Wanamaker Organ

The display pipes of the Wanamaker Organ. These pipes are decorative only. The pipes that sound are behind and above them. Store architect Daniel Hudson Burnham designed the organ casework.

The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. The Wanamaker Organ is located within a spacious 7-story Grand Court at Macy's Center City (formerly Wanamaker's department store) and is played twice a day Monday through Saturday. The organ is featured at several special concerts held throughout the year, including events featuring the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble.

Notable characteristics

The Wanamaker Organ is the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. It is a concert organ of the American Symphonic school of design, which combines traditional organ tone with the sonic colors of the symphony orchestra. In its present configuration, the instrument has 28,750 pipes in 464 ranks.

The organ console consists of six manuals with an array of stops and controls that command the organ. The organ's String Division fills the largest single organ chamber in the world. The division features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built to Wanamaker specifications by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago.

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 organ was also built and enlarged as an "art organ", using exceptional craftsmanship and lavish application of materials to create a luxury product.

There is a minimum of borrowing and unification in its disciplined design, except in the Pedal and Orchestral divisions, where it adds genuine value, and duplexing is reserved for when valuable solo voices can be separated from their divisions without tying up the remaining tonal resources of said division. Choruses (16', 8', 4') are true choruses of three ranks, each with their own personality, rather than a single rank electrically "tapped" at three pitches, with the resulting weakening of the octaves and sameness of tone between the voices as found in unification.

The Wanamaker Store maintained its own organ factory to ensure an ultra-high-grade result. The artistic obligation entailed by the creation of this instrument has always been honored, with two curators employed in its constant and scrupulous care (which leads to its status as one of the best maintained organ in the world). This dedication was enhanced when corporate parentage shifted from the Wanamaker family to Carter Hawley Hale Stores followed by Woodward & Lothrop, The May Department Stores Company, and Lord & Taylor. When the space was occupied by Macy's and with the founding of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ with its input of outside capital, an aggressive restoration schedule developed and is still maintained. Current restoration efforts are a combination of Macy's expenditures and significant contributions by Friends of the Wanamaker Organ, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to the instrument.

History

The Wanamaker Organ centennial plaque

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. It was built to a specification 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 (equal to $3,560,667 today), $40,000 over budget, equal to $1,356,444 today. The Fair began (in late April 1904) before the organ was fully installed in its temporary home, Festival Hall. Although the organ's debut was scheduled for May 1, official fair organist and St. Louis local Charles Henry Galloway did not give his opening recital until June 9. The organ was still 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 Center. 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 in its original home, the 1904 World's Fair. This facade was formerly installed at Macy's, it used to be behind the current facade.

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 22, 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. 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.

From April 24, 1922, to 1928 the store had its own radio station, WOO, and music from the organ was a major feature of the broadcasts.

In 1924, a new project to enlarge the organ began. Marcel Dupré and Charles M. Courboin were among those 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 (22 by 9 by 5 m). 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.

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.

The organ's six-manual console

Rodman Wanamaker was not interested in mere size, however, but in artistic organ-building with finely crafted pipes and chests using the best materials and careful artistic 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 Company, 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 renaming 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 Wanamaker Organ in the Grand Court

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 included 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.

In 2019 the Wanamaker Organ facade, designed by Daniel Hudson Burnham, was restored and re-gilded in 22-karat gold to a color scheme close in sympathy to its original appearance but which fits in with its new surroundings. Evergreene Architectural Arts did the work. Grant money from Macy's and several Philadelphia area charities funded this project, which was overseen by the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ.

Organists

Although numerous famous organists have played special concerts on the organ, it has had only four chief organists in its history:

• Dr. Irvin J. Morgan (1911–1917)
• Mary E. Vogt (1917–1966)
• Dr. Keith Chapman (1966–1989)
• Peter Richard Conte (1989–present)

For about a decade beginning in 1919, Dr. Charles M. Courboin was the organist for a series of special evening concerts, including several collaborations with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Courboin also headed the Wanamaker Organ Shop in the late 1920s.

Noteworthy assistant organists

• Dr. Richard L. Elliott (Chapman)
• Ken Cowan (Conte)
• Nathan Laube (Conte)

Present curator

• Matthew Taft

Music inspired by or written for the Wanamaker Organ

Original compositions

• Premiére Symphonie "Passion" en ré mineur pour Grand-Orgue, op. 23 by Marcel Dupré. Originally improvised.
• Concerto Gregorian by Pietro Yon
• Concerto Romano by Alfredo Casella
• Dedicace by Louis Vierne, dedicated to Rodman Wanamaker
• Symphonie Concertante for organ and orchestra by Joseph Jongen
• Fanfare and Procession by Keith Chapman
• "A Highland Ayre" from "Scottish Folk Tone Poems" by Richard Purvis (written for the Wanamaker Organ at the request of Keith Chapman)
• Cathedral of Commerce by Robert Hebble

Arrangements of existing music

• "Come Sweet Death" by J. S. Bach, arranged after Stokowski by Virgil Fox
• Leopold Stokowski's organ-orchestra transcription of Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor
• Transcription of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition by Keith Chapman
• Transcription of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of Nicolai's Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of Elgar's Cockaigne Overture by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of Bernstein's "Overture to Candide" by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of the Elgar Enigma Variations by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of "Der Rosenkavalier Suite" by Peter Richard Conte
• Transcription of Arthur Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard Overture by Peter Richard Conte
• Improvisation on a Stokowski-theme by Xaver Varnus

Architectural layout

The pipes are laid out across the space occupied by five floors of the building, with the sections situated as follows:

• 2nd floor south – Main Pedal 32 ft, 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, Chinese Gong
• 7th floor north – Echo

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

Stoplist

Main Organ

I Choir(C-c4 - 61 pipes) Double Dulciana 16 ft Dulciana 8 ft Open Diapason 8 ft Violin Diapason 8 ft Stopped Diapason 8 ft Concert Flute 8 ft Salicional 8 ft Quintadena 8 ft Vox Angelica 8 ft Vox Celeste 8 ft Keraulophon 8 ft Forest Flute 4 ft Salicet 4 ft Piccolo 2 ft Soft Cornet VI Saxophone 16 ft Saxophone 8 ft English Horn 8 ft Clarinet 8 ft

II Great(C-c4 - 61 pipes) Unenclosed Great Sub Principal 32 ft Contra Gamba 16 ft Double Diapason 16 ft Sub Quint 10+2⁄3 ft Diapason Phonon 8 ft Diapason Major 8 ft First Diapason 8 ft Second Diapason 8 ft Third Diapason 8 ft Fourth Diapason 8 ft Gamba (2 ranks) 8 ft Major Tibia 8 ft Mezzo Tibia 8 ft Minor Tibia 8 ft Double Flute 8 ft Nasard Flute (2 ranks) 8 ft Octave 4 ft Mixture VIII Harmonic Trumpet 8 ft Enclosed Great Covered Tibia 8 ft Harmonic Flute 8 ft Quint 5+1⁄3 ft Harmonic Flute 4 ft Principal 4 ft Tierce 3+1⁄5 ft Octave Quint 2 ft Super Octave 2 ft Mixture VII Double Trumpet 16 ft Tuba 8 ft Trumpet 8 ft Harmonic Clarion 4 ft Great Chorus (73 pipes) Diapason Magna 8 ft Stentorphone 8 ft First Diapason 8 ft Second Diapason 8 ft Third Diapason 8 ft Major Flute 8 ft Double Flute 8 ft Gamba 8 ft Flute 4 ft Octave 4 ft Nasard 2+2⁄3 ft

III Swell(C-c4 - 61 pipes) Double Diapason 16 ft Soft Bourdon 16 ft Stentorphone 8 ft Horn Diapason 8 ft Violin Diapason 8 ft Bell Flute 8 ft Orchestral Flute 8 ft Harmonic Flute 8 ft Grand Flute (2 ranks) 8 ft Double Flute 8 ft Tibia Dura 8 ft Clarabella 8 ft Melodia 8 ft Soft Dulciana 8 ft Gamba Celeste (2 ranks) 8 ft Gamba 8 ft Quint Bourdon 5+1⁄3 ft Harmonic Flute (2 ranks) 4 ft First Octave 4 ft Second Octave 4 ft Nazard (prepared for) 2+2⁄3 ft Harmonic Piccolo 2 ft Corroborating Mixture V Mixture VI Bass Tuba 16 ft Bass Trombone 16 ft Contra Fagotto 16 ft Double Oboe Horn 16 ft Trombone 8 ft Tuba 8 ft Fagotto 8 ft Oboe 8 ft Trumpet 8 ft Horn 8 ft Bassett Horn 8 ft Clarinet 8 ft Clarinet (2 ranks) 8 ft Vox Humana (2 ranks) 8 ft Harmonic Clarion 4 ft Musette 4 ft Original String Division Contra Bass 16 ft Violoncello 8 ft Viol 8 ft Viol (sharp) 8 ft Viola 8 ft Quint Viol 5+1⁄3 ft Octave Viol 4 ft Violina 4 ft Tierce 3+1⁄5 ft String Mixture V Viol Cornet IV

IV Solo(C-c4 - 61 pipes) Double Open Diapason 16 ft Grand Viol 16 ft First Diapason 8 ft Second Diapason 8 ft Third Diapason 8 ft Violin Diapason 8 ft Viol 8 ft Viol 8 ft Harmonic Flute 8 ft Tierce Flute (2 ranks) 8 ft Chimney Flute 8 ft Clarabella 8 ft Gemshorn 8 ft Nasard Gamba (2 ranks) 8 ft Grand Gamba 8 ft Grand Gamba 8 ft Quintaphon 8 ft Quint Diapason 5+1⁄3 ft Octave 4 ft Harmonic Flute 4 ft Harmonic Tierce 3+1⁄5 ft Twelfth Harmonic 2+2⁄3 ft Piccolo Harmonic 2 ft Double Trumpet 16 ft Tuba 16 ft Trumpet 8 ft Soft Tuba 8 ft Cornopean 8 ft Ophicleide 8 ft Musette 8 ft Ophicleide 4 ft Soft Tuba 4 ft Grand Mixture VI Mixture V Mixture VI

Pedal(C-g1 - 32 pipes) Gravissima 64 ft Contra Diaphone 32 ft First Contra Open Diapason 32 ft Second Contra Open Diapason 32 ft Contra Bourdon 32 ft Diaphone 16 ft First Open Diapason 16 ft Second Open Diapason 16 ft Third Open Diapason 16 ft Bourdon 16 ft Violone 16 ft Gamba 16 ft Open Flute 16 ft Soft Bourdon 16 ft Dulciana 16 ft Open Quint 10+2⁄3 ft Stopped Quint 10+2⁄3 ft Stentor 8 ft Open Diapason 8 ft Octave 8 ft First Tibia 8 ft Second Tibia 8 ft Octave Soft Bourdon 8 ft First Cello 8 ft Second Cello 8 ft Soft Flute 8 ft Soft Dulciana 8 ft Principal 4 ft Octave 4 ft First Tibia 4 ft Second Tibia 4 ft Flute 4 ft Mixture VI Mixture VII Mixture VIII Grand Mutation × Contra Bombarde 32 ft Bombarde 16 ft Trombone 16 ft Tuba 16 ft Euphonium 16 ft Contra Fagotto 16 ft Bombarde 8 ft Octave Fagotto 8 ft Tromba 8 ft Clarion 4 ft

Ethereal Organ

V Ethereal(73) Bourdon 16 ft First Open Diapason 8 ft Second Open Diapason 8 ft Clear Flute 8 ft Harmonic Flute 8 ft Double Flute 8 ft Quint Flute 8 ft Grand Gamba 8 ft Grand Gamba 8 ft Octavo 4 ft Harmonic Flute 4 ft Twelfth Harmonic 2+2⁄3 ft Harmonic Piccolo 2 ft Mixture IV Tuba Profunda 16 ft Tuba Mirabilis 8 ft French Trumpet 8 ft Grand Clarinet 8 ft Post Horn 8 ft Tuba Clarion 4 ft

VI Stentor(73) Cello 1 (String) 8 ft Cello 1 ♯ (String) 8 ft Cello 1 ♭ (String) 8 ft Cello 2 (String) 8 ft Cello 2 ♯ (String) 8 ft Cello 2 ♭ (String) 8 ft Nasard Gamba II (String) 8 ft Nasard Gamba II ♯ (String) 8 ft Clear Flute (Ethereal) 8 ft Clear Flute (Ethereal) 4 ft

Ethereal Pedal(32) Acoustic Bass 32 ft Diapason 16 ft Bombarde 16 ft Bombarde 8 ft

Echo Organ

Echo(73) (floating) Bourdon 16 ft Open Diapason 8 ft Violin Diapason 8 ft Stopped Diapason 8 ft Night Horn 8 ft Clarabella 8 ft Melodia 8 ft Orchestral Viol 8 ft Soft Viol 8 ft Soft Viol 8 ft Unda Maris (2 ranks) 8 ft Open Quint 5+1⁄3 ft Octave 4 ft Harmonic Flute 4 ft Mellow Flute 4 ft Cornet Mixture V Mixture VI Double Trumpet 16 ft Trumpet 8 ft Capped Oboe 8 ft Euphone 8 ft Vox Humana 8 ft

Echo Pedal(32) Open Diapason 16 ft Stopped Diapason 16 ft

Orchestral Organ

Orchestral(73) (floating) Contra Quintadena 16 ft Duophone 8 ft Tibia 8 ft Covered Tibia 8 ft Concert Flute 8 ft Harmonic Flute 8 ft Mellow Flute 8 ft String Flute 8 ft Double Flute 8 ft Hollow Flute 8 ft Harmonic Flute 4 ft Orchestral Flute 4 ft Covered Flute 4 ft Octave 4 ft Harmonic Piccolo 2 ft Super Octave 2 ft

Orchestral Reeds(73) (floating) English Horn 16 ft Bass Clarinet 16 ft Bass Saxophone 16 ft Bassoon 16 ft English Horn 8 ft Orchestral Clarinet 8 ft Saxophone 8 ft Orchestral Bassoon 8 ft Bassett Horn 8 ft Oboe 8 ft Orchestral Oboe 8 ft Orchestral Trumpet 8 ft Kinura 8 ft Muted Cornet 8 ft

Orchestral French Horns(73) (floating) First French Horn 8 ft Second French Horn 8 ft Third French Horn 8 ft

Vox Humana Chorus(73) (floating) Vox Humana 16 ft First Vox Humana 8 ft Second Vox Humana 8 ft Third Vox Humana 8 ft Fourth Vox Humana 8 ft Fifth Vox Humana 8 ft Sixth Vox Humana 8 ft Seventh Vox Humana 8 ft

Vox Humana Chorus Pedal(32) First Vox Humana 16 ft Second Vox Humana 16 ft

String Organ

String(73) (floating) Violone 16 ft First Contra Gamba 16 ft Second Contra Gamba 16 ft First Contra Viol 16 ft Second Contra Viol 16 ft First Viol 16 ft Second Viol 16 ft Violin Diapason 8 ft Gamba 8 ft Nasard Gamba (2 ranks) 8 ft Nasard Gamba (2 ranks) 8 ft First 'Cello 8 ft First 'Cello ♯ 8 ft First 'Cello ♭ 8 ft Second 'Cello 8 ft Second 'Cello ♯ 8 ft Second 'Cello ♭ 8 ft First Orchestral Violin 8 ft First Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft First Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft Second Orchestral Violin 8 ft Second Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft Second Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft Third Orchestral Violin 8 ft Third Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft Third Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft Fourth Orchestral Violin 8 ft Fourth Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft Fourth Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft Fifth Orchestral Violin 8 ft Fifth Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft Fifth Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft Sixth Orchestral Violin 8 ft Sixth Orchestral Violin ♯ 8 ft Sixth Orchestral Violin ♭ 8 ft First Muted Violin 8 ft First Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft First Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft Second Muted Violin 8 ft Second Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft Second Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft

String (continued) Third Muted Violin 8 ft Third Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft Third Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft Fourth Muted Violin 8 ft Fourth Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft Fourth Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft Fifth Muted Violin 8 ft Fifth Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft Fifth Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft Sixth Muted Violin 8 ft Sixth Muted Violin ♯ 8 ft Sixth Muted Violin ♭ 8 ft Quint Viol 5+1⁄3 ft Quint Viol ♯ 5+1⁄3 ft First Orchestral Violina 4 ft First Orchestral Violina ♯ 4 ft Second Orchestral Violina 4 ft Second Orchestral Violina ♯ 4 ft Tierce Viol 3+1⁄5 ft Tierce Viol ♯ 3+1⁄5 ft Nasard Violina 2+2⁄3 ft Nasard Violina ♯ 2+2⁄3 ft Super Violina 2 ft Super Violina ♯ 2 ft First Dulciana 8 ft First Dulciana ♯ 8 ft Second Dulciana 8 ft Second Dulciana ♯ 8 ft Third Dulciana 8 ft Third Dulciana ♯ 8 ft Fourth Dulciana 8 ft Fourth Dulciana ♯ 8 ft Fifth Dulciana 8 ft Fifth Dulciana ♯ 8 ft Sixth Dulciana 8 ft Sixth Dulciana ♯ 8 ft First Octave Dulciana 4 ft First Octave Dulciana ♯ 4 ft Second Octave Dulciana 4 ft Second Octave Dulciana ♯ 4 ft Dulciana Mutation V

String Pedal(32) Contra Diaphone 32 ft Contra Gamba 32 ft Diaphone (ext) 16 ft Gamba (ext) 16 ft First Violone 16 ft Second Violone 16 ft Viol 16 ft Viol ♯ 16 ft Diaphone (ext) 8 ft Gamba (ext) 8 ft First Violone (ext) 8 ft Second Violone 8 ft Viol 8 ft Viol ♯ 8 ft Violone 4 ft Mutation Diaphone 16 ft Mutation Viol 16 ft Mutation Viol 10+2⁄3 ft Mutation Viol 8 ft Mutation Viol 5+1⁄3 ft Mutation Viol 4 ft Mutation Viol 2+2⁄3 ft Mutation Viol 2 ft Mutation Viol 1+3⁄5 ft Mutation Viol 1+1⁄3 ft Mutation Viol 4⁄5 ft Grand String Pedal Mixture XII 32 ft

Stentor Division

Tuba Magna (from 8 ft) 16 ft Tuba Magna 8 ft

Percussion Division

Percussion Major Chimes C–c1 Minor Chimes G–g Metalophone C–C2 Celesta (by Mustel of Paris) C–c2 Piano I (prepared for) Piano II standard 88 notes Harp I tenor C–c2 Harp II (prepared for) Gongs tenor C–C2 (now playable) Crescendo Cymbal Cymbalstar, a memorial to Virgil Fox Chinese Gong (84" diameter)

Recordings

• The Grand Court Organ (1973) by Keith Chapman. It included a number of works demonstrating the full organ
• Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. 1975, the recording is of Keith Chapman's own transcription of the piano suite
• Airs & Arabesques (1976) explored the softer colors of the instrument to marvelous effect
• Virgil Fox Plays the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ (1964, 2004).
• Keith Chapman – The Lost Radio Broadcasts - Vantage V2CD-698-002
• Xaver Varnus' concert
• Magic! (2001) By Peter Richard Conte
• Wanamaker Legacy (2004) by Peter Richard Conte
• A Grand Celebration: Peter Richard Conte with The Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded 2008
• Wanamaker Organ Centennial Concert: Peter Richard Conte with the Symphony in C, Rossen Milanov, conductor. Recorded 2011. Also available on DVD.
• Midnight in the Grand Court (2004) by Peter Richard Conte
• Christmas in the Grand Tradition by Peter Richard Conte with the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
• My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice by Peter Richard Conte with Andrew Ennis, Flugelhorn
• Around the Wanamaker Organ in 80 Minutes, Wanamaker DVD (A DVD tour of the organ)
• A Wanamaker Organ Curators Tour through the entire instrument on DVD with curator Curt Mangel and MPR host Michael Barone (Pipedreams).
• A Wanamaker Organ Sonic Odyssey tonal exploration of the entire instrument on DVD with Peter Richard Conte and Yale Organist Thomas Murray.

See also

• Curtis Organ
• Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ

Notes and references

• Biswanger, Ray (1999). Music in the Marketplace: The Story of Philadelphia's Historic Wanamaker Organ. The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Press. ISBN 0-9665552-0-1.

External links

Media related to Wanamaker Organ at Wikimedia Commons

• Friends of the Wanamaker Organ
• Pipe Dreams radio program, "Peter Conte and the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ"
• Grand Court Organ, Wanamaker Dept. Store Philadelphia, PA
• Video of the Wanamaker Organ being played by Virgil Fox
• The Worlds Largest Musical Instrument: The Wanamaker Organ - Part 1
• The Wanamaker Organ Part 2 - The Fine Details
• The Wanamaker Organ Part 3 - Routine Maintenance
• Jenkins, Charles S.P. "The Wanamaker Organ". Stories of London. Retrieved 2015-12-07.