Pulling Out all the Stops: The pipe organ in America 

Fun Fact: It was the famous classical music composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who crowned the pipe organ as the “King Of Instruments”.

My old friend donated to help make this video possible back in the day, you can see his name in the credits at the end, Lester V. Rockafellow.

I see this production was from 1996, my company totally rebuilt the St Thomas organ and added a 2nd case in the style of the old one, totally restored and updated the original massive console in 2018

56:14 - love the St. Thomas organ! One of my favorite pieces

2:01 - University Of Michigan, William Albright 3:09 - University Of Michigan Halloween Concert 8:16 - Jamestown, North Carolina United Methodist Church acquires a pipe organ 10:29 - Holtkamp Organ Company 18:07 - The organ arrives in Jamestown 26:02 - Methuen Memorial Music Hall concert organ 29:01 - Silent Film and Theater Organs 30:35 - Gaylord Carter 34:26 - Paramount Theater organists Chris Elliott, Jim Riggs 37:29 - AGO Pipe Organ Encounter 44:18 - Organ student gives first recital at age 15 46:07 - 2 churches, 2 pipe organs, 2 different services: St. Thomas Church, 5th Avenue,, NYC and Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem 56:14 - Postlude and Credits 1:01:55 - Echo Noel (D’Aquin) 1:08:22 - to be identified 1:14:28 1:20:16 - Widor Toccata

So gratifying to see the names of so many who spent their lives in the pursuit of the pipe organ. Personally amongst these are Edna VanDuzee and Norman Walters, Stephen Pinel and Will Headlee. These are amongst hundreds that dedicated their lives to the furtherance of the life of organists and the pipe organ.

The organ at 28:18 is the Hook Organ, Opus 334, 1864, in its original location, Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA.

Great

Great insight into the King of Instruments!

Great. Now I'm going to be humming that pedal line from the Boellmann Toccata for the rest of the day. :-)

I have this on dvd I enjoyed it

Thank you for sharing

I have an old VHS tape of this documentary. Thanks for posting it here, digitally !

Wonderful

Amazing and informative. Thanks for sharing.

Have you ever heard of David N. Johnson? Johnson wrote the popular hymn Earth and All Stars.

Love the section of Jim Riggs demonstrating the 4/26 Oakland Paramount Wurlitzer to school kidsat 35:30! I'd love to know what piece he's playing after the steam train bit.

Excellent! (Even the Baptist Church has a 5-manual!)

This is VERY INTERESTING!!! I am an organist myself, plus I can appreciate a wide variety of music types (EXCEPT hard rock, acid rock, and heavy-metal--and don't care for rap). I also enjoyed the history lessons here, especially in regard to silent films and how pipe organs made their way into churches. I also appreciated how some organists ventured into music territories, not known for being played on an organ. As for country music and such, I have a unique ability myself--to play an organ like a FIDDLE! I also enjoyed parts in regard to theater organs. This video was of very good taste! From John Nozum A fellow organist

Carol Williams at the end, playing the Boellmann toccata?

I had a pipe organ from Italy. Estey/Freedom II

Does anybody know the name of the song that begins at 54:08 ? Thanks!

😮

Did I miss it? Or did you not mention John Leonard Hinners. That's like talking about cars in American and not mentioning Henry Ford.

The Midmer-Losh pipe organ in Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ is actually the world's largest pipe organ. With over 33,000 pipes, it is the largest in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records. It is currently undergoing renovation, so is not entirely playable yet. Therefore, the Wannamaker in Philadelphia is currently the world's largest "playable" organ. However, the Wannamaker has more ranks than the Midmer-Losh, so largest depends on how you wish to measure it. By the way, there is no competition between the two organs. They are completely different, in two completely different type of places, and intended for entirely different types of uses.

Will they have this show in 2020?

what is the piece of music at the credits from about 56.30 the end of the first documentary

52:55

48:27 - Magnificat

47:00 what is this song? I have been looking for this

Not certain if this was presented, but there is a difference between a church pipe organ and a theater pipe organ.

i don't understand why there's a few Thumbs Down vote to this.....maybe they dislike this because they like only heavy metal rock music...or they're just stupid!...BOTH? LoL BTW...my organ teacher, Lois Parsely played the Spreckles organ in Balboa Park, San Diego and he let me play one number on it too....wow, was thrilling...wishing I kept playing, i'm finally back to playing and taking music lessons seriously...is hard at my age...i'm 66...why i let the music die....is beyond me! I met Reginal Fort at Organ Power Pizza in San Diego area...he sat at my table along with my organ teacher...awesome as he was one of the great organist.

And at the end.... German music.

Who is the woman at ca. 1:10: 00 and following, playing that long-winded incredibly boring and meandering piece? The piece is not worth learning. Who wrote it?

Does anyone know the name of the song that begins at 47:47? Thanks!