From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!death
Newsgroups: net.music
Title: Re: Organs worth a visit
Article-I.D.: yale-com.524
Posted: Tue May 18 10:01:08 1982
Received: Thu May 20 02:11:50 1982

Of special note is the Newberry Memorie,Organ at Yale, the largest
instrument on campus & one of the nicest I have encountered in the
country. It was installed around (I think) the beginning of the
1900's, and upgraded around 1928 by Aeolian-Skinner.

It is a very lush romantic instrument, in a very live hall
(nothing besides organ really works that well in Woolsey because
of the reverberation). It has 8 divisions (great, swell, solo,
choir, orchestral, string, echo & pedal); the orchestral, string and
echo organs are multiplexed to "float" between manuals, and the
echo division is underneath the floor in the rear of the hall.
There are 166 stops, four manuals, and more than 16,600 pipes in 
the organ, ranging from the echo voix celeste to the
32' contrabombarde in the pedal. The solo division includes
a harmonic trumpet and tuba mirabilis at 25" pressure, for
those of us who like volume, and a 64' resultant countrabourdon
in the pedal division which literally rattles the windows.

The only drawback to the instrument, from a performers standpoint, 
is of course the placement of the console. The organ forms the back
wall of a 3+story hall; a stage juts out from this, and over the e
dge of the stage on the floor is the organ console. When playing
the instrument the sound sort of goes over and past you, so 
you only hear yourself coming off the ceiling, or the back wall, or
wherever. I have had to stick pencils in the keys and walk to the middle
of the hall to check registrations at times; but despite thi
s it is a true thrill to play and to hear the instrument. 
There is a Sunday Evening series presented through the school year,
so if anybody is ever through then it might be worth checking out.

On a totally unrelated note, a plea for correspondence: are there
any percussionists out there interested in swapping stories/information?
Mail away!

                                   ==bob
                                   decvax!yale-comix!death