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| "No, I will NOT play Fascination." |
Wikipedia:
The Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ is the pipe organ in the Main Auditorium of the Boardwalk Hall (formerly known as the Atlantic City Convention Hall) in Atlantic City, New Jersey, built by the Midmer-Losh Organ Company. It is the largest organ in the world, as measured by the number of pipes. The main auditorium is 487×288×137 feet (148×88×42 m)[1] with a floor area of 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2), giving a volume of 15,000,000 cubic feet (420,000 m3).[2] Consequently, the organ runs on much higher wind pressures than most organs in order to achieve a volume loud enough to fill the hall. The organ has four entries in The Guinness Book of World Records including "Largest pipe organ ever constructed", "Largest musical instrument ever constructed" and "Loudest musical instrument ever constructed", and holds several records in the organ world. It is one of only two organs in the world to have an open 64' rank,[3] and the only organ to have stops voiced on 100" of wind pressure.[3] Its console features seven keyboards, called manuals.[4]
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History of the Pipe Organ:
Boardwalk Hall houses the most powerful musical instrument on the planet—a pipe organ that contains both the largest, and loudest organ pipes ever made. More powerful than a dozen orchestras, it can both whisper and thunder into the 5.5 million cubic feet of air space in the main hall.
After a silence of many decades, the organ has only recently began playing again thanks to the completion of the first part of an ambitious restoration project. Since much of the organ is made from wood (it took 225,000 board feet of lumber to construct), repairing water and humidity damage will be an important aspect of the work yet to be done as part of the 10 year, $16 million dollar project being led by the non-profit Historic Organ Restoration Committee (HORC).
Built between 1929 and 1932 by the Midmer-Losh Organ Company of Merrick, Long Island, N.Y., it was designed by Atlantic County State Senator—and noted organ architect—Emerson L. Richards. He specified almost every detail of the instrument, from its physical construction to the actual sound the various stops should make.
Weighing in at a staggering 150 tons, the instrument is original to the building and completely concealed behind the exquisite gilded grillwork around the main auditorium, the iconography of which depicts stylized sea creatures and plants. It is the first version of what we now think of as “surround-sound”.
The main console, located on the right (house) side of the proscenium arch is the largest ever constructed, the only to ever have seven manual keyboards in addition to the pedal keyboard and 1,235 stop tablets to control the 33,112 pipes.
The Midmer-Losh organ has 449 ranks of pipes in addition to 23 actual orchestral percussion instruments, sounded by pneumatically controlled, weighted mallets. Wind to power the organ is powered by eight blowers, totaling 633 H.P. which generate 36,400 CFM at pressures in excess of 100”—more than double that used in any other organ! The sound colors available in this instrument can be heard nowhere else. These include 10 stops voiced on 50”of wind, and four on 100”. Of these later, the Grand Ophicleide is the most powerful. As The Guinness Book of World Records describes it, it has a volume "six times louder than the loudest locomotive whistle"! Other notable features include ten 32-foot stops and a full-length 64-foot—one of only two ever constructed, and also the largest in the world.
The Adrian Phillips Ballroom is also equipped with a magnificent pipe organ, installed behind the grillwork on either side of the proscenium arch. The console is located in the musician’s balcony (house right). Originally designed to provide the soundtrack for silent movies, the instrument can provide a wide variety of musical styles and genres and can conjure up every imaginable effect from the singing of birds to an entire symphony orchestra. There are 55 ranks of pipes in this instrument controlled from a four-manual console.
Specialty tours giving an extremely detailed history and guided look behind the scenes of some of the normally closed sections of Boardwalk Hall’s pipe organs are available on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. An optional donation ($20 is suggested) is requested by the docents for these tours to benefit the ongoing work of the Historic Organ Restoration Committee (H.O.R.C.). Tour length is 2 hours. Reservations are suggested but not required. For more information, please contact Steven Ball atsball@accenter.com or 609-348-7499.
Beginning in May of 2014, free concerts will be presented on the Midmer-Losh pipe organ in the main hall Monday-Friday at 12:00 noon, followed by a chance to meet the organist of the hall Dr. Steven Ball and take a free guided ½ hour organ tour. No reservation is necessary for either the concerts or tours.
Pay attention to our upcoming events page for more information regarding programs and fundraising events to support the organs of Historic Boardwalk Hall.
Stephen D. Smith
The Honorary Curator in Perpetuity of the Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organs
The Honorary Curator in Perpetuity of the Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organs
Carl Loeser
The Lillian Levy Curator of the Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organs
The Lillian Levy Curator of the Boardwalk Hall Pipe Organs
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Introduction
The organ in Main Auditorium of Boardwalk Hall (formerly Convention Hall) was built by the Midmer-Losh Co., of Merrick, Long Island, New York. Work on the instrument, opus 5550, started in May of 1929 and was completed in December, 1932. The specifications were drawn-up by Emerson L. Richards (1884–1963), a native of Atlantic City and State Senator for Atlantic County. Although politics was his profession, pipe organs were his passion and pre-occupation. He described himself as an "Organ Architect" and, over the years, had some 80 articles published in organ journals. As a result of his design ideas and the practical demonstrations thereof, his influence extended far beyond Atlantic City, and he was dubbed "the Commander-in-Chief of the American Revolution in Organ Building".
The Main Auditorium is a vast space, measuring 488 feet long, 288 feet wide, and 137 feet high. To fill the place with sound, Richards designed an organ with some mind-boggling and previously unheard of specifications. There are ten 32-foot ranks, a full-length 64-foot (one of only two in the world – see Note 1, at the end of this page), four voices on 100-inch wind (a pressure not employed in any other organ) and 10 on 50 inches. With a total 33,116 pipes (see Note 2), the organ is the largest (and loudest!) musical instrument on Earth.
The pipes are accommodated in eight chambers arranged in opposite pairs on the left and right sides of the auditorium – there being four chambers in the stage area and four near the center of the room. The simplified diagram (not to scale), below, shows the contents of the chambers and gives an idea their relative locations.