St. Bede's Episcopal Church

 Manchester, TN

Project Completed 2003

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church is located in Manchester, TN about forty miles east of Nashville.  The congregation had an electronic organ for over twenty years and were ready for a "real" pipe organ.  We looked for an organ that would suit their needs and found a "Moller Artiste” Opus 10265 from the University of Alabama (UAB).  The University used the Moller for a practice organ for their organ students.  For the size of the sanctuary, we decided to use the Artiste as their Swell division and build a new great division to accompany it. The Swell division would sit in the existing balcony and the new Great division would be suspended from the ceiling with four steel rods and a steel base.  This suspended Great would pose a challenge to construct the entire Great division on a steel base of eleven foot wide and only three foot deep.

We were able to fit two chests on the Great platform, one main chest and an off note chest in the front. Also, we installed a Ventus blower with a 2’x3’ bellows on the floor of the platform. Everything just fit with a little room to service the chests.  The new Great division has eight existing stops and is prepared for three others. We rewired the Artiste with PVC coated wire and installed solid-state switching and relays.  The acoustics are fairly good for a small room. Placing the Great and Swell at the same height helped to achieve the best sound distribution we could hope for.  The congregation has waited many years for a pipe organ  and now is happy to have their new organ.

Specifications

     PEDAL                                 GREAT

16      Bourdon                                          8     Principal

 8       Principal                                          8      Rohr        

 8      Gedeckt                                           4     Octave               

 8       Viola                                               4     Chimney Flute    

 4       Octave                                          2 2/3  Twelfth              

 4       Flute                                                2      Fifteenth            

IV      2' Mixture                                      1 3/5  Tierce           

16      Hautbois      prepared                    1 1/3  Larigot               

 8       Hautbois      prepared                      III    Mixture   prepared

 4       Hautbois      prepared                       8     Hautbois  prepared

 8       GT - Ped                                          4     Hautbois  prepared

 8       SW - Ped                                         8     SW - GT

          MIDI to Pedal                                         MIDI to Great

   SWELL

16      Bourdon                            

 8       Gedeckt     

 8       Viola          

 4       Octave        

 4       Flute          

 4       Viola          

2 2/3  Nazard        

 2       Flautino     

          MIDI to Swell