The organ at the Basilica of St. Martin (Weingarten), the monastery church of Weingarten Abbey was built by Joseph Gabler between 1737 and 1750. In addition to the Great Organ in the Church he also built the small choir organ in 1743, but this has since been renovated or completely rebuilt.
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On 6 July 1737 the initial contract with Gabler was signed, however, before the final completion of the organ it had been revised on a a number of occasions. A fire in the interim monastery buildings and immense financial difficulties of the abbey made the organ designing and building a very lengthy and grueling proses. To make matters worse, Gabler while excellent organ builder, was obviously an extremely poor business man who had neither a sense of money nor had been able to meet deadlines, which meant that he was permanently ruined by this organ. The organ was finally consecrated on 24 June 1750.
The basic problem that Gabler had to solve (with a solution that was deemed downright ingenious), was to build on the west gallery of the church a monumental organ work, without blocking the existing six windows. The system was modeled after the Weingarten organ and later used by Johann Nepomuk Holzhay to solve an analogous problem in Neresheim in the same way.
The organ has some special characteristics: the principal pipes have a generally close to very close mensuriert (Normalmensur), a design that is sound but at the same time odd. It has long been puzzling as to why Gabler found it acceptable to scale the pipes considerably narrower than could have been with such a great space to be filled. At times it was thought that Gabler was actually inept as an organ builder as the design had been called into question in his own lifetime, whereas his skills as a carpenter are unanimously considered superior ("... in which he is a paragon master ..."). Today, by contrast, it is assumed that Gabler's designs often favored aesthetics, while scaling of the ranks, he had wanted a more subdued, intimate and gentle sound. In order to give the organ a certain sonorous power and wealth despite the close scaling, Gabler populated the organ with many polychoral voices in basic timbers. In this way the polychoral registers (as mixtures) received an unusually high number of choir pipes. Nevertheless, the organ known for its mild, chamber musical sound that maintains for itself in plenary a certain introversion.
Also noteworthy is the high number of basic stops, many of which (from the family of the strings) are to be expected. Gabler took on a South German Baroque style of organ building (an existing trend) and expanded it into something monumental.
Also worth mentioning is the abundant "Console Registry" which include: Cuculus (cuckoo), Rossignol (nightingale vocals), timpani, two chimes and the 49-course mixture "La Force" ("The Power"), although only down to the tenor C for the pedal. While the manual carillon is built into the console, the shell-bell carillon of the pedal (built into the console) are artfully arranged on grape bunches (Weingarten!).
The organ is both pure and technically crafted, an absolute masterpiece. The free-standing console, one of the earliest of its kind ever, abounds with intricate inlays and has adorned stop knobs made of solid ivory. The extremely expensive routing of mechanical sound and stop action is unmatched, but has a relatively uncomfortable playing force. The keys must be pressed hard to sound the organ due to all the long, heavy mechanisms that must be moved every time a key is pressed.
However Gabler failed at several points of perfecting his ultimately complex concept: the highest ranks in the swell division (Kronwerk) where never adequately supplied with wind and was therefore realized only with a greatly reduced disposition. Similarly, Gabler apparently failed in the production of a 32' Bombarde, which was converted by him to justify a second 16' rank.
There are several legends about the organ, of which the "Vox Humana saga" is probably the most famous:
Gabler had worked for years to imitate the human voice. But despite all efforts failed in all his attempts. He worked on various types of wood and metal mixtures, but without the desired success. Then the devil whispered in his ear one night that he would help him if he will prescribe him his soul.
Gabler agreed and snuck out of the basilica on a stormy night to the agreed place. The devil appeared and Gabler signed his sole to the devil with his blood and got a piece of metal that he should use to cast pipe.
The pipe was cast as the vox humana and actually sounded as a human voice but his luck did not last long. The monks were, in their song, so confused that they could no longer follow the services with prayer. The abbot convinced Gabler to confesses to the crime. It was decided that Gabler should be burned along with the devil register but before that he should make a worthy replacement. At this Gabler succeeded so well that the abbot graciously pardoned his life.
In 1983, relatively little had been altered by organ restorer Th Kuhn AG ( Männedorf on Lake Zurich ), while largely restored back to the level of 1750. Only the pedal range was extended from C to C-g 0-d 1 and the unequal temperament was defused.
I Main Plant Praestant 16 ' Principal 8 ' Rohrflaut 8 ' Octav I-II 4 ' Superoctav II 2 '+1' Hohlflaut 2 ' Mixture IX-X 2 ' Cimbalum XII 1 ' Sequialter VIII-IX 2 ' Piffaro V-VII 8 ' Trombetten 8 '
II Oberwerk Borders II-III 16 ' Principal tutti 8 ' Cello I-III 8 ' Coppel 8 ' Hohlflaut 8 ' Unda maris 8 ' Solicinale 8 ' Mixture IX-XII 4 '
II Kronpositiv Octav douce 4 ' Viola II 4 '+2' Cimbali II 2 '+1' Nasat 2 '
Echo III plant Borders 16 ' Principal 8 ' Downturns 8 ' Quintatön 8 ' Viola douce 8 ' Octav 4 ' Hohlflaut I-II 4 ' Piffaro doux II 4 ' Superoctav 2 ' Mixture V-VI 2 ' Cornet V-VI 1 ' Hautbois 8 '
IV Positive Breast Principal doux 8 ' Flute douce 8 ' Quintatön 8 ' Violoncello 8 ' Rohrflaut 4 ' Querflaut 4 ' Flute II travers 4 ' Flageolet 2 ' Cornet VIII-XI 2 ' Vox humana 8 ' Hautbois 4 ' Carillon 2 ' Tremulant
Main pedal II double bass 32 '+16' Subbass 32 ' Octavbaß 16 ' Violonbaß II 16 '+8' Mixturbaß V-VIII 8 ' Posaunenbaß 16 ' Bombard 16 ' IL la force 4 ' [note 1] Carillon ped. 2 ' [note 2]
Breast pedal Quintatönbaß 16 ' Superoctavbaß 8 ' Flute douce 8 ' Violoncellbaß 8 ' Hohlflautbaß 4 ' Cornet Bass X-XI 4 ' Sesquialter VI-VII 3 ' Trombetbaß 8 ' Fagottbaß 8 '
*Cuculus (cuckoo: four wooden pipes with wind power) *Rossignol (Nightingale: three pipes in a water basin) *Tympanum (timpani, three wooden pipes (16 ') floating tuned to the tone G) *Cymbala (three bells with wind power (together with Cuculus))
Notes
↑ (La, "the force") A register in which only the deepest pedal note (C) by 49-fold mixture is increased. It is reminiscent in structure and function to a horn-work .
↑ glockenspiel) for the pedal (Cg) and the manual (f-c 3). The bells of the carillon Manual (shell made of bronze bells) are on the console, the carillon bells of the pedal are in the form of grapes (the monastic name of "Weingarten" accordingly) arranged on the table.
63 stops, 6890 pipes (the forecast for 6666 pipes, whistles pedal extension 6631). Wind power :
Frog's mouth or bellows.
Wind loading : grinding shop. Console) :
*Freestanding. *4 manuals, keys made of ivory. *Pedal. *Stop knobs of ivory.
Contracture :
Key action: mechanical Stop action: Mechanical.
Strong patchy, there are hardly any worldly known organist:
*Jacob Reiner († 1606) *Father Paul Rummel († 1654) *Father Boniface Kammerer († 1675) *Father Roman Frey († 1694) *Father Anselm Sulger († 1675) *Dog Father Matthew († 1727) *Father James Merlett († 1727) *Father Meingosus Rottach († 1760) *Father Roman Meyer († 1762) *Father Bernard choice († 1786) *Father Meingosus Gaelle († 1816) *From 1807: Father Placidus to Weingarten († 1819) *Father Steyer († 1819) *1819-1823 (?): Matthew Fischer *From 1823: Matthias Gerum († 1869) *1861-1885: Ottmar Dressler († 1885) *1885-1893: Charles Gansloser († 1921) *1892-1917: Joseph Francis Rummel *1917-1934: Francis Bärnwick *1935-1953: Theodor Lobmiller *1954-1999: Henry Hamm (b. 1934) *Since 2000: Stephan Debeur (* 1965)
↑ Francis Bärnwick: The large organ in the cathedral in the vineyard in Wuerttemberg, built by Josef Gabler. 4 edition. Ehrat and Bärenreiter, Kassel, Ravensburg and 1948th
Commons: The main organ - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files Commons: choir with organ, choir - collection of images, videos and audio files
Information and historical sound recordings from 1938 www.st-martin-weingarten.de - Information on the congregation and organ Homepage for the choir organ Video presentation of the main organ (musical instrument Greifenberger Institute of Customer) Indoors in interactive 360 ° panoramic view