I lived 38 years as a lover of pipe organs but somehow only learned about the Wanamaker 20 mins ago. This must be the greatest musical instrument ever made. I am in awe of the sound of it. It turns, of all pieces, a cheesy pop song from "The Lion King" into a thing of rapturous and sumptuous beauty.
It's one of two, really. This is the "Queen" of pipe organs. The "King" is only 50 miles away, in Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City. 33,112 pipes compared to the Wanamaker's 28,750, one of the world's only two 64 foot stops, ten stops on 50" wind pressure, and four stops on 100" wind pressure. One of those four is the world's loudest organ stop. All of that is necessary because it speaks into a 5 million cubic foot arena.
I’ve been saying for years and years...to play music that’s enjoyable to shop by. What we used to call Champagne Music. Rogers & Hart, Hammerstein, Kern and new Broadway pieces. This is an orchestral organ. This is what’s relatable to the people. Keith Chapman knew this too. He’d do a serious piece and then a popular tune. Look at all the people who waited and listened? You can bet they will be spending money.
This is back when I was his personal assistant. The reason he’s doodling around in the beginning is that I’m frantically flipping though the Disney fake book I brought along that evening trying to find something for him to play. Also at the beginning of Can You Feel The Love Tonight, it’s the first time he’d ever played it on the organ (he could sight read anything) so he started way up on the String Cellos and I’m like “no lower” so he went down an octave, and I’m like “nope, tenor!”. It was the only time he ever played it from the fake book. Not long after we found the Disney for Organ book which current assistant Dylan David Shaw now has. This was also before the facade restoration and we could control the facade lighting from the console, hence the light show. Also, since this was an evening concert, from 8:15 when I put the String 4’ coupler on to the end, there’s a quick buildup of everything tasteful (working, in tune, etc) and every division is coupled to the Great at 16-8-4. The biggest punches coming from the Etherial and Orchestral reeds.
More songs like this need to be played on this wonderful instrument. I wish a album of Disney sounds was released online in a concert or something one of the best wannamaker organ videos on TH-cam in my opinion. I love it!
Very insightful! Thank you for giving us a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes of this spectacular performance! Both you and the organist made an unforgettable event permanent for us to enjoy (at least in part, as no amount of sound equipment can ever truly capture the full beauty of a live pipe organ) here on the internet!
Thank you, Doug, for this heartwarming testimony to a great person. Thank you also, for being part of the perfect musical team. Tonight, I'll be thinking of (and missing), Michael Stairs because it is Holiday Encores time in Ocean Grove, NJ! Both he and Gordon used to put on a super concert each year at the end of the summer season. Hope you're well, Doug, and thank you!
Sad news. Michael Stairs, who is playing the Wanamaker organ for this video, passed away peacefully at his home on August 11, 2018. The world lost another great artist, and an even greater human being. RIP
I question those who walk on by as if it is just an everyday sound.. They are missguided, and these days that are upon us now is a resolute example of why you should always enjoy the small things, even if that small thing is the sound of one of the most beautiful instruments on this planet.
This makes me miss Philadelphia. Tramping around the South for 20 years with my soldier husband, and now in Ohio. Closer, but will never be close enough...
I just want to know how the people in the video are just walking by it like "gotta get that new coat." I mean, familiarity may rob some of the wonder of hearing it, but still. How do you just bypass that sort of beauty?
The first time I heard the Wanamaker organ was in 2008 - and I couldn't believe how people were just milling about shopping for shoes like there was nothing going on. I have been to a least a couple of events each year since then and am still amazed by the instrument - - and amused by the shoppers.
@@penndelval No sound system anywhere can come close to recreating the sound of a real pipe organ. Even the most clueless would know something was different.
Wonderfull!!!!!! Could played even louder.... not seeing anyone using earprotection! Organ music cannot be played loud enough if needed for the piece... Sad to read Mr Stairs passed away.....
As much as I love the symphonic repertoire, I think it's high time a Disney or some kind of pop selections CD was released. If not by Peter Richard Conte then by somebody else. This was very enjoyable!
Without looking at the name of the organist, I can without a doubt attribute to Conte. Unduly loud, unsubtle, parts woven together; sounds like three day-old porridge, left out too long.
Please do not make comments about an artist, particularly when you did not take the time to read who the artist is in this recording. It was not Peter Conte. It was Michael Stairs. And there are three or four other assistants who play transcriptions such as these. Regardless of your tastes, comments such as yours should remain as your “inside voice” and not aired on social media. They are insulting and crude. Please keep your opinions to yourself. Peter Conte, without a doubt, is far far far more credible of a musician than you credit him.
I lived 38 years as a lover of pipe organs but somehow only learned about the Wanamaker 20 mins ago. This must be the greatest musical instrument ever made. I am in awe of the sound of it. It turns, of all pieces, a cheesy pop song from "The Lion King" into a thing of rapturous and sumptuous beauty.
(Note the grown-ass men stopped dead in their tracks, utterly captivated.)
It's one of two, really. This is the "Queen" of pipe organs. The "King" is only 50 miles away, in Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City. 33,112 pipes compared to the Wanamaker's 28,750, one of the world's only two 64 foot stops, ten stops on 50" wind pressure, and four stops on 100" wind pressure. One of those four is the world's loudest organ stop. All of that is necessary because it speaks into a 5 million cubic foot arena.
I’ve been saying for years and years...to play music that’s enjoyable to shop by. What we used to call Champagne Music.
Rogers & Hart, Hammerstein, Kern and new Broadway pieces.
This is an orchestral organ.
This is what’s relatable to the people. Keith Chapman knew this too. He’d do a serious piece and then a popular tune.
Look at all the people who waited and listened? You can bet they will be spending money.
This is back when I was his personal assistant. The reason he’s doodling around in the beginning is that I’m frantically flipping though the Disney fake book I brought along that evening trying to find something for him to play. Also at the beginning of Can You Feel The Love Tonight, it’s the first time he’d ever played it on the organ (he could sight read anything) so he started way up on the String Cellos and I’m like “no lower” so he went down an octave, and I’m like “nope, tenor!”. It was the only time he ever played it from the fake book. Not long after we found the Disney for Organ book which current assistant Dylan David Shaw now has. This was also before the facade restoration and we could control the facade lighting from the console, hence the light show. Also, since this was an evening concert, from 8:15 when I put the String 4’ coupler on to the end, there’s a quick buildup of everything tasteful (working, in tune, etc) and every division is coupled to the Great at 16-8-4. The biggest punches coming from the Etherial and Orchestral reeds.
Thank you, Doug Backman, for adding this personal info to the post. I loved it before but even more now.
More songs like this need to be played on this wonderful instrument. I wish a album of Disney sounds was released online in a concert or something one of the best wannamaker organ videos on TH-cam in my opinion. I love it!
To my ears it all came together gorgeously from the start. Absolutely stunning.
Very insightful! Thank you for giving us a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes of this spectacular performance! Both you and the organist made an unforgettable event permanent for us to enjoy (at least in part, as no amount of sound equipment can ever truly capture the full beauty of a live pipe organ) here on the internet!
Thank you, Doug, for this heartwarming testimony to a great person. Thank you also, for being part of the perfect musical team. Tonight, I'll be thinking of (and missing), Michael Stairs because it is Holiday Encores time in Ocean Grove, NJ! Both he and Gordon used to put on a super concert each year at the end of the summer season. Hope you're well, Doug, and thank you!
Sad news. Michael Stairs, who is playing the Wanamaker organ for this video, passed away peacefully at his home on August 11, 2018. The world lost another great artist, and an even greater human being. RIP
:( RIP
It sounds beautiful. 😕
Great Soul, great man, great musician surely. R.I.P.
@@tylerstein5854 so Sad😢
Love this music,played by a great musician. RIP
Michael’s life continues to be an inspiration to all who knew him. Marvelous that he can live on through recordings such as this!
I question those who walk on by as if it is just an everyday sound.. They are missguided, and these days that are upon us now is a resolute example of why you should always enjoy the small things, even if that small thing is the sound of one of the most beautiful instruments on this planet.
Yeah, I get you. I think I'd just fall on my knees on the floor crying. This is grandness on an entirely different level. Pearls before swine.
I met Michael Stairs at the console of this organ a long time ago. A complete gentleman.
Dear Lord....thanks for sharing this! An amazing instrument....
If I am ever in Philadelphia, I wanna stop by that store just to hear the organ.
That's about the only reason I'd go to Philly!
Listening to this is a spiritual experience. The energetic vibes are off the charts
Thank you for capturing this. Amazing.
I think I just added, I want to see this in person, to my bucket list.
It is so worth it...it melts you as you feel the notes echo throughout the grand court. It was on my bucket list and I had the opportunity to see it!
Sadly the organist playing this is not living anymore but you can hear one of his students and many others playing the organ everyday!
So beautiful! The Wanamaker Organ never ceases to "get" me! The sound of it...Oh...
An American Treasure. Nothing sounds like the Wanamaker. I would know that sound anywhere.
The Boardwalk Hall will give it a run when it’s restored.
I love that organ. I have been there a number of times over the years.
If you go, be sure and pack along a decent multi-channel recorder. My last trip I did a Zoom4 and it captured great images.
0:55 - that part of When you wish upon a Star was used in the Disney Intro if u can hear clearly
This makes me miss Philadelphia. Tramping around the South for 20 years with my soldier husband, and now in Ohio. Closer, but will never be close enough...
How I wish I wasn’t on the other side of the country,I’d be there daily 🤣 The Wanamaker has strings that have no rival in my ever so humble opinion.
Beautiful.
I love ディズニー。
RIP. Michael
Very Powerful.
I just want to know how the people in the video are just walking by it like "gotta get that new coat."
I mean, familiarity may rob some of the wonder of hearing it, but still. How do you just bypass that sort of beauty?
OneBiasedOpinion I would be sitting soaking it in.
The first time I heard the Wanamaker organ was in 2008 - and I couldn't believe how people were just milling about shopping for shoes like there was nothing going on. I have been to a least a couple of events each year since then and am still amazed by the instrument - - and amused by the shoppers.
Srsly, so many Americans are so ignorant these days, they probably think it's just music being piped in from a really good sound system.
OneBiasedOpinion
I would literally be melted and laying on the floor taking in the majestic beauty and sound of this organ playing this song.
@@penndelval No sound system anywhere can come close to recreating the sound of a real pipe organ. Even the most clueless would know something was different.
that was Marvelous!
Wonderfull!!!!!!
Could played even louder.... not seeing anyone using earprotection!
Organ music cannot be played loud enough if needed for the piece...
Sad to read Mr Stairs passed away.....
That's the only way you'd see men voluntarily standing in a women's shoe department.
Wowww 💕
8:12 listen to the growl of this monster!!! 😈
I wonder if Elton John has seen this video? ^^
As much as I love the symphonic repertoire, I think it's high time a Disney or some kind of pop selections CD was released. If not by Peter Richard Conte then by somebody else. This was very enjoyable!
Copyrights/royalties make that a very complicated exercise indeed.
When you walk inside the musical instrument as it is being played.
Very good! Where is this organ? 👏🏼🇧🇷
Macy's Center City (previously Wanamaker's), 300 Market Street, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Where’s the Kleenex?
Without looking at the name of the organist, I can without a doubt attribute to Conte. Unduly loud, unsubtle, parts woven together; sounds like three day-old porridge, left out too long.
Please do not make comments about an artist, particularly when you did not take the time to read who the artist is in this recording. It was not Peter Conte. It was Michael Stairs. And there are three or four other assistants who play transcriptions such as these. Regardless of your tastes, comments such as yours should remain as your “inside voice” and not aired on social media. They are insulting and crude. Please keep your opinions to yourself. Peter Conte, without a doubt, is far far far more credible of a musician than you credit him.
Save your breath for your inflatable date junior.