It’s a Beautiful Noise

A cavern was hardly the place I expected to have my soul stirred by music–or to admire genius.

But there it was, deep in the Luray Caverns, delicate music, almost like lace, accompanied by the occasional knock that sounded like a drop of rain magnified. As we drew near, we could see it–an organ. We learned the “Great Stalacpipe Organ” is the world’s largest musical instrument, the brainchild of Leland Sprinkle, a Pentagon mathematician and scientist. It took him thirty-six years and five miles of wiring (and a whole lot of sanding of stalactites to get them in tune), but there it is.

The organ itself looks very unimposing, but still can be played manually. Now, most days, an automated system generates the “music” as small rubber-tipped hammers hit the stalactites just so, ever so lightly, but generating the perfect sound.

I stood in that big cavern, so quiet in spite of the crowd of tourists, and listened to that music. I watched those hammers hit. And I thought, on one level, it’s so crazy that someone made a project like this his life’s work, his legacy. But on another level, I’m so glad he did. He added an element to a place of strange, amazing natural beauty into a place of beautiful noise as well. He didn’t stop at the oohing and aahing at the stalactites or the “fried eggs” or the “dream lake” or Luray’s other lovely formations. He saw or rather heard something the rest of it didn’t… and found a way to share it with the world. And that is a gift, and a beautiful noise indeed.