Aeolian Player Pipe Organ, Nutcracker Suite, Waltz of Flowers 

+ampicoab I know I'm a bit late (11 years!!!), but I discovered this video only now... if you mind my question: if I understood right, the Concertola roll player (decoder) is not actually playing the instrument. You use it just as an "input interface" to decode paper roll and convert them to XXI century MIDI, because of the fragility of paper. Is that correct?... Thank you very much sir (and yes, you do have quite a jewel there...

I hope you are still enjoying each other today too, I saw that this is 16 years ago..tempis fugit

Just get some real paper reprinted. Jerk.

I heard Mike Ames' Aeolian pipe organ in person (another one) which I understand is now sold and on its way to a new home(?), and I second that comment about the clarinet. When the clarinet on that organ plays, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Just one of the most marvelous sounding organs I've ever heard. The pure, sweet tones are phenomenal.

@@andrewbarrett1537 agreed, having played the clarinet. It is one of the stops that I am most picky about. Besides that it can be absolutely amazing when it is voiced right. Now only if they could do the same with the Bassoon stop.

The Aeolian 8' Clarinet stop is also unique in that it employs a free reed like a reed organ, but on pressure. Normally, a pipe organ reed stop employs a beating reed against a brass tube called a shallot.

Actually you got something wrong there. The organ in Seewen is a Welte with two manuals. But a real amazing instrument, too!

@@MM-we2wi Agreed. It has been proven that the Welte organ was intended for the Britannic. The OP doesn’t know his Aeolian from his Welte. 😂 His fun fact turned out to be a faux pas.

That organ in the museum in Seewen is a very nice Welte Philharmonic organ... a quite rare one too. I believe only something like 14 (?) Welte Philharmonic player pipe organs of various sizes / models are known to exist today. Another one is in the museum in Bruchsal, Germany, another (very large) one is in the Technik-Museum in Speyer, Germany, and another small one is on display in the dining room(?) of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas (who also have a very nice Seeburg H orchestrion).

@@andrewbarrett1537 Thank you for the additional interesting info. The Britannic was the last of the great liners built for White Star, although the firm ordered smaller liners from Harland & Wolf afterwards. My point being that as far as I am aware, there never was a pipe organ installed on any White Star ship. Since Britannic was virtually complete upon her transfer to the Royal Navy, I would think that the pipe chambers for the Welte organ were also completed (without the pipes themselves). It would be fascinating to send an ROV through the interior of HMHS Britannic!

Well, from what I understand the Welte organ at Bruchsal which supposedly was from the Britannic (I think maybe “Brittanic” was found written on the chassis somewhere?) is a self-contained instrument in a large cabinet with display pipes, similar in concept to the Welte concert orchestrions, if a bit different in appearance. So this instrument would not have required its own pipe chamber (although certainly other larger Philharmonic organs were installed in chambers, as were certain Welte orchestrions; it all depended upon the customer’s individual requirements).

Organ roll players are in a way more successful than piano systems in that nearly every vintage reproducing piano system split the keyboard into halves (bass/treble) for dynamics, which obscured some fine details of internal touch/attack within chords. The organ already being such a mechanical instrument in the way the organist activates the pipe valves, makes it a natural for automation. How well the roll sounds depends on the company and its production. But some had played organ rolls sound VERY realistic... pretty amazing!

I'd be crying out of sheer excitement! Hey, I actually listen to a wide variety of music. Anything from organ music to early rap & hip-hop, to 80's classics, to modern music. (Though the groups I listen to are not mainstream. All the good stuff is not mainstream these days.)

Swell shades for volume

The paper roll reader is called the tracker, or tracker bar, and consists of a row of small holes, usually in a metal bar, through which air can flow, either under pressure or partial vacuum. Both types are still used in street, dance, cafe and fairground organs. For most of the time, each hole is covered by the roll fabric (often paper, sometimes parchment, and nowadays plastic is favoured in street organs). The presence of a corresponding tracker and roll hole allows the pneumatic mechanism to switch pipes, percussion, swell shutters, or pipe registers in the organ. Other things, such as bell ringers, the bandmaster's arm and head, or lights, can also be controlled from the roll or book, in some organs. This Aeolian is a fine example of that company's output. Thanks toampicoab for the upload!

Where is this organ located? i have also a Aeolian Concertola with ten roll changer to restore. freddy2321@gmail.com

I did it. It sounds GLORIOUS.

The laptop speakers are horrible. So, I use a headset. It's like being at a concert hall.

or good headphones, like Sony MDR-V6.

These existed before Hope-Jones; "chamber organs" in homes were popular from the late 1800s onward. Hope-Jones' electric action was indeed later applied to them. These player organs were not the inspiration for the theater or cinema organ, but the developments which led to the Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra also got applied to residence organs. Aside from having all pipes enclosed in swell boxes, having electric or electro-pneumatic action, and having roll players, these had little actual similarity to theatrical organs.

👍💯💪

Wait you only needed ONE trip in the 26' truck to move the ENTIRE 34 rank organ?!?!?! Shoot, I've been doing it wrong... haha.

ampicoab I hope his newborns are deaf. Knowing NYC they’d be calling 311 daily for noise complaints.

Yes, this is an Aeolian Duo-Art pipe organ, so all stops are on the rolls. Or you can select them yourself if you prefer.

Well it's not all done by machine. Several human editors and recording studio engineers helped record each organist's performance for the hand-played organ rolls (and the 'arranged' rolls were all laid out by hand on a drawing board by a human musician), so a lot of human editing and production went into making each and every one of these rolls sound as nice as possible :)