Theatre Organ Society of Australia(Victorian Division) Inc
| GENERAL INFORMATION |
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Theatre Organ Society of Australia| GENERAL INFORMATION |
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This Division of TOSA removed the Style 270 4/21 Wurlitzer - Opus 1987 from the State Theatre Melbourne and installed it in the Moorabbin Town Hall (now Kingston City Hall) for the City of Moorabbin (now Kingston City Council). Members of this division have an ongoing commitment to maintain this instrument. This organ has undergone a complete rebuild, re-opening for the Easter Convention in March 2005. 4 new ranks will be added (Krumet, Solo String Celeste and Oboe Horn in the Solo Chamber, and a new Tibia in the Main Chamber) to bring it up to a 4/25.
Two further organs are owned by this division. They are the 3/17 Compton at the Malvern Town Hall, and the newly completed 2/9 Christie Blackett and Howden installation at the Coburg Town Hall.
Monthly Club nights featuring a guest artist are scheduled for the first Wednesday of the month and Concerts with a visiting artist are held once a month from February to November at one of the four venues - Malvern Town Hall, Dendy Theatre Brighton, Kingston City Hall (Moorabbin) or Coburg Town Hall. Tickets for Concerts are available at the door - refer to 'Whats on' for information on Concert dates and locations.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.
(a) the regular public presentation of the instruments through the medium of concerts and musical programmes;
(b) professional and amateur organists, members and friends of the Association, music teachers and students, and other authorised users regular access to the instruments for practice, pleasure, and presentation;
(c) regular access for maintenance, tuning, and ongoing restoration of the instruments;
(d) access for recording purposes as required.
Benefits of being a member
Vice President: - Julien Arnold
Secretary: - Dianne Arnett
Treasurer: TOSA (Vic) P O Box 172 Southland Centre Cheltenham Vic 3192
Committee: - Neville Smith, John McLennan, Alan MacLean, Margaret Sutcliffe, Neil Hunter, Scott Harrison and David Scambler.
Membership Secretary
Organ Maintenance Supervisors
Brighton - Darren Everitt
Coburg - Glenn Maus
Malvern - John McLennan
Moorabbin - Julien Arnold
Regent Theatre - Julien Arnold
Organ Practice Supervisors
Brighton - Ivan Dinsdale
Tel: 9557 3697
Moorabbin - Kelly Eaton
Tel: 9556 4435
All accounts to be sent to:
The Treasurer
TOSA (Vic) P O Box 172 Southland Centre Cheltenham Vic 3192
This address is for all correspondence EXCEPT contributions to the VOX
The Secretary
TOSA (Vic)
PO Box 172 Southland Centre
CHELTENHAM VIC 3192
VOX Editor
David Johnston
email: djmusic@netspace.net.au
OR 
Warragul Theatre Organ Society (3/10 Wurlitzer)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (ACT Division)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (South Australian Division)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (Gold Coast Division)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (New South Wales Division)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (Queensland Division)
Theatre Organ Society of Australia (Western Australian Division)
Cinema and Theatre Historical Society
American Theatre Organ Society
Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust
Puget Sound (Washington/Oregon USA) Theatre Organ Society
Scottish Theatre Organs Preservation Society
Theatre Organ Players and Fans Forum
Het Orgel - Royal Dutch Organists Association
Society of Organists (Victoria)
Wurlitzer Organ Trust of Auckand
OR
In
the infancy of "Motion Pictures", and by this I mean Silent Movies, the movie
part of a program was only part of a much larger show, which included acts
such as singing and dancing. What did singing and dancing acts,and Silent
movies require??? MUSIC!!! To provide this music, theatres would employ
a pianist, a group of musicians, or in the largest and most opulent theatres,
a complete orchestra to provide live music.
The cost of supplying
the live music was not lost on the Theatre owners of the day who searched
for something which could supply all the music they needed, but at a far
lesser cost, and with something which was quite different as well. Organs
were transplanted into theatres, but as they were in essence church organs,
were ill suited to the type of music required of the day.
The organ seemed the answer to the cost problem, but had it not been for
a brilliant Englishman named Robert Hope-Jones, this idea may have fallen
by the wayside. Hope-Jones developed many innovative ideas which would
transform an ordinary church organ into something approaching a full orchestra,
and able to be played by only one person. Although these ideas fell on
deaf ears in his native England, it was not until his arrival in the USA,
and through his association with Rudolph Wurlitzer of North Tonawanda, New
York, were his ideas accepted. The product of this association was called
the "Wurlitzer-Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra".
Hope-Jones developed a system of electro-pneumatic operation of the organ,
meaning the console could be placed anywhere, and with the use of "Unification"
to allow the ranks of pipes to be extended and be available at different
pitch levels on different manuals. With the addition of new kinds of pipes
for new sounds and an array of real musical instruments - xylophone, drums,
cymbals, bells, castanets etc being able to be played from the keyboard,
Hope-Jones developed the now well known "Horseshoe console" with small tongue
shaped tabs to select the various voices, which made playing the instrument
much easier than the ordinary church organ which used large draw knobs, usually
either side of the keyboards to do the same task.
The one thing which really sets the Theatre Organ apart from the church
organ, apart from all the new voices and sounds, is the use of tremulants
which had been dramatically changed and refined, and were used in entirely
new ways. These broader and smoother tremulants give the Theatre organ
its characteristic sound. Very simply, turn the tremulants on and you have
the sound of the Theatre Organ - turn the tremulants off, and you have a
very sophisticated church organ.
Unfortunately, Robert Hope-Jones had some major disagreements with the Wurlitzer
management, which saw him take his own life in 1914, but not before profoundly
influencing the development of the theatre organ. The Wurlitzer company
flourished, and became the largest manufacturer of Theatre Pipe Organs in
the world. The name Wurlitzer became synonymous with the theatre organ,
but they were not the only manufacturers of these mighty instruments. Other
manufacturers (to mention a few) were the Bartola Musical Instrument Company
(maker of the Barton organ), W. Kimball Company and the Robert Morton Company
in the USA, and the Compton and Christie firms in Great Britain
With thanks to David C. Kelzenberg
OR