World's largest functioning musical instrument: Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia

Summary

World's largest fully functioning pipe organ The display pipes of the Wanamaker Organ. These pipes are decorative only. The pipes that sound are behind and above them. Store architect Daniel Hudson Burnham designed the organ casework.[1][2] The Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world, based on the number of playing pipes, the number of ranks and its weight. The Wanamaker Organ is located within a spacious 7-story Grand Court at the John Wanamaker Store (originally Wanamaker's and most recently Macy's) and was played twice a day Monday through Saturday. The organ was 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[edit] The Wanamaker Organ is the largest pipe organ in the world when measured by the number of ranks and its weight.[3][4] It is a concert organ of the American Symphonic school of design, which combines traditional organ tone with the sonic colors of the symphony orchestra. In its present configuration, the instrument has 28,762 pipes in 465 ranks.[5] The organ console consists of six manuals with an array of stops and controls that command the organ. The organ's String Division fills the largest single organ chamber in the world. The division features eighty-eight ranks of string pipes built to Wanamaker specifications by the W.W. Kimball Company of Chicago.[5] 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 organ was also built and enlarged as an "art organ", using exceptional craftsmanship and lavish application of materials to create a luxury product beyond what is generally commercially available. There is a minimum of borrowing and unification in its disciplined design, except in the Pedal and ...