A Wall of Sound: the Watjen Concert Organ

By Leilani Polk

A commanding presence at every Seattle Symphony concert held in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium, towering behind the musicians but showcased with them infrequently, Benaroya Hall’s majestic Watjen Concert Organ was originally dedicated in the summer of 2000. Longtime Pacific Northwest philanthropists and music lovers Craig and Joan Watjen entirely funded the design, construction and installation of the instrument as a gift to the Symphony. This year marks its 25th birthday, an appropriate moment to bring in dynamic, highly respected, internationally renowned guest soloist Paul Jacobs to show off the full scale of its powers in Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto, performed January 9 & 11 on the Beethoven Symphony No. 7 program with conductor Jun Märkl. 

A variation on the classical pipe organ rooted in 19th century Europe, the concert or symphonic pipe organ was incorporated into orchestral works by composers such as Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt. The concert organ enjoyed a big come-up from the late-1800s to 1930s, by composers like Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss (most memorably in Also Sprach Zarathustra), Gustav Mahler and Camille Saint-Saëns before it fell into less use in the mid-20th century. While the symphonic organ saw a revival in the U.S., Europe and Japan since the 1980s, it's still not commonly used, though it still has its own special place in the symphonic repertoire. 

A symphonic organ is used in ways rarely required of instruments in other settings and features expanded capabilities to control volume, tone and pitches, with many pipes made to imitate orchestral instruments (e.g., strings, woodwinds, brass). The Watjen Concert Organ has an extensive tonal palette — the number and types of different sounds it can produce — and can encompass musical requirements from the Renaissance era to present. Combinations of sounds typical of French organs of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the “Germanic” combinations necessary for J.S. Bach’s works, are well represented. When playing with an orchestra, sheer power is sometimes required. The Watjen Concert Organ’s dynamic range extends from hushed to thunderous, with the latter effect aided by the “tuba” division, a set of pipes driven by a higher wind pressure and designed specifically to crown a full orchestra at musical climaxes. 
 
Each of the keys and pedals of the organ’s three manual keyboards and the 32-note pedalboard are connected mechanically to a valve controlling the wind to each pipe; when many pipes sound together, a mechanical assist device aids the organist with what otherwise might require the strength of many. This “mechanical” key action — favored by serious organists everywhere — is complemented by a fully electronic stop action, which allows rapid changes of combinations of sounds with a literal push of a button. 

No two pipe organs are alike — there is no cookie cutter specification — and in this it also differs from other instruments. The Watjen Concert Organ represents more than 50,000 hours of work and weighs over 25 tons. While there are underlying principles behind the design of an organ that every organ builder follows, each one is customized to the room where it’s housed. Thus, its design and tonal finishing reflects the organ’s primary purpose and the role that it’s going to play as well as its acoustical environment. An organ for a concert hall almost always needs to be a substantial instrument, because its use calls for power, a lot of color and especially important, depth of sound — so the 32-foot-tall pipes with the very lowest notes are a must. The organ also has to be tuned to the room so it’s the right volume level. During the finishing of the organ, it is tested with the orchestra playing so that the builders and the tonal finishers know exactly how loud it needs to be.  

The Seattle Symphony’s resident organist Joseph Adam has said that one of the things he really appreciates about this organ, “is that it has both the volume to make an impact at the big moments, but still has something left over, so you’re never tapped out — you never have the accelerator all the way down to the floor. And it has a fundamental sound that really helps support the orchestra and fills it out. It’s a sound that’s very compatible with the orchestra. Not every organ is built that way, or needs to be built that way, but this one really is.” 

You’d never realize so much was going on behind the organ’s giant façade. After climbing stairs then ladders and shimmying through small passageways with only enough space for one or two people at a time, you reach the top, located well above the stage, where the openings to the thousands of pipes reach their peak. The biggest, at 32 feet tall, emits the deepest notes; the notes get higher as the pipes get smaller, all the way to the size of a pencil. Three blowers totaling nearly 12 horsepower, and moving more than 3,100 cubic feet of air per minute, supply the wind required. And with 4,490 pipes, 83 ranks (the sets of pipes organized by note and timbre that produce a specific tone and pitch level) and 62 voices, the Watjen Concert Organ can achieve the sound of an orchestra all on its own. 

While it’s not the biggest symphonic pipe organ in the world or even in the U.S., the Watjen Concert Organ is notable for its visual design, incorporated into the original blueprints for Benaroya Hall. The large Sitka spruce façade pipes (located on either side of the traditional silvery-grey metal pipes that soar up from the keyboard console) are an unmistakable feature, chosen for their Northwest Forest connotations. And the position of the console, amid the façade above the orchestra, affords a view of the organist performing, rare with instruments in other venues. 

According to Adam, the feeling of playing this monumental instrument “is pretty indescribable. Transcendent, but you can’t lose yourself in the moment; you always have to be very aware of everything that’s going on. But it’s really quite a rush to know that you’re supplying the sound that takes it over the top.” 

The Seattle Symphony’s organ programming is generously supported by the Fluke | Gabelein Organ Endowment.