3 ms·

A 40-ton organ sits under City Hall. San Francisco is trying to give it away

16 points by gardenfelder 3y ago

gardenfelder 3y ago
>Custom built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the organ weighs 40 tons and needs 800 square feet to operate — with a 50-foot ceiling. When the World’s Fair opened, it was the seventh-largest musical instrument on the planet.
- numtel 3y ago
  7th largest? Apparently at the time, the largest was the organ from the 1904 world's fair in St. louis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ
perihelions 3y ago
Related https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36423047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36423047 ("Free Organ (organclearinghouse.com)"; 92 comments) (not the same one) edit: or maybe the same one, ignore me
- gardenfelder 3y ago
  To me, it appears to be the very same organ!
  - gardenfelder 3y ago
    https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale turns out to be a goldmine for Organ enthusiasts!
    - MandieD 3y ago
      Along with a bit of heartbreak for people who like traditional church music. There's one organ for sale from a church I recognize from my childhood, and I seriously doubt it's because the congregation has voted to get something bigger and better, but has instead switched over to what my aunt derisively calls "7-11" music - the same seven words, sung eleven times, to bland swelling pop music, a.k.a., "praise choruses," and sees no need to keep an organ around.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
From what I understand, there are at least two major types of pipe organ: the theater organ and the church organ. The difference mainly lies in the types of stops and sounds that can be elicited, and of course, if this organ is suitable for the theater, then it may not be of much use to a church. Not even a church with several million bucks in their Music Ministry fund. My church featured a very small vintage pipe organ for several years, but its position in the choir loft and complete lack of climate control made it a great burden of maintenance. Eventually the pastor relented, and purchased an electronic MIDI-based organ, which sonically could run rings around the old mechanical one.
- gardenfelder 3y ago
  Building on that, there are pipe organs which are purely mechanical: cables or solid connections connect the keyboard to valves on pipes. There are newer ones which use electronic contacts on key to signal electric-powered valves. I once owned a small organ like that. Some of the organs for sale online have rather short pipes - you don't get the full power of pipes 20 or more feet long.
about3fitty 3y ago
*Under a building near city hall, for those of us trying to think of where in Elections this thing could possibly be, heh.

16 points by gardenfelder 3y ago

>Custom built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the organ weighs 40 tons and needs 800 square feet to operate — with a 50-foot ceiling. When the World’s Fair opened, it was the seventh-largest musical instrument on the planet.

numtel 3y ago
7th largest? Apparently at the time, the largest was the organ from the 1904 world's fair in St. louis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker_Organ

perihelions 3y ago

Related https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36423047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36423047 ("Free Organ (organclearinghouse.com)"; 92 comments) (not the same one) edit: or maybe the same one, ignore me

gardenfelder 3y ago
To me, it appears to be the very same organ!
- gardenfelder 3y ago
  https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale https://www.organclearinghouse.com/organs-for-sale turns out to be a goldmine for Organ enthusiasts!
  - MandieD 3y ago
    Along with a bit of heartbreak for people who like traditional church music. There's one organ for sale from a church I recognize from my childhood, and I seriously doubt it's because the congregation has voted to get something bigger and better, but has instead switched over to what my aunt derisively calls "7-11" music - the same seven words, sung eleven times, to bland swelling pop music, a.k.a., "praise choruses," and sees no need to keep an organ around.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago

From what I understand, there are at least two major types of pipe organ: the theater organ and the church organ. The difference mainly lies in the types of stops and sounds that can be elicited, and of course, if this organ is suitable for the theater, then it may not be of much use to a church. Not even a church with several million bucks in their Music Ministry fund. My church featured a very small vintage pipe organ for several years, but its position in the choir loft and complete lack of climate control made it a great burden of maintenance. Eventually the pastor relented, and purchased an electronic MIDI-based organ, which sonically could run rings around the old mechanical one.

gardenfelder 3y ago
Building on that, there are pipe organs which are purely mechanical: cables or solid connections connect the keyboard to valves on pipes. There are newer ones which use electronic contacts on key to signal electric-powered valves. I once owned a small organ like that. Some of the organs for sale online have rather short pipes - you don't get the full power of pipes 20 or more feet long.

about3fitty 3y ago

*Under a building near city hall, for those of us trying to think of where in Elections this thing could possibly be, heh.