Wanamaker Organ
Encyclopedia
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, is the largest operational pipe organ
Pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
in the world, located within a spacious 7-story court at Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
Center City (formerly Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...
department store). The largest organ by some measures is the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ (which is barely functional). The Wanamaker organ is played twice a day, Monday through Saturday, and more frequently during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season. The organ is also featured at several special concerts held throughout the year, including events featuring the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ Festival Chorus and Brass Ensemble.
Notable characteristics
In its present configuration, the Wanamaker Organ has 28,543 pipesOrgan pipe
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a specific note of the musical scale...
in 462 ranks. The organ console
Organ console
thumb|right|250px|The console of the [[Wanamaker Organ]] in the Macy's department store in [[Philadelphia]], featuring six manuals and colour-coded stop tabs....
consists of six manuals
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
with an array of stops
Organ stop
An organ stop is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; some can be "on" , while others can be "off" .The term can also refer...
and controls that command the organ. The organ's String Division forms the largest single organ chamber in the world. The instrument features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built 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 artistic obligation entailed by the creation of this instrument has always been honored, with two curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
s employed in its constant and scrupulous care. The organ, with its regular program of concerts and recitals, was maintained by Wanamaker's throughout the chain's history, even as the company's financial fortunes waned. This level of dedication was maintained when corporate parentage shifted from the Wanamaker family to Carter Hawley Hale Stores
Carter Hawley Hale Stores
Broadway Stores, Inc. was an American retailer based in Southern California. Known through its history as Carter Hawley Hale Stores and Broadway Hale Stores over time, it acquired other retail store chains in regions outside its California home base and became in certain retail sectors a regional...
to Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. Woodward & Lothrop was Washington, D.C.'s first department store, opening in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States...
to Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...
to Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
.
History
The Wanamaker Organ was originally built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, successors to the Murray M. HarrisMurray M. Harris
Murray M. Harris is considered to be the "Father of Organ Building in the American West", and is remembered for building pipe organs of exceptional beauty and quality.-Background:...
Organ Co., for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
. It was designed to be the largest organ in the world, an imitation of a full-size orchestra with particularly complete resources of full organ tone including mixtures. In addition to its console, the organ was originally equipped with an automatic player that used punched rolls of paper, according to the Los Angeles Times of 1904. It was designed by renowned organ theorist and architect George Ashdown Audsley
George Ashdown Audsley
George Ashdown Audsley was an accomplished architect, artist, illustrator, writer, decorator and pipe organ designer who excelled in many artistic fields but is perhaps best known today for having designed the Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia.Born September 6, 1838 in Elgin, Scotland, apprenticed...
. Wild cost overruns plagued the project, with the result that Harris was ousted from his own company. With capital from stockholder Eben Smith
Eben Smith
Eben Smith was a successful mine owner, smelting company executive, railroad executive and bank owner in Colorado in the late 19th century and early 20th century.-Early life:...
, it was reorganized as the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, and finished at a cost of $105,000 (equal to $ today), $40,000 over budget, equal to $ today. The Fair began (in late April 1904) before the organ was fully installed in its temporary home, Festival Hall. It still was not entirely finished in September of that year, when Alexandre Guilmant
Alexandre Guilmant
Félix-Alexandre Guilmant was a French organist and composer.- Short biography :Guilmant was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer...
, one of the most famous organists of the day, presented 40 very well-attended recitals on the organ.
Following the Fair, the organ was intended for permanent installation by the Kansas City Convention Hall. Indeed, the original console had a prominent "K C" on its music rack. This venture failed, bankrupting the L. A. Art Organ company after the Fair closed. There was a plan to exhibit the organ at Coney Island in New York City, but nothing came of this.
The organ languished in storage at the Handlan warehouse in St. Louis until 1909, when it was bought by John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker
John Wanamaker was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a "pioneer in marketing." Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Biography:He was born on July 11, 1838.He opened his first store in...
for his new department store at 13th and Market Streets in Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, Philadelphia
Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
. It took thirteen freight cars to move it to its new home, and two years for installation. It was first played on June 22, 1911, at the exact moment when British King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
was crowned. It was also featured later that year when U.S. President William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
dedicated the store.
Despite its then-unprecedented size (more than 10,000 pipes), it was judged inadequate to fill the seven-story Grand Court in which it was located, so Wanamaker's opened a private organ factory in the store attic, which was charged with enlarging the organ. The first project to enlarge the organ was the addition of 8,000 pipes between 1911 and 1917.
Wanamaker's sponsored many historic after-business-hours concerts on the Wanamaker Organ. The first, in 1919, featured Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
and the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
with organist Charles M. Courboin. Every sales counter and fixture was removed for the free after-hours event, which attracted an audience of 15,000 from across the United States. Subsequently more of these "Musicians' Assemblies" were held, as were private recitals. For these events Wanamaker's opened a Concert Bureau under Alexander Russell and brought to America master organists Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...
and Louis Vierne
Louis Vierne
Louis Victor Jules Vierne was a French organist and composer.-Life:Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers, Vienne, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but at an early age was discovered to have an unusual gift for music. Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French...
, Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
, Marco Enrico Bossi
Marco Enrico Bossi
Marco Enrico Bossi was an Italian organist, composer, improviser and pedagogue.-Life:Bossi was born in Salò, a town in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, into a family of musicians. His father, Pietro, was organist at Salò Cathedral, which has a one-manual organ built by Fratelli Serassi from 1865...
, Alfred Hollins
Alfred Hollins
Alfred Hollins was a respected English organist, composer and teacher who was a famous recitalist in Scotland.- Biography :...
, and several others. (This agency, which worked in partnership with Canadian Bernard R. LaBerge, evolved into the Karen McFarlane Concert Agency of the present day.) During his first recital on the organ, Dupré was so impressed with the instrument that he was inspired to improvise a musical depiction of the life of Jesus Christ. This was later published as his Symphonie-Passion.
In 1924, a new project to enlarge the organ began. Marcel Dupré and Charles M. Courboin were asked by Rodman Wanamaker
Rodman Wanamaker
Lewis Rodman Wanamaker was a Republican and was a Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania in 1916. Wanamaker created aviation history by financing a two plane experimental seaplane class in response to a prize contest announcement by London's The Daily Mail newspaper in 1913 – the flying boat...
, John Wanamaker's son, to "Work together to draw up a plan for the instrument. Use everything you have ever dreamed about." They were told there was no limit to the budget. This project resulted in, among other things, the celebrated String Division, which occupies the largest organ chamber ever constructed, 67 feet long, 26 feet deep, and 16 feet high. During this project, the organ's current console was constructed in Wanamaker's private in-house pipe-organ factory, with six manuals
Manual (music)
A manual is a keyboard designed to be played with the hands on a pipe organ, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic organ, or synthesizer. The term "manual" is used with regard to any hand keyboard on these instruments to distinguish it from the pedalboard, which is a keyboard that the organist plays...
and several hundred controls. By 1930, when work on expanding the organ finally stopped, the organ had 28,482 pipes, and, if Rodman Wanamaker had not died in 1928, the organ would probably be even bigger.
Plans were made for, among others, a Stentor division, a section of high-pressure diapasons and reeds. It was to be installed on the fifth floor, above the String Division, and would be playable from the sixth manual. However, it was never funded, and the sixth manual is now used to couple other divisions or play various solo voices from other divisions that are duplexed to this keyboard.
Rodman Wanamaker was not interested in mere size, however, but in artistic organbuilding with finely crafted pipes and chests using the best materials and careful artisic consideration. The Wanamaker Organ console, built in the store organ shop by William Boone Fleming, is a work of art in its own right with heavy, durable construction, an ingenious layout of its pneumatic stop action and many unique features and conveniences. Wanamaker also had a collection of 60 rare stringed instruments, the Wanamaker Cappella, that were used in conjunction with the store organs in Philadelphia and New York, and went on tour. They were dispersed after his death.
Following the sale of the store to the May Department Stores Co., in 1995, the Wanamaker's name was removed from the store (first as Wanamaker-Hecht's) in favor of Hecht's
Hecht's
Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and the Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores located mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States....
, but the organ and its concerts were retained. During the local re-naming of the Hecht's stores to Strawbridge's, the historic Wanamaker Store briefly took the name of its longtime rival Strawbridge's. The May Company began a complete restoration of the organ in 1997, as part of the store's final May Co. conversion into a Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...
. At that time the store area was reduced to three floors and additional panes of glass were put around the Grand Court on floors four and five, greatly enhancing the reverberation of the room.
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
returned to the Grand Court on September 27, 2008 for the premiere performance of Joseph Jongen
Joseph Jongen
Marie-Alphonse-Nicolas-Joseph Jongen was a Belgian organist, composer, and music educator.-Biography:Jongen was born in Liège. On the strength of an amazing precocity for music, he was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire at the extraordinarily young age of seven, and spent the next sixteen years...
's Symphonie Concertante (1926) on the organ for which it was written. The ticketed event, featuring soloist Peter Richard Conte, also includes the Bach/Stokowski arrangement of the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré
Marcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...
's Cortege and Litany for Organ and Orchestra, and the world premiere of a Fanfare by Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
, composer for the Lord of the Rings films. Shore visited the store in May 2008 to meet with Peter Richard Conte and hear the Wanamaker Organ. The Philadelphia Orchestra Concert was co-sponsored by the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ and was a benefit for that organization.
The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ
The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ is a non-profit organizationNon-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
involved in the preservation and promotion of the Wanamaker Organ. Ray Biswanger is the Executive Director. The Friends are supported by funds from individual contributors (Friends) and private foundations. The organization also organizes special concerts and, along with Macy's, produces a monthly radio show of Wanamaker Organ recordings, on the Philadelphia-based classical/jazz station, WRTI
WRTI
WRTI is a public radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a service of Temple University.WRTI began in 1948 as an AM carrier current station. It was founded by John Roberts, professor emeritus of communications at Temple and long-time anchorman at WFIL-TV . He'd helped found the School...
/90.1. The show airs on the first Sunday of every month at 5:00 p.m., hosted by organist Peter Richard Conte and WRTI host Jill Pasternak. It is available via Internet streamcast at www.wrti.org.
The official publication of the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ is The Stentor, a quarterly 16-page newsletter with articles, photos, details on the restoration and historical materials issued four times per year. Typical features in the Stentor generally include news about ongoing restoration projects, recent visits by noteworthy organists, reprints of historical source materials and photos and upcoming concerts, events, etc. More information on the Friends and the Wanamaker Organ may be found at http://www.wanamakerorgan.comwww.wanamakerorgan.com.
Organists
Although numerous famous organists have played special concerts on the organ, it has had only four chief organists in its history:- Dr. Irvin J. Morgan (1911–1917)
- Mary E. Vogt (1917–1966)
- Dr. Keith Chapman (1966–1989)
- Peter Richard Conte (1989–present)
Some noteworthy assistant organists
- Alma Wilson Baecker (asst. to Mary E. Vogt)
- Harriet Ridley (Vogt)
- Rollo Maitland (Vogt)
- Nelson E. Buechner (Vogt and Keith Chapman)
- Walter Baker (Vogt)
- David Ulrich (Vogt)
- Barron Smith (Vogt)
- Dr. Richard L. Elliott (Chapman)
- Robert Carwithen (Chapman)
- Dennis Elwell (Chapman)
- Bruce Shultz (Chapman)
- Diane Meredith Belcher (Chapman)
- Rebecca Kleintop Owen (Peter Richard Conte)
- Rudolph A. Lucente (Chapman and Conte)
- Russell Patterson (Conte)
- Michael Stairs (Chapman and Conte)
- John Binsfeld (Chapman and Conte)
- Ken Cowan (Conte)
- Dr. Harry Wilkinson (Conte)
- Colin Howland (Chapman)
- Fred Haas (Conte)
- Nathan Laube (Conte)
Music inspired by or written for the Wanamaker Organ, including world premieres
- "Symphonie-Passion" by Marcel DupreMarcel DupréMarcel Dupré , was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue.-Biography:Marcel Dupré was born in Rouen . Born into a musical family, he was a child prodigy. His father Albert Dupré was organist in Rouen and a friend of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when...
- "Concerto Gregoriano" by Pietro YonPietro YonPietro Alessandro Yon was an Italian-born organist who made his career in the United States.Yon was born in Settimo Vittone, , and studied at the conservatories of both Milan and Turin, also attending the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome...
- "Concerto Romano" by Alfredo CasellaAlfredo CasellaAlfredo Casella was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor.- Life and career :Casella was born in Turin; his family included many musicians; his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually was soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin...
- "Dedicace" by Louis VierneLouis VierneLouis Victor Jules Vierne was a French organist and composer.-Life:Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers, Vienne, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but at an early age was discovered to have an unusual gift for music. Louis Victor Jules Vierne (8 October 1870 – 2 June 1937) was a French...
, dedicated to Rodman WanamakerRodman WanamakerLewis Rodman Wanamaker was a Republican and was a Presidential Elector for Pennsylvania in 1916. Wanamaker created aviation history by financing a two plane experimental seaplane class in response to a prize contest announcement by London's The Daily Mail newspaper in 1913 – the flying boat... - Leopold StokowskiLeopold StokowskiLeopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
organ-orchestra transcription of Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor - "Symphonie Concertante" for organ and orchestra by Joseph JongenJoseph JongenMarie-Alphonse-Nicolas-Joseph Jongen was a Belgian organist, composer, and music educator.-Biography:Jongen was born in Liège. On the strength of an amazing precocity for music, he was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire at the extraordinarily young age of seven, and spent the next sixteen years...
- "Come Sweet Death" by J.S. Bach, arranged after Stokowski by Virgil FoxVirgil FoxVirgil Keel Fox was an American organist, known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach. These events appealed to audiences in the 1970s who were more familiar with rock 'n' roll music and were staged complete with light shows...
- "Fanfare and Procession" by Keith Chapman
- Transcription of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Keith Chapman
- "A Highland Ayre" from "Scottish Folk Tone Poems" by Richard PurvisRichard PurvisRichard Purvis was an American organist, composer, conductor and teacher. He is especially remembered for his expressive recordings of the organ classics and his own lighter compositions for the instrument....
(written for the Wanamaker Organ at the request of Keith Chapman) - Transcription of Mussorgsky's "Night on the Bare Mountain": Peter Richard Conte
- Transcription of Dukas' "Sorcerer's Apprentice": Peter Richard Conte
- "Cathedral of Commerce," by Robert Hebble
- Transcription of Nicolai's "Overture to the Merry Wives of Windsor": Peter Richard Conte
- Transcription of Elgar's "Cocaigne Overture": Peter Richard Conte
- Transcription of Bernstein's "Overture to Candide": Peter Richard Conte
- Transcription of the Elgar "Enigma Variations": Peter Richard Conte
- Transcription of "Der Rosenkavalier Overture": Peter Richard Conte
- "Fanfare" for Organ and Brass Choir, by Howard ShoreHoward ShoreHoward Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
Architectural layout
- 2nd floor south - Main Pedal 32′, Lower Swell, Great, Percussions
- 3rd floor south - Main Pedal, Chorus, Upper Swell, Choir/Enclosed Great, Solo, Vox Humana Chorus
- 4th floor south - String
- 4th floor west - Orchestral (adjacent to String)
- 7th floor south - Major Chimes, Ethereal
- 7th floor north - Echo
The 32′ Wood Open, 32′ Diaphone, and 32′ Metal Diapason pipes run the length of a little more than 2 stories, beginning on the second floor.
Main Organ
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Ethereal Organ
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Echo Organ
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Orchestral Organ
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String Organ
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Stentor Division
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Percussion Division
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Recordings
- The Grand Court Organ (1973) included a number of works demonstrating the full organ
- MussorgskyMussorgskyMussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
’s Pictures at an ExhibitionPictures at an ExhibitionPictures at an Exhibition is a suite in ten movements composed for piano by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.The suite is Mussorgsky's most famous piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists...
. 1975, the recording is of Keith Chapman’s own transcription of the massive orchestral work - Airs & Arabesques (1976) explored the softer colors of the instrument to marvelous effect
- Virgil FoxVirgil FoxVirgil Keel Fox was an American organist, known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Bach. These events appealed to audiences in the 1970s who were more familiar with rock 'n' roll music and were staged complete with light shows...
Plays the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ (1964, 2004).
See also
- John WanamakerJohn WanamakerJohn Wanamaker was a United States merchant, religious leader, civic and political figure, considered by some to be the father of modern advertising and a "pioneer in marketing." Wanamaker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Biography:He was born on July 11, 1838.He opened his first store in...
- Wanamaker's Department StoreWanamaker'sWanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...
External links
- Friends of the Wanamaker Organ
- Stoplist – by "Friends of the Wanamaker Organ"
- Pipe Dreams radio program, "Peter Conte and the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ"
- http://theatreorgans.com/laird/top.pipe.organs.html
- http://theatreorgans.com/pa/philly/WANN/index.HTM
- Video of the Wanamaker Organ being played by Virgil Fox
- All those informations in French