While we associate the organ chiefly with its use in Church services, a new field is opening up for it in Concert Halls, Theatres, Auditoriums, College and School Buildings, Ballrooms of Hotels, Public Parks and Seaside Resorts, not as a mere adjunct to an orchestra but to take the place of the orchestra itself. The Sunday afternoon recitals in the College of the City of New York are attended by upwards of 2,500 people, many hundreds being unable to gain admittance; and the daily recitals at Ocean Grove during July and August, 1909, reaped a harvest of upwards of $4,000 in admission fees. Organs have been installed in some of the palatial hotels in New York and other cities, and one is planned for an ocean pier, where the pipes will actually stand under sea level, the sound being reflected where wanted and an equable temperature maintained by thermostats.
Organists have found it necessary to make special study of these new instruments, and the University of the State of New York has thought the matter of sufficient importance to justify it in chartering the "Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra School" as an educational institution.
Our review would be incomplete without some mention of
AUTOMATIC PLAYERS.
When one listens to the Welte-Mignon Piano Player, it seems difficult to believe that a skilled artist is not at the keyboard performing the music.
The exact instant of striking each note and the duration during which the key is held are faithfuly recorded and reproduced with absolute accuracy, and a pretty close approximation to the power of blow with which each key is struck is obtained.
The first of these, that is, the time and duration of the note, is directly recorded from the artist who plays the piece to be reproduced. The second of these, that is, the power of tone, is subsequently added to the record either by the artist himself or by musicians who have carefully studied his manner of playing.
The result of this is a very faithful reproduction of the original performance.
In the case of the organ, the pressure with which the keys are struck does not need to be recorded or reproduced, but instead of this, we have to operate the various stops or registers and the various swell shades if we would obtain a faithful reproduction mechanically of the piece of music played by an artist on the organ.
Automatic Players are attached to many pipe organs. They, for the most part, consist of ordinary piano players so arranged that they operate the keys, or the mechanism attached to the keys, of an organ.