University Times

Pitt-Bradford has received a $350,000 gift from George Duke in honor of his mother, Sarah B. Dorn, for a 17-rank pipe organ in the campus’s new Harriett B. Wick Chapel.

Each of the organ’s 1,020 pipes is an individual instrument that must be voiced and tuned on site. The pipes can produce notes from 32 cycles per second to 16,000 cycles per second, a range of eight octaves, essentially allowing one person to reproduce an orchestra. Different ranks of pipes are created differently to simulate the reeds, flutes and brass.

Flue voicers from Schantz Organ Co. spent several weeks on campus doing the final voicing and tuning for the instrument, which was installed last month.

The organ will be featured in recitals and concerts and at weddings held at the chapel. It also can “record” a musical piece such as “Here Comes the Bride” and play it back like a player piano.