How Complicated Is It To Build An Organ? Even More Than You Think

Wendelin Eberle, head of the Austrian firm Rieger Orgelbau, talks about everything from the metal content of pipes to what kinds of trees to use for wood (it varies according to climate and conditions at the organ’s location) to how to suspend a 37-ton instrument from a ceiling. (Then there was the time they were trapped at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestinian militants.)