Earth’s most stupendous instrument
by Silvia Francesca Maglione
There are many fabulous instruments that produce marvellous sounds, but the one that surpasses them all is: the pipe organ. Although pipe organs are considered as instruments, they truly are monuments, authentic pieces of human genius and art. Pipe organs in fact, embody the efficiency of the piano, the majesty of brass, the suavity of strings, the delicacy of woodwinds, and the accuracy of percussion all in one colossal instrument. The world's largest (meaning with the most number of pipes) functioning organ is in Atlantic City, Convention Hall, New Jersey. It has 33,112 pipes (ranging from three - sixteenths of an inch to 64 feet in length!) in 445 ranks (although nowadays, only 140 of them are playable). It has a group of motors, seven blowers, and it’s own generator approaching the 1,000 horsepower… The console is made up of 7 manuals 1,255 stops, and many other controls. By now, great part of the console has been digitalized. A tour of the whole organ, would take more than four hours.
Although the piano and the pipe organ are both keyboard instruments, pianist skills are not enough for playing the organ. There is a whole system of training for organ playing that remains one of humanity's greatest art.
Organs' golden age was in the baroque period, when it was played to glorify God. Now, since the maintenance costs are astronomical, many great pipe organs are no longer playable, while others are dreadfully out of tune.
Digital keyboards have taken the place of pipe organs, at a fraction of the cost. But no sampled sound will ever surpass the organ's breathtaking tone.
The views and opinions in this blog post are those of its author.
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