A Little Information On The Mormon Tabernacle Organ

The Mormon Tabernacle Organ This great organ was built by a little known organ builder Joseph Ridges. He had built the organ with help of other wood workers (who had little to no prior experience building an organ). He built the organ as the tabernacle walls went up around him. It is said that his idea of the case came from visiting the Boston Music Hall and seeing the organ. The original case is still in place along with the original façade pipes. Through out its 135 year history the organ has been enlarged several times, with the last major renovation led by famed organ builder G. Donald Harrison, with the help of former organist Alexander Shreiner. The organ now has 11,623 speaking pipes, 206 ranks (rows of pipes), and 147 voices (tonal colors).

The present instrument was built in 1948 by the Aeolian-Skinner Company of Boston, Massachusetts, under the direction of G. Donald Harrison, president and tonal director of the firm. The pipes are made of wood, zinc, and various alloys of tin and lead. The pipes are controlled from a console with five 61-note manuals (keyboards) and a 32-note pedal board. Some of the famous gilded cylindrical pipes in the organ's facade are made of wood staves fashioned of native Utah pine, retained from the original pioneer organ built in the 1860s. The longest pipe has a speaking length of 32 feet. The shortest pipe has a speaking length of three-quarters of an inch. Two technicians are employed full time to maintain this and other musical instruments on Temple Square.