Pipe Organ Tour Visit - A trip to the CBD to view the town hall organ has been in the "pipe lines" for some time. The organ has been setup so we can tour into the heart of the beast.
Informal meeting Sunday 5th of January @ 3pm
Grand Organ...
There have been two permanent organs installed in the town hall since 1872. The original organ was extensively rebuilt in 1905, and the second organ was installed in 1929 following the town hall fire of 1925.
Today, the City of Melbourne’s Grand Organ music program presents a wide range of performances, attracting new audiences and international performers.
The Grand Organ museum features a three dimensional scale model of the organ, original programs from the opening concerts of the 1872 and 1929 organs, and gives visitors a chance to breathe air into the organ pipes.
The organ stands at 9.75 m (32 feet) high. The casework is made of Queensland maple with coin-bronze grilles.More than 483 km (300 miles) of wire and more than 3000 magnets with 32,000 electric contacts were used in the electrical equipment. There are 6024 pipes, the largest being the ‘Tibia Profunda’. The organ was constructed of California red pine and contains more than 1000 m (300 super feet) of 50.8 mm (2 inches) thick timber. The smallest pipe is the top note of the Tierce and is 9.3 mm (3/8 inch) in length with a diameter of 11.11 mm (7/16 inch). The console has four manuals (four rows of keys) from top to bottom being: Solo, Swell, Great and Choir. The Orchestral is a floating organ and is playable on all manuals by way of a rocking tablet on the key cheek of each set of keys. The organ is blown by two electric motors, one 14.91 kilowatts (20 horsepower) and one 11.18 kilowatts (15 horsepower) and gives pressures from 215.9 mm (8.5 inches) to 7010.4 mm (23.5 inches) water pressure, as measured by a water pressure gauge. The wind is delivered at a rate of 2548.53 cubic metres (90,000 cubic feet) per minute.