Formerly at the Regent, Poole, this organ is being installed; Ben Snowdon and a group of volunteers are doing a huge amount of work behind the cinema screen fitting the pipes & instruments. The inaugural concert will be on Sunday 22 April 2012.
This requires a large fund raising effort. We are grateful to Weststar Holidays (Now Parkdean Holidays) for their generous donation to launch the fund.
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The Christie organ was built in 1931
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It has 723 pipes - installed in an enclosure to the right of the screen – ranging in length 17’ 6” down to less than an inch!
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The volume is controlled by two sets of pneumatically operated acoustic shutters that open in the front wall of the enclosure
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As well as pipes, the Christie organ has real percussion instruments operated by air pressure, including xylophone, glockenspiel, chimes, vibraphone, drums, cymbals, tambourine, castanets etc.
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There is provision to play a real grand piano from the organ keyboards!
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There are also special effects used in accompanying silent films. These include the sounds of birds, a train whistle, telephone bell, fire alarm, car horn, and an aeroplane.
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All of the pipes and effects are made using compressed air. This is raised to a pressure of approx 1lb-per-square-inch by an electric blower beneath the stage.
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The blower contains three large fans and is powered by a 7½ horsepower motor.
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The console has three keyboards each with 61 notes, and the bass notes are played on a pedalboard which has 30 notes.
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There are over 100 stopkeys in two rows above the keyboards, and altogether there are over 150 separate controls at the organist’s command.
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The console was originally connected to the organ via a set of electro-mechanical relays, but at the Curzon these have been replaced with the latest state-of-the-art digital control system.
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In total the Christie organ weighs around 4 tons.