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The Anne S. and Henry B. Paup Sanctuary Pipe Organ, built by Dan Garland and Associates and consecrated in 2015, is the third largest pipe organ in Texas. It has five manuals and 160 ranks of pipes and is classified as an American eclectic instrument. First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth is proud of this grand instrument as it blesses the congregation and our community. Deepest gratitude goes to Dan Garland, his associates, and all the pipe organ benefactors and contributors who have made it possible for organists and listeners to experience and celebrate the beauty and magnificence of this instrument now and for generations to come.
The organ has its origins three centuries before the birth of Christ, and pipe organs have been associated with churches since the ninth century. In places of worship fortunate enough to have a beautiful instrument, organ music begins and concludes a worship service, a wedding, a funeral, and even a baptism. It serves as a solo instrument or an accompanying one, and is its own orchestra, capable of a myriad of sounds.
The naming gift for a new sanctuary pipe organ was presented to First United Methodist Church of Fort Worth as more than just a deep reflection of love for our church and its music. The Anne S. and Henry B. Paup Sanctuary Pipe Organ honors a family legacy of giving that not only created our beautiful First Church garden, but also one which, three generations back, provided the primary pipe organ for Texas Christian University’s Ed Landreth Auditorium. To meet the church’s need to replace its failing Reuter Organ, the Paups’ decision to become name donors for this spectacular Garland Pipe Organ came down to a simple but profound sentiment: “We have had some blessings, and we love and believe in our church.”
Center: Anne and Hank Paup.
Front row: Lou Ann Blaylock, Hubert Jones, Vickie Jones, Frank Sherrill, Louise Carvey, Debbie Grant.
Second row: George Ann Carter Bahan, Vernon Bryant, Nancy Bryant, Trish Sherrill, Pat Van Meter, David Grant.
Third row: Debbie Whitton, Jim Whitton, Kathy Lien, Ken Lien, Arch Van Meter.
Not pictured: Karen and Charlie Anderson, Carol and Jack Benson, Marilyn and Fred Cantu, Cheryl and Pat Evans, Mary Lou Harrington, Daphne and Dwayne Jose, Doris Klabzuba, Jane Korman, Judith and Chris Lokey, Ellen and Robert Rogers, Sue and George Sumner, Jeri and Bob Watt, Elaine Yamagata, Elizabeth and Chuck Yeargain.
As you see in the Anne S. and Hank B. Paup Sanctuary Pipe Organ specifications, pipes are arranged in sets called ranks, each of which is specifically designed to produce a common timbre, pitch and loudness that the organist can engage singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops. A pipe organ produces sound by sending pressurized air through pipes when the organist activates individual draw knobs and presses individual keys on a keyboard.
A pipe organ, often called the King of Instruments, holds within its thousands of pipes the individual sounds of an entire orchestra. It is both a woodwind and keyboard instrument in one. Within our 130-rank pipe organ, more than 8,000 thousand individual pipes, organized by rank, have been carefully designed, shaped, and voiced by Dan Garland and his team to imitate the sounds of many different instruments.
Within a rank of pipes, pipes of similar design are sized and shaped to evoke that rank’s characteristic sound. As air vibrates through a rank as prescribed by the organist, this mix determines both pitch and tone “color.” The artistry of the organist comes into play here as he or she creates a wide array of desired effects simply by playing various ranks in different combinations.
And that’s not the only magic you hear happening within the Anne S. and Hank B. Paup Sanctuary Pipe Organ. Not only is the sound from each pipe designed and engineered to blend with all the other pipes in its rank — and within the entire organ — but as these pipes sound you are hearing the result of hours of painstaking one-pipe-at-a-time work by highly-skilled craftsmen called pipe voicers. After considering a variety of factors including the size, shape and acoustics of the space in which the organ will be played, as well as the number of people likely to be in the room, the result you hear as our organ plays is the culmination of this work — the best possible sound designed for our Sanctuary.
As each pipe makes its own sound, its specific and unique positioning allows its harmonic vibration to reverberate differently from the sanctuary walls, pews, and flooring. When the chorus of notes played from so many individual, carefully designed and positioned pipes enters our ears, the blending of these sounds is perfectly suited to supporting a large group of people singing together. This blending of the sounds of many individual pipes with many individual voices creates a complex chorus responsible for the goosebumps you are likely to feel during a powerful hymn.
