Posted here is information regarding the rebuilding and enlargement of the Kilgen-Moller organ of Third Baptist Church, St. Louis, Missouri.

A few minor changes have been made to the final specification since it was last posted. Here it is now. Again, all pipes are by Moller, unless otherwise indicated:

GREAT
1. 16 Violone
2. 8 First Diapason
3. 8 Second Diapason – Kilgen
4. 8 Stopped Flute – New
5. 8 Melodia – Kilgen
6. 8 Gemshorn
7. 4 Principal
8. 4 Octave
9. 4 Harmonic Flute
10. 2 2/3 Quint
11. 2 Super Octave
12. IV Mixture
13. III Cymbal
14. 16 Double Trumpet – New
15. 8 Trumpet – Kilgen
16. 4 Clarion (from 15)
17. 8 Tuba Mirabilis – New
18. Chimes
19. Zymbelstern – New
20. Tremolo
21. Great to Great 4
22. Great Unison Off
23. Great to Great 16
24. MIDI I
25. MIDI II
3 Blanks

SWELL
26. 16 Lieblich Gedeckt – Kilgen
27. 8 Geigen Principal
28. 8 Gedeckt (from 26)
29. 8 Viol d’Gamba
30. 8 Gamba Celeste
31. 8 Rohr Flute
32. 8 Flauto Dolce – New
33. 8 Flauto Celeste
34. 4 Principal
35. 4 Night Horn – New
36. 2 Flautino
37. III Plein Jeu
38. 16 Contra Trompette
39. 8 Trompette (from 38)
40. 8 Trumpet – New
41. 8 Oboe
42. 8 Vox Humana – Kilgen
43. 4 Clarion
44. 8 Tuba Mirabilis (Great)
45. Tremolo
46. Swell to Swell 16
47. Swell Unison Off
48. Swell to Swell 4
49. MIDI I
50. MIDI II
3 Blanks

CHOIR
51. 8 Viola – Kilgen
52. 8 Viola Celeste – New
53. 8 Concert Flute – Kilgen
54. 8 Dulciana – Kilgen
55. 8 Unda Maris
56. 4 Fugara
57. 4 Flute d’Amour – Kilgen
58. 4 Dulciana (from 54)
59. 2 2/3 Nasard
60. 2 Piccolo
61. 8 French Horn
62. 8 Clarinet – Kilgen
63. 8 Tuba Mirabilis (Great)
64. Chimes (Great)
65. Tremolo
66. Choir to Choir 4
67. Choir Unison Off
68. Choir to Choir 16
69. MIDI I
70. MIDI II
3 Blanks

POSITIV
71. 8 Quintaton
72. 4 Prestant
73. 4 Rorhflöte
74. 2 2/3 Nasat
75. 2 Blockflöte
76. 1 3/5 Tierce
77. 1 1/3 Klein Quint
78. 1 Sifflöte
79. 8 Trechter Regal – New
80. Tremolo
81. Positiv to Positiv 4
82. Positiv Unison Off
83. Positiv to Positiv 16
84. MIDI
1 Blank

ANTIPHONAL
85. 8 Gedeckt
86. 8 Viol
87. 8 Viol Celeste
88. 4 Octave
89. 4 Triangle Flute – Formerly in Swell
90. 2 2/3 Lieblich Quint (from 85)
91. 2 Lieblich Flute (from 85)
92. 8 Trumpet
93. 8 Tuba Mirabilis (Great)
94. Chimes (Antiphonal)
95. Tremolo
96. Antiphonal to Antiphonal 4
97. Antiphonal Unison Off
98. Antiphonal to Antiphonal 16
99. MIDI I
100. MIDI II

TIBIA
101. 8 Tibia – Wurlitzer
102. 4 Tibia (from 101)
103. 2 2/3 Tibia (from 101)
104. 2 Tibia (from 101)
105. Tremolo
106. MIDI

PEDAL
107. 32 Gravissima (Resultant) – New
108. 32 Resultant (Resultant)
109. 16 Open Diapason – Kilgen
110. 16 Violone (Great)
111. 16 Bourdon – Kilgen
112. 16 Lieblich Gedeckt (Swell)
113. 8 Octave – Kilgen
114. 8 Principal (from 109)
115. 8 Viol (Great)
116. 8 Bourdon (from 111)
117. 8 Gedeckt (Swell)
118. 4 Bourdon (from 111)
119. 4 Principal (from 113)
120. 2 Octavin (from 113)
121. 16 Bombarde
122. 16 Contra Trompette (Swell)
123. 16 Double Trumpet (Great)
124. 8 Bombarde (from 121)
125. 8 Trumpet (Swell)
126. 4 Bombarde (from 121)
127. 8 Tuba Mirabilis (Great)
128. MIDI
5 blanks

COUPLERS
129. Great to Pedal 8
130. Great to Pedal 4
131. Swell to Pedal 8
132. Swell to Pedal 4
133. Choir to Pedal 8
134. Choir to Pedal 4
135. Positiv to Pedal 8
136. Antiphonal to Pedal 8
137. Tibia to Pedal 8
138. Positiv to Swell 8
139. Tibia on Swell 8
140. Swell to Great 16
141. Swell to Great 8
142. Swell to Great 4
143. Choir to Great 16
144. Choir to Great 8
145. Choir to Great 4
146. Positiv to Great 16
147. Positiv to Great 8
148. Positiv to Great 4
149. Antiphonal to Great 16
150. Antiphonal to Great 8
151. Antiphonal to Great 4
152. Tibia on Great 8
153. Swell to Choir 16
154. Swell to Choir 8
155. Swell to Choir 4
156. Tibia on Choir 8
157. Tibia on Antiphonal 8
158. Great Choir Manual Transfer

INDICATOR LIGHTS
Wind
Crescendo Off
Sforzando I
Sforzando II
Transposer
All Swells to Swell

On Tuesday March 2 Linda and Howard from the organ committee and I drove up to Chicago to check on the progress of the organ.  What we learned is the shop is working at full-force to complete the organ.  Dan has recovered well from his stroke, but is still slowed down by his left hand.  At the time of our visit he was done with voicing all but about 4 ranks of pipes.  The relays appeared to be complete, the console was mostly done and the majority of the work was focused on building the electro-pneumatic windchests.

Somehow I managed to forget my camera, so all I have are a few photos from my iPhone, which isn’t a great way to capture images.

Each one of these leather pouches has a felt valve. These are the pouches that move to allow air in and out of the pipes.

The pipe drivers are visible in this photo. Aaron has found a way to mount them so that they are compact, yet still easily accessible.

The colors aren’t exactly perfect in this photo. The Harris drawknob faces are beautiful. The Skinner-style coupler tabs are smaller than most organs today, but it allows us to have more of them without it being crowded or having to go to multiple rows, a personal distaste of mine. The P&S keys are excellent as well, so everything was well worth the wait and expense in this area.

The addition of the new Fellowship area on the first floor of the church required that several walls be removed.  One of those walls contained the large main line connection from the console to the relay.  The line goes to the Great chamber first (currently empty) and then over to the Swell side and to the Antiphonal which both have pipes that were still playing.  Having to remove that wall meant cutting the main line, which means that none of the pipes are in service.  The power to the console came back through the line, so a small power supply had to be purchased and wired into the console, making it not much more than a standalone MIDI console, now.

The CM-100 we were renting from Wicks has been returned, and another loaned from an individual who happened to have an extra.  Sadly, the 12 stops of the CM-100 don’t quite make the sound needed to fill the room.  We have acquired some hardware and are putting together a system capable of running Hauptwerk, which may do a better job during services.  Once the new console is in place, the old one will be retained, and along with the Hauptwerk computer will make a nice practice console.

So when is the new console coming?  The Bogues are reluctant to set a date, given all the unexpected setbacks experienced this past year, however, we are working with them to have things completed in the shop by the middle of June.

Blogger has changed their policies regarding how content is published. They have discontinued FTP publishing to outside domains, meaning www.third-baptist-organ.org is now being hosted on Google’s servers. There may be some downtime during this changeover, so let’s wait and see how it goes!

EDIT: Looks like it worked. The next step is to set up a subdomain on the old host so all the pictures will come back.

At the first of August, there are still windchests under construction and two reed ranks waiting to be voiced. This now puts us at September for the next stage of installation, so a few more weeks with a partial organ.

In the meantime, here’s a 9 and a half minute video about the pipe organ in general, made by Concordia Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This video features a 1958 Schlicker organ (installed at a cost of just $45,000!), so it’s very different in quality. Of it’s 58 ranks, 22 are mixture ranks. There’s also a bit of a Wicks practice organ, made noticeable by the gold tuning slides.

The Trechterregal stop is completed and voiced.This stop is a half-length reed based on a design by C.B. Fisk. It gets it’s name from the funnel shaped resonator, or Trechter in German. This reed will play from the German-influenced Positiv division of the organ.

What does it sound like? Here’s a short sample:

In addition, the bottom octave of the new Great 16′ reed is in and ready to be cleaned and finished:
Reinstallation of the south chamber, the Great, Choir, Positiv, and most of the Pedal is still scheduled to begin in late July or early August. The completion date for the entire project, however, still seems to be up in the air.