ORGANS IN THEATRES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

ORGANS IN THEATRES

Wonderful Instrument

According to Mr. E. Dodd, the organ expert who is supervising the installation ot the grand organ at the new Civic Theatre, there is only one thing less remarkable than the wonderful growth of the motion picture Itself, and that is the development of the cinema organ. One need have no long memory to remember the time when the musical equipment of the motion picture show was limited tc a cheap piano. The mediocre theatre orchestras were gradually superseded by larger and better ones, and the organ, used as a relief for the orchestra, likewise grew in importance as a feature of the theatre’s attractions.

The earlier theatre organs of the j better sort were patterned after the I church, pipe organ. However, as the ; atmosphere of the theatre was entirely different from that of the church, it j was but natural that the theatre organ should develop along lines of Us own. Though in many essentials like Us prototype, the cinema organ of today is far more intricate. and has vastly greater resources than the most complete church organs. The modern organ, contrary to the general opinion, is not an American invention. It is the invention of the late Robert Hope-Jones, whose revolutionary ideas were at first rid'culed. and then imitated by nearly all the greatest organ builders. Hope-Jone- : did not call his instrument an organ; he called it a unit orchestra—in ottmr words, it was in reality a one-man orchestra. The tone of the modern j cinema organ is not like that of the j church organ', nor is it to be confused j with the sacred instrument used in : the churches. It Is extremely orcheatral in tone, and the performer mu.-'. : have a thorough knowledge of the or i chestra, and a highly developed technique to play all of the orchestral ; transcriptions for this instrument. The new organ for the Civic ! Theatre will be the first, one to have the vibraphone in New Zealand. There art- only two in Australia. The Civilorgan Will be the first organ in the Southern Hemisphere to have a genuine English Horn in its speejfieatiorr. i Another modern instrument for tbo organ is the l.ruc. whi -b i a modification cf the uld-fashioncd kruna [horn.