Not so old, but very grand.
Here’s a pleasant surprise from my recent tour of the Shepherd School of Music at Houston’s Rice University.
At the end of a corridor there’s an unimposing door that looks like it might lead to a storage room. But as soon as you walk in, you’re face to face with a mahogany mammoth.
“The room was designed for the instrument,” said Martin Merritt, the Shepherd School’s facilities manager, “and the instrument was designed for the room. The ceiling in here is 75 feet high.” He went on to explain that the organ was designed by C.B. Fisk, with the collaboration of Rosales organ builders, and is called the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ.
At the end of a corridor there’s an unimposing door that looks like it might lead to a storage room. But as soon as you walk in, you’re face to face with a mahogany mammoth.
“The room was designed for the instrument,” said Martin Merritt, the Shepherd School’s facilities manager, “and the instrument was designed for the room. The ceiling in here is 75 feet high.” He went on to explain that the organ was designed by C.B. Fisk, with the collaboration of Rosales organ builders, and is called the Edythe Bates Old Grand Organ.
In fact, it is not so very old: it was constructed and installed in 1996. But it is certainly grand. A brief demonstration by organist Phlilip Kloeckner showed the instrument to be bright, multi-coloured and orchestrally inclined. Designed in the French romantic tradition, the organ is has three manuals, 75 stops, and 4,493 pipes.
It also has its own website: see here.
© Colin Eatock 2011
It also has its own website: see here.
© Colin Eatock 2011
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