THE KNIES - JAMERSON MEMORIAL ORGAN
Designed by the M. P. Moller Pipe Organ Company
The present
Trinity organ was built by the M.P. Moller Company of Hagerstown, Maryland and erected in the church in the autumn of 1968.
It replaced an organ built by the Pilcher company in 1925.
The organ
contains 25 ranks (1,096 pipes), with 21 stops and 18 independent voices distributed over two keyboards and pedal.
The
pipes are placed in a chamber on the second-story level, to the front of the south transept. From here the organ speaks
into the nave and the chancel. Pipes of the great principal chorus are placed on a cantilevered chest extending into
the nave, resulting in superior clarity and presence of sound.
Two additions to the organ have been made since its
initial building: The first was the a flute stop at 4' pitch in the great division, added in the mid 1980's. The
stop was named Wasserflöte or "Water Flute" after Trinity's organist and choirmaster William
E. Waters. It is the only known use of this stop name in the world. The addition was built by master
organbuilder John Dower of Lincolnton, NC.
In 2005, a
set of small bells called a zimbelstern was added, also by Mr. Dower.
The initial financial
gift for the organ was made by the Knies family. When the organ was dedicated on Novmeber 17, 1968, it was christened
the Knies-Jamerson Memorial Organ in memory of this gift and of R. Walton Jamerson, Jr., the beloved organist
and choirmaster who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1965.
