Listening to the world's largest Pipe Organ

Yesterday, we went to downtown Dallas to attend a Pipe Organ demonstration at the globally famous Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. This is the second Pipe Organ I am listening to... the first being at the Holy Trinity church in Bangalore. The one in Bangalore is definitely decades or perhaps centuries older than this monster of a musical instrument in Dallas. Well the demo was supposed to be held at 12.30 pm and we were there on time only to be ushered into the comfortable 2,036 seater auditorium. The comfortable seats feature covers of Mohair wool, some kind of special and expensive stuff but very comfortable. The rendition of the pipeorgan started with the player sitting in a small space in the middle of the numerous pipes through air passes when the right foot pedal or key is struck. The performance transported the sparse audience to another world... a world of melody and music. The highly entertaining performance was followed by a tour of the Meyerson Center.

Here is a bit of factual information about the Meyerson center first and then about my experience of listening to the pipe organ playing. The 485,000 sft Meyerson center was opened in September of 1989 and it took another 4-5 years to put together this massive pipe organ which has 4,535 pipes of all sizes. The smallest being just 3/4 inch to the largest being 32 ft tall. It is a wonderful example of how a municipal government, with the help of committed volunteers and patrons, can build and maintain such a masterpiece. The Meyerson center is owned and managed by the City of Dallas, Office of Cultural Affairs, and several reputed bands such as Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Turtle Creek Chorale, Dallas Wind Symphony, and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra operate out of this space. Though this elegant building is primarily meant for musical programmes, numerous other events take place from time to time. The most common include corporate meetings and religious services. Air conditioned, spacious and luxurious lobbies are often rented out to private functions such as, meetings, seminars, awards ceremonies, trade shows & exhibits; weddings, graduations, photo and film shoots etc.

No doubt the Meyerson center is one hell of a beautiful building which exudes elegance, luxury and extravagance. But one thing I found rather disconcerting is the acrylic enamel on composite material; 4 separated color panels by artist Ellsworth Kelly. These are nothing but four straight strips of coloured acrylic and there is nothing to indicate any extra effort or artistic perception or whatsoever. But these guys had to get an artist to do that. In my opinion it is rather funny. Anyway some people have weird ideas about art and art works... I am definitely not for this kind of art.