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student becoming enamored with the fabulous Wurlitzer just might say that we are going about it wrong. The movie idea of build it and they will come obviously has a flaw, like it is simply not true, at least by itself. I have read of cases where large numbers of students attend an organ demonstration. Let's face it, it was a field trip, and have you ever seen a student turn down a field trip, even to the dump. Of course the result is what counts and if those field trips produced even one aficionado then it might be considered worthwhile.

However, after considering this lack of interest of the students and trying to think of something that would work, this is my challenge to the school system, and without the school's interest, there wont be any student's interest. Most young people today are fascinated with the computer and understand its functions far better than I do. For quite some time there has been software that allows the creation of music. There are even programs that will allow scanned printed music to become audible music not to mention the editing possibilities. Just recently I came across inexpensive hardware and free software that allows a perforated paper roll (like a piano roll) to be scanned, copied to a computer file, edited, then downloaded to the hardware. The hardware in this case being a small "black box" that contains a removable EPROM. Before you loose interest if it hasn't happened already, the EPROM then plays the organ. An EPROM is a postage stamp size silicon chip that is Erasable, Programmable, Read Only, Memory. The software also allows any music created by the program to be played back on the organ. The hardware is $231.00, software free, scanner I don't know about but is not necessary. The EPROM will hold about two hours of organ music. Can you see the picture I am trying to paint? A computer lab that allows the student to create some music (computer skills), edit the music, (music knowledge), and then hear it played back on the mighty Wurlitzer (listening skill).

AND THERE IS MORE. I suppose that a school like Worthington has physics classes. Surely they do! In my physics books in high school as well as college there were at least a few pages on sound creation with an organ pipe. Well maybe that has become sound creation with electronics although the physical laws remain with the pipe. The pipe organ is a veritable physics lab. So why not use it as such. Granted we wouldn't want students with too much access to the chambers but that doesn't rule it out as a learning center. Here is what the organ has to offer: air - flow, pressure regulation, pressure measurement, volume calculation, conductor resistance to air flow and its resulting pressure drop; electrical - voltage measurement, resistance, current measurement, electromagnetic, motors, ac-dc conversion, transformers, lighting, not to mention the very important relay or solid state logic involved in the organs control system; the visual - console construction, wind chest construction, regulators, air ducts, wiring, ad infinitum. The music part of the organ could take up volumes.

There is one more subject to mention to those few still reading. For far too long the pipe organ in general has been looked upon as antiquated and out of date. I remind those who think that way which might be the vast majority of students, that the pipe organ is the first synthesizer and is still performing that function. Schools still have bands and orchestras, right? How many of those instruments date as far back in time as the pipe organ? I would say most of them go further. How about the drum, the plucked instrument, the blown instrument? So what is so strange in having an instrument like the pipe organ that is duplicating those very ancient instrument sounds and sounding like a full orchestra with a whole lot less effort and a whole lot fewer people. I don't recall anyone ever saying to abolish the band or orchestra because of the antique instruments used.

Enough said.

John Adams