2009 Choir tour: Transporting 'sounds' to delight audiences
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OKLAHOMA CITY
Audiences are frequently amazed to hear what sounds like the Tabernacle organ accompanying the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during performances on its concert tour, which began June 18 and concludes June 30. The choir is performing Saturday evening in the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. The final performance on the tour will be Monday evening, June 29, at Denver's Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Simple logic says that the 50-ton Tabernacle organ is about as unmovable a musical instrument that exists, but its sound is transported fairly easily. In fact, all it takes is two men and a truck. And a lot of technical know-how.
The choir travels with a digital electronic church organ.
"It's a Rodgers organ that has a custom four-manual console that weighs about 1,000 pounds," said David Bagley of Heritage Church Organ Company in Orem, Utah. He and Jeff Hansen transport and set the organ up in each venue, then take it down and haul it to the next concert.
"The organ has 28 speaker cabinets that we fly on a truss about 30 feet above the choir's heads."
The speakers weigh 40 pounds each; with brackets, each weighs about 100 pounds.
"There are four sub-woofers on the floor, housed in road cases," Brother Hansen explained. "Four are behind the stage on the floor; they provide the low rumble that you sometimes feel more than hear."
Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott shows off some of the organ's range when he performs a solo during the tour. By the time he's about half way through "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," audiences – without fail – start applauding. And by the time he finishes, people are cheering and whistling. One would think a headlining star had just finished a big number at a sold-out concert. On some occasions, instead of just taking a bow, he leans over and pats the organ.
He said that the digital organ is sort of patterned after the Tabernacle organ in that it has some of the same kinds of sounds. "They aren't samples, per se, of the Tabernacle organ stops but it does a wonderful job of melding with the choir's sound and giving us that signature sound even when we're on the road traveling from venue to venue."
He said he is glad technology has gotten to the point they can achieve that kind of sound on concert tours. "Twenty years ago digital organs didn't sound as convincing as now. The organ we're using now produces a sound close to what people hear with the pipe organ in the Tabernacle."
Brother Bagley said it takes about two to three hours for him and Brother Hansen to set up and voice the organ for each room, or concert venue.
"Because it's digital we can control all of the stops on the organ to make them louder or softer. When we go into a room we adjust the different stops on the organ to make them match the room," he said.
"A lot of the digital samples that we use are taken from Aeolian Skinner organs, which is similar to Tabernacle organ.
"The digital organ is equivalent to 130 ranks of pipes, or equivalent to the Conference Center organ in the number of pipe ranks. The Tabernacle organ has 206 ranks."
