The 18th Century’s Surround-Sound Machine
Save this article to read it later. Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection. Organ pipes shoot toward the ceiling, suggesting a structure held up by columns of air. Were standing in whats called the celestial division. When you take a pew at St. Barts, you are sitting inside the instrument. A leather diaphragm seals off one end of each pipe until the organist presses a key. The principle is simple, but the effect is one of almost infinite nuance and overpowering drama....