The "Wonder Morton" Cinema Organ | Enjoy The Show!
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- čas přidán 3. 03. 2021
- Tickets please for the main feature! The 4/23 "Wonder Morton" theater organ - my latest addition to my Hauptwerk organ collection. Today I show you what this amazing instrument can do and why a theater organ sounds the way it does!
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"There's something called a Horn Diapason here, which does sound a bit... hornier." The look on your face whilst saying these words was and always will be legendary! Greetings from Berlin
Yeahh... agreed
The Loews Theatre on 175th street Theatre was one of the 5 theaters that had a wonder Morton. Being from NJ i had the opportunity to hear this organ many times. It's a beautiful theatre and the sound is amazing. This Hauptwerk organ sounds like the original. Thank you for showing your audience this beautiful sounding instrument.
Now you’ve got the right organ to play ‘oh I do like to be beside the seaside’!
I would have liked this post 50 times if I could.
What a wonderfull instrument!
Fraser in Cinema Organ Dreamland! 😆
I can smell the old carpet at the Oakland Paramount, Grand Lake, or Fox as a kid. Only the Paramount still has an organ. Wow! Thanks. Someday we will get to go back but 3000 people inside together, we're just not ready.
The sad fact is the bones of the old Fox organ is still in the City Hall basement. I do so wish it could rise again from the ashes.
@@lohphat Are you local to Oakland, small world? I work for the City of Oakland. I did not know it was there. Working from home today but next time I'm in and have time I'll have to check it out. Is it literally in the basement of the historic City Hall or in the basement of 250 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza (the building I work in)? Do you know when it was moved? I need to have a talk with some folks....
@@alwaysbearded1 I used to live in the Bay Area for ~20 years; I'm from SoCal originally. I moved to NYC in 2015.
I grew up in Oakland in the 70's and 80's and I was lucky enough to go to the 1981 premier of the Wurlitzer, and saw several silent movies accompanied by the wonderful instrument. I've since moved to Seattle and am able to enjoy the organ at the Seattle Paramount now (well prior to and hopefully after COVID restrictions!)
@@lohphat There are so many awesome organ consoles rotting away and the "systems of power" doesn't allow them to be sold or donated. I love my Lowrey virtual build BUT there is a awesome viscount console rotting away and and no one seems to have the authority to decide what to do with it or except my offer.... sad!
Let's hear it for 'Fabulous Fraser at the Morton Wonder Organ'....
Bravo! Oh it sounds great - you really have managed to make a dry set sound *GOOD* :) And your wonderful explanations and introduction to the theater organ is exactly what I am looking forward to - more please :)
Great information on the cinema organ and I do remembered they were available in movie theaters around !
I love cinema organ
Brilliant Fraser. Fabulous instrument.
You are doing your part! It’s a cool instrument
loved the piece you played... I love the sound of theatre organs.
very nice Fraser, i see you added some reverb and that really makes the organ sound a bit more rounded out and not as dry as it sounded in the previous video. and about that weird people thing, i do kinda agree that the image in the general society is that organists are weird old men. and indeed the image is really changing as more organ channels pop up since the youth found the organ a bit more (including me). i am privileged to live in a place where i have the choice to play a 43 stop baroque organ (with arp pipework! rest is Van Dam) and a 27 stop french organ (Maarschalkerweerd) and i hope soon i can record some pieces in higher quality for youtube :)
Nice. Sounds fantastic and I bet you're happy!!
Awesome playing 😀
Wonderful presentation.
Love both types Fraser!
What an introduction! Thrilled to you hear you on Theatre Organ. Look forward to more!
Great presentation
Looks like so much fun it makes me wish I had learned to play this myself
What a wonderful video!!!
Thanks David! Just need to get my swells and pistons going, then there’s no stopping me!
Sounds like someone's playing on tuned frogs lol love it
The registrations sound pretty good! Not many classical organists know what to do on a Theater organ. But here again Fraser I'm impressed with your versatility. Now...All you need to do is get some thumb manual keyboard pistons or foot operated ones to complete the setup. As you know it's important to be able to get those tabs and stops to instantly drop in and out for the full theater organ effect. Don't worry you'll get there as you add to the system. So far...really sounding great. I'm happy for you..now you can play and practice anytime you want without leaving the house. Congrats...Use it in GOOD HEALTH! PROSIT!!!!
I’m working on the pistons and swell pedals solution - hopefully I’ll get that sorted out very soon! Then there’s no stopping me! (If you pardon the pun!)
Very inspirational! I'm in the process of building my own Hauptwerk pipe/theatre organ console. For manuals I'm using 4 Nektar Impact GX61 MIDI controllers; haven't decided on the pedal board as I'm finding it difficult to find a solution for Swell pedals with USB! Most expression pedals have TRS connections.
Fabulous! Those 'blue' days of the 'snobby' organ world are well and truly banished whenever you play, Fraser. Having only played the 'church' organ for most of my life, I was really pleased to have the theater organ explained so comprehensively by you (and now I know why my few attempts at playing on theater organs were always such disasters!). Well done with your 'trade secret' reverb to address what would otherwise be a very 'dry' sound (and well done to Jerry for opening that possibility to you!). While we may be the very real beneficiaries of you now having your home organ, I hope 'she who must be obeyed' does not find herself the equivalent of a golf widow! "Fraser! Hör auf, auf deiner Orgel zu spielen" somehow manages to sound less crude 'auf Deutsch' than it does in English translation!
AWESOME! A lot of the older organs had percussion sounds whereby you improvise a rhythm sound with the left hand as well as left hand accompaniment. Those organs did not have house organ style rhythm knobs. The 13 pedal base is real important to that and we improvise a (guitar) base players sequences. Maybe I'll demo it on my organ... playing the HaupWerk organ on the top manual.
Great video as usual,as a lover of theatre organs this sounds superb Greetings from down under in Perth
I can’t wait to get the swells and pistons installed, then there’ll be no stopping me!
That's a great tour of the organ! I have this organ as well as many others. I agree this is probably the best cinema organ for Hauptwerk. Better than the Barton 3-12 and Ryhope Compton 3-9. Looking forward to your next videos and journey to your complete organ. If you ever build speakers, I recommend line arrays (see my pic). They are DIY and are the closest you will get to being in the building. No need for surround sound. They have 24 x 6.5" woofers and 9 planar magnetic tweeters in each side.
Wow - hope you have a good Ear, Nose and Throat Doc to sort out your ears with those arrays!
😀 I try to keep levels reasonable. A retired vicar who did most of the organ console work for me described them as "like walking into your own auditorium". Amazing considering the woofers were only $3.50 each from USA. The tweeters were dear at $40 each. Shipping was the very expensive. Regarding your keyboards, I have the same ones. He routed out the key cheeks so that the keyboards 'dropped in' while they were upside down and had plywood also inset into the cheeks, holding them together with a slip of wood glued on the front face to mount switches used for the pistons.
Absolutely fascinating explanation of how organs are put together, Fraser, and as always, an excellent performance! I’d love to help you build the wooden part of your project, but I’m in Spain,!
I very much enjoyed this video. I always love cinema organs, and I love your videos, so seeing you and cinema organs are supreme enjoyment. Thank you. I must tease you though, at 7:45 “Basic Version”, that should be revered as the original version, in other words how it should be, before the trick out crowd got their hands on it. I am all for original style organs, reit percussions, colour reeds, not too many buttons. I adore using the krumet and Kinura (often with saxophone or oboe in the accompaniment paired with strings and flute for a nice accompaniment).
I need now to find someone who has tuned frogs. I need to know what they sound like. That gave me a laugh!
Here you go: czcams.com/video/XWF9tdGNJEc/video.html (this link autostarts at 3:30 for tuned frog action)
Some theater organs actually have a set of frogs! Not sure if they’re tuned though...
I went to university in Santa Barbara, California, where there is a Wonder Morton in the Arlington Theatre. I played it a number of times while a student there.
Lucky you!
Alas the recorder is still part of our standard curriculum here in the state of Washington, USA. It makes sense, they are truly one of the cheapest instruments you can get that can play a tune. And, educational funding, especially for the arts, in the US is not a priority unfortunately. That aside, fun video, thanks! You went above an beyond with the puns :) And yes, we caught the "hornier"!
A good recorder played well (or multiple of them at once) sounds rather nice. Hell, even those plastic Yamahas could sound acceptable in the hands of competent players. The problem is putting such instruments in the hands of schoolchildren.
@@user-74652I'm not knocking the recorder as an instrument (TwoSet Violin taught us that was a bad idea :D) but forcing all 4th graders to play it is the bad idea. There are many instruments that are much easier to control and sound good in a beginners hand that might engender a love of music, so much more than a shrieking tube. Alas, they are taught because it's cheap, not because they are appropriate.
Hello Fraser. In case you don't know about that, you can use the PC keyboard to act like pistons or even stops. It is very ease.
👍💯
"Tuned frogs"?
Well, if you took the bones out, they wouldn't be harmonic, would they?
(I'll show myself out now...)
Absolutely loved this video, Fraser, thanks. Great explanation, I think I even heard a piano on the accompaniment manual, would that have been a real piano in the real organ? The tune you played worked brilliantly - you're a very clever boy.
Yep - several larger cinema organs had real piano attachments - some were even grand pianos positioned on stage with the console. Very decadent!
Nice really nice. Now you can play different organs at home! (And don’t have to bother about if there in tune) thank you for the explanation and of course playing. Love it. By the way there was in the end a kind of clicking sound on the lowest keyboard. I not absolutely sure if that was intentional. Thank you for sharing.
I also noticed that, and wasn't sure either if it was intentional
@@joszandstra2044 so, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Funny.
Great sounding & it looks like you are getting to grip with the complexities and possibilities of hauptwerk. Well done sir! I never appreciated the wobbly jelly sound of the Cinema Organ until I got older. I think I started listening in awe to the Organist Entertains on BBC2 just before they took the flamin' program off the air. My fix of organ music now comes from You-tube and Spotify!
BTW is there any chance you might sell midi files of some pieces you play as well as with your live tracks on CD?
Yep, my theatre organ connection started with Nigel’s OE on the radio too. I kept listening online over the years since moving abroad. Shame it’s gone. It certainly had nothing to do with the cost of the show - Nigel did practically everything himself!
its a wonderfull setup too! Do you know if it would be possible to add registration-buttond between the keyboards?
Coming soon!
Excellent as always. Now, as I know you like contrast, look on youtube for Noel Briggs playing That's a plenty on the Wurlitzer at the Gaumont Manchester. Warning! do not have the sound to laud as the reeds can remover ear drums at 20ft.
There is a small speakers on top of console for piston or shutter or trem noises.
Hi. Do you have second touch on any of those manuals. For me this is one thing that really distinguishes the cinema organ. The ability to play melody and accompaniment with left hand and embellish with right hand riffs, etc. whilst continuing to play melody and accompaniment on the other hand. Reginald Dixon was a master at this.
My manuals (at present) don't support second touch. I will be working on a solution for that in the future, as and when funds and technical gubbins allow!
Are there piston boards you can insert between the manuals? Without real stop paddles you can't adjust registration while playing so having presets via pistons seems an easy solution.
Does Hauptwerk offer touch screen toggling of stops (if you had a touch screen instead of Apple Display)?
The Paramount Samples are wonderful out of the box (no voicing really needed), The 3/10 is free and you expand it all the way up to the 4/50. As well as a standalone 3/41 instrument (Which I currently use)
Ah... lovely! I wasn’t sure that Hauptwerk had any cinema organ options. I think you know I am one of your fans who also plays the cinema organ as well as the classical organ, and I’m delighted to see this option. I should add, a lovely rendering of St Louis Blues. Despite following numerous theatre organists I’ve never heard anyone play that. Bravo! 👏
Once I get the swells and pistons installed, there’ll be no stopping me! Watch this space!
I'm sure that any sampleset available for Hauptwerk would also be available for GrandOrgue, but since I use GrandOrgue, I can tell you that there are also samplesets available for GrandOrgue of harpsichords, claviorgana, and even a carillon.
wouldve been funny if the organ hadnt become such a "sacred" instrument, but more of a normal concert instrument, maybe it could have become what the piano is nowadays?
I think the trouble was that the organ was limited to churches which lead to it being a sacred instrument. Later it came to concert halls and then the movie theatres. It's too bad that most think that the organ is limited to worship and classical music when it can do a lot more than they realize. The problem is that you couldn't take such an instrument on the road with you. You'd have to go to some place that had one. Pianos are much more portable, but no matter the concert facility you could go to that there was one there. Now there was an actual pipe organ that Moller had made which was a travelling organ. It had a five manual console and there were multiple racks that housed the pipes that were already on their own chests that was transportable on four trucks. I feel that this was quite extreme for back in the day. The details are all here theatreorgans.com/travellingmoller/index.htm
@@cornwalldragon4617 Thanks for that link. I have a vinyl record of Reginald Foort. The album notes tell about his traveling organ. Your link gives much more info and pictures. Wikipedia says, "from 1938 onwards the organ was set up 167 times at 118 different locations."
@@cornwalldragon4617 Digital organs come to the scene and hopefully some models will solve the portability problem burdening pipe organs
@@thetheatreorgan168 though digital organs can never give the full experience of listening to a live pipe organ.
Absolutely smashing the way this virtual organ is coming along. I have 2 Qs for you Mr Gartshore: 1) Does it have double touch like many wurlitzers do? 2) Where can you learn theatre organ (I already play pipe organ)? Any teachers?
Sadly no double touch (yet). That’s a possible future addition. There are midi controllers that allow for that, sadly not with the keyboards I have. As for learning cinema organ - check out the various cinema organ, erm, organisations - Cinema Organ Society in the UK to name one. Check out Iain McGlinchey on YT, he’s based over near Glasgow and is one of the UK’s finest (and closest for you!) exponents of the art! Get in touch with Iain - he should be able to point you in the right direction.
Diapasons are flue pipes. Robert-Morton had a weird habit of using red stoptabs for them (same color as the reeds), but their Diapasons are still flue ranks.
Thanks for clearing that up!
And the pedal board for the big bass pipes? Which I love in WurliTzers :)
And all the toys... €€€€€ !!!
Hammond makes a 20 pedal long stick board with 5 voices.
If you had a fifth manual it would be the bombard manual. Barton had a six manual theatre organ that was housed in the Chicago Stadium. Unfortunately the pipes were all lost to a fire at the warehouse they were all stored in, but the console lives on. It's hooked up to an organ in a residence in Las Vegas. The sixth manual on the Barton was called the jazz manual. There's a few five manual Wurlitzers and Kimballs out there.
On 4-manual Wurlitzers, the third manual was most often called Bombarde, but sometimes they called it Orchestral (and the stops provided would differ, to be appropriate to the chosen name). The 4-manual Moller at the Atlanta Fox has Solo for the 3rd manual, and Bombarde as the 4th manual.
@@kc9scott Mighty Mo is a beautiful instrument!
@@cornwalldragon4617 Agreed.
On a 5m Wurlitzer: The first is Accomp. the second is Great, the third is Bombarde, the fourth is Orchestral, and the fifth is Solo, excluding the Sanfilippo organ, where the 4th is solo, and the 5th is the Ethereal.
Guess this channel is going to cost me lots of time... when I got it right that there is a playlist on how you are / have been putting together this organ then that will be worth watching for me.
Not yet know much about this kind of sample organs (if I may put it like that) but seen a Dutch organist having a home organ with many impressive sample sets and am impressed with what is possible, both with classical and theatrical setups.
Thanks for taking the time to watch these videos - hope you enjoy the series!
I see you figured out the reverb, lol
I was wondering who created this Wonder-Morton sample set. I don't (yet) have Hauptwerk but I'm sure I will in the future, and will want a good-sounding theatre organ then. This one may fit the bill for me. I think your combination of a dry sample set and reverb added afterward is working very well.
Look up Melotone Productions they sampled the Wonder Morton and others, I am using their newest organ Wurlitzer Opus 1680 fully sampled Alby Wurlitzer from Ohio USA.
@@thomasmcneely3167 Thanks...I’ll have to look into that.
The Diapason is not a reed, Robert Morton just made it red.
Fraser, should ther be a slight rake on that fourth Manuel or is in normally only the fifth and sixth Manuel’s that get a rake/tilt
All three upper manuals have a very slight rake - makes playing very comfortable!
good afternoon friend. I want to build a keyboard system like yours. where I can buy keyboard like yours. I live in Mexico. Could you guide me please.
Greetings to Mexico! The keyboards are from the Italian firm Fatar. I have their TP/60LF keyboards and got them from a supplier in the Netherlands. You should look for a supplier in your area or contact Fatar directly for more help! Good luck!
maybe you can improvise on a silent film for us
theater organs have string rank musettes?
Musette is an accordion register containing a flat, sharp, and regular reed rank
Theater organs have everything!
@@FraserGartshore Yup, they got it all! I'm supposing you also have the Freedom Morton set, I play the 3/17 one!
huh, I have a wurlitzer piano lol. Year of the Organ you say? Time to play Langaard's Messis~
Try a Compton virtual theatre organ 👍
Any suggestions?
I don’t know which ones are available on Hauptwerk, perhaps the Odeon Leicester Square cinema organ, 5 manuals and very comprehensive. They built many fine 3-manual/10-rk organs, the melotone stop is very interesting to play on
Excellent demo, and you play theater style really great!
Is this the Ohio Theater Morton in Columbus? And who has produced this set, please?
This Hauptwerk just eats a $100,000 Allen George Wright Special for breakfast!
Crazy isn’t it! I remember playing an Allen TO back in the day, how expensive it was and how, after about 30 minutes of playing, electronic it sounded. Hauptwerk hasn’t disappointed yet. Believe me, I’ve spent hours playing around with the various organs and with a bit of tweaking here and there, you can get a terrifyingly realistic sound...
In allen's defence, their TO consoles (aside from bench) are quite accurate!
@@danshasky7057 I found Allens consoles to be much smaller, and very plastic feeling. Hauptwerk knocks them clean out the water. I've seen allens struggle to keep up with organists, both online and in-person, notes dropping out everywhere.
@@OrganMusicYT Ive never even seen an Allen or TPO console in person, thank you!
@@danshasky7057 I suppose that it's abit wrong to compare them to any particular brand. They are their own brand and have their own dimensions, but I didn't feel comfortable with the smaller, tighter proportions. The most comfortable consoles I have sat at have been Christie. It's like putting your favourite pair of shoes on, it just all fits there nicely.
Can you please do an arrangement of Grim Grinning ghosts by Gaylord carter using the theatre organ software. It is from The Haunted Mansion at disneyland🙂 I love your videos.
How much?
All shall be revealed one day!
Do baseball parks have cinema organs or is that another kind of organ altogether?
Basically the same, although most all of them have been replaced by modern electronic organs.😢
Baseball parks, being outdoors, have never used pipe organs, cinema or otherwise. It's very difficult to have a pipe organ play outdoors because their tuning is so sensitive to temperature, so there are very few installed that way. AFAIK, baseball-stadium organs have always been electronic. The Chicago Stadium did have a cinema pipe organ, but it was an indoors venue, and was used for hockey and basketball, not baseball.
@@kc9scott But they still are made to sound like cinema organs, right? Just like this Hauptwerk sample.
I grew up in the 1970's, and my recollection is that they typically use the more elaborate models of home-entertainment organs, such as Hammond (probably the most common), Baldwin, Yamaha, Lowrey, Technics, etc., which are more closely related to cinema organs than to any other type. The LSI Hammonds of the 1970s are, to me, the most representative sound of baseball organs. I think any that are still used today would be a continuation of that style. None of them are very accurate at duplicating the cinema-organ sound, but they share the same basic philosophy.
@@kc9scott not exactly -Wrigley field Chicago Stadium had a large Barton TO for many years . It is most recently in the home of the late Phil Maloof. Some sports venues are using virtual TOs such as the recent plug n play Allen models.
I don't know... now you have a sophisticated digital organ that sounds like an analogue organ which itself sounds like a cheap electronic organ... Maybe I am just not into cinema organs that much...
Ooh - the cinema organ mafia will be out to get you now!
@@FraserGartshore Well, I have heard theatre organs live (e. g. at the "El Capitano" in Hollywood, and at the Berlin musical instruments museum), and would certainly like to play one at some time, and I am fascinated by the possibilities, and I do like the Saint Louis Blues... but I am not really in love with the sound I guess... (also that sound is one of the many things I hate about Cameron Carpenter...) I do like the idea of improvising to films a lot, though, and maybe I'll do that one time, at a proper church organ.
Personally, I've never liked the Wonder Morton Samples much, they do sound a bit...off. Frasers playing, however, doesn't! There are better sets out there to be had, but they come at a price. Sampling a theatre organ though is far more difficult than sampling a classical organ, it's not an easy job.
@@OrganMusicYT nothing wrong with the sound of this, sorry
@@cskepner To my ears they sound rather woolly and overprocessed. This is common with theatre organ sample sets due to there being more wind noise than you would normally find on a classical instrument due to higher pressures. It requires more work on noise removal and post processing of the samples etc which sometimes goes too far for my liking.