The Great Stalacpipe Organ
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Great Stalacpipe Organ, claimed by its owners to be the world's largest musical instrument, is a keyboard instrument that works by tapping stalactites of varying sizes with rubber-tipped mallets attached to solenoids in order to produce tones. The instrument was created by Leland W. Sprinkle and is located in Luray Caverns.
The Great Stalacpipe Organ is a lithophone, a specific type of tuned percussion instrument. The instrument derives its name from the resemblance of the stalactites to the pipework of a traditional pipe organ, and from its use of a specially-constructed organ console to control the instrument.
A Mighty Fortress is Our God is one of the most commonly-recorded songs performed on the Great Stalcpipe Organ; the linked recording is one featured on a late-60s album sold in the Luray Caverns gift shop.
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[edit] History
Two accounts of Sprinkle's conception of the instrument are known. From the discovery of Luray Caverns in 1878 onward, the favorable attributes of the formations for creating musical tones were well known. One of the earliest references to performances of lithophone music in Luray Caverns comes from the tour led by co-discoverer Andrew Cambell for a group sent by the Smithsonian Institute in 1880. According to a summary of the report incorporated into the earliest printed guides to Luray Caverns, Cambell surprised the group by playing a tune on a formation, probably the one that came to be known as the Organ. By the early 20th century, performances of folk tunes, hymns, and other well-known pieces were a regular part of guided tours. According to the modern guided tour, Sprinkle is said to have conceived the idea for the Great Stalacpipe Organ during one of these performances when he toured Luray Caverns on his son's birthday in 1954.
A variation of the story of the instrument's conception is that Sprinkle's son Robert hit his head on a stalactite, producing a tone that inspired Sprinkle to invent the instrument. This account is the one published in a Meccano Magazine article from 1961 and in an article in the 1959 Rosicrucian Digest.
[edit] Construction
Sprinkle created the Great Stalacpipe Organ over three years by finding and shaving appropriate stalactites to produce specific notes. He then wired a mallet for each stalacite that is activated by pressing the correct key on the instrument's keyboard. The stalactites are distributed through approximately 3.5 acres of the caverns but can be heard anywhere within its 64-acre confines.
The organ console was constructed by Klann Organ Supply of Waynesboro, Virginia. The original console design featured volume-control switching cylinders actuated by pedals and ranks of draw-knobs designated "Pedal," "Harmonic," "Solo," and "Echo" which altered the amplifier settings, but this feature was subsequently removed in favor of the aesthetics offered by amplifying every note at a constant level. The organ can be heard throughout the caverns without use of the loudspeaker system, though it is not typically operated this way when open to the public.
[edit] Recordings
During the first three decades of the instrument's presence in Luray Caverns, vinyl records (both 7-inch 33 1/3 RPM and 45 RPM) of the Great Stalacpipe Organ were sold in the Luray Caverns gift shop. These early recordings featured Sprinkle at the organ manual. Later recordings of Sprinkle's performances were sold on cassette tape before organist Monte Maxwell created his own arrangements and recordings of the organ which are currently sold on CD at Luray Caverns.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- UbuWeb's 365 Days Project - April 26 features an overview of the instrument and a recording taken from a gift shop cassette tape
- sweet thunder - tape findings - Week 15 features a Great Stalacpipe Organ cassette with images and MP3s
- OddMusic: Stalacpipe Organ
- stalacpipe.net
- Klann Organ Supply
