ACTA ORGANOLOGICA 33 - Summaries

Danijel Drilo

The Organ builders Heferer in Zagreb

In the year 1849 Michael Heferer (1825–1887) founded an organ workshop in Graz (Steiermark, Austria) which in 1868 he moved to Karlovac (Kroatia). Since 1870 the firm is based in Zagreb. Heferer built Slider-chest-organs at first, switching later to mechanical conechests; he completed 122 organs, leaving the business to his nephew Ferdinand Heferer (1853–1928). Ferdinand introduced pneumatic actions after various designs of his own and occupied himself with such modern registers as Bariton 8', Euphon 16' and Ocarina 4'. The firm did well up to the first world ware. Because Ferdinand had no children his nephew August Faullend Heferer (1881–1941) took on the business. After 1918 the organ business was poor, August Faullend had to concentrate on piano and harmonium construction and the selling of products from outside Kroatia. His son Ivan Faullend, born in 1927, could do scarcely any better. Since 1991, working with his two sons, he is active as restaurator for organs, positives, historic pianos and harmoniums.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 267-298]


Andreas Hahn

The Baroque Organ in Dreilützow

This magnificent instrument with 6 stops and no pedal was constructed in 1708 by an unknown organ builder. It was originally thought to be owned by the family von Diethmersen in Lüneburg, and was later installed in the Lüneburg Church St. Lambert. In 1801 the organ was relocated to the church at Camin (Mecklenburg) where, in 1833, Friedrich Friese added a pedal. The organ has been in Dreilützow (Mecklenburg) since1853. It was there that the bellows mechanism and keyboard were changed. In 1917 the façade pipes were removed and later in 1945 and 1946 the organ lost more pipes. In 1953, the company Alexander Schuke (Potsdam) began the restoration and a partial reconstruction of the organ. The restoration and reconstruction were continued in 2004 by the organ builders Jehmlich of Dresden. The missing Tromet 8' stop, the manual keyboard and a seven fold bellows were built and installed. About 41% of the 174 original pipes (from 1708) were still useable. The pitch is 450 Hz at 15 °C and the wind pressure 65 mm water column. The Werckmeister III temperment was used for tuning.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 41-72]


Andreas Ostheimer

The English Organ of the New Apostolic Church in Lindau and its Flue Pipe Scaling

In 2011, the New Apostolic Church in Lindau received an organ from England that had previously stood in Millbrook, Greater Manchester. The construction of the organ has been attributed to George Benson (ca. 1885). However, it has been suggested that some of the details on the organ case and keyboard point to the instrument having been built approximately 15 years earlier (ca. 1870) by Henry Willis. This theory is based on comparisons of the Lindau organ with several smaller instruments by Benson, Willis and Alexander Young. Further, the scaling of the flue-stops was researched, the results being incorporated into diagrams (as per H. Klotz), scale triangles and charts. A comparison with the scaling of other instruments by Henry Willis reveals some exact matches and numerous similarities, further supporting the probability that this organ may have originated from Willis' workshop.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 401-446]


Alfred Reichling / Matthias Reichling

Steinmeyer Organs in the Region of Tyrol. Or: The road to success is often thorny

Towards the end of the 19th century, the general population growth and increasing industrialization, especially in the cities, had an impact on German organ building. New churches were built, for which one needed organs. In addition came the striving toward modernization, which is why many of the existing organs were replaced by new ones. The pace of increase in trade and commerce and the increasing competition among providers often made the lives of organ builders quite hectic. It often happened that the date of the inauguration of the organ had been established along with the dedication date of the new church by the client right at the time that the church construction had just begun. However, the organ builder probably did not know until a few months or even weeks before the delivery date exactly how he would be able to build and install the organ, and afterwards he was sometimes very hard pressed to get payment for any outstanding invoices. An important role was played by negotiations with the respective church architects, sometimes also with the donors. Good examples of these relationships can be seen in the four contracts received by G. F Steinmeyer & Co. in Oettingen for organs in Tyrol (in the borders before 1920): Merano, Protestant Church, 1885; Terlago, Catholic Church, 1887; Innsbruck, Protestant Church, 1906 (successor of an organ by Anton Behmann, 1895, in the old church); Bolzano-Gries, Protestant Church, 1908. The organs of Merano and Terlago were built under the direction of company founder Georg Friedrich Steinmeyer with mechanical cone chests. They still have the original tin façade pipes today. The two later organs were built during the firm’s management by Johannes Steinmeyer and they had pneumatic actions with membrane wind chests and zinc façade pipes. The Innsbruck organ, which was funded to a significant extent by the Baroness Marie von Mangoldt (Traunstein) is unchanged, and the newest organ in Bolzano-Gries was a victim of World War II. The old Behmann organ of Innsbruck (pneumatically rebuilt by Karl Reinisch) is since 1907 at the Holy Spirit Church at Matrei am Brenner.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 299-400]


Hildegard Tiggemann

Bückeburg Organ Building Sites during the Thirty Years' War

In the years 1612–1620 Esaias Compenius built an organ for the Lutheran town church at Bückeburg which was funded by Count Ernst II of Holstein-Schaumburg. Compenius was a very famous and skillful organ builder, but also known for his unreliability, which is why the construction of this organ dragged on for quite some time. Esaias' son and co-worker Adolph Compenius was awarded the contract for the construction of an organ in the Reformed Castle Church in Bückeburg in 1617. He married in 1619 the daughter of a Bückeburg citizen and was thus able to establish his own business in Bückeburg. In 1621 he built an organ for the St. Nikolai church in Rinteln.In 1626 he moved to Hanover, became organist at St. Aegidien and was still active as an organ builder. The beginning of the 1620’s drew Johann Siborg from Göttingen to Bückeburg and among other things he built an organ for Varel (1639). His brother Jost also settled down in Bückeburg down; both were involved from 1634-1643 with building a new organ for the Church of Our Lady in Bremen. From Jost Siborg among other works the construction of new organs at Riepe, Westerhusen, Sengwarden and Meeden (Netherlands) are known.
An extensive digression deals with Michael Praetorius and depictions of King David, Jubal, Pythagoras, etc. on the organs in Riddagshausen and Augsburg, St. Anna (Fugger Chapel).

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 11-40]


Franz Josef Vogt

The Story of the Organ of the Teachers College in Moers

The Teacher's College in Moers on the Lower Rhine was founded in 1823. To help in the training of future teachers, an organ was installed that had, until then, been at Residence Church in Bonn and was the instrument on which Beethoven and his own teacher Neefe had played. During the 19th Century the organ workshop Ibach in Barmen built three instruments, the largest of which probably found its place in the College's auditorium. The last was later transferred to the Teachers' College in Xanten. In 1877, following later construction at the Moers College, a new auditorium organ was delivered by the brothers Oswald and Paul Dinse, organ builders from Berlin. This was followed in 1895 by the installation of a practice Organ (II/P/7) by Friedrich Meyer from Herford. In 1928 the High School Adolfinum acquired the building which was subsequently destroyed during the Second World War.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 73-78]


Klaus Walter / Wolfram Hackel / Gert Rothe

Urban Kreutzbach (1796–1868). His Life and Work

Urban Kreutzbach was born in 1796 in Copenhagen to a German family. In 1820 he journeyed to Saxony and in 1828 founded an organ workshop in Borna, south of Leipzig. He was soon to become one of the leading organ builders in the region. After Urban's death, his sons Bernhard (from 1868 to 1875) and Richard (from 1868 until his death in 1903) managed Kreutzbach's workshop. Amongst the employees of workshop Kreutzbach, several later established their own workshops. These included Friedrich Ladegast, Gotthilf Bärmig, Julius Strobel, Friedrich Gerhardt, Emil Müller and Carl Eduard Schubert. The text provides information on the technical details of the Kreutzbach organs (wind chest, stops, etc.) and then discusses individually in detail all known 89 organs. An overview of those projects not completed is provided in the conclusion.

[Acta Organologica 33, 2013, 79-266]