One of the things I enjoy doing whenever I am in Philadelphia is to visit Lord and Taylors on Market Street and see the behemoth which is the Wanamaker Pipe organ. Played everyday, this organ is literally music to your ears. The giant organ fills the 13 story grand court with music twice daily.

Sitting in the shoe department during my last visit Peter Richard Conte, the chief organist, played Carrilon De Westminster. The sheer enormity of the sound and the fullness of it totally enveloped me in a warm blanket of chords.

Someone once said, "If the Pipe organ is the king of instruments, then this organ reigns supreme over all of them."

From Attache Magazine: TWICE EVERY BUSINESS day since 1911, something happens at Philadelphia's old Wanamaker department store the likes of which never happen anywhere else. To many shoppers, it's familiar and soothing. Others find it impossibly mysterious. It's enough to draw visitors from other states and countries. It has left some in tears. And no, it's not a sale. Rather, twice a day, a small switch is thrown behind an unmarked door on the second-level mezzanine, powering up the blowers and feeding pressurized air into the wind chests and allowing the keys on the nearby console to summon the celestial voices of thousands upon thousands of pipes. This is to say, it's showtime for the Wanamaker pipe organ. For reference, consider: The organ in Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral boasts some 8,000 pipes; the Sydney Opera House, around 10,000. The Mormon Tabernacle's pipe organ in Salt Lake City shakes it congregants with the power of 11,623 pipes. And the Wanamaker? It has no fewer than 28,482 pipes. Some of them are 32 feet long. Some are big enough for a child to crawl through. There are so many pipes that the deep, sugar-pine chambers that house them (concealed behind ornamental grilles in the court's south wall) stretch seven stories up to the roof.

Next time you are in Philadelphia, visit Lord and Taylors. It's a great place to shop, and for the music lover in you, its a great place to hear the largest musical instrument of its kind in the entire world.

For more information visit Friends of the Wanamaker Organ

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