MSPC's pipe organ is one of the finest instruments built by the Moeller company.   Performances by such greats as Virgil Fox, Pierre Cocherau (Notre Dame, Paris), Dame Gillian Weir, Daniel Roth (St. Sulpice, Paris), and David Craighead have allowed thousands of people to hear the great diversity of the instrument over the past 40 years.

The M.S.P.C. pipe organ has over 4,000 pipes.  There are 65 ranks (sets) of wooden and metal pipes ranging in length from a few inches to 16 feet.  Different ranks of pipes produce different sounds.  The organ has many different flute, string, trumpet and  reed instrument sounds.  Only one fourth of the organ pipes are visible.  The remaining pipes are in four large chambers on the side walls.  The chambers are the big, cloth covered, boxes on either side of the loft walls.  Though they resemble enormous speakers, the chambers house three fourths of the pipes. The front of the each of the pipe chambers have louvered shutters which can be opened and closed to regulate volume coming from each of the four chambers. 

The organ console has four manuals (keyboards) and a pedalboard.  Each time a key is pressed on the manual or pedalboard, a valve opens under a pipe allowing the air to blow through the pipe and produce sound. 

The largest pipe is wooden and part of the 32 foot Bourdon rank of pipes.  It is 16 feet long and weighs over 300 pounds.  Though the largest pipe, it produces a very soft sound.  This rank of wooden pipes (painted white) are visible on the back  wall.  Due to the high expense of building these large pipes, they are rarely built on new pipe organs.

When the instrument was built in 1966, it was the largest in South Florida.  Despite the fact that it is no longer “the largest,” the MSPC organ this remains one of the premier instruments in the region.  The instrument is one of the finest Moeller pipe organs in existence, thanks to the meticulous oversight of Larry Hedgepeth who was Music Director/Organist when the instrument was built and installed.

The instrument was built for $105,000.  A comparable instrument today would cost over a million dollars.

Unlike the electric alternative to pipe organs which last only ten to fifteen years, well built and maintained pipe organs can last for hundreds of years.  Many of the instruments Johann Sebastian Bach played centuries ago are still played regularly in the same churches.

Pipe organs were in regular use in churches for many centuries before the invention of electricity.  (The earliest references to pipe organs date back to 246 BC.)  Each time a key was pressed, a wire was pulled through a system of pulleys and opened the valve underneath each pipe.  Many organs are still built in this manner today as this gives much greater freedom to the organist in the sound created by each pipe.  If a key is pressed slowly, the wind enters the pipe slower and if pressed quickly, the air enters the pipe faster.  These “mechanical” organs give the organist a flexibility in articulation that is not possible with the electric wiring used today.  The main reason why mechanical systems are not used as much today is that the organ console must be attached to the organ so the thousands of wires travel the shortest distance possible.  The longer the distance between the organist ant the pipes, the harder it is to press keys.  The other disadvantage is that it also leaves the organist facing a wall with the choir behind them. 

So, that’s basically how the organ worked.  The only other thing needed was air.  This was provided by several people hand pumping large bellows (usually in a basement) as the organist played.  The invention of electricity allowed for electric blowers to supply the air flow and organists no longer have to worry about their pumpers falling asleep during the sermon.

MSPC Organ Stop List