Trinity Lutheran Church - Tinley Park

Illinois, USA

HISTORY

Trinity Lutheran Church installed a 13-rank, two-manual Möller pipe organ in its newly constructed sanctuary in 1963. In 1991, the congregation built a new sanctuary and relocated the Möller in the new worship space. A committee was formed in 1995 for the purpose of developing a recommendation for the enlargement of the organ to meet the needs of the new sanctuary and Trinity's ongoing music ministry. In 1999, a motion was made and approved by the Voters Assembly to move forward with the project for approximately $250,000. A fund-raising campaign was put into place, and within a year funding was completed. After researching various local pipe and digital organ builders, a contract was signed with S.B. Smith and Associates in Elmhurst, IL to remove the existing Möller pipe organ, install a new console with digital sounds, re-install and re-voice the existing pipework and install additional pipe ranks with a new facade to better accommodate the new worship space.

THE NEW ORGAN DESCRIPTION

The new organ console for Trinity Lutheran Church was built by Rodgers Instruments of Hillsboro, Oregon. The custom console has five divisions (Great, Swell, Choir/Positiv, Pedal and Solo). The instrument has three 61-note keyboards with ivora naturals, ebony sharps and a 32-note pedalboard built to the specifications of the American Guild of Organists. Through the use of sophisticated Intel microprocessors, the organist can harness the power of three instruments at one time (a 27-rank pipe organ, a 54-stop, all digital organ, and a sophisticated 16-channel MIDI controller and sound module). Following is a description of each part.

WINDBLOWN PIPEWORK
The organ combines 15 ranks of the original 1963 M.P. Möller (Opus 9820) pipe organ with 12 new ranks of European pipework. The largest pipes of the 16’ Prestant form the beautiful new facade, which hides the swell shade openings and adds symmetry to the north wall of the worship space. The various ranks of pipes range in size from about 6" to 16'. The organ has a very traditional layout. The new Choir/Positiv division is located (to the left) on the west wall next to the main façade. This division was needed to add more "presence" for Trinity's choirs. The Great Division is located on the left (west) half of the original shelf above the choir. The Swell Division is located on the right half of the shelf behind the striking new faςade. The new pipework was provided by International Organ Supply of Riverside, Illinois. Every pipe was handmade in Europe by third and fourth generation pipe makers. Pipe materials consist of 75% tin.

DIGITAL ELECTRONICS
The instrument features multiple microprocessors and Digital Voice Modules that contain pipe "samples" from notable pipe organs throughout the world. Twelve hundred watts of power drive ten discrete audio channels (in stereo) to over 58 speaker cones that produce the dimension and dynamics of a 90+ rank pipe organ. With its parallel processing architecture, the organ offers 14 couplers of 16', 8' and 4' pitches to expand the variety even further. The "floating" Solo Division includes a digital "solo trumpet" that can play from any division. Each note of every digital stop has been adjusted to the unique acoustics of Trinity's worship space and to the taste of Trinity's worship needs. Since not all ranks of the original organ contained 61 or 73 pipes, as such, digital “extensions” were added to fill in the missing notes.

MIDI SYSTEM
The Rodgers console is the most sophisticated MIDI controller available for churches. It has eight (live) MIDI couplers that can access and broadcast on all 16 MIDI channels. This new system will allow Trinity's musicians to add over 16,000 additional sounds to the present organ today or at any time in the future. In addition to the above features, the Rodgers console includes several unique features such as Harris mechanical draw knobs, automatic tuning of the digital and MIDI stops (to the pipes), automatic turn-off circuitry, automatic pedal and melody couplers, self-diagnostic test systems, a solid-state transposer, unlimited memory levels, and adjustable tremulants.

With a wide range of diversity and changes taking place in the field of church music, it is encouraging to know that Trinity has an instrument that is firmly rooted in its heritage with the ability to move into the future