The
North
German
Baroque
Organ
Research
Project
in Göteborg
ORSEV
The Organ as a Symbol of the
European Vision
Safeguarding and Communicating a Common Heritage
A project within the European
Commission's
cultural program Raphael (DG X)
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1699-1999.
An Organ Lost in Lübeck - an Organ Regained in
Göteborg
The history of how the new organ in
North German Baroque style was born is a story woven of many
threads but with a single goal, a single vision. Over ten
years, the project traveled 300 years back in time; from Arp
Schnitger's (1648-1719) majestic Baroque façade in
the Lübeck Dom in 1699 to the splendid reconstructed
façade in Örgryte Nya kyrka in Göteborg,
finished in 1999. Like a similarly woven tapestry, the
façade traveled through time and space. For a
fraction of a second, a quick glance in the direction of the
newly built organ gallery in the west can dispatch one south
and back in time to Lübeck in the Baroque period.
However, upon close inspection, the tapestry reveals a
completely different picture. One can only see knots! The
weaving is a complex and abstract pattern of thousands of
individually created actions. This is a story of both the
perspective and the vision, but also of the thousands of
small knots and connections that are woven
together.
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The Vision
During the Middle Ages, the major
trade cities of northern Europe had an alliance, the
Hanseatic League, which was the leading commercial power for
several centuries. With Lübeck at the pinnacle, the
Hanse cities developed an economic prosperity and a blooming
culture that also generated an unusually rich period of
musical performance and instrument building. Sea travel and
trade created the favorable economic conditions. Due to
clever political characters and because of their strategic
geographical location, many of the cities survived the
ravages and turmoil of the wars. Skilled artists, craftsmen,
musicians, and instrument builders fled from the strife in
the west and south to security inside the city walls. Power
craved the proper authority.
At the same time, the organ became a
central symbol for the city's new prosperity and an
inspiration for ongoing creativity with new expressions and
rich decorations. Through its complex construction and
nature, the organ attracted foreign craftsworkers and
scientists at a level of quality that has rarely been
surpassed since that time. In every case, the organs
represented the zenith of architecture, music, mechanics,
mathematics, art, handcraft, and techniques of their time.
Therefore, everyone regardless of rank or class could enjoy
sonorous artwork. They all listened to organ music, but only
a few knew what went on behind the mighty façade. For
musicians, the organ was the most prominent and visible
instrument to be found. Organists demonstrated their musical
positions and power through "organ sermons" played on the
full organ with bells and bird songs on feast days and at
weddings. For reflective services, prayer days, and
funerals, organists chose fewer stops with color sounds,
even the Trommel (drum).
Much of the music from these
17th-century city organists is extant: from Hamburg,
Lübeck, or Amsterdam... but what is the present state
of the organs? The prosperity of the times made possible
their conception and birth, but in a lasting strong economy,
the symbols of wealth changed with time. The result is that
none of these majestic north European Baroque city organs is
preserved in its entirety. Fortunately, a few organs from
that time exist with some of the material preserved,
material that survived the World War II bomb raids, but
which has been restored many times. Every succeeding
restoration tends to erase more and more of the pipes'
original construction and sound. But most of the preserved
pipes, even those that have undergone many changes from
organ builders or restorations, still sound better than
modern copies. Why? We could only answer that question by
making our vision a reality.
The vision was clear: to experience
for the first time in modern times how the famous Baroque
organists' music actually sounded in their time. The same
type of musical experience inspired Johann Sebastian Bach in
1705 to travel on foot the long distance from Arnstadt in
Thuringia to Lübeck, just to hear the magnificent
organs in the north and just to hear the organ master,
Dieterich Buxtehude (1637-1707) play. Thus, recreating that
musical experience was also our vision. But how could we get
the necessary experience and study 17th-century organ and
instrumental music unless we would build, yes, reconstruct
such an organ?
Thus, the North German organ research
project was born. As an introduction, we thought we only
needed to build a Baroque organ and begin to make music! In
time, it became clear to us that too many essential factors
existed with which we had only limited acquaintance and
which would greatly affect both the sound and the playing of
the instrument. We needed to set all of these factors on the
table and study them thoroughly if our instrument was to
achieve the standard we envisioned. It became more and more
clear that comprehensive research was needed, time,
resources, knowledge, and perhaps a whole new working
model.
As the project had a
multi-disciplinary and scientific character, researchers
from the Chalmers University of Technology became involved
from the beginning, which led us to confront many new
questions. Was it really true that the historic pipes
sounded different than modern copies? Was there a measurable
difference in the sound quality? And if that was the case,
what caused the difference? Researchers specialized in
material, acoustics, and fluid dynamics began to engage in
the work. Gathering organ builders and researchers from
different countries for conferences and study trips to
historic organs formed the basis for our investigation.
Then, a research plan and a working model grew out of the
discussions.
We would need an international organ
laboratory, an organ research workshop at Göteborg
University, where some of the world's best organ builders in
north European Baroque style worked together in the process
of building the organ. They should work in close
collaboration with researchers from Chalmers, and near to
the room in which the organ would be placed. The goal was
formulated thus: on a scientific basis, to reconstruct a
research instrument, a city organ in North German Baroque
style from 1700. But this project laid the foundation for
the international center for organ art, Göteborg Organ
Art Center (GOArt), which, with its multi-disciplinary
research at Göteborg has developed in a short period of
time to a center of excellence.
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The Organ Master
The organ master Arp Schnitger
dominated organ building in North Germany during the end of
the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century.
During his lifetime, Schnitger built almost 140 organs from
three centers of activity: Hamburg, Bremen, and Groningen.
He also built smaller organs for England, Spain, Portugal,
and Russia. During the 18th century, Schnitger's style of
building spread through nearly fifty apprentices and
journeymen who followed in his footsteps.
In certain circles, this tradition
lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. And because
of the newly found interest in classical organ building
after World War I, Arp Schnitger has become one of the most
influential organ builders in the 20th century. The rather
well-preserved Schnitger organ in the Jacobikirche in
Hamburg became the emblem for the development initiated by
the so-called Organ Reform Movement.
Then in the 1970s, Schnitger-style
organs were built in many halls throughout the world, from
South Africa, to the U. S., to Canada, to Japan. But with
the Göteborg project, a new phase developed: looking at
the preserved material in the Jacobikirche organ as a
threshold, we strove, without compromises and with a
scientific foundation, to build a new organ as we believe
Arp Schnitger himself would have created it, to bring forth
our vision for Göteborg.
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The Actors
Munetaka Yokota, Japanese organ
builder, who was working earlier at Chico State University
in California, U. S., joined our project as the person
responsible for the research and manufacturing of all of the
organ pipes. In the spring of 1994, Yokota moved his whole
workshop to a new location in Göteborg. Thus, the organ
research laboratory or workshop became a reality! The
Swedish organ builder Mats Arvidsson accepted the
responsibility for building all of the organ except the
pipes, and Dutch organ builder Henk van Eeken was
responsible for design and drafting work. Professor Harald
Vogel, Bremen, the leading international expert in North
German organ art, served as consultant and counselor to the
project group with organ builders and researchers who met
regularly in Germany, the Netherlands, or Sweden. The
collaboration involved gathering sources and material,
studying and documenting prototypes, and finally, choosing
the concept and form for the new instrument. During the
whole process, the question about the sound quality of
historic pipes stood in the center.
Experienced organ builders, wood
carvers, and pipe makers joined the organ research workshop.
They led the work with pipe making developments and building
the wooden parts of the organ. Skilled, unemployed
handcraftsworkers joined the project from the beginning.
They received a foundational education in organ building and
soon began participating in the work. Almost fifty
handcraftsworkers from 16 countries took part in the organ
building work.
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Handcraft and Research
Munetaka Yokota started from the
hypothesis that the history of the sound quality of
historical pipes began already before the pipes were made,
that it began already with the quality and complexity of the
metal. Studies of historical organ pipes showed that the
pipes were cast on sand. That created a huge challenge
because the last northern European organs with pipes cast on
sand were made during the first half of the 18th century,
and in modern times, no one has presented systematic
research about this technique.
We could establish that casting on
sand gives the metal a completely different quality from
that of pipes cast in the usual modern ways. Due to the sand
bed beneath the molten metal, the metal cools quickly to a
certain temperature that remains more or less constant,
causing the pipe metal to become harder than modern pipe
metal. In some of the numerous experiments, the metal became
so hard that it was impossible to work with. The right type
of sand, the right proportion of impurities or trace
materials in the metal, and the right casting temperature
are all factors that have proven to have vital importance
for the end result.
Pipe casting is also its own art! Slow
and careful training is required to be able to control the
outcome of the casting process. In modern organ building
shops, machines are used to plane down the pipe sheets to
the desired thickness, a process that when carried out in
the normal modern way actually changes the microstructure of
the metal. From that perspective, the pipe sheets can be
cast without precision, and it does not matter if the sheets
are too thick. In the old workshops, there was no such
equipment available. Therefore, organ builders had to learn
how to cast the pipe metal as close to the desired thickness
as possible so that it was not necessary to use the hand
tools more than absolutely necessary. The material was
respected, and both the sound and stability of the pipes
maintained the most favorable quality. Workers skilled in
traditional handcrafts have always operated with a great
respect for the quality of traditional material, dimensions,
the design, and size and shape of the hand tools. This
perspective reveals a complex interaction with significant
implications for the end result, in our case, the acoustical
quality of the organ pipes.
Therefore, our starting point and
hypothesis was that reconstruction of all the details of the
handcrafts ought to give the desired quality of sound.
During nearly five years, much research and collaboration
between organ builders and scientists was necessary to
recreate the whole working process. That process led to
further research, a break-through for organ research, which
now makes it possible to recreate organ pipes in different
northern European 17th-century styles with a resulting sound
quality that compares with that of historic
pipes.
Yet even much more than such good
organ pipes was needed to realize the whole vision. At the
organ workshop, every moment in the organ's production was
developed, such as bellows, wind channels, mechanics,
keyboards, organ case, and the façade with its wood
carvings. At the Chalmers University of Technology, the
researchers further probed the questions about material,
acoustics, and fluid dynamics. In this book, most of these
parts of the project are described.
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Örgryte Nya kyrka
The vision required a church with a
sanctuary of sufficient volume and with the possibility to
place an organ on the main gallery. Since 1990,
Göteborg University had contact with the Örgryte
congregation about placing a Baroque organ on the
Örgryte Nya kyrka's side gallery. After some study
trips to historical prototypes, we realized that the side
gallery was not the ideal choice; the organ should sound
optimally length-wise in the room, or it would have to be
given sufficient space to sound from the side gallery. In
addition, the organ builders and acoustics researchers
shared the opinion that the acoustics in the church did not
suffice to fulfill the minimum quality of acoustics desired
for the project. The acoustics in Baroque churches were
essentially different in one aspect from those in
Örgryte, so there was only one solution: build a new
floor and ceiling! At the same time, a new organ gallery
should be built both for the architecture of the organ, and
to provide space for vocal and instrumental
ensembles…
What to do? The church building was in
a state of disrepair. In 1994-95, the discussions ranged
from how to repair the church to whether to sell it or let
it simply waste away. The congregation saw the organ project
as a chance not only to hold onto their church, but also to
restore it.
For a long time, a musical profile in
the congregation existed of people who wished to develop the
church in collaboration with the School of Music at
Göteborg University. In cooperation with
Länsarbetsnämnden (County Labor Board) in
Göteborg and the Byggmästareföreningen
Väst (Master Builders' Association West), an extensive
workers' education project began, which meant that
Örgryte Nya kyrka could undergo a sizeable renovation
and partial re-building in 1996-97. The handcraftsworkers
particularly interested in the project were engaged to
participate in the educational project, which made it
possible to achieve much more than originally planned: the
church was not only renovated and the acoustics improved,
but the church interior was re-done for the most part
according to the style that existed at its inauguration in
1890. All of this was done for a reconstructed Baroque
organ!
Some photographs of the original
church interior from 1937 showed a magnificently painted
sanctuary. The side galleries with their decorated railings,
the pulpit and altar area with their ornaments and many
different wood carving details were reconstructed, and the
whole church was painted with original colors and
stenciling. Everyone involved also knew that we also used
old handcraft methods in the church. We understood that the
quality and techniques the craftspersons used had something
significant to present in our time. The vision of the organ
project grew longer wings. When the church re-opened in
September 1997, everyone agreed: the congregation had not
only preserved their possession, but the church had become
very beautiful, stately, and cathedralesque, - and now we
were only waiting for the organ!
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The Completion of the
Organ
The North German organ research
project clearly became more extensive than we could have
imagined from the beginning. As with almost all research
projects, there were many more unknown factors in the core
problem than we had projected when we began. For example, we
did not know that Schnitger had cast pipe metal on sand.
During 1997, it became apparent that only with the support
of new financial means could the project be continued to
completion. The university steering committee decided in
February, 1998, that the organ project could continue to its
completion.
Starting in the spring of 1998, the
work primarily consisted of constructing the nearly 4000
pipes of the organ, as well as installing and voicing them.
A very large number of pipes are housed inside the organ
behind the stately façade pipes of nearly pure tin.
The smallest pipe is only a few centimeters high! Each and
every pipe is made by hand and has its own personality. The
façade pipes are also framed with impressive wood
carvings that are not only beautiful and included for the
visual aesthetic, but they also play an important role in
diffusing the sound in the church.
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The Goal
In the fall of 1999, half of the organ
pipes were installed and preliminarily voiced. On Sunday,
December 19th, the organ was introduced into the church
service with a High Mass led by Bishop Lars Eckerdal. That
was not only a festive and important glimpse of the organ's
potential, also for the collaboration between the university
and the church, but the event also served an important
function in the research project. The organ sound and volume
in the acoustics of the church filled with people could be
tested before the remaining pipes were prepared, installed,
voiced, and tuned. During the spring and summer of 2000, the
final work continued with great intensity. Simultaneously,
an international organ academy occurring August 5-18th was
planned to the most minute detail. During the academy, the
organ had its international and official inauguration. On
Sunday morning, August 6th, Hans-Ola Ericsson presented his
organ mass commissioned and specially composed for the new
organ with Arp Schnitger's organ art in mind. On Saturday
evening August 12th, the completed organ was inaugurated by
the Princess Baroness Désirée. All those
invited heard the instrument together with vocal and
instrumental ensembles in the music galleries, everyone sang
with the full organ and heard the sound of all of the 54
stops in different Baroque masters' compositions. What was
certainly the conclusion of a ten-year project was
simultaneously the beginning of something new: music-making.
And that was actually the aim of the vision!
Concerts, recordings, symposia,
conferences, education, research, and organ academies will
follow. The internationally unique organ could serve as a
prototype and an inspiration for future international organ
and cultural heritage projects. The organ demonstrates new
paths for care and protection of historical organs
throughout Europe.
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Prototypes and Design
Prototypes
The North German organ research
project began with several study trips to smaller preserved
Arp Schnitger organs in North Germany and northeastern
Netherlands. The purpose of the study trips was partly to
gather and partly to check source material. Many
measurements were taken of different parts of the
instruments. The sounds of the organs and the acoustics of
the churches were documented. The collected material was
then analyzed and compared with historical source material,
such as measurements taken earlier, historical organ
building contracts, and congregational account books. Fairly
early on, we decided that the material from the only organ
preserved among Schnitger's largest organs, Hamburg St.
Jacobi, should be the starting point for our instrument. In
the early 1990s, the Jacobi organ underwent a reconstruction
and restoration in Jürgen Ahrend's workshop in
Leer-Loga, Germany, and we were able to follow this work
closely. Thanks to the complete documentation of the
pipework by Dr. Cornelius H. Edskes, Groningen, we had a
wonderful basis for the sounding part of the organ. But the
Jacobi organ's façade did not fit in the Örgryte
Nya kyrka. It was simply too large. Therefore, we had to
look for another prototype, which was Schnitger's organ in
the Lübeck Dom. That organ was built from 1696-1699
under the leadership of Schnitger's journeyman Hans
Hantelmann, and had 45 stops divided among three manuals and
pedal. That was the only large organ Schnitger built in
Lübeck.
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The Façade
Reconstruction of the organ's
façade was accomplished through the help of old
photographs from Museum für Kultur und Geschichte,
Lübeck, fragmented measurements of the façade
that were done before the war, and blueprints of the rebuilt
church. Thanks to photogrammetry and geometrical
calculations, the original façade proportions could
be acquired. And thanks to the Swedish organ historian, Dr.
Bertil Wester, who took façade measurements in 1934,
the organ façade's measurements could be quantified.
(In our analyses of the preserved results, we interpreted
the old measurements in historical feet and inches.) Several
extant Schnitger façades were measured and studied as
references. These studies showed that Schnitger used
geometrical proportions in his façade architecture,
but that he chose different solutions for different
organs.
In the case of the Lübeck Dom,
the organ was constructed as if the façade of the
organ was inside of a square (each side 8 meters). Then,
that concept was divided into different divisions, pipe
flats, towers, and turrets with geometrical figures and
proportions that corresponded to overtone intervals (octave
1:2, fifth 2:3; fourth 3:4; major third 4:5, minor third
5:6). In that concept, one can perceive architecture as
frozen music. The façade fit well in the space
available in Örgryte Nya kyrka. But could it work to
have the outside be from Lübeck and the inside from
Hamburg, St. Jacobi?
From several perspectives, the actual
organs are comparable, and with some minor adjustments,it
became evident that it worked well to use both instruments
as points of departure. The available space in Örgryte
Nya kyrka actually gave the Ober Positiv a better placement
than in Hamburg! In the meantime, the available space for
the pedal led us to choose the Schnitger organ in Stade, St.
Cosmae as a main reference for that division.
When the concept was established, the
construction details could begin. For every part of the new
organ that would be drafted, we searched for concrete
prototypes from which we could study and analyze the
construction. The starting points in construction created
results affecting the entire organ. For example, the
prototype for the bellows came from the preserved bellows in
the Grote Kerk, Zwolle, The Netherlands. The construction of
the remaining parts of the wind system was based on analyses
of measurements from various German Schnitger organs
(Neuenfelde, Pellworm, Stade). Gradually, a picture of Arp
Schnitger's organ philosophy evolved, of how his organs took
shape and of how he constructed them.
The pipes are placed in long ranks on
the windchests. All of the pipes in the same rank are
constructed in the same way, have the same sound color, and
usually, one pipe exists for each key. Each one of these
ranks has a stop name. Each windchest constitutes a division
and is played from its own keyboard, or manual.
By pulling the stops on the sides of
the manuals, the organist can move the sliders in the
windchest. The sliders are thin boards with bored holes, one
for each pipe. By changing the stops, one regulates which
stops will sound or not. This mechanical system is called
the stop action.
The bellows treader puts the air under
pressure, forcing it through the channel system to the
windchests. When a key is pressed down by the organist, it
creates a mechanical motion to a valve in the windchest that
opens, and air streams into all of the pipes for that pitch,
provided that the stops are pulled out, i.e. provided that
the sliders are in their working positions so that the holes
in the sliders are under the holes in the toe boards upon
which the pipes stand. All of the mechanical parts from key
to valve are part of the so-called action.
Cross
sections of the Örgryte
organ reveal the construction in different divisions: Werck,
Rück Positiv, Ober Positiv, Brust Positiv, and Pedal.
Further on, the large bellows are found in the room behind
the organ, and trunks that lead the wind to the different
windchests and the complex mechanisms are maneuvered from
the keydesk with its four manuals and pedal.
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The Organ Case
GOArt's organ research workshop was
established to build the North German Baroque organ in a
location (Varbergsgatan 2) that had previously been a
workshop and storage place for tires. The wood shop, pipe
shop, and a large space for the rough sawing, wood storage,
and drying process, all fit in a space totaling 900 square
meters. The experiments started here and branched out to all
aspects of the organ building process.
The organ's foundational construction
with moldings, cornices, pointed and polygonal towers is
called the organ case. The organ case, along with all the
wooden parts for the wind system, mechanisms, and keyboards
were made in the carpenter's workshop under Mats Arvidsson's
direction. One of the most important items of information
before the work could begin was to find the appropriate type
of properly dried wood. North German Baroque organs were
usually made of oak, a type of wood that is well-suited to
the desired goal and was also easily attainable at that
time. Today, none of this type of oak can be found in North
Germany, which is why we searched for other possibilities
and decided that Swiss oak would best serve the purpose.
Swiss oak has a density and structure similar to the oak
found in North Germany in the 17th century.
The well-known, now retired organ
builder Oskar Metzler, Oetwil, Switzerland, donated more
than 70 m3 of naturally dried oak to the project. Metzler
had chosen certain trees from the edge of the forest outside
of Zürich, cut them, hauled them to his workshop, sawed
them and stored them with proper air circulation, and let
them dry outside under a roof for five to ten years,
depending on their thickness. He also participated actively
in the project by preparing the wood before it was sent to
Göteborg. The final drying of the oak was done in the
organ research workshop for a half year before the final
selection was made and the wood work began.
The frame of the organ case was
constructed using a traditional method, and joined with
tenons so that it can be taken apart and built up again. The
large moldings were reconstructed from photos of the
Lübeck Dom organ. They were cut out by a machine, but
the final scraping was done by hand. The task of building
the moldings was arduous, and it was complicated to join
them together, especially the sharp corners and polygonal
shapes in the towers. Moufak Failli, a highly skilled Iraqi
furniture maker, performed most of the work on the organ
case and moldings. He also made all of the gallery railings
with their own moldings, which were made in the workshop and
mounted in the church without requiring special
adjustments.
The last week in February, 1997, all
of the finished parts were transported to the church: the
twelve bellows, the nine windchests, rollerboards, and
various parts of the organ case. Everyone from the workshop,
reinforced by some volunteers, worked for several weeks to
erect the organ case. Everything was done by hand, in the
old manner, with only the assistance of a handdriven
lift.
First, the bellows had to be installed
in the newly built bellows room behind the organ. Every
bellows weighs approximately 175 kg. Since there are twelve
bellows, we had to lift more than 2 tons twelve meters from
the church floor up to the bellows room. It took three days
to move and install them. The next step was to build the
weight-bearing construction for the Ober Positiv's
windchest. That construction is joined together with large
handmade oak beams, of which the largest is over five meters
long and weighs more than 100 kg., and which were anchored
in the blue church walls. Next, the installation of the
organ case could begin. It was very challenging to plan
exactly in which order the work had to be done so that
everything could be put in its proper place.
The windchest to the Ober Positiv was
the first to find its new home. The Werck windchest and
rollerboards followed and were lifted up before the lower
central part of the case and the moldings could be mounted.
Finally, the side tower posts were fastened to the lower
framework. At this point, we were forced to build
scaffolding up to the tops of the side towers in order to
continue with our work. And then the heavy crowns were
placed on top in two steps, from the floor to the gallery
and from the gallery to the top. Way up at the right height,
we had to tip them over, turn them around and move them
sideways into place. It took five or six workers to
accomplish this daunting task.
But, the worst was yet to come: to
lift and maneuver the enormous center molding crown into
place. On the morning of March 20, all of GOArt's workers
gathered in the church. The top molding was lifted first to
the gallery, and then with the assistance of a lift, six
more meters up to a platform just under its final height.
Here we turned the top piece, placed it in the tower, lifted
it up 1.5 meters, turned it again, and finally tipped the
heavy molding forward toward the altar and placed it in
position. Witnessing this feat was witnessing work at the
highest niveau! Afterwards, we were greatly relieved to
gather again down in the church and celebrate this stellar
moment with cider and cheers. After that accomplishment, it
did not seem like a huge ordeal to move the Rück
Positiv into place. In several days, this step was finished.
Now, the organ case waited for its façade, so that it
could be filled with glittering silver framed with lively
wood carvings.
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New Techniques and Interdisciplinary
Scientific Research
The interdisciplinary research started
with the sound of the organ plus the historic pipes'
mechanical and acoustical properties. Researchers from the
Chalmers University of Technology strove to answer the
following central questions:
- Why do the 17th-century pipes
sound different from new pipes made with similar
constructions?
- What material was
used?
- How was the metal
treated?
- To what extent does the material
and its dimensions affect the sound?
- How should the acoustics in
Örgryte Nya kyrka function with the new
organ?
- How does the wind system in a
North German Baroque organ affect the sound?
Three projects materialized with the
following researchers spear-heading the projects:
- Birger Karlsson and Milan Friesel
(Department of Engineering Metals, SIMS-laboratory,
Department of Microelectronics and Nanoscience,
MINA),
- Mendel Kleiner (Department of
Applied Acoustics),
- Bror-Arne Gustafson (Department of
Thermo- and Fluid-Dynamics).
Material
The material researchers analyzed
17th-century metal composition. The metal consisted not only
of tin and lead, but also of impurities and trace elements,
small levels of bismuth, antimony, copper, silver, and
arsenic. These trace elements affect the hardness of the
metal, the casting methods, and workability of the metal. In
the workshop, experiments were made casting metal sheets
according to different alloy recipes. The casting bench
proved to play a huge role in the cooling speed, which in
turn affects the microstructure of the metal. The extensive
multi-faceted experiment led us to the point of being able
to reconstruct the original casting method.
During field studies of well-preserved
17th-century pipes, we observed that not only the lead pipes
were cast on sand. No systematic study of casting on sand
benches in the northern European organ tradition has been
undertaken in modern times. General technical descriptions
of sand casting from the 15th century until the 19th century
were studied and we strove to complement the references from
church archival material about organs. Unfortunately, no
detailed description of the sand casting methods exists from
any of the 17th-century organ builders. When Milan Friesel
analyzed a small piece of a tin-rich façade pipe from
1624, he found sand embedded in the tin-rich alloy, which
was the final confirmation that sand casting was indeed a
17th-century pipe making technique. After several years'
research, innumerable experiments and tests, the break
through emerged in the spring of 1997: various alloys could
be cast on a sand bench, and finally, the pipe production
could begin.
The casting is done in the following
way. Tin and lead are melted in a pot. At a certain
temperature (differing according to the alloy), the molten
metal is poured into a casting box. The worker then quickly
moves the casting box lengthwise down the sand bench,
leaving a thin casting film behind. After a few seconds, the
metal cools, crystallizes, and takes its new form. If the
casting box is moved at a constant speed, the metal sheet
thins out toward the end, a characteristic that the
17th-century organ builder calculated. Historic pipes are
often thinner at the top, and therefore weigh less at the
top than at the bottom, giving better stability and
simultaneously a better resonance in the sound. The organ
builder must always be aware of which pipes he/she is
casting, what the desired thickness and thinning should be.
In other words, the 17th-century organ builder cast the
metal as close to the desired thickness as
possible.
North German Baroque organ pipes
consist primarily of three different alloys: nearly pure tin
for the façade's glittering principal pipes, nearly
pure lead for pipes whose prototype comes from the late 16th
century and early 17th century, and so-called organ metal
(usually 17-23% tin) for the rest of the
pipework.
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Acoustics
At the Department of Applied
Acoustics, the researchers probed how the acoustics in the
Örgryte Nya kyrka could be improved to better resemble
those in the Baroque churches. They built a scale model
(1:10) of the church out of plywood, with measurements they
could control, in order to refine the other models,
including computer models of the church interior. As a
reference in these studies, they used measurements from many
well-preserved churches with relevant Baroque organs. The
results from these studies provided the groundwork for the
actual changes in the church that took place during the
reconstruction.
Another important question was how an
organ as large as the Hamburg St. Jacobi organ could
function in a smaller church. Would Schnitger have changed
something in the concept if he had built the organ in the
Örgryte Nya kyrka instead? The most prominent example
of a large North German 17th-century organ in a relatively
small church is the organ in Stade, St. Cosmae. Therefore,
the Stade St. Cosmae organ and church became important
references for the sound model. We could establish that
Schnitger used comparable, general measurements and scalings
for the organs in Hamburg and Stade, but that he changed
certain other factors, for example, the disposition, the
wind pressure, and perhaps some details in the pipe
construction. These factors applied to our project as
well.
Various factors affecting the tone
production in an organ pipe were studied from different
perspectives and with assistance from a simulation program
with measurements. Differences were observed not only in the
construction of the historic pipes, but also in their
acoustical properties. Thus, one could show that the pipe
wall vibrations in fact have an audible influence on the
sound of the pipes, not the least being in the speech
quality. The mechanical properties of different alloys,
depending on whether they had been scraped, planed, or
rolled, could also affect the sound. Thin-walled pipes are
also sensitive to coupling effects, which can mean that
non-sounding pipes can resonate. This primarily applies to
pipes positioned near the sounding pipes, and therefore,
they also affect the sound of the sounding pipes. Last but
not least, the organ builder's voicing work and our ability
to comprehend and describe very subtle differences in the
sound is a topic being dealt with in a psycho-acoustical
study.
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Wind Flow
The organ's wind system with channels,
windchests, and valves was an apt subject for fluid dynamics
studies. A full-scale model of a wind system according to
North German Baroque practice was placed in the laboratory
at the Department of Thermo- and Fluid-Dynamics. They
studied and simulated trunks, bellows and valves according
to Schnitger prototypes in order to build a complete data
model of the North German Baroque organ's wind system. In
the Grote Kerk in Zwolle, the Netherlands, there is a
complete bellows systems with twelve preserved wedge
bellows, which were used as a prototype for our organ.
Unfortunately, no complete original channel system exists
today. Therefore, we used preserved parts of channel systems
in various organs and checked church archives (Hamburg St.
Jacobi, for example) for information about the measurements
of older systems. Thanks to the computer model, we could
test and simulate various alternatives and interpret
possibilities. That assistance certainly made the
reconstruction work easier, and also considerably increased
our understanding of the functioning of the
system.
As it was not possible to say with
certainty which type of system Schnitger chose, we decided
to build a flexible system that could be used in various
ways. The final solution for the Örgryte organ was one
channel system with some extra channels and several extra
valves that made it possible to try the systems from three
large documented Schnitger wind systems: Hamburg, Magdeburg,
and Zwolle.
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The Renovation of the
Church
In 1995, the placement of the organ
was still an unsolved problem. Certainly we had an agreement
with the Örgryte congregation from 1990 on, that
Göteborg University would be allowed to place a Baroque
style organ on a side gallery in Örgryte Nya kyrka. But
it had been pointed out that the acoustics in the church
must be improved and the organ must be placed in the main
gallery in the west. New discussions began.
Like many other churches built around
the turn of the century, the outer brick walls of
Örgryte Nya kyrka had deteriorated. Earlier, the church
had not been continually heated, and the tough west-coast
climate including hard rains, heavy winds, and borderline
freezing temperatures and alternating frosts and thaws were
physically hard on the church. The wooden frame, beams and
floor had rotted and were infested with fungus. The church
building was in need of an extensive renovation.
In studying the room acoustics, we
took many measurements, both in Örgryte Nya kyrka and
in various churches in North Germany where typical Schnitger
organs exist (for example Neuenfelde, Steinkirchen, Stade,
and Hamburg). In order to reduce the sound absorption in the
bass range, we needed to replace the existing floor with a
denser, thicker, and stiffer floor, and also to change or
complete the inner ceiling with heavier layers of plaster.
These changes also had to meet the approval of the cultural
preservation authorities, which led to further
investigations of the church room and its
history.
The church, designed by architect
Adrian C. Petersson and built 1888-1890, had, at the hand of
various renovators in 1937, 1951, and 1973-74, lost most of
its original character. The north and south galleries had
been lowered and reduced in size. The inner ceiling had
originally had many small moldings with stenciled patterns.
In the 1950s, these were taken away and the ceiling was
covered with a woven cloth. Upon inspecting the walls, we
realized that Adrian Petersson had actually had a whole
paint decoration plan for the entire church. This was
supported by photos that were found in a national archive
(antiquarian topographical archive, ATA) in Stockholm, which
showed the church's interior from 1937 before the first
large rebuilding occurred. It had been a magnificent and
lively interior!
The School of Music decided that it
would be wise to place the North German Baroque organ in a
church, where its function as a liturgical instrument could
develop naturally, and that Örgryte Nya kyrka was the
right place to fulfill this goal. The church was
sufficiently large and if the organ could be placed on the
west gallery to replace the congregation's previous organ it
would be the ideal solution.
The congregation had an active musical
life and was genuinely interested in this collaboration with
the School of Music. They were concerned that the church
would be optimally used in the future, and that it would be
renovated as soon as was possible. All parties agreed about
the uniqueness of the project, and strove together to find a
solution for realizing the vision. An agreement was reached
that during 1996-1997, the church interior would be
renovated and rebuilt. The project was a collaboration
between Göteborg University, the County Labor Board in
Göteborg and Bohus County, the Master Builders'
Association in West AB, and the Association of Göteborg
Churches.
The Cultural Preservation Authorities
concurred that the ceiling must be reconstructed to its
original form, but by using modern material that could
improve the acoustics. The work began in February, 1996,
with dismantling the old galleries, re-doing the ceiling,
building the north gallery, reconstructing the south
gallery, and preparing for the floor and the new organ
gallery in the west.
The rebuilding of the interior of the
church proceeded within a workers' educational project where
historical handcrafts were taught to younger craftspersons.
The reconstruction of the ceiling and side galleries led to
the wish to recreate the original colors, which could be
realized because of the support of the County Labor
Board.
A new hardwood floor was laid,
partially from planks from an old tobacco factory, partially
with 200-year-old parts from Ljusdal. Old building materials
including those from the old main gallery were also recycled
for the rebuilding of the side galleries.
The interior of the church was given
back its old character in the original Neo-Gothic style.
With all of the colors, paints, decoration and design, we
tried as much as possible to recreate Adrian Petersson's
concept as found in the photos from 1937.
The renovation of the interior
required using many special, older building techniques, such
as for the framework and floor in the galleries and for
changes made in the floor and ceiling. A new double brick
wall was built between the tower and the sanctuary when the
new organ needed a back wall, in part as support for
reflecting the sound out into the room, and in part to
divide the separate bellows room from the tower. Bricks from
1907 were reused for the wall.
Parallel to the work on the interior,
a thorough exterior renovation was carried out. Most
importantly, the whole west end of the church including the
roof and church tower were rebuilt. The deteriorating parts
were redone and the foundation was renovated.
Since the new North German Baroque
organ's architecture differed from the church's interior and
would be placed in a gallery that would need to fit well
with the aesthetic of the organ, the organ gallery was built
in a 17th-century style. Pillars and beams for the gallery's
frame were built by hand, and the floors of the gallery were
made of strong, tapered planks that were nailed down with
hand-forged nails. On both sides of the organ, music
galleries were built for instrumental and vocal ensembles.
Because of the organ's oiled pure oak façade and the
oak imitation in the church interior, a harmonic color
scheme emerged that balanced the different architectural
languages.
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The Pipes - Prototypes and
Production
Most of the inner parts of the
Schnitger organ in Hamburg St. Jacobi were rescued from the
destruction that took place during World War II. The organ
was dismantled and stored, and thus spared from the fire
caused by an air raid that severely damaged the church in
1944. After the war, the organ was rebuilt by the firm
Kemper. However, it was not until 1993, after extensive
reconstruction, new building and restoration by Jürgen
Ahrend, that one could again experience Schnitger's organ in
its entirety. The Jacobi organ contains the largest amount
of preserved Schnitger pipework in any organ. Even though
much of the material was somewhat changed and re-worked
during renovations and rebuilding, it was still apparent
that this must be the self-evident prototype for our
organ.
The pipe measurements were studied and
analyzed from different perspectives and compared to
measurements from other Schnitger organs. The goal was to
determine the scalings and proportions Schnitger used in
building the Jacobi organ. Through the help of an ultrasonic
device, the additional measurements of the pipe wall
thickness and its variation could be obtained and
documented, for instance. All of the measurements were
placed on a diagram that was perhaps similar to what
Schnitger's pipemakers used in his workshop. Many test pipes
were made to test the materials and dimensions and to
develop the tools, such as old-style scraping tools and
tools for scribing the mouths, that could help us to achieve
the same effect heard in the historical pipes.
The Hamburg St. Jacobi organ contains
pipes of more than three generations of organ builders: Hans
Scherer, Sr. and Jr. (1588/1605), then Gottfried Fritzsche
(1635-36), then Arp Schnitger (1688-93). Schnitger used some
of the stops of the earlier organs, and this is the overall
concept we followed. Since the construction and material of
the pipes are different from one builder to the next, we had
to reconstruct three different methods, three different
dialects from 17th-century North German organ
building.
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The Organ Pipes and Their
Production
All of the organ pipes were made in
the pipe workshop under Munetaka Yokota's direction. Of the
54 stops, 52 are metal and two are wood. Metal pipes, of
many different sorts and sizes, are made of various alloys
of tin and lead. Two main types of pipes exist: flue and
reed pipes. The flue pipe construction is reminiscent of a
recorder: the tone is formed by a long, narrow wind stream
that crosses the pipe's upper lip, where it creates
oscillations that cause the air column in the pipe body to
vibrate. The construction of a reed pipe is similar to that
of a car horn; the tone is generated by a metal tongue that
vibrates against a metal shallot when wind streams through
the pipe.
Flue pipes
The first step in making flue pipes is
casting the metal. For each pipe, the most appropriate metal
sheet is selected. The sheet is scraped and planed,
occasionally hammered to give the metal the desired
structural and acoustical properties. The pipe sheet is cut
and its exact mouth form is scribed according to geometric
patterns derived from our historical models. When the mouth
has been cut out, the sheet is rounded and soldered
together. Then the three parts of the pipe - foot, languid,
and body - are soldered together. If the work has been done
correctly, the pipe comes out already capable of making
sound, without adjustments. Then follow subtle adjustments
until the final sound is achieved. Different stops have
different pipe forms, measurements, and construction. For
example, the pipe bodies can be cylindrical or conical, and
can have either wide or narrow scaling.
Reed Pipes
Reed pipes are made in another way and
with different material. Their central parts consist of a
brass tongue and a shallot made of brass, and a tin and lead
alloy. Making the reeds is precision work. The shallots in
our organ were made by Jostein Pedersen. The shallot is
mounted in a bored hole in a piece of wood called the block,
and the tongue is wedged against the shallot. The block is
placed in another part of the pipe, called the boot, also
made of wood. A resonator (conical or cylindrical metal
tube) is placed on the block. The resonator strengthens the
fundamental pitch and certain overtones, thus providing the
pipe with its proper sound characteristics.
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Click to enlarge
The Keydesk
The place from which the organist
maneuvers the organ is called the keydesk or console. There
are keyboards for hands (manuals) and feet (pedals) and the
stop knobs for all of the stops, or voices of the organ.
Organ builders invested a great deal of detail into forming
the keydesks. The keydesk should be miniature mirrors of the
harmony of the façade. The keydesk decorations are
like a microcosm that should inspire the music-making. With
all of its details, stop knobs and keyboards, the keydesk
must have appeared unbelievably advanced to the Baroque
folk.
Schnitger's keydesk from the
Lübeck Dom organ is preserved at the Museum für
Kultur und Geschichte, Lübeck. It had been removed and
sent to the museum when the firm Walcker built an organ
(1892-93) behind Schnitger's façade. To facilitate
the building process of our keyboards, the museum loaned the
Lübeck keydesk to the Göteborg project during most
of 1997. It was with great anticipation that we opened the
newly arrived wooden box one February morning that year:
certainly that organ was regularly played and cared for by
Dieterich Buxtehude, organist in Lübeck St. Mary's
Church. And Johann Sebastian Bach must also have played
those keys when he visited Lübeck during the
Advent-Christmas season in 1705. The worn keys were a
testimony to 200 years of use and also revealed that the
organists played mostly on the Hauptwerk and
Rückpositiv. The keydesk construction and material was
documented in detail.
Even if we had wished to, we could not
build an exact copy of the keydesk. The new organ was to
have four manuals and the keydesk from Lübeck had
three. In the course of his whole life, Schnitger only built
two large organs with four manuals: Hamburg, St. Nikolai
(1682-87) and St. Jacobi. Unfortunately, neither of those
keydesks is preserved. Therefore, it was necessary to try to
analyze the Lübeck keydesk construction, compare it
with others, and on the basis of these results, to formulate
a concept with four manuals.
In this work, the organ in the Grote
Kerk, Zwolle was an important reference. The organ was
initiated by Arp Schnitger but finished after his death by
his sons Frans Caspar and Johann Georg. Originally, the
Zwolle keydesk had four manuals, and even though they are
not entirely preserved today, some extant keys and
mechanical parts gave us important information.
The North German Baroque organ keydesk
was built by Endre Kerekes. All of the details were formed
in keeping with the prototype. The keys are of oak faced
with boxwood and palisander, the music rack has a walnut
veneer. The elegant ornaments that Harald Sandler carved are
also out of walnut.
The manuals in our keydesk are
partially different than the keyboards one could find on
Schnitger's organs. We have added two or three extra keys,
so-called subsemitones, in every octave. Subsemitones
existed before Schnitger's time, from 1636 in St. Jacobi,
Hamburg, for example, when Matthias Weckmann served as
organist 1655-74. Weckmann came from the electoral court in
Dresden where Heinrich Schütz, who was well-acquainted
with Italian music, was responsible for the music. Weckmann
and his contemporary organists became the new musical
ambassadors in the north. From the organ galleries, they
played new music with court musicians, the so-called
Organistenmusik, while musicians under the leadership of the
cantor played more traditional church music and motets from
the choir.
At that time, organs were tuned in
meantone tuning, a wonderful temperament in which the triads
had purely tuned major thirds. Much symbolism was embedded
in the triad. The triad represented complete harmony and
therefore symbolized the Trinity. This tuning could not be
sacrificed! But the temperament was limited to only seven
keys or modes. Newly composed music created the necessity of
expanding the modal or tonal spectrum, which was solved by
adding subsemitones and more keys within each octave.
Matthias Weckmann played the Jacobi organ Rück Positiv
with subsemitones, and thus was able to perform with vocal
and instrumental ensembles, and was even able to play pure
thirds up to F# major. In turn, the instrumentalists and
singers played pure intervals, which created colorful
harmonic progressions in the modulations found in the new
music. Since the vision for our project was to create an
instrument that could be used with all 17th-century organ,
vocal, and instrumental music, we chose this concept without
any hesitation.
The stopknobs are carved from
applewood after the prototype of Schnitger's organ in
Cappel. The preserved stop jambs from Hamburg and
Lübeck were studied. We found that the stop jambs from
Hamburg are probably from the early 19th century. At least
the writing on the stop jambs was from this period, as was
discernable when they were compared with the stop jambs from
Lübeck that are mostly like the original calligraphy.
Therefore, we chose to use the Lübeck jambs as our
prototype.
The organ is full of mechanisms and
wind channels that are operated from the keydesk. Under the
floor, one can find a network of mechanical connections and
hundreds of meters of trackers The (long, thin wooden
slats). The organist initiates the motion and impulses from
the keydesk to the windchests and their valves through the
action. The action consists of trackers, rollers, and
squares. The rollers transfer the motion sideways, and the
squares, made of hand-forged iron, transfer the motion 90û.
The mechanisms that lead the motion from the stop knobs to
the sliders are proportionally larger than the key action,
and contain many parts of forged iron, including backfalls,
which transfer the motion in the opposite
direction.
Nearly all of the forged parts in the
organ, from the hinges to the squares, were made in the
blacksmith shop at Terra Nova on the Göteborg harbor.
There, a merchant ship from 1738, the Ostindiefararen
Götheborg III, is being reconstructed. The master
blacksmith, Bert Johansson, directed the work in the
blacksmith shop.
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The Wood Carvings
Baroque organ façades were
richly ornamented with wood carvings and sculptures that,
along with the whole architecture of the organ, made visual
the angel choirs' music-making, music's heavenly and cosmic
essence, the harmony of creation, and the city's power and
prosperity. Renaissance symmetry and elegant carvings and
sculptures were transformed in the High Baroque period to
dynamic garlands of acanthus leaves that adorn the
façades pipe flats and angel musicians. Organ
façades resonated with the architecture in Hanseatic
cities. More or less richly ornamented house gables framed
the streets toward the tower where the courthouse's splendid
façade presented itself. On the harbor, it was not
rare to see large merchant- and warships side-by-side,
mirroring their magnificent sterns. The wood carvers worked
on all of these objects.
The North German Baroque organ
carvings, like the entire façade, have the Schnitger
organ in the Lübeck Dom as their prototype. The
well-known woodcarver Jakob Budde and his apprentices and
journeymen worked for several years on Schnitger's organ.
Today, a pulpit and some other preserved parts of his work
are housed in the Lübeck Jacobikirche. The hallmark of
his work, including the carvings he did for Schnitger's
organ, consists of lively and impressive forms, a personal
stamp and dynamic style that belongs to the High Baroque
period. Unfortunately, none of his ornamentation from
Schnitger's façade is extant. Therefore, naturally,
we had to pursue our desire to reconstruct the wood carvings
in the Lübeck Dom façade.
But how exactly were the carvings
done, and what did they look like in Schnitger's time? At
that point in the project, we did not know that Budde
actually worked in the church during the 1690s. We discussed
the alternative of choosing a somewhat simpler concept as a
point of departure, for instance, Hamburg St. Jacobi. In any
case, we were convinced that genuine antique-style wood
carving was necessary, not only for the overall aesthetic
concept, but for the diffusion of the organ sound. With
their irregular forms, the carvings regulated how much of
the sound would be brought forth, and how the sound would be
spread and diffused, giving the sound a greater complexity
in the room.
Christiane and Harald Sandler,
Germany, were responsible for the design and execution of
the wood carvings in the North German organ. They also led
the work in the wood shop. Their work began in the fall of
1997 with studies of the forms and construction of many of
the Schnitger organ wood carvings. The Sandler couple came
to the conclusion that neither of the alternatives,
Lübeck Dom nor Hamburg St. Jacobi, could be
reconstructed in detail in Örgryte Nya kyrka. With
Hamburg, they had a concrete prototype, but it needed to be
adjusted to the frame measurements of Lübeck. This
meant that certain patterns had to be altered. In the case
of the Lübeck Dom, we had only the preserved photos as
a point of departure. But the patterns from Lübeck
could be recreated even if the depth of the carvings and the
details of the construction were not fully obtainable.
However, we also had to realize that the Schnitger organ in
the Lübeck Dom was placed significantly higher than our
organ in Örgryte Nya kyrka. We took into consideration
the idea that the person standing on the floor of the
Örgryte Nya kyrka should have a similar visual
experience to the person who would have looked at the
Lübeck façade from the floor of the Dom.
Therefore, our carvings could be made somewhat less deep
than the Lübeck carvings. But the Sandler couple
preferred to recreate Budde's life-filled language, which
they considered gave a more artistic and impressive result.
Sketches and clay scale models from both alternatives were
compared, and Budde was unanimously chosen as our prototype
for the carvings.
Christiane and Harald Sandler first
designed the overall concept of the carvings in the pipe
flats. Then for each category, many sketches were made, as
well as scale models of clay, and finally, a full-scale
drawing. Then, they cut and carved an ornament that served
as a prototype for the rest of this type of ornament and
could be used as a model by the other wood carvers in the
workshop. All of the carvings were made of massive oak, the
type of wood Budde probably used in Lübeck. The work
was extensive and it took three persons two years to
complete it.
From below in the church, it is not
possible to grasp what large dimensions the carvings in the
top part of the side towers have. They are more than two
meters high. We planned for additional carvings on the outer
parts of the pedal towers as well as on the top, the
so-called wings and crown. These ornaments are part of the
Lübeck concept, but were most likely not motivated by
an acoustical goal, and thus could not be included within
the project.
Our studies of gilding did not result
in a clear-cut picture. It was indeed clear that the older
builders generally strove to gild the ornaments, possibly to
give visual relief to the whole façade, something we
also concluded when we tested the gilding in Örgryte
Nya kyrka. Different gilding techniques were used during
Schnitger's time, but gilding on gesso seems to have been
the preferred method for this type of ornamentation. We
concluded that the handwork had great significance for the
appearance of the end result, for example, to which extent
and with what kind of evenness the gilding was applied. It
is our hope that in the future, the new organ can be
completed with the rest of the ornaments and the
gilding.
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The Final Stages
All of the details of the organ case
and the related mechanisms were finished and fine-tuned
during the fall of 1998. Simultaneously, the wood carvings
took form and were mounted in the organ façade. In
the pipe workshop, the workers continued to cast the pipe
metal on sand and to make all of the details of the pipes
according to the prototypes.
The pipework was installed in the
following order. First, test pipes were examined in the
organ. When the test pipes were properly adjusted, the rest
of the pipes were made. After the pipes were finished in the
workshop, they were transported to Örgryte Nya Kyrka.
In the church, the pipes were carefully adjusted to produce
the ideal sound, a process called voicing. First, the
lead-rich flue pipes and the tin-rich façade pipes
were voiced. Then, the rest of the flue pipes were added,
and finally, the reed pipes.
During the spring of 1999, all of the
shiny façade pipes made of nearly pure tin were
installed and voiced. They were very carefully lifted into
place. Every one in the workshop helped to lift up the
façade pipes. Afterwards, they all stood on the
church floor, looked up, and marveled at how beautiful the
pipes looked in the façade. It was beginning to look
like a real organ! During the summer, the wood carvings were
completed and installed. For the first time, we could look
at the façade in its entirety.
On a warm summer evening, Sunday,
August 1, 1999, participants in the yearly conference of the
Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde, which took place in
Göteborg, got a taste of the organ's sound, when Harald
Vogel played for them on the first 20 stops. This provided
an excellent opportunity for us to test the organ sound when
the church was filled with people. As a result of this test,
the wind pressure was raised somewhat and some small voicing
adjustments were made. At the end of December, 1999, the
organ was used in a liturgical context in a High Mass on the
4th Sunday in Advent, again with a church filled with
people. No adjustments were necessary, so the work with the
remaining stops and pipes could proceed.
Munetaka Yokota was responsible for
the overall voicing work. Reinalt Klein assisted him by
doing pre-voicing and tuning. The project group (organ
builders and researchers) gathered regularly in
Göteborg to follow the work and to continue the
documentation of the project. In working with the test
pipes, Munetaka Yokota experimented with different voicing
techniques Schnitger might have used. Here, Yokota could
test in real life the documentation that had been gathered
earlier on the smaller, well-preserved Schnitger organs. It
was an exciting development! With the documentation of all
of the pipes in Hamburg St. Jacobi and various reference
organs, a world of sound we had dreamed of and waited for
gradually became a reality. Sometimes we encountered
problems that were difficult to overcome. Other times we
took short study trips to complete the documentation or to
try out the test pipes in the original organs. New
discoveries or sometimes confirmations of hypotheses gave
our work new impetus.
The general aim of the voicing work
was to bring out the best possible sound of every pipe. This
is done by adjusting the volume, the color, and speech, with
careful attention to the balance among the various stops and
individual tones. After the pipes were tested in different
combinations of stops with various musical examples, the
fine adjustments could be made. During the voicing, we began
with a preliminary pitch reference, which was later replaced
by the final pitch.
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The Disposition of the
Organ
The 54 stops of the North German
Baroque organ are divided among five divisions (Werck,
Rück Positiv, Ober Positiv, Brust Positiv, and Pedal)
and are played from four manuals (keyboards) and pedal.
Actually, it is like having several organs in the same
instrument. The organist can play echoes by playing the same
chord on different manuals, which will sound from different
parts of the room. This can also be done with contrasting
colors and dynamics.
The whirling cosmic sounds that could
result were represented in the Baroque time by the heavens,
the universe, and music made by choirs of angels, that is,
all of the full divisions of the organs played in
alternation. And the organists created, in the introductory
and concluding organ playing in the liturgical service, a
kind of music of the heavenly gates. In his musical,
philosophical treatise Musurgia Universalis (1650),
Athanasius Kircher described a world in which there would be
only a large organ, a world organ, that was played by the
caretaker and leader of the universe, the actual Creator.
But the organ, the queen of instruments, should also contain
all other musical instruments. Many popular Baroque
instruments were named, such as dulcian, zinck, trumpet,
bassoon, recorder, and cornet. The dispostion of an organ
encompasses all of these voices.
See
the specification and technical description of the
organ.
The disposition reveals a complete
menu from the Baroque world of sound. Behind all of these
names are living sounds and musical character, the sounds
that once inspired Buxtehude and Bach! The vision took us on
a long but fascinating trip toward the organ masters'
secrets. Now we know that there is no simple answer for the
question of why the historical pipes sound different than
the modern ones. But we have shown that today, it is
possible to create pipes that have the same complex beauty
as Arp Schnitger's! It is a profound experience of beauty
that enriches and moves the soul, one that future
generations can receive as a heritage and an
inspiration.
Welcome to the soundscape of our
vision become reality! Enjoy
listening to the queen of
instruments in Örgryte Nya kyrka!
(Recording from the
inauguration by Sveriges Radio.)
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© GOArt
2000
Updated Aug. 30,
2000
by Alf
Åslund
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