Kanawha United Presbyterian Church
Charleston, West Virginia USA

Opus 3685 is an instrument of exceptionally well thought out tonal and visual design. The project's inspiration was initiated by Mr. Ron Neal, a recently returned native of West Virginia's capitol city and church music director. Because of Mr. Neal's exceptionally fine musicianship, Euro Musik Corporation, exclusive distributor for Rieger-Kloss Organs in North America, suggested a rather innovative and daring approach be considered in arranging the instruments' tonal disposition.

The three-manual and pedal dual electric and tracker action instrument comprises twenty registers with thirty-one to thirty-two ranks of pipes - including a thirty-two foot pedal reed! The instrument's Grand Organ Plenum is based on the polished brass façade Prestant of sixteen-foot pitch - culminating with an exceptionally richly voiced six rank mixture. The Swell division contains a chorus of harmonic (i.e. overblowing) flutes at 8', 4', and 2' pitches - which provide a transparent vocal accompaniment and serve as the basis for two ensembles; one crowned by a silvery five-rank mixture which stands in vivid contrast to that of the majestic Grand Organ; the other - topped by an elegant Sesquialtera of Principal pipes containing a septieme (flat seventh) in both its middle and treble registers.

Contrasting flute colors at various pitch levels are to be found throughout the instrument. Kanawha's Swell division includes a most unusual ethereal voice - a Voix celestes of two small scaled string ranks - pitched one octave apart - one tuned ever-so-slightly sharp and the other slightly flat - forming a resultant undulating register of rare beauty. The reeds of both main manual divisions are voiced to provide contrasting colorful solo voices and also "fuse" with their respective choir's flue ensemble.

An exceptionally successful unit pedal Trompetenbass of clearly defined and weighty tone lends tremendous presence to the instruments' ensemble. The "Crowning Glory" of Kanawha's Opus 3685 Rieger-Kloss Organ is the majestic Antiphonal Tuba Magna - its horizontally mounted polished copper resonators appropriately complements the historic church's beautiful Tiffany stained glass windows.

The organ's elegant, detached three-manual and pedal, terraced, drawknob console - with hand engraved stop controls, natural keys of boxwood, and sharps of solid rosewood - controls the instrument's 1,908 pipes. The key action for the two main divisions (Grand Organ and Swell) is mechanical (i.e. "tracker"); both the Pedal and Antiphonal divisions play from unit chests. A sophisticated software based computer system controls both the console's multi-level combination action - equipped with a piston sequencer - together with its MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) System.


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