World's Largest Functioning Musical Instrument: Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia

Posted12 days agoActive4d ago

bookofjoe

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The Wanamaker Organ, touted as the world's largest functioning musical instrument, has sparked a wave of nostalgia among commenters who fondly recall visiting the iconic Philadelphia department store as kids, enjoying the organ concerts and festive light shows. As some lament the store's closure, others offer reassurance that the Friends of the Wanamaker Organ society is working to preserve the instrument, with sporadic concerts expected to continue. The sheer scale and complexity of the organ has also inspired humorous remarks, with one commenter joking that it requires an "orangutan to play it properly." Amidst the reminiscing, a few commenters veer off-topic, sharing unrelated musical anecdotes that add a lighthearted touch to the discussion.

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Dec 28, 2025 at 12:41 PM EST
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Discussion (16 comments)

Showing 24 comments

dmwood

12 days ago

2 replies

A trip to Wanamakers at Christmas (including eating in the top-floor restaurant and listening to scheduled organ concerts) was a treasured fixture of my childhood in the late 50s and early 60s. If I remember correctly, there was a monorail-like tram that ran around the periphery of the toy department too. Christmas lights festooned the facade of the organ.

gerdesj

6d ago

1 reply

That beast must surely require an orangutan to play it properly! Six manuals and the rest means that you don't exactly play it, more like you dance on it. Whacking out something complicated, written by Bach, on that thing is going to raise a serious sweat and I hope no one has ever tried to play "The flight of the bumblebee" without getting into peak physical condition first.

Does it have a stop labeled "Vox Dei"?

Metacelsus

5d ago

at least it wasn't designed by Bloody Stupid Johnson!

myvoiceismypass

6d ago

The Wanamakers Christmas Light Show was so fun, always loved going to that with my family as a kid in the 80s!

QuesnayJr

12 days ago

1 reply

It was sad to read that the store has closed (though they still managed to do some seasonal events with the organ).

wcunning

6d ago

The Friends of the Wanamaker Organ society is doing work with the new owners towards preservation. I doubt it's going anywhere, but concerts will be sporadic for a while.

jpb0104

6d ago

1 reply

If you liked this post... enjoy: Pipe Organ (An instrument the size of a building) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeB3JnKp8To

stevenjgarner

5d ago

Also "Full tour of Largest Organ in the World! (Boardwalk Hall)"[1], the pipe organ at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJyUwk6L9lA

TheRealPomax

5d ago

1 reply

Calling an organ "an instrument" is like calling an entire orchestra "an instrument". You kind of hit the "what does instrument even mean" wall very, very hard: an organ this size is a control surface for 1000+ instruments.

IAmGraydon

5d ago

1 reply

This is extremely far-fetched. Would you call a piano a control surface for 88 instruments? No, you wouldn't. An individual pipe from a pipe organ is pretty useless on its own as it can only create one note, just like a piano string.

TheRealPomax

4d ago

It sounds like you don't actually know how a real organ works, which literally has different instrument groups all over the place behind the walls, with your stops controlling which instruments sound out, and your separate decks giving you additional control over which sections to play.

You'll want to give https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeB3JnKp8To a watch, where Rob Scallon takes us on a trip to discover how incredible these instruments are, and should highlight just how little an organ is like a piano (not even "four pianos") and how much it really is an entire orchestra.

lemming

5d ago

This is not the largest in the world but it is enormous, and is also amazing for having been built by a 15-year old to answer the question: "When I was 14 I asked my piano teacher how long a bass a string would need to be if it had no copper on it at all".

I love this follow-up quote: "I think because I was so young I absolutely knew it was totally possible to do, I was fully determined and without consulting any professionals I had no barrier stopping me."

https://www.alexanderpiano.nz/page/the-alexander-piano

There's also something quintessentially New Zealand about the whole story - making it in a mate's garage, and then moving the project to a farm tractor shed when it got too big and the inaugural concert that looks like it's still in the same shed, the photo of the tractor moving it for the outdoor concert...

Aboutplants

6d ago

I thought this would be about the Luray Cavern’s Great Stalacpipe Organ.

“The Great Stalacpipe Organ is an electrically actuated lithophone located in Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA. Covering 3.5 acres of the cavern, it is considered the world's largest instrument by Guinness World Records.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ

A great place to visit btw

conradev

6d ago

There is a nice co-working space in the Wanamaker building if you need an excuse to visit:

https://www.mindspace.me/philadelphia/wanamaker/

MathMonkeyMan

5d ago

> The display pipes of the Wanamaker Organ. These pipes are decorative only. The pipes that sound are behind and above them.

Still an impressive object.

ajdude

6d ago

I've been going here almost every year my entire life, most recently this past December when I got to hear the Oregon play in a concert.

In December they also have a huge light show featuring the organ and a very cool Charles Dickens walk-through village.

tmnvix

5d ago

Can't see it described as the world's biggest instrument on the wiki page - only the biggest pipe organ. Is it really bigger than the biggest carillon?

JKCalhoun

5d ago

It looks like it has a 64' pipe labeled "Gravissima". I know only how pipe organs work mechanically, not the terminology (Google translate thought Gravissima was Italian—translated to "Very Serious" in English, ha ha).

Those low frequencies though are the draw for me.

The lowest frequency I have come across in pop music might be the backing organ from the song "Prologue" on ELO's album Time. I had the vinyl in the day… One wonders: even with RIAA bass compensation, I suspect it might have been close to jumping the needle out of the groove.

IAmGraydon

5d ago

Afraid not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Stalacpipe_Organ

harel

6d ago

And I naively assumed the one at the Royal Albert Hall in London is pretty big...

analog8374

6d ago

I've sang into a canyon, did a duet with myself, big canyon. Just saying.

abhinavb05

6d ago

oldest instrument https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjXZzB5bUAo