Organ in the Sound of Music

[Guest]

What is that organ in the sound of music? are there pictures of the organ and the console itself? it has an AMAZING sound in my opinion. What are its specifications?

[mikecala]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music

I know for sure that the organ is located in a church in Saltzberg. Other than that, I have no other information. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that the builder may have been Walcker as the organ is question has the sound of other Walckers that I have hear recordings of. I used that same wedding march for bridesmaids entrances for several years.
Mike

[Guest]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music

I agree. I know nothing about that organ either. How about the organ during the wedding of Eddie Murphy in the movie "Coming to America", I think it is called. I keep wanting to rent the movie and try to find the organ piece that is playing during the credits. On TV, the credits are shrunk while other ads are being shown.

If anyone knows what that piece is, I would appreciate it.

AlanA

[davidecasteel]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music

The site depicted in the Sound of Music is the Stift Nonnberg, a nunnery just a few minutes walk from Salzburg; however, the official web site of that place acknowledges that it was where the real wedding took place and was depicted in the movie, but indicates that filming was done in a replica of the chapel created at a movie studio. Whether that means that the organ at the nunnery was used in the movie it did not say. Here is a web site that tells about Sound of Music locations: http://www.visit-salzburg.net/travel..._locations.htm.

[jbird604]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



Thanks for the memories!! That was the first pipe organ I ever heard in my life, and from the moment I heard it I was hooked. Growing up in a small Arkansas town I hadnever heard any organs except Hammonds. I had no idea what an organ sounded like. I certainly did not know the power and majesty that its tones could convey.

It was about 1966 or 1967 and our local one-screen movie house finally got around to showing "The Sound of Music." I was so isolated and naive that I hadn't even heard of this movie, but a friend got me to go see it..... I went back3 or 4 times in the one week it played!

When that organ began to play at the opening of the wedding scene, something inside me stirred like never before, can't explain it to anyone unless they've experience it. It was just a huge emotional reaction unlike any other I had felt toward music. Even considering that the sound system in that old rickety movie house was outdated, monophonic, so limited that it actually broke up and distorted on the loud organ passages -- in spite of those obstacles, the music got through to me.

And that is the sound I still hear in my mind's ear when I crank up the organ at church for a grand hymn or for a wedding march. I'm not sure I've ever quite replicated it, but I do the best I can with whatever instrument is at my disposal.

John

[Menschenstimme]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



Yes, John; I remember having a similar experience myself with the wedding march from the Sound of Music. I also remember how disappointed I was when the organ part turned out to be so brief and the orchestra took over. I believe I was almost 12years old at the time.

Does anyone know which organ that is/was? I am guessing it might be a Sauer???

[*-)]

[NYCFarmboy]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music

I seem to recall reading here or elsewhere that the Sound Of music wedding soundtrack actually used a Wurlitzer pipe organ for the "sound" portion of those recordings?  anyone else ever hear such a thing?

[Menschenstimme]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



It is not impossible for it to be a WurliTzer. I have a Keith Johnson Reference Recording that has an allegedWurliTzer play the brief organ interlude in Respighi's "Church Windows" and when properly tuned and registered (without tremulant, obviously), it can pass for a romantically voiced church organ.

If it is a WurliTzer in the Sound of Music, I am glad I guessed Sauer instead of Silbermann or Grenzing.

Now, does anyone out there know for certain what it is?

[8-)][*-)]

[Guest]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music

Something is funny here [:^)]One person says the wedding site was church was in Saltzberg, somone else says it was a nunnery a few minutes walk outside of Saltzberg and yet someone else says it was a movie set. But when I took the Sound of Music Tour in 2002 we were transported to a small village about a 30 minute bus ride from Saltzberg and were told that is where the wedding was filmed. The recording probably took place at a cathedral or church in the US with a big Schantz or Reuter or something. Who knows, It might have been a Hammond B3 with midi attachment[;)]. I guess after 40 years facts get confused in the film industry as they do in other things.

[davidecasteel]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



I believe I am the one who posted about the nunnery. That was the site of the actual wedding of the Von Trapps. I have visited it and it is a short walk from the Mozart Platz in Salzburg. I also posted some links that purported to say where the movie scenes were filmed--I cannot confirm what those links contain.

David

[back52887]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



>Who knows, It might have been a Hammond B3 with midi attachment<

Well, No midi attachments in the middle 60s, at least - and I don't think even the biggest custom Allen of the day could have duplicated the jeu des anches we hear in that brief passage - but maybe that is what your winking head already knows. I take your point to be that since we dont see Christopher Plummer or Julie Andrews actually playing the instrument, we can consider that it may have come from anyplace. It really is a bigger sound than one might expect from a little convent chapel.[H]

Lee

[soubasse32]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



I have a *little* [;)] experience withsoundtracks for film and will tell you: film soundtracks have very little to do with what you are seeing!A givenchurch or cathedral may look perfect on film, but its acoustical properties and/or organ may not suit the director's taste. Often it is inconvenient to lug recording equipment to a remote location, andlive action contains too many extraneous noises.

So, the soundtrack is recorded in a studio or soundstage. For a big-budget Hollywood film, it is often cheaper to record all the music very close to home. For a cathedral organ sound, they probablydid record ina cathedral - most likely an independent recording apart from theorchestral recording; the two were then likely merged by adroit splicing in the sound studio.

I haven't seen "The Sound of Music" in decades, butI think there is a strong chancethe organ is in L.A. If the musical end of the production was done in Austria or Germany, then it probably was one of the many fine organs to be found close to their studio.

[Guest]

Re: Organ in the Sound of Music



>Who knows, It might have been a Hammond B3 with midi attachment<

Yup, I was teasing. I know there were no midi attachments in the 60's. And I also know a B-3 could no way make that sound. They are great for gospel and rock, but in my opinion that's about all. And the chapel that we saw outsideof Saltzberg was indeed small. In fact, I do not remember seeing an organ at all.

I, too, would love to know what the organ was and where it was recorded.

I think soubasse32 is probably closer to the reality of the recording.

[Richie Gregory]

Ten Years Later I have an official Answer.

The Organ was a 4/34 Robert Morton Theatre Pipe Organ installed at Whitney Studios in Glendale California. The organist was the well known theatre organist Buddy Cole.

Cole's widow and daughter Tina recalled that Cole had an appointment at Whitney Studios to record for the Sound of Music on the day before he died. Another piece of evidence is that the post horn is audibly evident in the pedal throughout the beginning of the recording, something wonderful which only theatre pipe organs are known for.

While many will defiantly argue that a theatre pipe organ pulled this off because it may have had classical ranks, I myself reserve the position of belief that this is a testament against those who nag that a theatre organ is inferior to a Classical Organ (pst: They're wrong)

You can find photos of the organ on google if you type "Whitney Studio Organ" and I am sure without a doubt there is also more information you can find regarding specification and closeup console shots if you do the research on the web. I'm too lazy to go download and then upload a photo.

The organ has been broken up.
Richie