THE SHANKLIN MUSIC HALL - Welcome to EMCATOS

1 THE SHANKLIN MUSIC HALLIn the beginning, we did not plan tobuild a MUSIC hall . Our original objectivewas to enlarge the three-manual, 17-rankWurlitzer that we have had in our home formany years. But then we realized thatsimply enlarging the organ would notproduce the "in the theatre" sound that wewere seeking. To accomplish that, weneeded a room with substantial volume forthe sound to develop, and that meant thateither we had to build a huge addition to thehouse, or we had to construct a newbuilding. Since neither my wife, Sarah, norI wanted to change the design and feel ofour home, we decided to build a new venuefor a new (read "larger") organ on a six-acrepiece of land that was only four miles fromour home.

2 I have never been able to shakethe desire for an installation with the tonalvariety and excitement of a large Wurlitzerin a small theatre. We had to try to duplicatethat designing the shape of the auditorium,I did not try to copy the shape of a theatre,because theatres were designed to showmovies and stage shows, and, in mosttheatres, any consideration of acoustics forthe organ seemed to have been , we planned an auditorium withapproximately the proportions of Boston'sSymphony hall (which is well known for itsfine acoustics), only in miniature.

3 Theauditorium of the MUSIC hall is 44' wide x86' long x 36' high at the peak of thecathedral ceiling. This gives the auditoriumample volume for the full sounds of theorgan to develop, and it approximatelyfollows the ratios of width: height: length of1 : 1 : 2, that works so well at SymphonyHall. Interestingly, our swell openings,which extend the full width of theauditorium, also mimic the full width stageof Symphony hall . At the recommendationof our acoustical consultant, we made therear wall of the auditorium convex, to betterdistribute the the design and construction ofthe auditorium, a great deal of considerationwas given to achieving a stiff, hardstructure, which would enhance the soundof the organ.

4 The walls of the building are12" concrete block, steel reinforced, withfoam insulation outside the block, and avinyl siding exterior. The ceiling is 5/8"sheet rock over 3/4" plywood on 2x12"joists (with fiberglass insulation), supportedby over-sized trusses for extra stiffness. Asit turned out, these were all great decisions,because after tuning the room acousticallywith sound absorbent pads and a bass trap,the auditorium has a reverberation time ofabout two seconds, and it has proven to bespectacularly good acoustically.

5 Best of all,there isn't a bad seat in the the basic structure was up andenclosed, it became obvious that it wouldbe much nicer if we provided somefinishing touches to the interior. At thispoint, Sarah took over the interior design ofthe MUSIC hall . In addition to plastering theinterior, we designed a paneled column andchase structure along the side walls, whichwas tastefully trimmed in maroon and floor of the main area was covered witha carpet bearing a Florentine pattern, and awood dance floor runs down die center ofthe auditorium.

6 A 44-seat balcony withreproduction antique theatre seats was builtover the reception area, and a projectionroom is located behind the seating onthe organ chambers are located on theupper level directly behind the front wall ofthe auditorium, and the reservoirs andtremulants are mounted on speciallydesigned racks directly underneath. Thisarrangement keeps the wind noise out of thechambers, and since the wind piping is rununder the ceiling of the regulator room, itkeeps the wind conductors off the chamberfloors.

7 The organ speaks directly into theauditorium through three openings in thewall in each chamber. The chambers areover-sized for easy maintenance, and topermit visitors to enter the chambers to viewthe organ's pipework. In a departure fromthe normal concert hall installation, wedecided to mount most of the percussionson the front wall of the organ console is installed on aturntable near the front of the turntable is mounted on casters, so thatthe console can be located anywhere in thefront part of the room, as long as theelectrical cables and wind line will gives the hall tremendous lighting in the auditorium is controlledby a computerized theatrical dimmer, froma console located on the balcony.

8 Thelighting technician has at his control 35colored spotlights, a follow spot, threevideo cameras, and a video projector. A 16'motorized movie screen permits movies andvideo views of the console to be shown, andmotorized curtains on all windows allow usto hold daytime climate control of the buildingincludes separate systems for each organchamber, for the auditorium, and for theblower room. The furnace room and soundisolated blower room are in an extension atthe rear of the building behind a block unique project captured our contrac-tors' imagination, and resulted in a veryhigh level of craftsmanship and quality ofconstruction throughout.

9 The building wasdesigned to be almost maintenance SHANKLIN MUSIC hall Wurlitzerconsists of 34 ranks of pipes, 11 tunedpercussions, and numerous traps and soundeffects, all played from the four-manualconsole that was originally installed inBoston's 4,500-seat Metropolitan Theatre(presently the Wang Center). It is interestingto note that the Metropolitan organ was thelargest theatre organ that was ever installedby Wurlitzer in New England. On April 24,1999, exactly 69 years to the day after JesseCrawford played the opening shows on theMetropolitan Theatre's new Wurlitzer, RonRhode, seated at the same console, playedthe dedication concerts on the newlyassembled Wurlitzer in the 350-seatShanklin MUSIC restoration of the SHANKLIN MusicHall Wurlitzer was done with two objectivesin mind.

10 The first was to create a superbmusical instrument. The second andequally important objective was to restoreirreplaceable antique materials. In view ofthis, all of the sounds of the organare produced by real pipes and realpercussion instruments operated electro-pneumatically, exactly the same way thatthey were during the golden era of silentfilm. There are no electronic sounds orsound enhancements. And all the pipes(except for the Trompette en Chamade),all percussions, and all windchests,tremulants, reservoirs, and swell shuttersare vintage Wurlitzer.