Poet and Peasant - Overture - Carl Frei 125 Keyless Concert Organ

• Carl Frei 125 Keyless ...
At the time of recording (1977) the organ was owned by Rudolf Barth & Son of Bonn, Germany, the 2 outer wings of the organ were extended by the Barth family in 1976. They have a 5 loop transportable roller coaster 900 Tons, an amazing machine to say the least! olympialooping.com/

[@sergedds]

Magnifique!

[@1776adb]

This is the only instrument that does that magnificent piece of music justice. Even an orchestra can’t capture it in the same manor as does this magnificent machine- bravo ! Ps. Does anyone hear “I’ve been working on the railroad” mixed in there- lol.

[@ragologist]

Nope. You hear the Poet and Peasant Overture when you listen to I've Been Working on the Railroad. This came first.

[@1776adb]

ragologist 👍🏻

[@erichoward1614]

Which fair ground Organ has the most keys?

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Supposedly this one. It has 127 keys in the key frame, although I’m not sure all of them have a function, so maybe only 125 functional keys. It was reportedly built/rebuilt from an 89 key Gavioli organ by Carl Frei in the 1940s, to his 90 key fairground scale. Then it was enlarged, with the case and facade extended and more pipes and chests and percussion added, in 1976 to bring it to the present size.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

As to which fairground organ has the most pipes, the 118 key Verbeeck Victory organ has over 1,000 but I don’t know the exact number. That organ was built in the early 2000s. Verbeeck has built a 125 key concert organ, like a huge dance organ, that is in the USA, but is not transportable. He has also extensively rebuilt an 89-key Waldkirch Gavioli, already extended by Voigt to 103 keys, to 110 keys using most of the pipe work and facade but not the chassis or bottom pipes which have been restored more like original in Netherlands. He has also rebuilt a large Gaudin dance organ to be even larger, but also not transportable. That’s in a museum in Michigan.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Further, Mr. Verbeeck rebuilt a 105-key(?) Gaudin “jazz band” dance organ into a huge 110-key “Marenghi” “fairground organ” which travels under the name “The Rose”. This must be one of the heavier touring fairground organs as it has a bronze bell carillon mounted on top of the organ case.
Verbeeck also rebuilt a 94-key Gavioli fairground organ (which had previously been rebuilt to 98 keys) to the 110-key Gavioli scale; this organ is known as the “Southsea Gavioli”.
A.C. Pilmer used numerous Gavioli pipes and facade (from another originally 110-key organ, playing an extended version of the 94-key scale) to create a ‘new’ organ with many original parts known as the “Jonas Gavioli”.
Voigt rebuilt a former 89-key Gavioli to play the 96-keyless Ruth 38 scale, with numerous pipes added and TRIPLE(!!!) percussion set. This organ is in England and known as the “Oktoberfest” organ. Unfortunately I don’t know how many pipes these organs have nor how many are factory original vs added later.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Carl Frei rebuilt an old 101-key Mortier organ to his 112-key scale, with pipes and tubular chimes added, to become a “Concert Organ” at the Thursford Museum in Norfolk, England. Although originally a dance organ, it’s now mounted in a trailer and sort of a fairground organ. I don’t know how many pipes it has, but likely nearly all of the original Mortier is in there, plus additions.
Carl Frei built at least two other 112-key organs, both reportedly brand new: one for the showman Ziehrer in Switzerland, which also played in Canada for many years (now back in Switzerland in a museum), and another for the Barth family (not the particular one in this video). I don’t know how many pipes these have.

[@andrewbarrett1537]

Most of the biggest organs built by the French builders in the old days were unfortunately destroyed although a few remain and they’re magnificent instruments. These fair organs were almost all built for British Bioscope shows (early traveling fairground cinemas), where each wealthy showman vied with the other to have the largest and fanciest outfit with the biggest organ.
For these shows, at least a dozen (maybe around 20?) 110-key Gavioli organs were built, of which only two remain (one was reduced to 98-key scale but still has a lot of the original pipe work, the original voicing and facade; the other was used in a USA skating rink and is 100% orginal); they also built about 9(?) 112-keyless organs, of which only 3 remain today (one converted to 98-key, and another to Gaudin 105-key).
Marenghi also threw their hat in the ring, with possibly half a dozen(?) 100/104-key organs, of which unfortunately only a facade, a few parts and some book music survive today. These were absolutely massive instruments.
A couple of 105-key Marenghi dance organs, which are slightly different pipe work, survive, one rebuilt to 112-keys, as do a few later 103/105/114-key Gaudin dance organs. These supposedly have almost the same note scale, with mainly the registers being different.
Gavioli built a few unusual design/scale organs over 100 keys. The Jonas organ is mentioned in a previous comment. Also worth mentioning is a remarkable dance organ they built very late (around 1909/1911?) just before they went out of business, for a dance hall in Belgium. This instrument plays a special custom 100-key scale and has two organ chassis: a main one, and a smaller one electrically(!) connected to the main one which stood in another part of the building and played along with the main organ! This was state of the art for the time. This organ was exported to the USA early on where it played on a couple of balconies high up above Hurley’s Hurdlers 5-abreast carousel (carousel by Stein and Goldstein), at Revere Beach park in Massachusetts. In the 1960s the twin organ was in danger of being destroyed and a young mechanical music collector fortunately rescued it from destruction. Unfortunately the massive facades would not fit in his garage so they were dismantled. The current organ owner still seeks photos of the original organ in its original state (either in Belgium, or in the USA), to reconstruct the original facade designs. Please contact me if you have any such photos or know anyone who went to Revere Beach around 1920-1970 who might have taken any of it.

[@1776adb]

Makes the orchestrated version sound weak in comparison.