Richmond District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. The neighborhood is home to several notable attractions, including The Legion of Honor. The Legion of Honor, which used to be called the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is a museum; and is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, one of the largest art museums in California. The Legion of Honor refers to both the museum and the building the museum is in. The building was created as a gift from Adolph B. Spreckels to his Wife Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. It is a full-scale replica of the French Pavilion that was at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The French Pavilion was also a replica, a three-quarter scale replica of the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur or the Hotel de Salm in Paris.
Between 1992 and 1995, the Legion of Honor building was renovated, which included seismic strengthening, system upgrades, historic restorations, and a 35,000 square foot underground expansion. Today, the museum houses a large art collection that covers more than six thousand years of ancient and European art. It is also home to the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. The collection includes many famous works including a cast of the famous Auguste Rodin sculpture, The Thinker. Also on display are works from Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissarro, Braque, Picasso, and more. The museum strives to continuously support the arts, and even displays the work of several modern and living artists. These exhibits include works by Urs Fischer and Sarah Lucas. The Legion of Honor hopes to tutor its visitors in the beauty and importance of ancient and modern art alike.
The Legion of Honor also proudly displays a symphonic organ. Symphonic organs were very popular in the early 1900’s, and were most commonly found in town halls and public venues. The symphonic organ sets itself apart from the classical pipe organ because it features several pipes that sound like other orchestral instruments. It also has the ability to smoothly transition between loud and soft volumes. The symphonic organ was said to give organists the ability to play expressive and Romantic music. It also enabled performers to play orchestral transcriptions; which were full orchestral works, reworked for a solo organist. The symphonic organ in the Legion of Honor has four manuals and pedals, seven divisions, sixty-three ranks, and a total of 4,526 pipes. All this enables it to exemplify orchestral pieces particularly well. It even has pneumatically operated percussion instruments, tubular chimes, and a thunder pedal which helps create a musical representation storms. Any musician could exceed their musical ambitions on this instrument.
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