About Our Organ:    

 

In his memoir, The Substance of Things Hoped For, "Rev. Samuel DeWitt Proctor details the story of a congregation in Harlem that chose to invest in an organ for their church, an instrument that would allow its congregants to worship and “copy the great sounds of nature – the rolling thunder, the wind whistling through the trees, and the thrush singing a love song. The music cleanses their spirits, drives out ugly thoughts, puts wings on their prayers and wafts them heavenward. Oh, yes! The organ works for them! They can go out of here and find a job, do it well, get paid, and eat on time. They are not hungry. They have an organ in their lives!”

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Pipe Organs, referred to as the King of Instruments, have always been amazing machines, individually crafted, and complex instruments.  But the organ at First United Methodist Church, Lake Charles, has a contemporary personality to complement its original glorious sound.

 

The building and installation of this pipe organ, Opus 634, built by Schantz Organ Company, began in 1963, and was completed in 1964 for the grand total of $52,047.00.   Current replacement value is approximately $1.1 Million!  It has 39 ranks (sets) of pipes, housed in three pipe chambers which are in two decks behind the grill cloth at the back of the choir loft.  There is a pipe for every pitch (key) on the organ for each rank of pipe – the bigger the pipe, the lower the pitch and the smaller the pipe, the higher the pitch.  Each rank of pipes has its own unique sound, according to different materials used, size, scaling, and octave pitch.  So we have the softest flute or string sounds to bombastic reeds (trumpet sounds), with the basic organ sounds of Diapason pipes to provide strength for hymn singing. 

 

 The 2,294 individual pipes on this particular type of Pipe Organ, is controlled by the organ console, which has 3 keyboards, called “manuals” and a pedal keyboard, played by the feet (unique to organs).  There is a complex system of wiring, pneumatic (air) valves, electrical, and solid-state switches in the form of “stops” (draw knobs - which also start the sound), couplers and keys at the console. 

 

In 2015, the computer “brains” of this organ, was replaced by a Peterson ICS4000 specialized system that allows multiple organists to control settings; allows recording and actual playback of the instrument; and has MIDI capabilities which means a digital keyboard can be connected to it, allowing synthesized sounds to be played from the pipe organ and can be played through an amplifier and large speakers installed in the organ chambers in 1992.

 

Each rank of pipes sits on a wooden “wind-chest”, where air is blown into by 2 large blowers, one on the main floor and one in an upper chamber, through very large tubes and the air pressure is regulated by large bellows. 

 

Obviously, the Pipe Organ requires regular maintenance, at least twice a year, by specialized technicians.  The organ at FUMC, Lake Charles is maintained by Rive Pipe Organ in Metairie.

 

For more information or to receive a private tour of the Pipe Organ, Contact the organist, Marlene Mullenix.