Grace Episcopal Church - Muncie, IN
In 1972, Grace Episcopal Church installed a new organ. The instrument was a radical departure for the church from their previous pipe organ, an old Pilcher instrument with a lot of warmth and not much else. Built by Gabriel Kney, the organ had tracker (mechanical) key action in the manuals and a very classic specification based on German Werkprinzip tonal ideals. On this little organ, the music of Bach could sing out as it was intended to do. The instrument was the first tracker organ in the Muncie area. Grace’s relatively new organist, Kristi Koriath, was well suited to the Kney organ, and, for the past thirty-odd years, organist and organ made great music at Grace. Over time, Kristi Koriath became aware of certain limitations in the organ. Perhaps this was partly due to the greater emphasis in the organ world on fundamental (unison) tone. Organists and organ builders have found that, even in very classically conceived instruments, listeners appreciate a well-supported ensemble sound. This support is especially important when the organ is used to lead congregational singing. We were asked to assess the condition of the instrument for the church, and to recommend limited tonal changes, including the addition of an 8’ Principal to the Great chorus. Additions to the tracker portion of this organ required careful planning. Using our computer aided design capabilities (CAD), David Reynolds prepared a design that allowed most of the new 8’ Principal to be incorporated into the existing Great main windchest, with a few notes offset in the bass. This insured that the new Principal would speak precisely with the rest of the Great ensemble. At the same time, we completely created a completely new Pedal windchest. The existing windchest, which was also electric, was poorly organized for tuning, and tended to underwind many of the pipes, including the 16’ Subbass, the only 16’ stop in the instrument. The 8’ Krummhorn, originally in the Great, was moved to the Positiv. The original 8’ Vox Humana in the Positiv was completely redesigned with longer resonators to become a 4’ Dulzian in the Pedal, giving the organ a 4’ cantus reed in the Pedal. The original 4’ Koppelflote in the Pedal was replaced with a Rohrflöte that plays at 8’ and 4’. Finally, an 8’ Solo Trumpet stop was added to the Great to give the organ a presence appropriate to fanfares and festival occasions. We also created a new reservoir for the organ of larger capacity than the old one. This new reservoir, with double curtain valves for pressure stability, serves as both the Pedal reservoir and as the static reservoir feeding the manual schwimmers. The new flue pipes for the organ were scaled especially for the instrument and built in the Czech Republic by one of Europe’s leading pipe makers. As part of the project, we also replaced the stop controls in the console and installed a new solid-state combination action. Final regulation and tuning were completed in the fall of 2005. The organ is slated to be rededicated with a February 17 recital by Marilyn Keiser, a leading American recitalist and a member of the organ faculty at Indiana University. |
