Macy’s is closing. What happens to the organ?
UncategorizedThe Wanamaker Building’s branch of Macy’s in Philadelphia is being shut down.
Happily, its historic pipe organ will be saved. The Inquirer reports:
The Wanamaker Building holds rare protections from the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Most historic buildings only have protections for their facades, but the Wanamaker Grand Court, including its iconic eagle statue and organ, is one of only five interiors that are protected in Philadelphia.
Wikipedia on the organ:
The Wanamaker Organ is the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. It is a concert organ of the American Symphonic school of design, which combines traditional organ tone with the sonic colors of the symphony orchestra. In its present configuration, the instrument has 28,750 pipes in 464 ranks.
The organ console consists of six manuals with an array of stops and controls that command the organ. The organ’s String Division fills the largest single organ chamber in the world. The division features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built to Wanamaker specifications by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago.
The organ is famed for its orchestra-like sound, coming from pipes that are voiced softer than usual, allowing an unusually rich build-up because of the massing of pipe-tone families. The organ was also built and enlarged as an “art organ”, using exceptional craftsmanship and lavish application of materials to create a luxury product.
Rememeber when shopping was a musical experience?
Who cares? A run-down, long past its prime store in an ugly, dirty part of an ugly, dirty city. The organ is distant, and usually played haltingly at mezzo forte
Not exactly the sort of thing to wring hands over, though I’m sure a few oddballs will pop up to do just that
If you do not feel joy hearing this magnificent instrument being played in this magnificent space in the heart of this magnificent city then I feel sad for you.
If you think “Philly” is so magnificent, I also feel sad for you. See how that doesn’t make a lick of difference?
It’s very sad. I will miss “meeting by the eagle”. Where is the organ going???
That comment from “So?” must be parody.
My teacher Keith Chapman was the Grand Court organist in the seventies and eighties. It’s fine if you have no appreciation for classical music but many people do. It is sad that there’s a generation that has no idea what that instrument sounds like.
Absolute nonsense all round. The organ is magnificent and sounds great. It’s played mezzo forte at lunchtime because people down below don’t want to be defended. I’ve heard it a few times. Richard Conte who plays the organ for the orchestra is a masterly musician.
I think you meant “deafened”. I hope so.
I did. People who want to know what this organ sounds like should look for Virgil Fox’s recording of Komm Susser Tod on this instrument. Stunning.
WHO cares about your despicable opinions?
What a pathetic tiny creature you must be to feel the need to denigrate something that does you no harm.
Just like the oddballs who pop up to denigrate anything to do with classical music. If cultural items such as this organ are let go, we won’t ever get them back again. Music isn’t about clean cities, it’s about live performance – and if you don’t see the value in preserving and protecting that in every way possible then you should clear off this site and take your indifference and apathy with you.
Have you ever attended an organ performance there? In actual concert performance, the impact is simply unforgetable and overwhelming. I’ve seen more than a few have tears streaming down their face at such events.
And which shining city on a hill is graced with your presence?
Who cares about a Stradivarius? It’s just a 300-year-old chunk of wood.
Anything else you don’t like ?
I’m glad to see that this mean-spirited comment has 26 times as many downvotes as upvotes.
Good news thar the organ will be saved, but what will the building be used for? The organ may be kept intact but how often will it be played in future? Does its protected status just mean it won’t be destroyed, or does it have to be kept in fully functioning condition? An instrument of such size will be expensive to maintain, will whoever takes the building over be prepared to meet those costs, or will it just gather dust and eventually cease to function?
Friends of the Wanamaker Organ is a non profit group, not connected to Macys, which helps fund the maintenance of the organ. Their budget is in the neighborhood of $500K per year.
Macy’s was only using the first 3 floors of the 10 story building, the rest was converted to office space many years ago. Thus the climate control of the building will remain, though finding a new tenant will be problematical, as everything involving retail in Bezos’ America has become.
And then there is the incoming Musk administration’s avowed purpose of destroying American cities not controlled by its political party…
Well, the building could be demolished (maybe it’s time for a bigger and better trump Tower) and the organ would then be transplanted somewhere else.
Oh, what a real pity… being in that store when the organ starts to play is a surreal joy.. the closest thing to British eccentricity in USA! How sad. What will happen to the building now I wonder.
Isn’t that where Richard Strauss conducted a concert?
Stokowski did. 1929.
Correct me if I’m wrong. I think Strauss premiered his Domestic Symphony there.
Close, but no cigar. Read all about it here: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Explore/Articles/2021/05/10/Carnegie-Hall-Premieres-Richard-Strauss-Symphonia-Domestica#:~:text=On%20March%2021%2C%201904%2C%20Richard,performance%20of%20his%20Symphonia%20domestica.
tl; dr
Premiere happened at Carnegie Hall, but the work was also played at Wanamaker’s soon after. The Wanamaker’s location in NYC, not Philly…
Many thanks for the correction and link.
How much longer will Organ concerts be offered.
As often as organists are invited to perform on this wonderful instrument.
According to the Wanamaker website, run by the association that oversees the organ, the concerts will continue until the store’s closure. There are more details there and they will be posting updates.
People are way too optimistic about the fate of the building and organ.
In the United States, historic preservation laws are ignored all of the time.
Further, the law doesn’t require the building owner to keep the organ in working condition. No government agency is going to come in and regularly inspect it to ensure it’s fully functional.
Pray tell, what government agency has a J.S. Bach or a Cavaillé-Coll on staff? The average government employee couldn’t determine if a violin is in good condition, much less an instrument with almost 29,000 pipes, six manuals and hundreds of stops.
And nor should they – “Philly” has much more pressing issues than paying for a grossly overlarge organ in a former shopping mall. Maybe a little of that money could go to the homelessness problem. Hm, there’s a possible use of the space, come to think of it.
Philistine comment, as we all expect from you. Have you heard of whataboutery? If you don’t understand the importance of preserving live music performance then clear off this site and take your miserable negativity with you. You are no friend of classical music.
Well… I imagine that like any other musical instrument, it requires the consistent employment of proficient & musical musicians to provide the worthwhile experience. But this sounds cool enough that I’d check it out once to hear what has been created (& hope the presentation shows the best of the artifact).
There are many recordings of the organ.
The organist is a paid position with 2x daily performances and has been since John Wanamaker’s wife held the post in the 1920’s.
Check it out:
https://wanamakerorgan.com/
Simply standing at that instrument’s console some years back filled me with awe! I wish I’d been there while someone was playing it (or in even wilder dreams, that I could play it). Long may it sound!
Hope the great organ will be preserved as it is an instrument over quality and personality.
I’m SO HAPPY they’re saving this magnificent instrument!!
Happy they will save the organ and may continue to be played if you’ve never heard it there’s nothing like it in the world. My teacher Keith was the Grand Court organist in the seventies and eighties.
Wasn’t Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie Concertante premiered there with that instrument?
How will we be able to hear it played? How will it be maintained?
A special instrument in a special acoustical space that has been very well maintained. I loved leaning my head over the railing into the tall space to enjoy the discernable movement of the string Celeste through the air.
The public story is that the building will become a mixed-use space including smaller shops, restaurants and a gym. I’m personally in favor of this plan, as long as the central balconies become a public space, and the organ continues to be performed on regularly. I went to see the organ a handful of times, but I can’t remember a single thing I ever purchased at that Macy’s. The store wasn’t using the space very well, in my opinion. So I’m cautiously optimistic, as Philly has way too many history and organ nerds to let anything bad happen to that instrument.
Having played trumpet with Keith Chapman in the early ’70s several times shortly before Christmas, I knew the experience was unique in SO many ways. Acoustically, the combination of the Organ with Brass is so fitting for the atrium area. Also, when Keith performed, he “milked” the maximum out of that magnificent instrument. There is nothing like experiencing the “rumbling” from the 32 ft pipes… as they complete the dynamics that are so iconoclastic about that Organ. John Wanamakervwas a man if vision and have us such a treasure that MUST be preserved.
Why is it that that everything Macys touches is run down and turns into a steaming pile of crap. Just look what they did to Wannamakers, Dayton Hudson and Marshall Fields. It’s a shame.
There’s absolutely no possibility that much the same might have happened had they not purchased them, right?
Barry Rose, the very well known English choral director and church musician, said that being invited to play the Wanamaker organ was one of the great musical experiences of his life.
As a high school student about to attend college, I had the privilege to play that organ because my aunt, who worked there, knew the organist and arranged the opportunity (“meet me under the eagle,” she said). When I heard the news, I thought, how sad. But I’m glad that this “king of instruments” will be preserved for future generations.
These days shopping is an awful “muzakal” experience.
Macy’s has become an “organ donor”, yo mamas
Glad you’re here to console each other with thumbs down and supportive comments. Since you little kids are that predictable and easy to control, I’ll double down: Philadelphia is a dirty, angry, poor, ugly city, not worth visiting; the “Wanamaker organ” is a distant, mushy white elephant interesting mostly to mushy, white organ freaks; and all of you deserve each other.
You are the one being controlled by your inferiority and hatred. I’ll repeat: “So?” is a miserable pathetic troll who doesn’t deserve classical music in their life. Only come back when you can behave like a decent person, which is probably never. You deserve to be lonely just with your spite and negativity for company.