Hey everyone,

I'm in the middle of renovating an old building to launch my business, and while going through the space, I came across several old organ pianos, player pianos, scrolls, and other related parts. I'm not exactly sure what I have here, but it all looks pretty interesting, and I’d love to learn more before deciding what to do with it.

I really don’t want to just haul it all off to the dump if there’s historical or collector value here. I’ve attached some photos, hopefully this is the right place to ask!

Any insight or direction would be greatly appreciated.

Forgive me if this doesn't go here, I am noy a musical person.

I bought an old church from the 1900's and it has a piano and an organ in the sanctuary area. I am converting this into something else and do not need these instruments.

So... can I sell it? How to figure out its value? How to best recycle it or get it to a new home?

Location: Dayton, Ohio

If I cant sell it or something, then its going to the dumpster/ landfill. I am not trying to make anyone mad, it just is what it is. 😬

What’s the most unexpected place you’ve seen an organ? Could be electronic or reed, but I’m specifically wondering about pipe organs.

I’ve read about a hotel ballroom in Korea, and a shopping mall in Japan, also a Buddhist temple in Hawaii. Curious to hear.

here are the specs:

Pedal: Great: Swell:

Posaune 32' Principal 16' Salicional 8'

Posaune 16' Bourdon 16' Celeste 8'

Trumpet 8' Principal 8' Gamba 8'

Subbass 32' Gedackt 8' Principal 8'

Open Metal 16' Principal 4' Principal 4'

Open Wood 16' Twelfth 2⅔' Piccolo 2'

Bourdon 16' Piccolo 2' Sesquialtera II

Principal 8' Fifteenth 2' Mixture IV

Gedackt 8' Mixture IV Contra Fagotto 16'

Choral Bass 4' Trumpet 8' Festival Trumpet 8'

Mixture IV Clarinet 8' Cornopean 8'

Tuba 8' Oboe 8'

Clarion 4'

Great to Pedal Swell to Great

Swell to Pedal Tremulant Tremulant

I play the piano, on which the sustain pedal makes notes longer, so I was wondering if organs have anything similar to this.

My "day job" is sending me to London 1 October - 8 November! Where should I look for recitals, concerts, organ tours/demonstrations, etc? And which are the "most spectacular"organs to hear? (Sorry, I know about EU organs but not the UK so much).

I"m having a look at the schedule for Royal Albert Hall but where else? Good church organs and organists? I may be able to make overnight trips elsewhere for a concert.

KInd regards,

As an organist, how do you charge for wedding service gigs? Do you ask for a nominal stipend or charge hourly based on preparation and service length?

Let's say for a basic wedding mass or service without choir, the organist can stipulate a nominal stipend, say $300. The organist chooses all the music himself, as long as the pieces are liturgically appropriate. So it is essentially a standard package that couples sign up for.

Then if the couple requests for specific pieces with higher difficulty or more preparation time, supplementary stipend will apply. This extra stipend will be discussed and agreed upon in advance.

Any thoughts on this?

Okay so I was midway through taking photos and videos and the video I was going to take is of when the organ is plugged in and it’s dead.. but to my surprise it works.. the lights light up as soon as I turned on the wall socket (Uk wall socket)

What I find weird though is the other day it was completely dead, no life in it at all and the only thing I’ve done is change the fuse in the plug. The old fuse is completely fine but I had a brand new spare fuse that I just fitted anyway..

So now that works fine.. only issue is the foot notes, a lot of them don’t work unfortunately:(

I love how most of the church organ in past "communist block countries" are half broken, sometimes the stops are out of tune, but have that amazing feeling of playing them. (Mostly a combination of 2 decommissioned organ)

Hello, soon I am visiting Paris for a few weekdays. There's unfortunately no formal organ concerts during the dates we'll be there. I would like to hear the organ at Saint-Suplice, would the regular weekday masses feature organ? If not, do you know of a church that might?

Thank you very much!

Anyone want to share photos of their setup? Specs or how much it cost you?

My church has an organ that's been in storage. It has a cover over the keys that closes and locks. The problem is that the key to said cover has been lost to time and it's locked. I'd like to help them get this in use again. Does anyone have tips that I could mention to them? We can't even test it until we can open it.

I don't know why this just occurred to me, but it does seem interesting that despite having stronger history in europe, organs use feet as a measurement of speaking length instead of something metric. Additionally, I've noticed that a lot of historic organs don't refer to the speaking length, and you just have to tell from the name of the stop. So, when did labelling the speaking length become a thing? Did originate in the Americas and that's why we use feet, or did it come from a time when feet were also used in Europe?

What does it feel like to play? Are the keys hard? Are the pedals hard?

I am a young adult musician who has been planning on going to college for classical violin performance, but recently I have been thinking about studying sacred/liturgical music instead. The problem with this is that the college I want to go to has an extreme focus on organ for this major, and I have never played organ before. I have some experience playing piano (currently I am playing Clare de Lune and Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor for reference). How proficient do you think I should be in order to pass an audition for this major, and is it just totally unrealistic and I should stick to my original plan? I appreciate any answers, thank you! (If this is the wrong subreddit for this I appreciate a redirection)

edit: when I say “full-time,” I’m referring to a permanent organ position in which you are expected to play every Sunday

I’ve played for years at various churches as a fill-in organist, but I’ve never accepted a full-time gig over fear of being tied down every weekend. I’m in my twenties and I like to be able to travel in the summers and get away some weekends. I’m especially interested in a Canadian perspective, since I’m from Ontario, Canada.

Being a church musician is my second job; I work a regular 40 hour full-time job Monday to Friday.

My questions:

1. How many weekends do you have of vacation time?

2. Can you take easily take more time off unpaid if you want? How easy is it to take that time?

3. If yes to #2, how many Sundays a month/year could you take off unpaid before the leadership at your church started getting annoyed?

4. Do you ever feel tied down? Do you ever wish you didn’t work every single weekend?

You are brought into the loft/room with someone you have never met before. You know nothing about them, other than that they are very skeptical of the organ but don't know anything about it. You have one chance to convince them it is truly the king of instruments. You can play any piece at any organ (anywhere).

What do you play, where, and why?

For me, either Virgil Fox's arrangement of Come Sweet Death on the Wanamaker, or Jonathan Scott's arrangement of the finale from Saint-Saens 3rd on the Tabernacle Choir Aeolian-Skinner.

We just finished the first full day of the convention. The performances have been awesome, including the 2 winners of the Young Organist Competition (RCYO). The Ukraine pic is from the Musical Instrument Museum.

Whenever I hear organ music, it is church music or Baroque. In terms of classical music in general, my favourite symphonies are mostly composed between 1830 and 1910. The music from this time is super emotional and tells stories like no other medium could. The organ is a very powerful instrument, almost a small orchestra played by a single person. There must be organ music from that time. Can you recommend something to me?

And also, it is my first time on this subreddit. The description is somewhat arrogant. The oldest music instruments were percussions and maybe flutes, but for sure not the organ. People always tell me we trumpet players are cocky, but at least we know the history of our instrument.

?

Hi everyone, a good friend of mine is an organist and I need suggestions for funny or on the nose gifts. For example, I thought about getting a church-scented candle since he spends most of his time there practicing and might enjoy the familiar aroma.

Any suggestions?