Chinese island makes haven for Western pipe organs,China travel news,tours news in China,China tourism city news

Chinese island makes haven for Western pipe organs

Two giant pipe organs have made the journey of thousands of miles from an English church and an American city to a small Chinese island, where locals can now enjoy "the sound of heaven".

Organist Fang Site looked extremely small when she sat in front of the keyboards of the 100-year-old Norman & Beard pipe organ.

As the 160-cm-tall young lady smoothly played J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor with this two-floor-high instrument, the solemn sound could be heard all round the hall under a ten-meter-high Romanesque dome.

The building, two years older than the Norman & Beard organ and the former villa of a rich Chinese merchant, is now the country's only Organ Museum. Its home, Gulangyu Island, has now earned the name "Piano Island."

"The organ is a perfect match to this building," said Fang, who works at the museum.

In its old home, a church in England, people listened in front of it. Here, in a round hall, visitors can walk around it and even go upstairs where the sound is even better because of the dome.

Since its founding in 2005, the museum's collection has grown to about 80 organs, many on show in the two floors of exhibition rooms.

However, the Norman & Beard is the only giant pipe organ assembled and available for performance.

"They are too huge. The Norman & Beard has 1,350 pipes, three layers of keyboards and 21 organ stops. It weighs three tonnes and the longest pipe is five meters in length. We have to put it in the center hall, the largest exhibition space in our museum," said Huang Jianxi, the museum curator.

The museum has an even bigger organ, a Casavant Freres pipe organ with 7,451 pipes and weighing 35 tonnes. It will be 13 meters high and 12.5 meters wide if assembled, even larger than the pipe organ installed in the egg-shaped National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, which claims to be the largest in Asia.

Most of its components were still unpacked after being shipped from Boston in the United States, in October 2007. Only the beautifully carved wood case of the pipes is on display now.

"In the past two years, we have been working hard to find a new home for this giant," Huang said.

Now the museum has been given 2,600 square meters of land beside the old museum building.

"A U.S. firm has finished the new building's design. We expect to start construction this year," Huang said.

The new part of the museum will face the sea and have a full glass wall in its front side, through which people can view the front side of the huge pipe organ from outside.

"I am eager to play that huge instrument. It must be an exceptional experience," said Fang, a Gulangyu native graduated from the Music Department of Xiamen University.

Every year, the museum will hold six to seven pipe organ concerts and occasionally Fang plays for museum visitors as well.

Although learning playing piano since very young, she prefers pipe organs.

"This instrument is amazing. When playing piano, I feel it is under my control. But, for a pipe organ, I give up myself to it," she said. "Not many can play a real pipe organ in China. I really cherish the opportunity."

PIANO MAN GOES TO PIPE

The person who gave her the chance was Hu Youyin, a famous piano collector.

All organs in the museum were Hu's collection. He also donated his piano collection, about 150 pieces, to the Gulangyu Piano Museum, on the same island as the Organ Museum.

Born in 1936 on Gulangyu Island, he studied in the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, majored in pipe organ and piano, in the 1960s.

"There was a musical instrument museum near my college. I was impressed by the keyboard instruments there. They are not only beautiful objects but also a record of music history. From then on, I dreamed of my own collection," he told Xinhua in an interview during his short stay on Gulangyu. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia.

He started collecting pianos after settling in Australia in 1974 and building a house, big enough to hold 30 pianos.

"It was at first just my personal interest but, in 1998, when I returned my hometown, I got an idea of setting up a museum here and have more people enjoy them," Hu said.

In 2000, the Piano Museum opened with his donation. When more old pianos were brought to the museum, Hu turned to pipe organs.

"I have always loved the sound of pipe organs. In the West, many pipe organs were moved away from churches because of different reasons. Some of them remained in a very good condition. It is a pity that their wonderful sound can no longer be heard," he said.

Although few people collected pipe organs because of their huge size, Hu decided to make the first step.

In 2004, he bought the Norman & Beard from England and in 2007 the Casavant Freres from the Emmanuel Church in Boston.

"The wood case of the Casavant Freres is an artwork itself," he said.

He expects to provide a new home for more old pipe organs but where to put them is still his top problem.

"I really admire people of Gulangyu for taking them in," he said. "I hope one day organ lovers from all over the world will come on a music pilgrimage here."

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Chinese island makes haven for Western pipe organs