Atlantic City Convention Hall organ
| Atlantic City Convention Hall organ | |
|---|---|
| General | |
| alternative name | Boardwalk Hall organ |
| place | Boardwalk Hall |
| Organ builder | Midmer Losh |
| Construction year | 1929-1932 |
| Last renovation / restoration | 1998 |
| Organ landscape | Organ landscape North America |
| Illustrations | |
| Gaming table |
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| Technical specifications | |
| Number of pipes | 33,115 |
| Number of registers | 314 |
| Number of rows of pipes | 449 |
| Number of manuals | 7th |
| Tone tract | Electropneumatic |
| Register action | Electropneumatic |
| Number of 32 'registers | 9 |
| Number of 64 'registers | 1 |
The organ at the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey is the largest organ in the world. It was built between May 1929 and December 1932 as Opus 5550 by the Midmer-Losh organ building workshop .
It is a theater organ for sounding the 420,000 m³ room. The enormous volume required is generated by high pressure registers . Almost all sub-plants are operated with wind pressures of 500 to 900 mm water column , which is six to ten times higher than the usual values.
However, it had to cede its previous position as the loudest organ in the world to the single-register open - air organ Vox Maris in Yeosu ( South Korea ).
Main Auditorium Organ
Building history
The organ was designed by Senator Emerson Richards in 1929 . The organ was supposed to fill the hall with sound from several sides without a visible prospect behind ornamental grilles. The contract was awarded to the American organ builder Midmer-Losh ( Merrick (New York) ) for $ 347,200 . In an additional contract, the price was increased by another $ 100,000. Due to the global economic crisis went bankrupt during which Midmer-Losh, Richards and Atlantic City, there were delays. On May 11, 1932, the organ was finally played in a public concert for the first time. The organ was mostly used as background music for entertainment events and was only rarely used as a concert organ. The organ was badly damaged in a hurricane in 1944. After the Second World War , attempts were made to repair the damage.
In 2008 the organ was in very poor condition and only partially functional. This is how the combination system , which never worked perfectly, has not worked for decades. Access to the two upper works, Left Upper and Right Upper , was obstructed by asbestos findings, so that maintenance work could not be carried out without prior asbestos removal. Other parts of the organ have become unusable due to water damage. By and large, only the right pedal and the parts Great , Great Solo and Solo , which are all in the Right Stage Chamber , can be played.
There is a not-for-profit organization, the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ Society ( ACCHOS ), which repairs the organ. Efforts have been made since 1998 to raise funds for renovations and restorations through donations.
Of the eight organ parts, only the Right Stage Chamber can produce tones, which, however, have not been tuned for a long time. There has been a lack of money for necessary maintenance and repair work on the gigantic organ for decades, so that in 1998 only 96 registers or 131 rows of pipes could be played.
In September 1998 the playable part (the Right Stage Chamber ) and some individual stops were prepared for recordings. The result is a recording of the record holder Diaphone-Dulzian 64 ′ , as well as the 2540mmWS registers Tuba Imperial and Grand Ophicleide.
After an extensive renovation of the Convention Hall, now known as Boardwalk Hall , in 2001, the organ was completely unplayable for a while. By 2008 the Right Stage Chamber was brought back to the playable level of 1998. Since October 2008 a large-scale investigation of the wind chests of the currently unplayable sub-works has been running. The next stage is to make the Swell part playable. In the meantime (2008) the affected areas have also been asbestos removed and a new lighting and sprinkler system and a system for detecting penetrating water have been installed in all parts of the organ.
In 2020, 53% of the organ's substance was designated as functional. From Monday to Friday there are half-hour organ presentations at noon with free admission.
Records
The organ is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “largest pipe organ”, “largest musical instrument” and “loudest musical instrument ever built”. Officially, she owns 33,112 pipes, although the exact number is not known and experts estimate it to be less than 32,000.
The organ is the only one in the world that has high pressure registers with a wind pressure of 2540 mm water column (100 ″ wind pressure) (exceeds the usual wind pressure of an organ by 20 to 30 times) and one of only three with registers at 1270 mm water column ( 50 ″ wind pressure). Even common high-pressure registers are only operated with 250 to 300 mm water column. The organ has four stops on 2540 mm water column and ten on 1270 mm water column:
- 2540 mm water column:
| Register name | plant |
|---|---|
| Grand Ophicleide 16 ′ | pedal |
| Tuba Imperial 8 ′ | solo |
| Trumpet Mirabilis 16 ′ | Gallery |
| Tuba maxima 8 ′ | Gallery |
- 1270 mm water column:
| Register name | plant |
|---|---|
| Diaphone 32 ′ | pedal |
| Tuba Magna 16 ' | solo |
| Bugle 8 ′ | solo |
| Bombard 32 ′ | pedal |
| Major trombone 16 ′ | pedal |
| Diaphone Phonon 16 ′ | pedal |
| Trumpet 16 ′ | fanfare |
| Harmonic tuba 8 ′ | fanfare |
| Ophicleide 8 ′ | fanfare |
| Major Clarion 4 ′ | fanfare |
The Grand Ophicleide 16 ′ register was listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the loudest organ register in the world until October 2011.
The entire organ is supplied with wind from seven fans with a total output of 745.7 kW (1013.9 HP), which is also unique in the world. The Right Stage Chamber and the Left Stage Chamber each have two fans. One for wind pressures of 1270 mm water column and one for normal wind. The Left Center Chamber and Left Upper Chamber share a fan as they do not require such high wind pressures. It is the same on the right side. A particularly powerful compressor is only available there for the 2540 mm water column.
The organ has one of only two fully developed 64 'registers in the world, the Diaphone -Dulzian , also called Diaphone Profunda . The largest pipe (Subsubkontra-C), a wooden principal pipe, is over 20 meters long. The register stands at a wind pressure of 850 mm water column and its lowest notes cannot be heard (the lowest note C 3 has a frequency of approx. 8.2 Hz), but only, especially in the vicinity of the Right Stage Chamber , can be perceived as structure-borne noise. The other to the C 3 developed 64'-register of world Contra Trombone the organ in the Sydney Town Hall , is a reed with full cup length.
Diaphone-Dulzian is a total of a row of pipes that extends from C 3 to G 2 . From this row of pipes, the registers by octave and bottom extensions Diaphone-Dulzian in the drawbars 64 ', 42 2 / 3 ', 32 ', 21 1 / 3 ', 16 ', 10 2 / 3 won', 8 'and 4' . The combination of the register 64 'and 42 2 / 3 ' is formed an acoustic 128' register.
Largest organ in the world
The Atlantic City Convention Hall organ has fewer rows of pipes compared to the Wanamaker organ (449 as opposed to 462 in the Wanamaker organ). It also weighs almost half as much (150 tons compared to 287 tons). On the other hand, the Convention Hall organ has 5,000 more pipes and has three entries in the Guinness Book of Records .
In view of the fact that the Atlantic City Convention Hall organ is not completely playable and still has entries in the Guinness Book, the Wanamaker organ is often referred to as the largest playable organ in the world. The Wanamaker organ is in very good condition and was recently overhauled.
Disposition
Installation in the room
The organ is built around the audience area like a surround sound system and divided into eight parts, to which the individual works are distributed.
Which works are in which chambers and via which manual they can be played is very complicated and can not be clearly seen from the disposition . The following diagram should clarify the arrangement in the room:
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Left Stage Pedal Left, Unenclosed Choir Swell, String I Swell-Choir |
stage |
Right Stage Pedal Right, Great, Solo Great-Solo (Flutes) Great-Solo (Reeds) |
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Left Forward Choir Percussion |
Right Forward Brass Chorus String |
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Left Center Gallery III (Diap's) Gallery IV (Orch) |
Left Upper Fanfare String III |
the Upper chambers are located above the center chambers arranged |
Right Upper Echo |
Right Center Gallery I (Reeds) Gallery II (Flutes) |
Gaming table
The gaming table is the largest in the world. It has 1235 rocker registers for registering the 587 labial registers , 265 tongue registers , 35 melodic and 46 non-melodic percussion registers, 164 coupling, 18 tremulants and 120 combinations, six swell kicks and a crescendo swell. It is also the only console with seven manuals . The lower manuals also have a larger range (up to seven octaves ). The manuals from top to bottom:
| VII | Bombard | 5 octaves, 61 keys, Cc 4 |
| VI | echo | 5 octaves, 61 keys, Cc 4 |
| V | fanfare | 5 octaves, 61 keys, Cc 4 |
| IV | solo | 5 octaves, 61 keys, Cc 4 |
| III | Swell | 6 octaves, 73 keys, G 1 -g 4 |
| II | Great | 7 octaves, 85 keys, C 1 -c 5 |
| I. | Choir | 7 octaves, 85 keys, C 1 -c 5 |
Main Divisions
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String & Brass Divisions
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Gallery Divisions
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Other divisions
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Technical specifications
- 33,115 pipes, 314 registers, 449 ranks.
Ballroom organ
From 1930 to April 1931, WW Kimball ( Chicago ) built an organ with 42 stops in the ballroom as Opus 7073 for $ 47,550 . In 2020, 95% of the organ's substance was said to be playable.
Technical specifications
- 4 manuals, 4,151 pipes, 42 registers, 55 ranks.
literature
- William H. Barnes and Edward B. Gammons: Two centuries of American organ building . Fischer & Bro, Glen Rock (New Jersey) 1970, pp. 86 .
- Orpha Caroline Ochse: The history of the organ in the United States . Indiana University Press, Bloomington & London 1975, ISBN 0-253-32830-6 , pp. 362-363 .
- Stephen D. Smith: The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ — A Pictorial Essay About the World's Largest Pipe Organ . ACCHOS, Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth, NH 2001, ISBN 0-9708494-1-9 .
- Stephen D. Smith: Atlantic City's Musical Masterpiece — The Story of the World's Largest Pipe Organ . ACCHOS, Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth, NH 2002, ISBN 0-9708494-4-3 .
Sound carriers / recordings
- Bach on the biggest. 1956, Mercury MG 50127 (mono) and SR 90127 (stereo) (Robert Elmore plays organ works by Bach on the Main Auditorium ).
- Boardwalk pipes. 1956, Mercury MG 50109 (mono) and SR 90109 (stereo) (Robert Elmore plays on the Main Auditorium Organ).
- Atlantic City Renaissance. 1977, Alphasound AS-1102 (Curt Haessner plays on the Main Auditorium Organ and the Ballroom Organ).
- The Main Auditorium Organ, The Convention Hall Atlantic City. 1998, ACCHOS, CD (Timothy Hoag and others play on the Main Auditorium Organ).
Web links
- Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organs
- Ultimate Restorations: Midmer-Losh Pipe Organ (Trailer film trailer about restoration activities)
- Historical photos of the structure of the organ and sound documents
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Historic Organ Restoration Committee - Midmer-Losh Info. Retrieved February 8, 2020 .
- ^ Orpha Caroline Ochse: The history of the organ in the United States . Indiana University Press, Bloomington & London 1975, ISBN 0-253-32830-6 , pp. 362-363 .
- ↑ http://www.boardwalkhall.com
- ↑ Loudest organ in the world comes from the Rhön In: Mainpost. dated December 21, 2011 (accessed February 17, 2012)