The Mormon Tabernacle organ is one of the remarkable legacies of pioneer ingenuity. Built in 1867 by Joseph Harris Ridges, whose main claim to fame was that he was born and raised near an organ factory in England, it was made of timber brought from the Parowan and Pine Valley Mountains some 300 miles south of Salt Lake City. The original organ had 700 pipes and was powered by hand-pumped bellows.
Improved and renovated over the years, it now has 11,623 pipes powered by electricity and is a major focal point of the Tabernacle.
To pay tribute to that organ and to organs everywhere, the downtown Deseret Book store, located across from Temple Square, has been featuring a special display of the Mormon Tabernacle Organ and has offered a series of organ recitals on a digital organ brought into the store for the display.
The series will conclude on Friday with a recital by principal Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott. The free 45-minute recital will begin at 12:45 p.m.
Elliott hopes the recital will show people how versatile and exciting organ music can be. "Many people associate organ music with church or funerals or maybe Halloween movie soundtracks," he says. "But Mozart called it the king of instruments and a lot of great music has been written for it. Nowadays, a lot of people are not aware how wonderful, how varied, how exciting organ music can be."
Elliot fell in love with it as a teenager. He had grown up exposed to all kinds of music, from classical to marching bands. "As a teenager, what I liked most was loud music. When I sat down at the church organ at age 15, I loved how I could make loud music, and make so many different sounds, how there were so many different colors than with the piano."
But it was much later that it became a career. "My first idea was to be a studio musician. But I thought with the organ, I could do that on weekends. Eventually, the organ just took over."
Serving as a Tabernacle organist since 1991, Elliott is at home in front of any organ console. A native of Baltimore, he received his early musical training at Peabody Conservatory and the Catholic University of America. He has a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and master's and doctorate degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
While attending school in Philadelphia, he served as assistant organist for the world's largest functioning pipe organ, the famed Wanamaker organ.
Prior to his appointment as a Tabernacle organist, Elliott was an assistant professor at Brigham Young University. He is also a fellow of the American Guild of Organists and on the advisory board for the Eccles Organ Festival at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.
There is nothing quite like playing the famed Tabernacle organ, he says. "It's always a wonderful experience. I never tire of it. I go away, like I did on vacation last week, and I come back and sit down, and it's like coming home. You just bask in the glorious sound."
Elliott's exceptional playing, including his fast and fancy footwork, has delighted audiences of the weekly "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast, as well as at special concerts, including the annual Christmas presentations. "Those are always so colorful, so high-energy that it is fun to try to cook something up that will fit right in," he says.
The Deseret Book recital will "run the whole gamut," he says. "We'll be all over the map, all over the color chart" with something for everyone.
"If you can only make one organ recital this decade, this is the one you will not want to miss," says Leigh Dethman, publicist for Deseret Book.
Daily 30-minute recitals are also given at the Tabernacle by the organ staff and guest organists, starting at noon, Monday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
e-mail: carma@desnews.com