Afro-independent. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. ;) 1888-1???, 1888-09-22
A MONSTER ORGAN.
The Magnificent Instrument To he Place,
In the Great Auditorium building II
Chicauo

Inc Magnificent Instrument To he Placed
In the Great Auditorium building In
Chicago
The Auditorium Company has placed al.
order and made contract for concert or
gan Of the largest kind and the most com.
piete appointment in every respect.. The
specifications have been matured under the
supervision of Clarence Eddy. The enumer.
alton OF particular calls for four manuals
keyboard and one pedal keyboard and one
hundred and seventy-five stops. In the or.
gan there win be practically five differ.
emit instruments or departments. The main
part Will occupy the organ chamber at the
northeast corner of the hall. There will be
stage organ OF four powerful stops placed
lar back upon the stage, but played from
the keyboard in front. TINS part is designed
TO assist the chorus in maintaining the pitch.
which is always difficult when the singers
are SO far from the orchestra and so unfa-
vorably placed for hearing, as the greater
number OF singers in a festival chorus
necessarily are.
For soft and distant effects there will be
an echo organ, the pipes of which will be
placed above the ceiling. Among these will
be very soft "voix celesten and a "vox
numana Of modern and peculiar construc-
tlon Certain OF the solo stops, also, will
most likely be placed there, in order to give
them more effect. The motors and
dynamos will be placed under the hall in
the basement. The entire organ will be
played by means of electric action, enabling
the organist to control the speech of the
most distant pipes as promptly as those
nearest to him. The touch, also. of the full
organ will be as easy and prompt as of u
single stop. The keyboards and the seat Of
the organist will be placed in the orchestra,
at the side opposite the organ chamber, in
order that the organist may be better able
10 hear the effect of his combinations than
when he Is very near one part of his instru-
ment and far away from others Perhaps
the most remarkable feature of the instru-
ment Will be the ease of its manipulation
for the production of orchestral effects.
This Is expected to be accomplished by
means of the twenty-five adjustable combi-
nation pistcns. By an ingenious system any
one of these pistons can be set in mo-
ments time to bring on any selection of
stops desired, from single stop to the
full organ; and IN the same easy way its
action can be reversed or modified 1t is
thus possible for the organist, by the ex-
pcndlture of ten minutes time, to prepare
all the combinations he may need for long
programme of orchestral subscriptions,
each combination being brought on when
ever desired by a simple pressure Of the
thumb upon knob, without removing the
fingers from the keys.
The entire specifications call for an organ
OF twenty stops and 1889 pipes; swell
organ of twenty-three stops and 1,729
pipes; choir organ of seventeen stops and
LILO pipes; an echo organ of eleven stops
and 3l2 pipes; solo organ with full set
OF cathedral chimes, to be hung above the
proscenium arch; stage organ of four
stops and pa pipes, and pedal organ of
nineteen stops and $50 pipes. II is believed
by those having the matter in charge that
this will prove to be as unique and complete
in its way as the building and hall of which
it will constitute so distinguished an article
of furniture Its cost approaches 1900.
The contract requires 1t to be finished and
set up in the hall within sixteen months
time, or by December, 1889.