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Main Auditorium Organ
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For the seven-manual console's stop list, click here.
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It is only possible to provide here the briefest description of what The Guinness Book of World Records called "this heroic instrument", but a full account of it is given in the book Atlantic City's Musical Masterpiece [for details, click here].
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The Main Auditorium is a truly vast space, measuring 488 feet long, 288 feet wide, and 137 feet high. To fill the place with sound, Emerson Richards designed an organ with some mind-boggling and previously unheard of specifications. These include ten 32-foot stops, a full-length 64-foot stop (one of only two in the world), four stops on 100-inch wind (a pressure not employed in any other organ) and 10 stops on 50 inches. The 100-inch stops are: Grand Ophicleide 16-8; Tuba Imperial 8, Tuba Maxima 8-4; Trumpet Mirabilis 16-8-4. The loudest of these, the Ophicleide, can be heard on the CD Bach on the Biggest [for details, click here], where it is used to play the Cantus Firmus in Wachet Auf!
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A summary of the instrument's contents is given below:
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| Department |
Voices |
Ranks |
Pipes |
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| Pedal Right |
11 |
11 |
903 |
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| Pedal Left |
10 |
16 |
955 |
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| Choir |
29 |
37 |
2,792 |
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| Unenclosed Choir |
6 |
9 |
657 |
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| Great |
38 |
63 |
4,647 |
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| Great-Solo (Flues) |
13 |
13 |
1,152 |
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| Great-Solo (Reeds) |
12 |
12 |
972 |
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| Swell |
36 |
55 |
4,456 |
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| Swell-Choir |
17 |
17 |
1,542 |
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| Solo |
22 |
33 |
2,085 |
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| Fanfare |
21 |
36 |
2,364 |
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| Echo |
22 |
27 |
1,896 |
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| Gallery I |
4 |
10 |
754 |
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| Gallery II |
7 |
9 |
621 |
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| Gallery III |
6 |
9 |
681 |
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| Gallery IV |
8 |
8 |
596 |
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| Brass Chorus |
8 |
10 |
730 |
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| String I |
11 |
20 |
1,436 |
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| String II |
24 |
37 |
2,657 |
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| String III |
9 |
17 |
1,217 |
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| Total |
314 |
449 |
33,114 |
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In additon to the above, there are 23 percussions – seven melodic and 16 non-melodic. When added to the instrument's 314 voices (i.e. stops that produce sound by passing wind through pipes), the total number of stops becomes 337.
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The pipes, etc. are accommodated in eight chambers arranged in opposite pairs on the left and right sides of the Auditorium – there being four chambers in the stage area and four near the center of the room. The simplified diagram below shows the contents of the chambers and their relative locations.
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LEFT STAGE
Pedal Left
Swell*, Swell-
Choir*, Unen-
closed Choir
String I* |
STAGE |
RIGHT STAGE
Pedal Right
Great
Great-Solo**
Solo*
Percussion |
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LEFT FORWARD
Choir* |
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RIGHT FORWARD
Brass Chorus*
String II* |
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LEFT CENTER
Gallery III
Gallery IV* |
LEFT UPPER
Fanfare***
String III*** |
Upper Chambers
are located over
Center Chambers |
RIGHT UPPER
Echo* |
RIGHT CENTER
Gallery I*
Gallery II* |
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* In its own swell box. ** In two seperate swell boxes. *** In a shared swell box.
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The main console is located to the right of the stage, near the proscenium arch. Its seven manuals are called, from bottom to top: Choir, Great, Swell, Solo, Fanfare, Echo, Bombard. It has 1,235 stop-keys, consisting of 852 speaking registers, 35 melodic percussions, 46 non-melodic percussions, 18 tremolos, 164 couplers, and 120 swell pedal selectives (for switching the shades of the 14 swell boxes onto the six swell pedals – a seventh pedal is the crescendo).
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Work on the instrument, Midmer-Losh opus number 5550, started in May of 1929 and was completed in December, 1932.
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For the seven-manual console's stop list, click here.
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ATLANTIC CITY CONVENTION HALL ORGAN SOCIETY, INC.
1009 BAY RIDGE AVENUE PMB 108, ANNAPOLIS, MD 21403, U.S.A.
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© 2011 ACCHOS, Inc. Please read Copyright Notice
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