ALLEN ORGAN INSTALLATIONS

The chancel area was reconfigured prior to the organ's arrival to better support the many diverse events held in the chapel each year. (Wooden panels salvaged from the choir loft were used to construct the Antiphonal speaker cases.) The striking walnut console on a matching moveable dolly can be easily positioned anywhere in the chancel. Allen's Ensemble Division™ adds MIDI voice flexibility along with light-controlled, velocity-sensitive OST™ keying.

The organ has quickly become an object of great interest among members of the student body who have shown great enthusiasm at recitals in the chapel. The organ's four discrete tonal suites as well as multiple historic tuning temperaments make it an ideal teaching instrument as well. Replacing an earlier Allen Organ from the 1960's, this instrument will remain an emphatic voice in Front Royal's musical community for many years into the future.

Boggs Chapel on the historic campus of Randolph-Macon Academy in Front Royal, Virginia, is the home of a trend-setting new Allen organ of 320 stops, distributed over three manuals and pedal and four complete, distinct tonal suites. Crystalline voices from famous American, English, French, and German organs are skillfully blended into stoplists reflecting their ancestry that are quickly accessible by the organist. Especially notable in this instrument are recent samples from the work of Arp Schnitger, renowned 17th-Century organbuilder of northern Europe, as well as the 32' Pedal Bourdon stop that literally pulsates the air of the entire nave as low as 16 cycles and can be heard - and felt - evenly throughout the room.

Sounding from two spacious, shallow chambers on either side of the chancel, the instrument speaks into a large, hard-surfaced room that enhances its sounds to an amazing degree. Its 12-channel audio system of 1,220 watts is projected through twenty-nine Herald™ series Speaker Cabinets of various sizes, including a six-channel Antiphonal division above the rear balcony.