The organ's sonic capacity to blow out your eardrums is uncanny. Quite possibly the loudest sound on the planet, the Disney organ — affectionately named Hurricane Mama by Terry Riley — is of the echelon. So like Cameron Carpenter's most idiosyncratic International Touring Organ, it resonates beyond compare.
Cameron Carpenter was recently laughed at on the late night show @midnight. Guest like Chris Delia coined a new title for the flamboyant musician: Future Uber Driver.
While Cameron might be the butt of the joke, his chops at the sticks is unparalleled. A most resounding musician, he is internationally heralded for his unique talent and expert concoctions on the pipes.
But the organ is like a musical skeleton, using breath like the human body to resonate through vocal channels and reverberate off bone. The Disney organ, designed by builder Manuel Rosales and architect Frank Gehry, is a wooden ensemble of pipes that produce an unusual texture and color unlike many of its kind — if any even exist in the same arena.
Yet as Alex Ross of The New Yorker points out when testing the musical beast: "I pressed out the final four pedal notes of Olivier Messiaen's 1935 organ cycle "La Nativité du Seigneur": G-sharp, G-natural, F and E, drilling through a sustained E-major chord. Despite its sacred aura, the organ has a diabolical appeal: One touch of a button can unleash mayhem."
For now, the organ performs in a league of its own. Its sinister undertones and choral roots can turn any composition from rightfully upbeat to dismissively sinister. Thus, its immobility makes it a rare centerpiece for anywhere but music halls and churches.
Read the full review here and be sure to keep on the up with some contemporary organists, much like Cameron Carpenter below:
