Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Salt Lake Tabernacle organ" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ
Background information
Origin	Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Genres	Worship, classical
Years active	1867; 158 years ago (1867) to present
Labels	The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square
Website	www.thetabernaclechoir.org/about/organs/organ-information/tabernacle.html

The Salt Lake Tabernacle organ is a pipe organ located in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with the nearby Conference Center organ, it is typically used to accompany the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and is also featured in daily noon recitals. It is one of the largest organs in the world. Jack Bethards, president and tonal director of Schoenstein & Co., describes it as an "American classic organ" and "probably one of the most perfect organs ever built."

Construction

The Tabernacle organ is considered to be one of the finest examples of the American Classic style of organ building. The casework was inspired by the design of the Boston Music Hall organ (which is now housed, since 1909, at the Methuen Memorial Music Hall), the original organ was built in 1863-1867 by an Englishman, Joseph Ridges. Ridges' instrument contained some 700 pipes and was constructed of locally derived materials as much as possible. This original modest 2 manual organ had its console attached to the lower central part of the case and its action was tracker. The organ was later rebuilt and enlarged first by Niels Johnson (1889), the Kimball company of Chicago (1901), the Austin company of Hartford (1915, 1926 & 1937) and finally by the Aeolian-Skinner organ company of Boston (1948). The organ today is largely the result of the personal involvement of noted Anglo-American organ builder G. Donald Harrison, president of the Aeolian-Skinner organ firm when the tabernacle organ was installed. His collaboration with legendary Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner produced this masterwork of American eclectic organ building.

From 1984 to 1988, the organ was meticulously renovated by the Schoenstein organ company of San Francisco, under the leadership of Jack M. Bethards. Issues of balance, tonal regulation, and various mechanical details which had developed or become evident in the preceding 40 years of use were corrected and 17 ranks of new pipework were added to complete and enhance the tonal scheme.

The original iconic façade was expanded with side wings in 1915 by the Fetzer woodworking company of Salt Lake City and remains in that form today.

The pipes are constructed of wood, zinc, and various alloys of tin and lead. Several pipe ranks from the Ridges organ are extant in the instrument today. When it was initially constructed, the organ had tracker action and was powered by hand-pumped bellows; later it was powered by water from City Creek. Today it is powered by electricity and has electro-pneumatic action.

The organ as it stands today contains 11,623 pipes, 147 speaking stops and 206 ranks (rows of pipes).

Renovation

A major renovation of the Salt Lake Tabernacle took place from 2004-2007. During this timeline, the Tabernacle Organ received its first major overhaul. The front façade pipes were gilded. Much of the organ was disassembled for cleaning and inspection. The organ's underground wind lines and air chambers were moved for the seismic upgrades and installation of sub-basement offices. The main console, which needed extensive repairs, was replaced with an exact electrified replica, eliminating the latency that was present between the old non-electric console and pipes. The organ also received a tune-up, to 440hz, standardizing it to modern concert pitch.

Uses

The organ often accompanies the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square during its weekly radio and television broadcasts of Music and the Spoken Word. It also appears in other concerts, recitals, and in recordings. Since the 1920s it has been traditional to feature the organ in daily half-hour solo recitals at noon. During the busy tourist summer season the noon recitals are repeated at 2 pm. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used the organ to accompany music for its biannual general conferences until April 2000, when the church opened its newly constructed Conference Center across the street to the north, which has its own 7708-pipe organ.

Apart from its use by organists of the Tabernacle Choir, guest artists are often invited to perform on the instrument, including Dame Gillian Weir (2007), John Weaver (2007) and Felix Hell (2008). During the COVID-19 pandemic the organ was highlighted in the online series “Piping Up: Organ Concerts at Temple Square" featuring organists streamed on YouTube.

The first recordings of the organ were made by Tabernacle organist John J. McClellan for the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1910 and are the first commercially released recordings of a pipe organ. Many recordings featuring the tabernacle organists and choir have been made over subsequent years and are readily available. In 2020, the organ was used as a graphic element of the new Tabernacle Choir logo identity.

List of stops

References

1. "About the Organs and Organists on Temple Square". www.thetabernaclechoir.org. Retrieved 2022-09-30.
2. "Some Latter Day Sounds #0525", Pipedreams, 20 June 2005. Retrieved on 23 March 2021.
3. Elson, Louis Charles (1904). The History of American Music: With Twelve Full Page Photogravures and One Hundred and Two Illustrations in the Text. New York: Macmillan Co. pp. 188. OCLC 55551750.
4. Bethards, Jack: "The 1988 Renovation—A Builder's Perspective" The American Organist Vol. 22, no. 12 (December 1988), p. 71.
5. Owen, Barbara (1990). The Mormon Tabernacle Organ: An American Classic. The American Classic Organ Symposium. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ISBN 1-55517-054-4.
6. 11,623 Pipes: The Story of the Tabernacle Organ Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine, Tabernacle Choir Website. Retrieved on September 28, 2007.
7. "Salt Lake Tabernacle to be Renovated". The Daily Universe. September 4, 2004. Retrieved 2024-10-27.
8. Lloyd, R. Scott (2007-04-28). "Major Tuneup for Tabernacle Organ". Salt Lake City: Deseret News. Retrieved 2024-10-27.
9. Smith, Tracy. "A century-old Church tradition ‘Piping Up’, Organists to go live online and worldwide", ABC4 News, 10 June 2020. Retrieved on 23 March 2021.
10. Stack, Peggy Fletcher. "Tabernacle Choir unveils sleek logo with a new set of pipes", The Salt Lake Tribune, 23 April 2020. Retrieved on 23 March 2021.

Further reading

• Bethards, Jack M. (1992), "Tabernacle Organ", in Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, pp. 1434–36, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140.
• "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The Mormon Tabernacle Salt Lake City, Utah". American Organist. 22. New York: American Guild of Organists: 56–82. December 1, 1988. ISSN 0164-3150.
• "The Great Tabernacle: A Building of Purpose and Spirit". Ensign. 37 (4): 24–31. April 2007.
• Longhurst, John; Newell, Lloyd D. (2000). "Tabernacle Organ". In Garr, Arnold K.; Cannon, Donald Q.; Cowan, Richard O. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book. p. 1214. ISBN 1-57345-822-8.
• McDonald, Donald Gordon (1952). The Mormon Tabernacle Organ. Master's thesis. New York: Union Theological Seminary.
• Owen, Barbara (1990). The Mormon Tabernacle Organ: An American Classic. The American Classic Organ Symposium, Temple Square. Salt Lake City, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ISBN 1-55517-054-4.
• Todd, Jay M. (April 1967). "Tabernacle Organ". Improvement Era. 70 (4): 14–20.
• Walker, Ronald W. (2007). "World-Famed Organ". Pioneer. 54 (2). Salt Lake City: Sons of Utah Pioneers: 21. ISSN 0554-1840.

External links

• [REDACTED] Media related to Salt Lake Tabernacle organ at Wikimedia Commons
• Official Mormon Tabernacle Choir site

v t e Historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Northeast	Palmyra Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site Hill Cumorah Smith Family Farm (Sacred Grove) Kirtland Historic Kirtland Village (Newel K. Whitney Store) Kirtland Temple Other Priesthood Restoration Site John Johnson Farm Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial Peter Whitmer log home Washington D.C. Temple Visitors' Center
Midwest	Nauvoo Joseph Smith Mansion House Nauvoo Visitors' Center Nauvoo Temple Nauvoo Historic District Red Brick Store Missouri Far West Temple Site Adam-ondi-Ahman Liberty Jail Independence (Zion) Temple Lot Independence Visitors' Center Hawn's Mill Winter Quarters Mormon Trail Center Mormon Pioneer Cemetery Cutler's Park Other Carthage Jail Kanesville Tabernacle
West	Salt Lake City Temple Square (Salt Lake Temple Tabernacle Tabernacle Organ Assembly Hall Gardens) Conference Center (Organ) Church Office Building Joseph Smith Memorial Building Church Administration Building Relief Society Building Brigham Young Complex (Beehive House Lion House) Family History Library Church History Museum Church History Library Granite Mountain Records Vault Mormon Pioneer Memorial Monument This is the Place Monument Brigham Young Monument Other Cove Fort Farmington Rock Chapel Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors' Center Martin's Cove Mormon Battalion Historic Site Mormon Corridor Pipe Spring National Monument Polynesian Cultural Center St. George Temple Visitors' Center
Non-U.S.	Gadfield Elm Chapel Jerusalem Center Mexico City Temple Visitors' Center New Zealand Temple Visitors' Center
Latter Day Saint movement Portal

v t e Music organizations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Tabernacle Choir	Christmas discography Directors Organists Tabernacle Conference Center Organs Conference Center Tabernacle
Other groups	Bells at Temple Square Orchestra at Temple Square Chorale at Temple Square
Disbanded groups	Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus Nauvoo Brass Band
Unofficial groups	Saints Unified Voices Southern California Mormon Choir

• Latter Day Saint culture
• Individual pipe organs in the United States
• Temple Square