An Electronic organ designed by Jerome Markowitz (191791) between 1937 and 1939, and manufactured from 1939 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and from 1953 in nearby Macungie. The Allen Organ Co. was founded in 1945; besides many models of the organ, it has manufactured two electronic harpsichords (introduced in 1961 and 1982) and an electronic piano (from 1965). After Markowitz's death his son Steve Markowitz succeeded him as president.
The Allen organ was the first fully-electronic organ to become commercially available. A three-manual instrument was produced in 1946, and a four-manual one in 1954. In 1949 a two-speed rotating loudspeaker unit, the Gyrophonic Projector, was introduced. The company was one of the first to develop a fully transistorized organ (1959), and in the digital Computer Organ (1971) it pioneered the replacement of oscillators by a computer that generates sounds by means of digital waveform synthesis (based on recordings of pipe organ spectra). The original organ was designed for use in churches, but later models included concert and home organs. The concert models have frequently taken solo and obbligato roles in orchestras, under conductors such as Barenboim, Bernstein, Dorati, Karajan, Mehta, Ormandy and Stokowski. Four-manual touring organs were commissioned in the mid-1970s by Carlo Curley (380 loudspeakers) and Virgil Fox (over 500 loudspeakers).
From the mid-1960s to the early 80s Allen's RMI division (Rocky Mount Instruments) manufactured portable electronic pianos and keyboards, including the Electra-Piano (1967), Rock-Si-Chord (1967) and RMI Keyboard Computer KC-I (1974) and KC-II (1977), two of the first polyphonic synthesizers.
R.L. Eby: Electronic Organs: a Complete Catalogue, Textbook and Manual (Wheaton, IL, 1953), 2547
R.H. Dorf: Electronic Musical Instruments (Mineola, NY, 1954, 3/1968), 15364
W.H. Barnes: The Contemporary American Organ: its Evolution, Design and Construction (Glen Rock, NJ, 7/1959), 3569
J. Markowitz: Triumphs and Trials of an Organ Builder (Macungie, PA, 1989)
B. Carson: A Parade of Exotic Electric Pianos and Fellow Travellers, Keyboard, xix/12 (1993), 143, 1469
B. Carson: Vintage RMI: the Worlds Firat Digital Sample-Playback Synthesizers, Keyboard, xxi/3 (1995), 3846
HUGH DAVIES