Orgonák / Organs

On December 22, 1718 Christian August Freiherr von Friesen closed a contract with Silbermann which also was signed by his co-worker Zacharias Hildebrandt. The document text states that "...the afore mentioned Herr Gottfried Silbermann and Herr Zacharias Hildebrandt between now and Michaelmas (September 29) 1720 promise to make a proficient and well-proportioned organ work...". In 1716 or 1717 Zacharias Hildebrandt had accepted an order to build his own masterpiece, an organ for the village church in Langhennersdorf near Freiberg. Thus he was not able to support Silbermann and consequently was not mentioned in the approval protocol. The organ of the St. Georgen church was solemnly consecrated on November 9, 1721. Johann Kuhnau conducted the celebration music which he had composed on a text by Johann Christian Langbein. By and large the instrument remained intact in essential parts over the decades. From a number of repairs and interventions, several changes related to the taste of the time with respect to musicians and organbuilders standards can be seen. In addition, both world wars left their scars behind on the organ. In 1796 the Leipzig university organ builder Johann Gottlob Ehregott Stephani installed a pedal coupler; an initially fixed connection between pedal and main manual - as usual with small and medium sized organs by Silbermann - was regarded as disadvantageous. At the occasion of cleaning and repair Ulrich Kreutzbach in 1842 tuned the organ to equal temperament because even a moderate inequality did not meet the taste of the time. Kreutzbach also changed the worn-out pedal keyboard with an entirely new one. Further cleaning actions took place in 1847 and 1897. All these works included minor corrections of the voicing, as can be seen from looking at the pipes. 13 dummy pipes of the facade had to be surrendered in 1917 for World War I; they were replaced in 1930. Already at the beginning of the 19th century some wood worm contamination had been found. In the following years it reached an extent that in 1935 the organ builders company Eule, Bautzen, was commisioned to impregnate all wooden parts - even peripheral ones - of the organ. Cantor Alfred Kirsten strongly pleaded for a restoration following a preservation tendency. A large number of parts nevertheless could not be preserved at all or only partially, so many of them were made completely new. 33 of the wooden flue pipes and 20 reed pipe components had to be replaced by copies. The three wedge-shaped bellows were neither repaired nor copied but exchanged against resevoire-type blowers. At the same time trackers as well as pedal and manual keyboards were refitted, including re-installation of the tremulant which supposedly was removed in 1832. Comprehensive overhaul works followed 1979/80 by Eule, Bautzen. In WW II the church roof was damaged, leading to water leakage which caused defects of the pedal windchest. After a tentative repair in 1947 these could be fully mended. A large number of parts dating from former repair works were now replaced as close as possible to the original, including a new pedal keyboard and a new organist's music desk based on the model of other Silbermann organs. Again impregnation against wood worm attacks was done. The facade pipes in particular suffer from severe corrosion damages, extending deeply into the pipe material, the causes of which could not definitely be found yet. Since no countermeasures were available for sparing surface treatment it was decided to apply neutralizing wash fluid to prevent further progression. Apart from the installation of a new blower motor, the wind supply system, wind pressure and reference tone remained unchanged. In the years after 1930, Guenther Ramin, organist of the Thomas church in Leipzig, managed to promote the instrument in a way that it was exposed to the interest of a broad public. Since then numerous distinguished organists, national and from abroad, have been performing in Rötha, which is also a place of pilgrimage for many tourists.

The Gottfried Silbermann organ of St. Marienkirche is what we like to call the "little gem"! Upon completion of its larger 'sister' in St. George, the contract was written up between Freiherr von Friesen and Silbermann on November 12, 1721 to build a new organ with a single manual for St. Marien. The original specification called for 9 stops (omitting the Subbass 16 and the Tertia 1 3/5) and Tremulant. Unfortunately no records exist regarding the addition of these two stops by Silbermann. The St. Marien organ has not suffered from severe changes throughout the years. Documented works include: a number of repairs between 1732 and 1760, mainly concerning the bellows; 1833/43 a comprehensive overhaul proved necessary, carried out by the organ builder Urban Kreutzbach in Borna. He installed a pedal coupler, removed the tremulant and tuned the organ to equal temperament. Fortunately the parish waived the suggested installation of a Bordun 16' to replace the Tertia and Sufflet stops. The original bellows were replaced with an electric blower in 1935. In 1942 considerable damages of the church building became obvious which lead to the temporary removal of the organ. For the Bach fest in 1950 the organ was put up in the old townhall in Leipzig and thereafter lent as an exhibit for the Berlin Bach exhibition. It took 10 years (1960) to see the organ returned to St. Marien, its original location. The organ of the St. Marienkirche attracted many distinguished musicians to come to Rötha. During his stay in nearby Leipzig, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy frequently played on and was inspired by the instrument. Organists are delighted by the pleasing reaction of the organ tracker and friends of the organ as well as specialists admire its sound (especially the famous Principal 8) which is supported by the acoustic properties of the church. The recordings use long 8 -10 second samples which includes up to 3 or 4 seconds of natural church reverb. Each pipe was recorded from all 11 stops and looped perfectly. Keyboard, pedal,stop and blower noises are also included which the user may turn off if so desired. The keyboard range is C,D-C3. The current tuning is Chorton A=465 which is reproduced through Hauptwerk. The organ set was not "digitally tuned" so the realism is even more convincing.

The instrument is located in a historical village church in East Germany near Dresden, based on a church of the 13th century, which was reconstructed and extended during the following centuries, last in 1742. The church acoustics is dry and clear because of the large amount of wooden installations. The organ was built in 1729-31 by Gottfried Silbermann of Frauenstein/Sachsen, Germany. Gottfried Silbermann organ types can be divided into different architecture classes. This instrument represents a typical Silbermann middle-sized church organ and was one of the favourite instruments of Helmut Walcha and Herbert Collum/Kreuzkirche of Dresden. Typical Gottfried Silbermann organ features are strong and sharp aliquote stops, such as the 1 1/2', 2' and 3', rich and warm 8' Principal stops and bright superoctave stops, such as the 4', 2' and 1'. There are very characteristic basic stops such as the Rohrflöte 8' and Quintadena 8'. The resulting sound is bright, clear and sonorous. The organist doesn't need many stops to achieve a rich plenum registration. The organ is tuned to the so-called historical "Chorton" (a1=465 Hz). Nearly all pipes are original, especially the frontpipes (Principal 8') , whereas most historical organs lost them during world war I, because of increasing needs for weapon metals. Nevertheless, the instrument had to bear several modifications in 1852 (equal tuning (thereby shortening the pipes!), voicing modifications due to changing sound preferences, installation of a pedal coupler) and in late romantic period 1909, extension by a Salicional 8' with pneumatic tracking (!). In 1953, the wind pressure was strongly reduced from 94 mm to 70 mm and severe voicing changes were made, resulting in an extremely instable wind and totally altered weak sound characteristic with noticeable wind sag (listen to a small sound example of a Herbert Collums recording from 1965). In 1997, Kristian Wegscheider, organ workshop of Dresden, was entrusted with the historical reconstruction and renovation of the original wind system and pipe voicing. The wind pressure was again set to 94 mm. Because of the loss of original tuning, it was changed to a historical Silbermann like tuning system, which specially enables the accompanying of baroque chamber music, resulting in very clear basic keys. The instrument has two manuals and a pedal with missing C#, mechanical tracker action, a manual shift coupler, a pedal coupler since 1852 (fixed coupling to the Hauptwerk before) and is fully playable and in excellent shape.

The Roquemaure village, 15 km from Avignon, on the right bank of the Rhône, is the link between Languedoc and Provence. In the 14th century, Roquemaure was the most important port on this section of the right bank of the Rhône. The collegiate church (Languedoc gothic style) of Saint Jean-Baptiste and Saint Jean l'Evangéliste , was built in 1329 on decision of the Bertrand cardinal of Pujet, nephew of the pope Jean XXII. It is well known, that the famous French "Minuit Chrétiens" song (Christian Midnight) , whose words were written by Placide Cappeau of Roquemaure, was interpreted for the first time on December 24, 1847 in this church . Since October 23, 1868, the church shelters the relics of Saint Valentine, "Patron des Amoureux", in order to protect the vineyards from phylloxera, which spread in France for the first time in 1864. The organ was built in 1690 by the Jullien brothers of Marseilles for the church of Cordeliers of Avignon. Being unknown during several centuries until 1965, an estimate was discovered on behalf of the Convent of Cordeliers in Avignon so that the identification could be made between this document and the instrument in Roquemaure. The former 1642 organ of Freres Eustaches, burned during the French revolution, was thus replaced by this one, which was undoubtedly sold in Avignon like national good and then bought by the fabric committee of Roquemaure. The invoice of this organ, whose certain elements are built on techniques of the Middle Ages, shows an instrument of a rare quality and nowadays is the object of famous studies of organists and schools of organ builders. It probably contains the most significant ensemble of original pipes of the 17th century and is classified as historic building (monument historique). Many recordings by master organists made it famous throughout the whole world. The decorated organ case with its two towers dates from the 18th century and contains the thousand pipes of this instrument. The conception and the voicing of this organ is very particular. The organ structure is based on the Spanish style, having separate windchests for bass and treble with split manuals and a small pedal compass with only eight tones. The "Tierce" has a special narrow measure, that will be found very rarely in French organs of the 18th century. The pipes, in rolled metal of Italian style, are very well preserved. Very powerful and characteristic reed stops with excellent blending especially enable playing French as well as Spanish and even Italian baroque music. The organ was restored by Atelier de Facture d'Orgues, Pascal Quiorin in 1988-89, the organ case was restored by the Férignac company. The instrument is in a very good shape.

The church in Eenum is one of the oldest baked-brick stone churches in the province of Groningen (in the very north of the Netherlands). It was built in the last quarter of the 12th century. The building is virtually without frill or embelishments. The architectural style is Romanesque in its origin. A number of renovations have taken place over the years. The outer wall on the northern side still has remnants of a window, which still can be seen clearly. The entrance to the church was originally on the western side and this is visible in the tower. An arch of an early Roman entrance can still be seen on the southface. A good observer can see that the large gothic windows were added later. There have been other entrances as well, e.g. one on the north side for the women which has been bricked up but is on the outside still highly visible, and on the southside an entrance for men. This is also the entrance today. The church was not only a place for worship but also a meeting place. It is dry and wind tight inside. (Groningen has a sea climate thus often wind and rain) The graveyard, close to the church, was also a location for social activities. The graveyard headstones bear inscriptions not only of names and dates related to the deceased, but also rhymes and verses about the finality of life and the sorrow due to absence of the deceased. The ownership of the church and tower have been transferred to the trust "Stichting oude Groninger Kerken" in 1973. Some carved stones were discovered behind the pulpit during the restorations in 1976/1977. They think that it is a memorial stone in honour of Reindt Alberda, a lord from Eenum. The text lists the number of functions he hade. The stone was subsequently placed in the northern wall of the church. The family Alberda felt themselves closely involved in the affairs of the village. They donated the organ made by the famous organbuilder Arp Schnitger in 1704. The organ. 1704, Arp Schnitger built a single keyboard organ with the manual at the back. 1809, organbuilder Freytag attaches the pedal. The wind-production section has to be placed outside the case and is moved into an alley. A part of the wind ducts are renewed and two spoonbellows (like fireplace bellows) are added. There is the suspicion that the temperament had also been changed. It went from from meantone to equally tuned. Ca.1845, organ-builders Petrus van Oeckelen modified the organ by removing three Schnitger-registers and modifications are made according to the taste of the 19th century. Thus a new Viola da Gamba 8 ft is added. 1891, Jan Doornbos from Groningen makes a vertical standing reservoir bellow and and replaces the two spoonbellows placed by Freytag. 1987, The restoration by the "Gebroeders Reil" from Heerde takes place. All earlier changes are reversed to the situation of 1809 including the short octave. The pedal of Frey and the bellows placed by Doornbos remain. The missing or altered voices are reconstructed, see disposition The church of Eenum, on an elevated mound, with its nice Arp Schnitger-organ, and the village with the nice small streets together with the characteristic houses form a beautiful setting . The peace and quiet of the broad Groninger landscape complete this 'jewel of the clay.

"Antegnati" - the name of the proliferous family of the organbuilders in northen Italy is known to everyone who came in contact with the Italian organ music. They were active through XVth to XVIIth century. Their organs are the typus of the Italian organbuilding school. By the end of XVIth century, the Italian organ assumed the stable form which persisted through the next two centuries. Usually, it had one manual with very primitive pull-down pedal. The basis of the organ was formed by the full "pyramid" of the principal chorus, separating each rank even in the highest registers. Therefore, there is no "mixture" stop found on traditional Italian organ. Instead, the brilliant "crown" of the organ sound is formed by individual principal ranks with the latin names designating their height (15th, 19th, 22nd, 26th, 29th...). As the Italian organbuilders did not build very small pipes, the stops usually break at the 1/8' of the pipe length, sometimes even lower, making an octave repetitions. Therefore, the plenum is dominated by the 2' and 2 2/3' sound, giving a "golden" timbre (while the German type of the organ plenum could be described as "silver"). In addition to the full principal chorus the "Ripieno", there are concertant stops, usually represented by the Flute quint (Flauto in duodecima) = a Nazard, and a "recorder"-like voiced Flauto in ottava. The pedal is usually hardcoupled to the manual without any proprietary stops. In the case of St. Carlo, there is one pedal stop named Contrabassi (Subbas 16') which was added in the course of the history. There are several theories about the origin of the organ in S. Carlo in Brescia. Gilles Cantagrel suggests that the organ was built by Gian Giaccomo Antegnati at the end of 16th century. Another source attributes the instrument to Graziadio Antegnati who would build the organ "during the first years of XVIIth century". Finally, the modern label located on the organ case reads: "This instrument was built in 1636 by Antegnati organbuilding workshop in Brescia. It was restored by Armando Maccarinelli in 1958 under the technical direction of Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Ernesto Meli." René Saorgin describes the St. Carlo instrument as the ideal of the Antegnati's work: The timbre of its 8 feet Principale is, as the organbuilder himself required, very "cantable" and "delicate". I would describe its sound as "mild". The low pressure of the air (lower than 2 inches) does not "overdrive" the pipe so it is very naturally speaking without any shadow of force or pressure. It reminds me of the Baroque Salicional (not the modern "stringy" Salicional, though!!!) or even Gemshorn. The referrence is made to the treatise of Costanzo Antegnati "L'Arte organica" from 1608, where the famous organbuilder gives his observations and suggestions for the organ performance. His remarks are extremely important for the authentic interpretation of early Italian music. Also the aliquote stops of the principal chorus are gently voiced which gives a subtle and "harpsichord"-like timbre to the whole Ripieno. The aliquotes are used for coloring the Principale fundamental. When performing the music using this sample set, you should not turn the volume too much up! The undulating "celeste" stop Fiffaro should be used - according to the Antegnati advice - only in conjunction with the Principale to produce the beating effect and it is recommended for the slow movements.

Disposition: Huvudvaerk (C-g3) Rygpositiv (C-g3) Brystvaerk (C-g3) Pedal (C-f1) Principal 8' Gedakt 8' Traegedakt 8' Principal 16' Rorflojte 8' Principal 4' Rorflojte 4' Oktav 8' Oktav 4' Gedaktflojte 4' Principal 2' Oktav 4' Spidsflojte 4' Gemshorn 2' Sivflojte 1' Mixtur 2 kor Oktav 2' Nasat 1 1/3' Regal 8' Basun 16' Mixtur 2 kor Scharf 4 kor Tremulant Trumpet 8' Dulcian 16' Sesquialtera 2 kor Skalmeje 4' Trumpet 8' Krummhorn 8' Tremulant HV+RP, HV+BV, RP+BV, P+HV, P+RP, P+BV

St Lawrence, Little Waldingfield, Suffolk Hauptwerk v2 Virtual Organ Š Lavender Audio 2008 - 2010 The Organ. The Church. Demos. Licence. Home. The Organs. Support. Contact. Order. Links. SPECIFICATION THE ORGAN HISTORY The organ was built in 1809 for the church of St Mary the Less, Thetford, Norfolk by the Suffolk based organ builder, Joseph Hart. The Great organ originally had a huge compass of 68 notes, ranging from 12 foot F in the bass to top C in the treble. The swell originally ran from tenor F and comprised just 4 stops. The compass of both Swell and Great was rationalised in 1876 by Denman of York, at which time the Swell was augmented by the addition of the Double Diapason, Viol di Gamba and Mixture - it seems likely that the Great Flute was also added then as well. Norman and Beard overhauled the instrument in 1893, improving the wind system and pedal couplers as well as converting the pedal action to pneumatic. By the late 1980‘s the organ was not in the best of health and - more seriously - the church of St Mary the Less had become redundant. The church of Little Waldingfield, meanwhile, needed to replace an ageing and unreliable electronic organ. Thus, in 1989, the Hart organ was purchased and installation began in St Lawrence church that autumn. The work was carried out by Ipswich based organ builder Peter Bumstead - he also returned the pedal action to tracker and installed a balanced swell pedal in place of the trigger swell. No other material alterations were carried out and the organ still sounds as it did in the early 19th century, albeit with the late Victorian additions described earlier. The Great flue work in particular is of typically English classical design - gently voiced and designed to blend with a singing quality. The Great mixture comprises a sesquialtera bass (17.19.22) and cornet treble from middle C (12.15.17) and is thus usable as a cornet in conjunction with the 8 and 4 foot flutes as well as a useful reedy addition to the Great diapason chorus. The Swell mixture is a little less refined starting at 19.22 and breaking back to 12.15 at tenor C for most of the rest of its compass. The swell oboe is particularly forthright, possessing the power of a small trumpet. The organ itself could have been made to measure for Little Waldingfield. It fits perfectly within its arch and the top of the swell box clears the north aisle roof by 31 inches. The instrument features in the British Institute of Organ Studies register of historic pipe organs.

This organ is a composite instrument, based primarily on the organ at Little Waldingfield, but with additional ranks from Groton as well as other sources. The Great organ is largely the same as Little Waldingfield, but with a couple of enhancements. The Dulciana now extends to tenor C by means of re-pitching existing samples and the Flute 4‘ is now full compass - below tenor F it borrows from the Stopped Diapason. The Swell organ benefits from a full compass Open Diapason (the bottom octave being part re-pitched and part from Groton). Re-pitching has extended the Viol di Gamba to bottom G and the Viol has also been carefully re-pitched to provide an effective Voix Celeste. The existing Oboe has been made quieter to provide a useful softer chorus reed and the Groton Cornopean has been added at both 8 and 16 foot pitch. The bottom 12 notes of the 16 foot reed are new samples. The Pedal Bourdon is from Groton and has been extended in both directions to provide a 32 foot Subbass (re-pitched) and an 8 foot Bass Flute (new samples). New samples have also been added to provide a Principal 8‘ and an extended Fifteenth 4‘. The 16 foot Double Trumpet is borrowed from the Swell.

The renaissance instrument of the Holy Trinity church in Smecno is the oldest preserved and playable organ in the Czech Republic. The instrument was built around the year 1587. The date of construction may be easily recognized by the heraldry of the donors depicted on the organ chest and from extant archive materials. The organ builder is unknown. It is known that the instrument was damaged during the thirty years war in 1631 when the soldiers of the Swedish army stole the Regal - the only reed stop. There has been one major rebuild during its history: in the late Baroque era, in 1775, a small Rückpositiv was added by Jan Rusch from Litomerice and some stops were changed. A partial reconstruction of the organ to the renaissance state was done by Dusan Doubek before 1999. The baroque Rückpositiv was removed and the single manual in the renaissance case was renewed. The original stop names were preserved on the stop jambs and also a large number of original pipes was found inside the organ. This allowed the reconstruction of the special Renaissance sound of the individual stops. However, this reconstruction remained only partial, as the instrument was left at rather high pressure (due to newer pedal pipes - the pedal was not a part of the reconstruction job of Doubek) and therefore the pipes had rather harsh sound. During the years 2009-2010, the reconstruction of the organ continued. The baroque Rückpositiv is now fully functional, although it remained detached from the renaissance organ having its own keyboard and drawstops opposite to the main case. Organist, therefore, cannot play the two manuals at the same time. Either the renaissance organ can be played alone, or the Positiv alone. However, the decision was made to correct the wind pressure inside the renaissance instrument together with the necessary voicing adjustments and also a number of minor corrections to the tracker, to the windchest and to the mechanical parts of the instrument was done, so that now the reconstruction of the ancient part of the instrument may be considered finished. The renaissance single manual is built on two separate windchests. The first contains only the principal choir while the other the flutes. There are ventils allowing either of the windchests to be muted. They may be engaged by drawstops called in italian style "Choro primo" and "Choro secondo". This makes it possible to switch the sound of the organ quickly between the principal plenum and tiny flutes, thus imitating a two manual performance. The table shows how the stops are distributed on the windchests. Before you start to play, please do not forget to pull either the Choro primo or the Choro secondo drawstop to hear any sound at all. MANUAL PEDAL Choro primo windchest Choro secondo windchest Pedal windchest Principale 8' (Prospekt) Salicinale 8' Superoctavasus 4' Cimbale 2x 1/2' Copula maior 8' Octavasus 8' Mixtura 3x 1' Copula minor 4' Subbasus 16' Superoctava 2' Quintadena 4' Quinta maior 2 2/3' Octava principale 4'

The Monastery church of Zlata Koruna shelters a well preserved Baroque organ from 1698-1699. It was built by Abraham Starck z Lokte (1659-1709), the founder and the most prominent organ builder of so called Loket school. This school was functioning from the 17th to the beginning of 19th century. There was a number of restaurations: 1898 J.Fischpera lowered the tuning by physically moving the pipes by a semitone. He also located the drawstops of the RückPositiv onto the stop jambs in the vicinity of the keyboards. Originally, these were placed directly on the RückPositiv itself - though behind the the organist. The original placement of the RückPositiv drawstops may still be observed on the picture. Other, this time very unfortunate restoration, was done in 1941 by E. Hruby. He replaced some of the aliquote stops (both Quints in HW, Quint and Octave 2 in RP) by new "romantic" string stops of the fashion of that time. Besides that he changed the order of keyboards. Originally, the RückPositiv was played from the lower keyboard, the HW from the upper one. Now, the lower keyboard is the Hauptwerk and the RückPositiv is the upper one. The original pipes were fortunately preserved, so the organbuilder Vladimir Slajch put them back to their original place during the latest restoration around the year 1984. The Baroque short octave is preserved up to the present times. The pedal division offers one curiosity which is sometimes observed in the Czech Baroque organs. In the upper octave, the semitones play the lower octave as they are missing there because of the short octave mechanism.

The baroque instrument inside the church has been built in 1747/48 by Johann Adam Ehrlich (1703-1784) and is the only completely preseved instrument of this famous organ builder, who was not only the founder of a whole dynasty of more than 18 organ and instrument builders, but is also often called the southern German Silbermann because of the exquisite tonal quality and the high-grade coverage type of his works. This instrument can be seen as the ideal of the frankish organ. Most interesting is the fact that right next to this instrument, in the Dominican church, one can find the other important Adam Ehrlich organ - a 32 stop instrument that was completed in 1752 directly after the other one. While the 1748 organ possesses a typically baroque disposition according to the southern and middle German tradition of the 17th and early 18th century, the 1752 instrument combines these traditions with the upcoming interest in emotionalism.

Specification : Hauptwerk Schwellwerk Pedal other features Bourdon 16´ *1 Rohrflöte 8´ Subbaß 16´ Koppel II-I Principal 8´ Salicional 8´ *2 Octavbaß 8´ Koppel II-P Lieblich Gedeckt 8´ Blockflöte 4´ Gedecktbaß 8´ Koppel I-P Octave 4´ Nasard 2 2/3´ Choralbaß 4´ Doublette 2´ Principal 2´ Piffaro II 4´+2´ Tremulant (Schwellwerk) Mixtur IV 1 1/3´ Terz 1 3/5´ Octave 1´ Quinte 1 1/3´ Combination "Plenum" Oboe 8´ Combination "Piano" *1 : This stop uses : C1-F3 -> Subbaß | F#3-G5 -> Lieblich Gedeckt *2 : C2-G5 Tuning : Kirnberger II modified, f(A3)=440Hz at 18°C Combination "Plenum" : Hauptwerk Schwellwerk Pedal Principal 8´ Rohrflöte 8´ Subbaß 16´ Octave 4´ Blockflöte 4´ Octavbaß 8´ Doublette 2´ Nasard 2 2/3´ Choralbaß 4´ Principal 2´ Combination "Piano" : Hauptwerk Schwellwerk Pedal Lieblich Gedeckt 8´ Rohrflöte 8´ Subbaß 16´ Gedecktbaß 8´

A very cheerfully sounding organ built in 1997 by [Mühleisen Orgelbau GmbH] for the new church of Biberach, Heilbronn. The old church had to be torn down as it was in danger of collapsing. After that, the old 9 stop organ has proven to be inadequate for the new building, so the parish decided to build a new one. The 17 stop instrument has a baroque disposition and Neidhard 1724 "Für eine große Stadt" tuning. It has been designed for service as well as for concert use.

chamber organ from the workshop of Daniel Prib from Prague, Czech Republic. This organ was conceived as a solo concert instrument. The scaling of the voices was optimized for larger churches while the ease of transport had to be maintained.The construction of the organ was finished in August 2007. It has 5 speaking stops: * Bordun 8’ – it is based on early Baroque type found in the work of Steffan Kuntz or Nicolaus Manderscheidt. Similar Burdon is to be found in the Slowak chair organ in Antol from the second third of 17th century. Pipes of rather thick scale (mensura) offer good foundation of the disposition of the organ. * Flauto 4’ – stopped wooden voice with clear sound can be used in conjunction with Bordun or alone as a solo stop, or a foundation to aliquotes. * Prinzipal 2’ – open wooden pipes are scaled and voiced according to the Principale of the “organo di legno” of the St. Maria di Montepulciano. Very significant is the initial “chiff” due to rather low mouth apertures (less than 1 L). It can be used also as a solo stop, especially in the bass. * Quint 1 1/3', tin, principal scale * Mixtur 1' (2 ranks), tin, in fact, it forms 3 rank mixture together with the Quint 1 1/3, but for practical reasons, the Quint can be drawn separately as an individual rank. The compass of the keyboard: 4 octaves and 2 tones (MIDI: from 36-C to 86-D). Temperament: Bach-Kellner. Wind pressure: 52 mm w.c.

The instrument of Georg Tauchmann (1626-1674) is located in the chapel of the castle Hruby Rohozec. As the chapel itself was built in 1675, it is probable that the instrument was acquired together with the other furniture at this time. However, Georg Tauchmann died one year before the work was finished and so, it is not exactly clear who has completed the organ after his death. At that time the instrument had a single manual, probably without a pedal. During the 18th century, a positiv organ was added and perhaps the pedal stop could be added at this time as well. The organ case was also newly decorated so that it reflected the style of that age. The private chapel was not widely used for public services during the 19th and 20th centuries, so there was no pressure for a "modernization" of the instrument. Therefore, we are lucky today to find the instrument in its original state. Two manuals have unexpectedly wide compass, more than 4 octaves, up to the high F. The bottom octave is fully built, there is no "short" octave usual in the 17th century. This feature may be explained by the purpose of the organ. It was not ment principally to accompany the liturgical assembly but it had to play dominant role during the courtly services or perhaps even during various concerts given by the castle owners. We admire today the timbre of the stops. Signs of the historicity of the instrument, so called "expressive chiff" of the pipes when they begin to speak, is hardly to be heard anywhere else.

The claviorganum (also known as the claviorgan, or organised piano) is an instrument whose origin is uncertain. A number of "virgynalls with regals" are mentioned in the inventories of Henry VIII in 1542/3 and 1547 and Wilson Barry cites references to the claviorganum in England dating back to the 1530s. The term claviorganum in its strictest sense refers to the combination of a harpsichord (or other harpsichord type instrument) and an organ, although later could also be used to refer to a combination of a piano and organ. Michael Praetorius describes the claviorganum in his Syntagma Musicum of 1619 as " ... a clavicymbal, or some other symphony, in which a number of pipes is combined with the strings. Externally it looks exactly like a clavicymbal or symphony, apart from the bellows, which are sometimes set at the rear and sometimes placed inside the body" Perhaps because there are relatively few surviving examples, a comprehensive history of the claviorgan has never been published although a few scholars have had the idea of starting one. There are some instruments which are better known than others, but the place of the claviorgan in the history of instruments and its usage is largely unknown. The instrument described by the musician and historian Charles Burney is a more unusual type of claviorgan. Used in Westminster Abbey for one of the Handel commemoration services in 1784; the instrument consisting of a harpsichord at the front of the orchestra which was connected to an organ mounted on a screen behind the performers. Burney describes in brief the way the two instruments were connected; “The keys of communication with the harpsichord, at which Mr. Bates, the conductor, was seated, extended nineteen feet from the body of the organ, and twenty feet seven inches below the perpendicular of the set of keys by which it is usually played … to convey them to so great a distance from the instrument, without rendering the touch impractically heavy, required uncommon ingenuity and mechanical resources.” Unfortunately Burney gives no further description of this connecting device, and indeed we know nothing of the harpsichord to which the organ was connected either. However, Burney does allow us to discover details of the organ itself, as he states that it was made by Samuel Green of Islington for Canterbury Cathedral. In fact the history of this instrument is described in an article by Sidney Harvey written in 1916, and it was in fact an enlargement of the cathedrals Richard Bridge organ of 1753. After the instrument was removed to Canterbury it was erected on the choir screen, and remained at Canterbury for over a century before it was replaced by the current Willis instrument. Given the large specification of the Green organ, and the size of the orchestra that was employed for the performances at Westminster Abbey, it may be logical to suggest that the harpsichord’s only real use in the ensemble was as a remote console for the organ rather than as a timbre in its own right, which again highlights what an unusual type of instrument this was. Charles Burney does suggest that Handel had used a similar device before, and indeed Professor Peter Williams has also flagged the connection between the claviorgan and Handel who is thought to have used the instrument for Oratorio continuo. Whether Handel used a more normal claviorgan or a harpsichord as a type of remote console is something to be investigated.