Photo By Michael Alexander

Built of red oak and ebonized walnut, the organ case is 26 feet tall, 18 feet wide and 14 feet deep. The frontal design of the organ case provides a focused, visual plane for the Cross. The rear of the organ case was designed to provide a backdrop for the rear chapel. Photo By Michael Alexander

This summer Atlanta’s Immaculate Heart of Mary has been putting the final touches on one of the premier features in its new church: a gleaming, custom-built pipe organ by the A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company of Lithonia. The organ is housed in a 26-foot tall case built of red oak and ebonized walnut. Inside the organ case are 2,640 pipes, each with its own unique sound.

The organ is controlled by a three-manual drawknob console, which features multiple memory levels, programmable crescendo and sforzando, transposer, musical instrument digital interface (MIDI), and the ability to record and playback organ performances. The crescendo control allows the organist to register the organ from soft to loud by movement of a pedal on the organ console. Sforzando is full organ, which can be brought on with the movement of a piston or toe lever. The organist uses the transposer to change the key or pitch of the organ keys from their normal reference by half steps.

In the Archdiocese of Atlanta the A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Company has also built organs for Holy Trinity Church, Peachtree City, and Holy Spirit Church, Atlanta.