One of a Kind

The four-in-one organ at Metropolitan Art Space in Tokyo is the only one of its kind. Here's a story who's details may be fascinating -- I'd like to know more.

March 24, 2008: Bingo!! I learned some more.

The Only Reversible Organ in the World: The job description for building the organ for the Metropolitan Art Space Concert Hall in Tokyo, Japan was to build an organ on which organ music could be played authentically no matter which period it came from. As this is simply impossible in one single organ, just think of the different ways of tuning, Marc Garnier from France in 1987-1991 built three organs in one with a total of 184 ranks / 123 voices (+ 2 ext. + 1 transm.) and more than 9,000 pipes with a three-part case. Now, depending on which organ you need you can turn the right one to the front. Of course you need to disconnect and reconnect all pipes, the air system and the action, a job that obviously is extremely complicated. Maybe that is the reason why this technical masterpiece is still singular in the whole World.