50 years ago
An organ expert from Philadelphia had high praise for the recently installed Tabernacle organ after making a trip to Salt Lake City to play it himself.
The experience of Dr. Alexander McCurdy, editor of The Etude Magazine and head of the organ department at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, was reported in the May 29,1949, Church News.
The article said he made the trip "in order to hear the great new Tabernacle organ in its natural surroundings instead of over the radio."
It quoted him as saying: "It has everything that an organist needs. The great classical organ works can now be performed as they should be, which was not possible on the previous organ, and even the most modern compositions including the colorful registrations required for playing Wagner correctly are now at the performer's command."
The article continued: "Dr. McCurdy was high in his praise for the Tabernacle acoustics which in his opinion, 'so glorify the organ.' Many very fine organs throughout the world are handicapped, he noted, by being in a separate room outside the auditorium where they are heard. This is not so with the Tabernacle organ because the entire instrument is inside the Tabernacle without walls setting off the chests of pipes."
