Our Wonderful Organ Has Been Upgraded!

Join Us to Bless the Organ And Pray for More Decades of Music!

All Saints Sunday – November 1, 2020

Morning Worship Service – 10:30 a.m.

Join us on All Saints Sunday, November 1, 2020, at 10:30 am to rejoice and remember the saints who have gone before us.

The Peace organ has been upgraded with new sounds the past few weeks and it is time to bless the upgrade to the organ and give thanks to the memorials received that assisted in funding this project.

History of Our Organ

Now for a little history and information about our organ.

The Peace organ began its life in 1895 and has undergone many additions and changes throughout its history.

This year our organ celebrates 125 years and we once again have had the opportunity to make a few additions to it.

The Details of Our Organ and Its Upgrade

Over the past few weeks, two new stops have been added to the organ – a 16′ Fagotto and a set of chimes.

The organ has four types of pipes: principal, flute, string, and reed.

The Peace organ uses all four types of pipes in various stops over three divisions housed in two separate chambers.

The great chamber (pipes played from the lower manual or keyboard on the organ console) is unenclosed meaning the pipes are in an open chamber behind the organ screen.
The swell chamber (pipes played from the upper manual on the organ console) are enclosed and have wooden shutters called swell shades behind the organ screen that open and close affecting the volume.

All of the pipes for the pedal division are located in the great chamber except for the new 16′ Fagotto, which was installed in the swell chamber.

Although this was primarily due to lack of space in the great chamber, it does allow for more flexibility in using this stop such as when the swell shades are closed, it will create a softer, slightly muted sound for this otherwise fairly robust stop.

Reed Pipes

The 16′ Fagotto stop uses reed pipes and is only playable from the pedal keyboard.

Reed pipes are used for stops that are meant to produce tones similar to that of orchestral brass and reed instruments; the Fagotto stop is meant to be imitative of a bassoon.

The Peace organ currently had two other reed stops – an 8′ Oboe in the swell (from the original 1895 instrument) and an 8′ Trumpet located in the great (added in 1997).

8′ stops sound at the written pitch (the note that is played is the same as the pitch you hear) whereas 16′ stop sounds an octave lower than the written pitch.

The 16′ Fagotto can be used as a solo stop when a melody is being played on the pedals.

When used with fuller registrations, it will give the organ a well-rounded, fuller sound with more substantial bass.

The 32 pipes for this stop are from the 1980s and were salvaged from an organ in Pennsylvania.

The Chimes

The new 25-note set of chimes was installed on a wall in the great chamber and produce a bell-like tone and are usually used to play the melody in a piece of music.

Sometimes they are used in other ways to accent or add texture to the music.

The chimes differ from our other stops on the organ in the way the sound is produced as instead of producing their tone by air being pushed through a pipe, the chimes are struck by small hammers or clappers.

When chimes are played, the sound immediately will begin to dissipate until it completely fades away even if the key pressed is continually held.

On the other hand, all of our other organ stops will continue to sound at full volume until the activating key is released.

Dedication

The new organ additions will be dedicated and blessed on All Saints Sunday, November 1, 2020 at the 10:30 am worship service.

A Special Thanks To Our Donors!

This project was funded by congregational gifts to the organ fund, memorial gifts honoring Johanna Rister, and the Harry & Ruth Suggs Charitable Remainder Trust.