the organ had 28,482 pipes, and, if Rodman Wanamaker had not died in 1928, the organ would probably be even bigger.[4]

Plans were made for, among others, a Stentor division, a section of high-pressure diapasons and reeds. It was to be installed on the fifth floor, above the String Division, and would be playable from the sixth manual. However, it was never funded, and the sixth manual is now used to couple other divisions or play various solo voices from other divisions that are duplexed to this keyboard. [5]

Rodman Wanamaker was not interested in mere size, however, but in artistic organbuilding with finely crafted pipes and chests using the best materials and careful artisic consideration. The Wanamaker Organ console, built in the store organ shop by William Boone Fleming, is a work of art in its own right with heavy, durable construction, an ingenious layout of its pneumatic stop action and many unique features and conveniences.

Wanamaker also had a collection of 60 rare stringed instruments, the Wanamaker Cappella, that were used in conjunction with the store organs in Philadelphia and New York, and went on tour. They were dispersed after his death.

Following the sale of the store to the May Department Stores Co., in 1995, the Wanamaker's name was removed from the store (first as Wanamaker-Hecht's) in favor of Hecht's, but the organ and its concerts were retained. During the local re-naming of the Hecht's stores to Strawbridge's, the historic Wanamaker Store briefly took the name of its longtime rival Strawbridge's. The May Company began a complete restoration of the organ in 1997, as part of the store's final May Co. conversion into a Lord & Taylor. At that time the store area was reduced to three floors and additional panes of glass were put around the Grand Court on floors four and five, greatly enhancing the reverberation of the room.

The Philadelphia Orchestra returned to the Grand Court on September 27, 2008 for the premiere performance of Joseph Jongen's Symphonie Concertante (1926) on the organ for which it was written. The ticketed event, featuring soloist Peter Richard Conte, also includes the Bach/Stokowski arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Marcel Dupré's Cortege and Litany for Organ and Orchestra, and the world premiere of a Fanfare by Howard Shore, composer for the Lord of the Rings films. Shore visited the store in May 2008 to meet with Peter Richard Conte and hear the Wanamaker Organ. The Philadelphia Orchestra Concert was co-sponsored by the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ and was a benefit for that organization.[6]

Architectural layout
A view of the string division.

The pipes are laid out across five floors, with the sections situated as follows:

* 2nd floor south - Main Pedal 32′, Lower Swell, Great, Percussions
* 3rd floor south - Main Pedal, Chorus, Upper Swell, Choir/Enclosed Great, Solo, Vox Humana Chorus
* 4th floor south - String
* 4th floor west - Orchestral (adjacent to String)
* 7th floor south - Major Chimes, Ethereal
* 7th floor north - Echo

The 32′ Wood Open, 32′ Diaphone, and 32′ Metal Diapason pipes run the length of a little more than 2 stories, beginning on the second floor.[2]

Stoplist:

click
here


Wanamaker Organ Stoplist







The Stoplist




Choir

Double Dulciana 16
Dulciana 8
Open Diapason 8
Violin Diapason 8
Stopped Diapason 8
Concert Flute 8
Salicional 8
Quintadena 8
Vox Angelica 8
Vox Celeste 8
Keraulophone 8
Forest Flute 4
Salicet 4
Piccolo 2
Soft Cornet VI
Saxophone 16
Saxophone 8
English Horn 8
Clarinet 8

Great

Unenclosed Great

Sub Principal 32
Contra Gamba 16
Double Diapason 16
Sub Quint 10 2/3
Diapason Phonon 8
Diapason Major 8
First Diapason 8
Second Diapason 8
Third Diapason 8
Fourth Diapason 8
Gamba (2 ranks) 8
Major Tibia 8
Mezzo Tibia 8
Minor Tibia 8
Double Flute 8
Nazard Flute (2 ranks) 8
Octave 4
Mixture VIII
Harmonic Trumpet 8

Enclosed Great

Covered Tibia 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Quint 5 1/3
Harmonic Flute 4
Principal 4
Tierce 3 1/5
Octave Quint 2
Super Octave 2
Mixture VII
Double Trumpet 16
Tuba 8
Trumpet 8
Harmonic Clarion 4

Great Chorus

Chorus Diapason Magna 8
Chorus Stentorphone 8
Chorus First Diapason 8
Chorus Second Diapason 8
Chorus Third Diapason 8
Chorus Major Flute 8
Chorus Double Flute 8
Chorus Gamba 8
Chorus Flute 4
Chorus Octave 4
Chorus Nazard 2 2/3

Swell

Double Diapason 16
Soft Bourdon 16
Stentorphone 8
Horn Diapason 8
Violin Diapason 8
Bell Flute 8
Orchestral Flute 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Grand Flute (2 ranks) 8
Double Flute 8
Tibia Dura 8
Clarabella 8
Melodia 8
Soft Dulciana 8
Gamba Celeste (2 ranks) 8
Gamba 8
Quint Bourdon 5 1/3
Harmonic Flute (2 ranks) 4
First Octave 4
Second Octave 4
Nazard (prepared for) 2 2/3
Harmonic Piccolo 2
String Mixture V
Mixture VI
Bass Tuba 16
Bass Trombone 16
Contra Fagotto 16
Double Oboe Horn 16
Trombone 8
Tuba 8
Fagotto 8
Oboe 8
Trumpet 8
Horn 8
Bassett Horn 8
Clarinet 8
Clarinet (2 ranks) 8
Vox Humana (2 ranks) 8
Harmonic Clarion 4
Musette 4

Original String Division

Contra Bass 16
Violoncello 8
Viol 8
Viol 8
Viola 8
Quint Viol 5 1/3
Octave Viol 4
Violina 4
Tierce 3 1/5
Corroborating Mixture V
Viol Cornet IV

Solo

Double Open Diapason 16
Grand Viol 16
First Diapason 8
Second Diapason 8
Third Diapason 8
Violin Diapason 8
Viol 8
Viol 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Tierce Flute (2 ranks) 8
Chimney Flute 8
Clarabella 8
Gemshorn 8
Nazard Gamba (2 ranks) 8
Grand Gamba 8
Grand Gamba 8
Quintaphone 8
Quint Diapason 5 1/3
Octave 4
Harmonic Flute 4
Harmonic Tierce 3 1/5
Twelfth Harmonic 2 2/3
Piccolo Harmonic 2
Double Trumpet 16
Tuba 16
Trumpet 8
Soft Tuba 8
Cornopean 8
Ophicleide 8
Musette 8
Ophicleide 4
Soft Tuba 4
Grand Mixture VI
Mixture V
Mixture VI

Ethereal

Bourdon 16
First Open Diapason 8
Second Open Diapason 8
Clear Flute 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Double Flute 8
Quint Flute 8
Grand Gamba 8
Grand Gamba 8
Octavo 4
Harmonic Flute 4
Twelfth Harmonic 2 2/3
Harmonic Piccolo 2
Mixture IV
Tuba Profunda 16
Tuba Mirabilis 8
French Trumpet 8
Grand Clarinet 8
Post Horn 8
Tuba Clarion 4

Stentor

Not installed; used for playing any of the floating divisions.

Echo
(Floating)

Bourdon 16
Open Diapason 8
Violin Diapason 8
Stopped Diapason 8
Night Horn 8
Clarabella 8
Melodia 8
Orchestral Viol 8
Soft Viol 8
Soft Viol 8
Unda Maris (2 ranks) 8
Open Quint 5 1/3
Octave 4
Harmonic Flute 4
Mellow Flute 4
Cornet Mixture V
Mixture VI
Double Trumpet 16
Trumpet 8
Capped Oboe 8
Euphone 8
Vox Humana 8

Orchestral
(Floating)

Contra Quintadena 16
Duophone 8
Tibia 8
Covered Tibia 8
Concert Flute 8
Harmonic Flute 8
Mellow Flute 8
String Flute 8
Double Flute 8
Hollow Flute 8
Harmonic Flute 4
Orchestral Flute 4
Covered Flute 4
Octave 4
Harmonic Piccolo 2
Super Octave 2
English Horn 16
Bass Clarinet 16
Bass Saxophone 16
Bassoon 16
English Horn 8
Orchestral Clarinet 8
Orchestral Cromorne 8
Saxophone 8
Orchestral Bassoon 8
Bassett Horn 8
Oboe 8
Orchestral Oboe 8
Orchestral Trumpet 8
First French Horn 8
Second French Horn 8
Third French Horn 8
Kinura 8
Muted Cornet 8

Vox Humana Chorus
(Floating)

Vox Humana 16
First Vox Humana 8
Second Vox Humana 8
Third Vox Humana 8
Fourth Vox Humana 8
Fifth Vox Humana 8
Sixth Vox Humana 8
Seventh Vox Humana 8

String
(Floating)

Violone 16
First Contra Gamba 16
Second Contra Gamba 16
First Contra Viol 16
Second Contra Viol 16
First Viol 16
Second Viol 16
Violin Diapason 8
Gamba 8
Nazard Gamba (2 ranks) 8
Nazard Gamba (2 ranks) 8
First 'Cello 8
First 'Cello 8
First 'Cello 8
Second 'Cello 8
Second 'Cello 8
Second 'Cello 8
First Orchestral Violin 8
First Orchestral Violin 8
First Orchestral Violin 8
Second Orchestral Violin 8
Second Orchestral Violin 8
Second Orchestral Violin 8
Third Orchestral Violin 8
Third Orchestral Violin 8
Third Orchestral Violin 8
Fourth Orchestral Violin 8
Fourth Orchestral Violin 8
Fourth Orchestral Violin 8
Fifth Orchestral Violin 8
Fifth Orchestral Violin 8
Fifth Orchestral Violin 8
Sixth Orchestral Violin 8
Sixth Orchestral Violin 8
Sixth Orchestral Violin 8
First Muted Violin 8
First Muted Violin 8
First Muted Violin 8
Second Muted Violin 8
Second Muted Violin 8
Second Muted Violin 8
Third Muted Violin 8
Third Muted Violin 8
Third Muted Violin 8
Fourth Muted Violin 8
Fourth Muted Violin 8
Fourth Muted Violin 8
Fifth Muted Violin 8
Fifth Muted Violin 8
Fifth Muted Violin 8
Sixth Muted Violin 8
Sixth Muted Violin 8
Sixth Muted Violin 8
First Orchestral Violina 4
First Orchestral Violina 4
Second Orchestral Violina 4
Second Orchestral Violina 4
Quint Viol 5 1/3
Quint Viol 5 1/3
Tierce Viol 3 1/5
Tierce Viol 3 1/5
Nazard Violina 2 2/3
Nazard Violina 2 2/3
Super Violina 2
Super Violina 2
First Dulciana 8
First Dulciana 8
Second Dulciana 8
Second Dulciana 8
Third Dulciana 8
Third Dulciana 8
Fourth Dulciana 8
Fourth Dulciana 8
Fifth Dulciana 8
Fifth Dulciana 8
Sixth Dulciana 8
Sixth Dulciana 8
First Octave Dulciana 4
First Octave Dulciana 4
Second Octave Dulciana 4
Second Octave Dulciana 4
Dulciana Mutation V

Percussion
(Floating)

Major Chimes 37 tubular chimes, tenor C to c1
Minor Chimes 25 tubular chimes, G to G
Metalophone 49 metal bars, tenor C to C2
Celeste 49 metal bars, tenor C to c2, Mustel
Piano I (prepared for)
Piano II 88 notes
Harp I 49 metal bars, tenor C to c2
Harp II (prepared for)
Gongs 49 metal bars, tenor C to C2
Crescendo Cymbal
Cymbalstar (attachable accessory)

Main Pedal

Gravissima 64
Contra Diaphone 32
Diaphone 16
First Contra Open Diapason 32 Wood
Second Contra Open Diapason 32 Metal
First Open Diapason 16
Second Open Diapason 16
Third Open Diapason 16
Open Diapason 8
Contra Bourdon 32
Bourdon 16
Soft Bourdon 16
Octave Soft Bourdon 8
Open Flute 16
Soft Flute 8
Flute 4
Violone 16
Gamba 16
Dulciana 16
Soft Dulciana 8
Open Quint 10 2/3
Stopped Quint 10 2/3
Stentor 8
Octave 8
First Tibia 8
Second Tibia 8
First Tibia 4
Second Tibia 4
First 'Cello 8
Second 'Cello 8
Principal 4
Octave 4
Mixture VII
Mixture VIII
Mixture VIII
Grand Mutation X
Contra Bombarde 32
Bombarde 16
Bombarde 8
Trombone 16
Tuba 16
Euphonium 16
Contra Fagotto 16
Octave Fagotto 8
Tromba 8
Clarion 4

Ethereal Pedal

Acoustic Bass 32
Diapason 16
Bombarde 16
Bombarde 8

Echo Pedal

Open Diapason 16
Stopped Diapason 16

String Pedal

Contra Diaphone 32
Diaphone 16
Diaphone 8
Contra Gamba 32
Gamba 16
Gamba 8
First Violone 16
Second Violone 16
First Violone 8
Second Violone 8
Violone 4
Viol 16
Viol 16
Viol 8
Viol 8
Grand String Pedal Mixture XII
Mutation Diaphone 16
Mutation Viol 16
Mutation Viol 10 2/3
Mutation Viol 8
Mutation Viol 5 1/3
Mutation Viol 4
Mutation Viol 2 2/3
Mutation Viol 2
Mutation Viol 1 3/5
Mutation Viol 1 1/3
Mutation Viol 4/5

Vox Humana Chorus Pedal

First Vox Humana 16
Second Vox Humana 16


PEDAL 75 ranks, 81 stops, 2,540 pipes
CHOIR 24 ranks, 19 stops, 1,452 pipes
GREAT 58 ranks, 43 stops, 3,634 pipes
SWELL 71 ranks, 51 stops, 4,422 pipes
SOLO 51 ranks, 35 stops, 3,640 pipes
ETHEREAL 24 ranks, 21 stops, 1,670 pipes
STRING 88 ranks, 87 stops, 6,340 pipes
STENTOR 3 ranks, 9 stops, 243 pipes
ORCHESTRAL 39 ranks, 40 stops, 2,811 pipes
ECHO 33 ranks, 22 stops, 2,013 pipes

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