Robert Morton Opus 2401 - Original 3/12 Empress Theater, Columbus, Ohio

The Empress Theater was built by an entrepreneur named  James Albert Jackson; he is responsible for the construction of several buildings on Long Street. His investment partner for the Empress Theater was James Ernest Williams. Together they also built the Empress Soda Grill, and the Crystal Slipper Ballroom. The Empress Theatre first had a Wurlitzer Model 135F theatre pipe organ (a two manual, four rank piano console instrument), Opus 381, installed on January 7, 1921. That was upgraded to a Wurlitzer Style D Special (two manual, at least six ranks, horseshoe console) in 1924. The three manual, 12 rank Robert Morton theatre pipe organ (style 23N, opus 2401) was installed in the theatre in 1928. Mr. Jackson went on to build the Lincoln Theater (originally named the Ogden Theatre and Ballroom) in 1928, which was to become a landmark in African-American and Jazz history (see http://www.lincolntheatrecolumbus.com/history.html for more details). The Lincoln originally had a Robert Morton 3/9.

In the 1920’s, jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, and Cab Calloway played the Jazz clubs which lined the area. Bronzeville had four important theaters that attracted these aforementioned stars, and other important musicians as well: the Lincoln and the Empress Theaters, located on Long St., and the Cameo and the Pythian found on Mt. Vernon St. So Fats Waller may have even played on this instrument while playing Jazz at the Empress Theatre!

In the ’fifties, when the building was razed (as was the fate of so many similar theatres), the organ was removed from the structure and moved to the theatre owner’s house. Following this it was sold to a farmer in South Eastern Ohio. He was not able to complete its restoration, but eventually sold it to a person (in the ’seventies) who installed it in his house. Before its completion, however, the new owner was killed in an auto accident, and the organ was adopted by a friend of his, David Billmire, the present owner, who completely rebuilt it (and added five more ranks to it), over the next 6 years. All the pipe work, professionally restored and finished by Wilson and Duddy, has been returned to its original voicing. David has been kind enough to create sample recordings of the organ for us to create a Hauptwerk sample set with.

This sample set is a virtual re-creation of that late model (1928) Robert Morton opus 2401 Model 23N that was originally installed in the Empress Theatre. The original ranks were the Concert Flute, Clarinet, Vox Humana, Violins I, II, III, and French Horn in the Main (Left) chamber. The Tuba, Diapason, Tibia Clausa, Saxophone, and Kinura in the Solo (Right). It also had five ranks of tuned percussion: Harp, Chrysoglott, Xylophone, Chimes, and Orchestral Bells. These ranks have been sampled and the original specification programmed in the Hauptwerk virtual console. Take a look at the specification, as there are some interesting choices available (like the 4' Kinura on the Accomp...).

Robert Morton Opus 2401 - Empress Theatre 1928 Specification

Opus 2401 is currently owned and played by David Billmire, who kindly recorded the samples for our use as a VTPO. The Empress specification is the first of the RM Opus 2401 series, as we will also produce a 3/12 Extended set, as well as the 3/17 current specification of the organ as it is in David's home.

The samples were recorded (and will be released) in 16-bit 48khz Stereo, and uses recorded tremulant samples. The organ samples are quite dry and will benefit from added reverb. For those who like the small organ studio feel, the samples may be just right as they are.

Donation and Order Forms:

This project, although free for personal and non-commercial use, will be donationware based and released by Melotone Sound Productions. Your donations to the project will help us to continue to develop new sample sets and improve the equipment and techniques used in their creation.

Please go to the PayPal Donations page if you are able to make a donation. 

Then go to the Donationware VTPOs Order Form page to fill in your information, and we will send you the link to download the sample set.  

The sample set download is just over 1Gig in size. With the Robert Morton Opus 2401 - Empress Theater sample set fully loaded, the Hauptwerk executable will be using approximately 1.8 Gigs of RAM. This sample set will load in Hauptwerk Free Edition with medium RAM resources, but Hauptwerk Basic Edition is the minimum recommended HW Edition as you will then be able to use 1000 notes of polyphony rather than the 256 polyphony limitation that comes with the Free Edition.

Demos

Honey

Les Deutsch playing “Honey” by S. Simons, H. Gillespie, and R. Whiting from 1928. The sample set is fairly dry, so Les has added reverb to this recording.

This is about as hokey a 20s foxtrot as you can find. Les'  arrangement is based on the recording by Harry Reser and his Orchestra from 1929. The tune comes from the same year that the organ was installed in the Empress Theater, giving us an idea of what the music of the time may have sounded like on the organ. Here is a quick look at the quirky lyrics :)

I’m in love with you, Honey, Say you love me too, Honey

No one else will do, Honey, Seems funny but its true

Loved you from the start, Honey, Bless your little heart, Honey

Ev’ry day would be so sunny, Honey, with you.

SoundCloud: Honey  

Satin Doll

Misha Stefanuk playing "Satin Doll" by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Written in 1953, it became a jazz standard, and its chord progression is well known for the unusual use of chords and the opening with a II-V-I turnaround. The Dry version shows the tune as recorded straight from Hauptwerk with no added reverb. The MIDI file for this tune is the default MIDI playing file of the release version.

SoundCloud: Satin Doll (Dry)

SoundCloud: Satin Doll

MIDI : Satin Doll

Winchester Cathedral

Misha Stefanuk playing an arrangement of "Winchester Cathedral". A song released in late 1966 by Fontana Records, whereupon it shot to the #1 spot in Canada on the RPM 100 national singles charts and shortly thereafter in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was released by The New Vaudeville Band, a British novelty group established by the song's composer, Geoff Stephens.

SoundCloud: Winchester Cathedral

MIDI: Winchester Cathedral

If I'm dreaming

Les Deutch playing a waltz called “If I’m Dreaming (Don’t Wake Me Too Soon)" by Joe Burke and Al Dubin from 1929. This shows off lots of nice textures on the Empress, including the tuned percussions. Even the bird whistle gets a little solo! This, again, shows us the style of music that was popular at the time that this organ was installed in the theater.

SoundCloud: If I'm Dreaming

End of a love affair

Misha Stefanuk playing an arrangement of "The End of a Love Affair". Made famous by Billie Holiday and appears on her 1958 album "Lady In Satin" and in Frank Sinatra's 1959 album "Close to You". It was written in the early 1950s by Edward Redding.

SoundCloud: End of a Love Affair

MIDI: End of a Love Affair

Michelle

Misha Stefanuk playing his arrangement of "Michelle". It is a love ballad by the Beatles, started by Paul McCartney, with parts co-written by John Lennon.  This song won the Grammy Award for "Song of the Year" in 1967, and has become one of the best known and often recorded of all Beatles songs.

SoundCloud: Michelle

MIDI: Michelle

I'm just wild about animals

Les Deutsch playing “I’m Just Wild About Animal rackers.” Its a novelty song by Fred Rich, Sam Coslow, and Harry Link from 1926. It is a wild up-tempo song that is a lot of fun to play. Les gives the non-tremmed sounds a chance to solo on the verse and then feature the various sound effects on the organ in the subsequent chorus. You will notice the obvious use of “Animal Crackers in My Soup” to change keys before the last chorus. A subtler quote is the intro, which comes from “Hooray for Captan Spaulding.” The connection: this was the big hit from the Marx Brothers show “Animal Crackers.”

SoundCloud: I'm Just Wild About Animals

Bach: Air (No 2) of BWV 1068

Misha Stefanuk playing a Theatre Organ version of Bach! From the Orchestral Suite No. 3 (Air (No 2) of BWV 1068. Showing off the Flute and Tibia with the reeds having their solo moment as well. 

SoundCloud: Bach Air (No 2) of BWV 1068

MIDI: Bach

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Attributions:

The samples for this organ were recorded by and are the property of David Billmire.

• Chimes

• Chrysoglott

• Orchestral Chimes (Glockenspiel)

• Xylophone

• Harp

• Clarinet

• Concert Flute 

• Diaphonic Diapason 

• French Horn

• Violin I

• Violin II

• Violin III

• Kinura

• Saxophone

• Tibia Clausa

• Tuba 

• Vox Humana 

All the noise reduction, tuning, looping, and creation of release portions was performed by Graham Goode.

The default registrations and default MIDI file were defined/recorded by Misha Stefanuk. [Thanks Misha!]

Voicing guidance was provided by the Alpha and Beta testing groups, and special thanks to Les Deutsch and Ted Williamson for their hard work in this area.

The Hauptwerk CODM and ODF were created by Melotone Sound Productions.

The graphics are image modifications taken from the jOrgan Morton.zip skin that was created by Graham Wykes and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia license