What's Up?

By John Adams

There are three things I would like to see happen with the Worthington organ. The first has already been discussed with the board and in the Stoptab. That is, to make the organ more user friendly at least for those of us who need some help in registration. There has been a little progress in that direction. It is very doable and necessary. Anyone wanting to play the organ would be less intimidated by the array in front of him or her.

The second would involve making the organ visible. Let the casual visitor to the auditorium know there is indeed an organ lurking in the shadows. At present if one walks into the auditorium, there is no evidence whatsoever that an organ exists. This applies to the students in particular but would be applicable to anyone attending any event in the auditorium. Almost none of the thousands of people who attend anything in the school auditorium must be aware that the organ is there. It should not be a "best kept secret." We should keep in mind that the student body has a complete turnover every four years with one fourth leaving and one fourth of them new to the school every year. Any exposure needs to be done immediately or they are gone.

With this in mind, the very least we could reasonably do would be to install non-speaking pipes on the walls beside or below the chamber openings; just a few would do and cost almost nothing except for the attachment. This would at least alert the inquiring mind although I will admit that for many, young or old, the question might be "what are they?" Many churches, for different reasons have façade pipes. Some speak, some don't, but they do tell the audience that there is a pipe organ present. Although not as easy or even possible to do, the grand Wurlitzer console in full view would be the ultimate. Once the new relay is installed most of the relay room where the console now resides would be available to, hold your breath, knock a hole in the wall facing the auditorium and make that the permanent home of the console. No more rolling it out to the stage, actually no more need for two or more of the organ crew to be there to do the rolling. Security could be lockable glass doors such as is used for the large Skinner console in the Cincinnati Union Station. It sits out in the main concourse in front of God and everybody. The concourse or waiting room by the way looks like Radio City Music hall in its art deco style and is almost as big.

This brings me to the third goal of making the organ more available. It certainly isn't usable sitting back out of sight in the relay room. Once the organ is in the visible position, there is no reason, at least in my mind, why a school advisor couldn't supervise the use of the organ by any student. As conditions now exist, there are far to many logistics to be satisfied for anyone to play the organ. Those are, for instance, the organ crew has to be present, the auditorium has to be available, a teacher has to be scheduled (if for lessons) and the student's time has to be scheduled. We could at least cut out some of those requirements. There is no reason whatsoever why all power to the organ could not be turned on from the console.

Along this same line of reasoning, once the new solid state relay is installed, and there is the money to do that, and if MIDI in/out is included, the organ could actually be played from literally anywhere in the auditorium with a MIDI keyboard (on a tiny two wire cable). That might chaff some purist but it also could really be fascinating to the students. That function as well as some MIDI sounds that would be available would bring the old organ up to modern day speed or so it might seem to the students without altering the original Wurlitzer sound at all - it would just be augmented. The possibilities then become almost endless. This of course would be possible whether the console is in view or not.

A small slave console is also another possibility although its appearance might give a false image of the Wurlitzer might. On the upside though if an additional smaller console would allow more people to see it, more to play it and be easier to present on a regular basis, then the option is worth considering. Any pipe organ can have a slave paralleled to the master even if only with two keyboards and fewer stops.

With the use of MIDI, the organ performance can be saved to a computer type disc. MIDI would be the digital code to play or record all actions, not the sound itself. Not only is the playback used for improving skills but it can be used in lieu of the performer, heaven forbid. The good news is that these organs are better off being played so that even the non-player could pop in a disc to exercise the organ as well as analyze some problems. MIDI also allows the tuner to activate pipes while in the chamber without the sleepy chore of someone holding down a key.

None of these ideas is related to the restoration project for which we hope to obtain funding. I am sure that there are those who are shuddering right about now but I feel that now is the time to get our head out of the sand and do something drastic to save the old girl from the museum. We might also actually interest some students in the process.

Your comments will be welcome. (I think)