Wanamaker Organ facts for kids
The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia is the biggest pipe organ in the world. It has the most sets of pipes (called "ranks") and weighs the most. You can find this amazing organ inside the huge, seven-story Grand Court at Macy's Center City store. This store used to be called Wanamaker's. The organ is played twice a day from Monday to Saturday. It's also featured in special concerts throughout the year, sometimes with the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble.
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What Makes It Special?
The Wanamaker Organ is a concert organ designed in the "American Symphonic" style. This means it mixes the traditional sounds of an organ with the many different sounds of a symphony orchestra.
Right now, the Wanamaker Organ has 28,750 pipes in 464 ranks. The organ's control desk, called the organ console, has six keyboards and many stops and controls to play the organ.
One part of the organ, called the String Division, is the largest single organ room in the world! It has 88 ranks of string pipes that were specially made for Wanamaker's by the W.W. Kimball Company. The organ is famous for sounding like an orchestra. Its pipes are designed to play softer than usual. This allows many different pipe sounds to blend together, creating a very rich and full sound.
The organ was also built as an "art organ." This means it was made with incredible skill and expensive materials, making it a truly luxurious instrument. The Wanamaker Store even had its own organ factory to make sure the quality was super high.
Two curators are always working to keep the organ in perfect condition. This dedication has continued even as the store changed owners over the years. When Macy's took over and the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ group was formed, a big plan to restore the organ began. This restoration work is still going on today, thanks to money from Macy's and donations from the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ.
History of the Organ
The Wanamaker Organ was first built for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. It was meant to be the biggest organ ever, sounding like a full orchestra. It even had an automatic player that used punched paper rolls! The famous organ designer George Ashdown Audsley planned it.
The project went way over budget. It ended up costing $105,000, which was a lot of money back then. The Fair started in April 1904, but the organ wasn't fully ready until June. Even in September, it wasn't completely finished when the famous organist Alexandre Guilmant played 40 concerts on it.
After the Fair, the organ was supposed to go to the Kansas City Convention Center. But that plan didn't work out, and the company that built the organ went out of business. There was also an idea to show the organ at Coney Island in New York City, but that didn't happen either.
The organ stayed in a warehouse in St. Louis until 1909. Then, John Wanamaker bought it for his new department store in Center City, Philadelphia. It took 13 train cars to move it! It took two more years to put it all together in its new home.
The organ was first played on June 22, 1911. This was at the exact moment that British King George V was crowned. Later that year, U.S. President William Howard Taft helped open the store.
Even though it was huge (over 10,000 pipes), it wasn't big enough to fill the seven-story Grand Court. So, Wanamaker's opened its own organ factory in the store's attic to make the organ even bigger! Between 1911 and 1917, they added 8,000 more pipes.
Wanamaker's also held many special concerts on the organ after the store closed for the day. The first one, in 1919, featured Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra with organist Charles M. Courboin. They moved all the sales counters to make room for the free event, and 15,000 people came! Many other famous organists from around the world came to play the Wanamaker Organ. For example, Marcel Dupré was so impressed that he created a musical story about the life of Jesus Christ during his first concert.
From 1922 to 1928, the store even had its own radio station, WOO. Music from the organ was a big part of their broadcasts.
In 1924, a new plan to make the organ even larger began. Rodman Wanamaker, John Wanamaker's son, told experts like Marcel Dupré to "Use everything you have ever dreamed about" and said there was no limit to the money they could spend. This project created the famous String Division, which is the largest organ room ever built. It's 67 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 16 feet high!
During this time, the organ's current console (control desk) was built in Wanamaker's factory. It has six keyboards and hundreds of controls. By 1930, when the work stopped, the organ had 28,482 pipes. If Rodman Wanamaker hadn't passed away in 1928, the organ might be even bigger today!
Rodman Wanamaker cared about making beautiful, artistic organs, not just big ones. The Wanamaker Organ console itself is a work of art, built with strong materials and clever design.
After the store was sold in 1995, the Wanamaker name was removed, but the organ and its concerts stayed. In 1997, a full restoration of the organ began. Glass panels were added around the Grand Court, which made the sound in the room even better.
The Philadelphia Orchestra came back to the Grand Court on September 27, 2008. They played a special concert, including music written for this very organ. The composer Howard Shore, who wrote music for The Lord of the Rings movies, even visited the store to hear the organ!
In 2019, the front part of the Wanamaker Organ, designed by Daniel Burnham, was restored and covered in 22-karat gold. This project was funded by Macy's and other charities, and overseen by the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ.
Main Organists
Many famous organists have played special concerts on the Wanamaker Organ. But it has only had four main 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)
Organ Curators
The people who take care of the organ today are:
- Curt Mangel
- Matthew Taft
Music for the Wanamaker Organ
Many pieces of music have been inspired by or written especially for the Wanamaker Organ.
Original Songs
- "Symphonie-Passion" by Marcel Dupré
- "Concerto Gregoriano" by Pietro Yon
- "Concerto Romano" by Alfredo Casella
- "Dedicace" by Louis Vierne, written for 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
- "Cathedral of Commerce" by Robert Hebble
Arranged Music
Many existing songs have been specially arranged to be played on the Wanamaker Organ. These include:
- "Come Sweet Death" by Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged by Virgil Fox
- Leopold Stokowski's arrangement of Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor
- Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, arranged by Keith Chapman
- Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- Overture to The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- Cockaigne Overture by Edward Elgar, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- "Overture to Candide" by Leonard Bernstein, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- The Elgar Enigma Variations, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
- "Der Rosenkavalier Suite" by Peter Richard Conte
- The Yeomen of the Guard Overture by Arthur Sullivan, arranged by Peter Richard Conte
Where the Pipes Are Located
The organ's pipes are spread out across five floors of the building! Here's where some of the main sections are:
- Second floor south: Main Pedal, Lower Swell, Great, Percussions
- Third floor south: Main Pedal, Chorus, Upper Swell, Choir/Enclosed Great, Solo, Vox Humana Chorus
- Fourth floor south: String
- Fourth floor west: Orchestral (next to String)
- Seventh floor south: Major Chimes, Ethereal, Chinese Gong
- Seventh floor north: Echo
Some of the very long pipes, like the 32-foot Wood Open pipes, are so tall they go through more than two floors, starting on the second floor.
Recordings of the Organ
Many recordings have been made of the Wanamaker Organ, letting people around the world hear its amazing sound. Some of these include:
- The Grand Court Organ (1973) by Keith Chapman
- Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (1975) by Keith Chapman
- Airs & Arabesques (1976)
- Virgil Fox Plays the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ (1964, 2004)
- Magic! (2001) By Peter Richard Conte
- Wanamaker Legacy (2004) by Peter Richard Conte
- A Grand Celebration: Peter Richard Conte with The Philadelphia Orchestra (2008)
- Wanamaker Organ Centennial Concert: Peter Richard Conte with the Symphony in C (2011)
- Midnight in the Grand Court (2004) by Peter Richard Conte
- Christmas in the Grand Tradition by Peter Richard Conte
- My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice by Peter Richard Conte
- Around the Wanamaker Organ in 80 Minutes, a DVD tour of the organ
- A Wanamaker Organ Curators Tour on DVD with curator Curt Mangel
- A Wanamaker Organ Sonic Odyssey on DVD with Peter Richard Conte
Images for kids
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The organ's six-keyboard console.
See also
In Spanish: Órgano Wanamaker para niños
