Theatre organ

A theater organ is a pipe organ, as it was used at the beginning of the 20th century to accompany silent films in movie theaters. Cinema organs spread from the United States starting in Europe and all over the world, but lost after the introduction of sound film becoming increasingly important.

The invention of separate electro-pneumatic control of each individual organ pipe (see multiplex system in organ building ) English engineer Robert Hope -Jones, it was possible to represent with fewer pipes much more tone colors ( registers). The organs could be so very compact and cost-effective manner. Due to the new nature of the action, was the game table could now be placed independent of the position of the pipework. The condition was created to use organs in the cinema.

The sound is the Cinema Organ imitate an orchestra and is therefore provided with a high wind pressure for the pipe work to come as the orchestral sound closer.

Cinema organs in addition have chromatic percussion works such as Xylophone, sleigh bells or chimes, as well as percussion works such as timpani, drums and rhythm sticks. Furthermore, various effect registers were installed for generation of noise ( eg, telephone ringing, thunder, Huftrappeln ). The console of cinema organs is usually horseshoe -shaped and often richly decorated.

  • 2.1 Historical Literature
  • 2.2 Modern Literature

Manufacturers and models

Well-known manufacturers and brands in Germany were:

Wurlitzer

The American Rudolph Wurlitzer Company built from 1914 to about 1940 cinema and theater organs. The larger and more well-known type The Wurlitzer Hope -Jones Unit Orchestra, known as The Mighty Wurlitzer, was designed by Robert Hope -Jones and produced as a " one-man orchestra" to the accompaniment of silent movies. The smaller guy was a then-common combination of small organ and piano, on which the player could switch instruments while playing. Sonically and technically the instruments of Wurlitzer were the leaders at that time in Germany.

Game Prepare instruments can be found in the Musical Instruments Museum in Berlin and the German Film Museum in Frankfurt.

Welte & Söhne

Welte & Söhne built in 1914 in the United States numerous cinema organs and undertook the construction of these instruments since 1922 in Germany again.

  • Technoseum in Mannheim
  • Film Museum Dusseldorf
  • Museum of Musical Instruments, University of Leipzig
  • Filmmuseum Potsdam
  • North German Radio (NDR ), radio studio 1, Rothenbaumchaussee

See list of cinema organs of M. Welte & Söhne

Oskalyd - cinema organs

The Oskalyd organs ( Oskalyd is a composite of the name Oscar Walcker and Hans Luedkte concept of art ) were from 1923 to 1931 by the renowned organ building firms EF Walcker & Cie, Sauer and P. Furtwängler & Hammer made ​​in community work. The organ had Oskalyd, depending on the model, from 2 to 20 registers and to effect register. Produced a total of 120 instruments, corresponding to a market share of approximately 40 % in Germany.

The former instrument is ready to play at Heidelberg Castle in 2007, dismantled and stored due to construction work on the building.

The radio organ

1927/28, then built the Stuttgart-based company organbuilding Frederick Weigle a radio organ for the studio of the station Frankfurt. The transmitter Munich made ​​in 1930 to install a Weigle - organ with 3 manuals and 50 stops in his broadcasting studio, the station Berlin in the same year a Weigle - organ with mobile gaming table and 30 registers.

Were the organs of Weigle concert hall organs, also thought to interplay with the orchestra, now im Breisgau came with the radio organ of M. Welte & Sons in Freiburg, the cinema organ as a solo instrument into play. 1930 was the last cinema organ of Welte this special form of radio - organ for the Nordic Broadcasting AG Hamburg ( NORAG ), a precursor of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR ). This multiplex organ was not in the room in which it stands, intones, but designed for the microphones of the radio recordings. It now stands on the original site of the oldest still commonly used radio studio in the world.

1940 was also built by Gebr Rieger for the newly Sendesaal in the radio studio Reichssender Wroclaw one on the transmission through practice designed organ.

J. D. Phillips

The Frankfurt Music -Werke factory JD Philipps & Sons built in 1929 for the Berlin Babylon cinema multiplex organ. It is next to the broadcasting organ of the NDR the only Kinorgel in Germany, which is still operated at the original location.

  • Kino Babylon, Berlin-Mitte
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