Near my home are two Aeolian Organs, one in what was a residence, the other in a 1,200 seat college auditorium. The residence organ is a four manual instrument, in need of a rebuild, the auditorium organ not playable. They were both installed in 1925 to 1926. Thanks for your wonderful demonstration.... I will share it with others in order to increase awareness of what is in the two buildings. Thanks!
You must be talking about the Winona Aeolians. I also live near these organs. They are splendid instruments, if I ever got a chance to buy the Watkins Aeolian, I would 100% do it.
OMG my dream house!! When the playback speed of the Bach fugue is set to 0.75 it sounds just right. Chris' knowledge is impressive and I insist he come with the house.
For the organ itself, the console may have three manuals, but when you look at all of the pipe divisions, you can see it has five for the manuals. You have Great, Swell, Choir, Echo, and Solo. My church had an antiphonal organ installed, but it didn't have a volume control. The stops were mounted on the Great but played on the Choir. There were times when people could put a pipe organ in a house because not much pipe organs got to be the size they are these days. So in a way by looking at this house, you could in a way feel that you are in one of the houses that Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart grew up in.
Whitemarsh Hall also was graced with a large Aeolian that was only seen at the consol. The chests and pipes were all behind tapestry’s and within the walls throughout the house and staircase. Eva Stotesbury liked pieced played from the American songbook. They weren’t meant to be laud or garish. It was the Magnavox stereo of its day. When Mr. Stotesbury was announced from the gate house that he was home from his office in downtown Philadelphia, the help would put in one of his favored tunes, one being End to a perfect Day by Cary Jacob’s Bond. Can we even imagine these houses in their gilded existence? Gershwin definitely would’ve been in the Roll Library, and at parties an Organist would’ve be employed.
Thank you for this marvelous-as usual--presentation of such a rare and historic organ--and also a professional musician’s demo of actual piece(s) on the instrument (Sometimes, some RU-vid reviews-not Organ Media Foundation -show all the organ pipe work, and amazingly don’t provide a musical performance.) Great job-and what a demo.
There is an early Aeolian organ in a private house here in the UK which has to have the stops set manually when playing the rolls, i have two CD recordings of it.
The Ruthmere Mansion in Elkhart, Indiana has one of these in their parlor that's original to the house. The aforementioned home is a museum now, but was originally built by and lived in by the son of the founder of Elkhart, Havilah Beardsley, whose home is also now a museum and a block up the road from the Ruthmere.
What is that nice soothing beautiful piece that is heard in this video? I like it! The piece I am talking about starts at the end of the console tour, echo chamber and selections in the basement. I think it's a nice piece to listen to.
For anyone wanting to know what piece I am talking about is the one between the Marche Militaire and the Bach Fugue in C Major. And the piece I am talking about opens at 16:29, it does fade out but once again, you hear more of the piece at 21:23 but stops at 21:33. The piece then starts up again at 22:08 and fades out at 23:08. Then at 23:33, the organ continues with the same piece but with a different stop registration. That lasts until 23:58. But starts up again at 24:40 and fades out at 25:13 and you hear it for the final time starting at 26:02. When you put all the segments of the piece, you would think that it has been written for a theatre organ.
I have had the pleasure and torture to work on 2 residence Aeolians. As fascinating as they are. They have a very odd sound to my ears. Not annoying like the theater organ, but a quirky sound. Possibly its the lack of reverb. I have been to Longwood Gardens many times and always glad to go, but still think the organ sounds quirky.
I'm curious about the player roll. I am familiar with player pianos and have rebuilt a few. It looks like this roll has smaller, closer-spaced holes. Is this true? Standard player pianos used 9 holes per inch. Even this required automatic tracking
Hope you all enjoyed our installation. If you want to see other videos of this and other projects of ours, see our channel here. ru-vid.com/show-UC-nt6z_p2sQhpqTqyDkuhoA
Ye gods! That space is so dead that the notes quit playing before you lift your fingers. It would be a good practice instrument if there were some privacy, but anything one plays fills the whole house, right? So, I guess if the organist is home alone s/he can get some good keyboard time. Was it intended to have all the doors to the basement open when playing for everyone to enjoy? Thank you to all who have and are sacrificing from themselves to keep this beautiful piece of craftsmanship alive and well. There will never be another Aeolian-Skinner.
@Collen Flarity 38 ranks in a trailer, really?! I'm British and have no familiarity with trailers, American or otherwise, so I don't know what a "single wide" is or how much space it affords...
@Collen Flarity I did wonder... but considering that Midmer-Losh were falling under the influence of Senator Emerson Richards and the classical revival, it wouldn't surprise me if a 38-rank M-L would knock the socks off this beige bucket of slush. The whole thing needs to be radically revoiced to bring out a lot more colour.
@Collen Flarity it's not that it being a house organ excludes any appropriateness of colour. It should still be voiced brightly with boldness of colour. Frankly, a similar sized Wurlitzer would make a much better sound in there. The basement is obviously the only place to put the chambers, and if you had the console down there as well, it would be deafening to the player, as well as out of sight and unavailable to the homeowner and their guests. There is no lack of tonal egress through those grilles, it would appear. The chambers are directly under the room the console is in, so you will also feel it through the floor somewhat. Only the Echo is remote, and that is rather the point of such a division.
They are residence organs, they were marketed to people with too much money and no musical sense. The organs are voiced "lightly" in a manner where it would be difficult to make a "nasty" sound with it. It does what it's designed to do, I wouldn't wish to change it.
@@OrganMusicYT I agree with you, and if it is an unspoilt original example, one probably shouldn't change it, but the Parr Hall Warrington Cavaillé-Coll was a residence organ, as was its sibling at Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts, and the Sacré-Coeur monster... no shortage of colour in any of those organs... nor in the Blenheim Palace Willis, nor the Marchmont Norman & Beard...
