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The majestic sanctuary organ of Trinity United Methodist Church is among the largest pipe organs in the state of Alabama. It has been hailed by world-famous organists as an outstanding example of American organ building.
Trinity’s organ, opus 11831, was built in 1991 by the M. P. Moller Organ Company of Hagarstown, Maryland, and numbers among the last dozen instruments built by that historic firm. Conceived in the American eclectic style of organ building, it supports traditional worship through the playing of hymns and liturgical music and serves as a major concert instrument capable of playing music composed for the organ from antiquity to today.
There are 3,155 pipes organized into 56 ranks, or groups of pipes. Each pipe is custom made to produce a sound of a certain timber, pitch, and volume. The pipes are distributed among five different divisions and are controlled by a movable keydesk or console.
The blower for the organ, located on the ground level below the chancel provides up to 2000 cubic feet of air per minute to the pipes.
The console has four keyboards for the hands, called manuals, which are made of bone-covered wood for the ‘natural’ keys and dark walnut for the ‘sharps’. The pedals, played with the feet, are made of maple and walnut.
Over half of the pipes in the organ were originally part of Trinity’s first pipe organ, and were rescued in 1989 from the tornado-damaged Sanctuary by members of the church. Cleaned and repaired, they became the basis for the Swell and Positiv divisions of the organ.
Trinity’s organ has a number of modern accessories for the organist, including a computer-controlled relay, stop control and combination action that allows organists to pre-set over 6,000 different combinations of stops to allow for rapid changes to the sounds while the organist is playing. These combinations can be selected by hand using nearly 50 different buttons or by foot from more than two dozen toe studs.
Miller Pipe Organ Company, Buford, GA provides maintenance for the instrument.
The organ was made possible by the gifts of many members and friends of Trinity.