California Theatre Organ 32-foot Diaphones

Four 32-foot diaphones were installed in 2011 for a production of Mozart's Idomeneo: notes CCCC, DDDD, FFFF, and GGGG “pipes” that speak four octaves below middle C. Above: Unassembled sections of the four pipes are laid out on the stage preparatory to being lifted up to their installation platform 46 feet above the stage floor.


Above: Hoisting the large top half of CCCC -- about 350 pounds of wood; at right, about halfway up.

Below: Diaphones installed (Dick Taylor in background). FFFF and GGGG are stacked on top of each other.

Above left: DDDD and FFFF vibrators.
Above right: A view into the CCCC vibrator.

Following Idomeneo, California Theatre audiences again enjoyed the sounds of the organ with its new low diaphones. Unseen by the audience, organist Bill Coale performed with the orchestra in Gustav Holst's The Planets, leading David Bratman to write in his San Francisco Classical Voice review: “... the theater's mighty Wurlitzer organ packed the punch I always want to hear, but rarely do, at the climax moments of Mars and Uranus.”