Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
Festival Hall, Robert Farquhar, architect, balances the Palace of
Horticulture in the architectural plan of the South Gardens. (p. 29.)
It, too, is French in style, its architecture suggested by the Theatre
des Beaux Arts in Paris, a design which furnished the dome necessary to
harmonize with that of the palace to the west. As architecture, however,
it fails to hold up its end with the splendid Horticultural Palace. Its
dome is too large, and has too little structure around it, to be placed
so near the ground without an effect of squattiness. Its festive
adornment is extremely moderate. On the cornice above the main entrance
is the rhyton, the ancient Greek drinking horn, symbol of festivity.
The sculpture, all done by Sherry E. Fry, carries out the same idea. The
graceful figures poised on the corner domes are Torch Bearers. On the
pylons at either end of the semicircular arcade of the main entrance are
two reclining figures. On the right is Bacchus, with his grapes and
wineskin,--a magnificently "pickled" Bacchus! On the left a woman is
listening to the strains of festal music. (p. 32.) Each of the pedestals
before the false windows at the ends of the arcade supports a figure of
Flora with garlands of flowers. On the ground below the two Floras are
two of the most delightful pieces of all the Exposition sculpture. One
is a little Pan, pipes in hand, sitting on a skin spread over an Ionic
capital. This is a real boy, crouching to watch the lizard that has
crawled out from beneath the stone. The other is a young girl dreaming
the dreams of childhood. There is something essentially girlish about
this. Unfortunately, it is now almost hidden by shrubbery.
Within Festival Hall is one of the half-dozen greatest organs in the
world. It has more than 7,000 pipes. The heaviest of them weigh as much
as 1,200 pounds apiece. Though mere size is not the essential quality of
a fine instrument, it is hard to ignore the real immensity of this. The
echo organ alone is larger than most pipe organs. This complementary
instrument, which is played from the console of the main organ, is
placed under the roof of the hall, above the center of the ceiling. Its
tones, floating down through the apertures in the dome, echo the themes
of the great organ.
Few organs have so mighty a note as the sixty-four-foot open pitch
attainable on the Exposition's instrument. Speaking by itself, this note
has no sound. It is only a tremendous quaking of the whole building, as
though the earth were shuddering. By itself it has no place in organ
music. It is not intended to be struck alone. It is used only as a
foundation upon which to build other tones. In combination it adds
majesty to the music, rumbling in a gigantic undertone to the lighter
notes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account