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Historia organów firmy Rieger w kościołach jezuickich na terenie Krakowa

100%

Matoga P.

Folia Organologica. International yearbook of organ and organ music

2019

issue 2

51-69

History and activity of the Rieger company were the subject of several publications using, among others, catalogues and advertisements published by the company. The article concerns the history of pipe organs of the company in two Jesuit churches of Kraków: St. Barbara’s Church and the Sacred Heart’s Church. The beginning of development of music in the Jesuit order took place under the rule of the general Claudio Acquaviva, who at the beginning, in 1608, allowed to use the pipe organ and woodwind instruments in churches, and yet in 1611 he agreed to employ secular instructors of music, what next allowed to establish music schools. The musical chapel, active in Kraków from the 17th century and competing with the chapel of St. Mary’s Basilica, was an important element of Jesuit activity in the field of music. St. Barbara’s Church was created through rebuilding the 14th-century cemetery chapel at the St. Mary’s Basilica’s Cemetery. In 1583, the church was given to Jesuits, who discovered an organ in it. The new instrument, finished in 1688, was sold in 1731 and replaced by a significantly smaller one, and then the next one, built in 1865 by Antoni Sapalski. In order to build the new organ, which has been preserved until today, the monks contacted the company of Gebrüder Rieger from Jägerndorf, which in 1894 presented the first project of the disposition, and then the official cost estimated model. Yet in December 1894 the final acceptance of the mechanic instrument (Opus 457) with two keyboards and pedal took place. It was equipped with 16 ranks, including 5 in the multiplex system. In 1913, the organ was equipped with the electric motor. Moreover, two pipes were changed then. In 1917 and 1918 Stanisław Żebrowski from Kraków made the repair. In June 1918 pipes from the case were taken to be used for war purposes. The person who removed them was Josef Kloss, the technical director of the Rieger company, who went to Kraków to undertake similar actions in other churches of the city as well. During his stay, he lived in the Jesuit monastery at the St. Barbara’s Church. In 1919 S. Żebrowski cleaned and tuned the organ. In February 1920 he installed the missing pipes of the case, commissioned from the Rieger company. The same organ builder had a conflict with the general of Jesuits in 1927. The reason for that was that he did the works beyond the written agreement, demanding additional payment. In 1935 the overview of the instrument was made by the Rieger company. In 1964, in the face of the deterioration of the organ, the representative of the Dominik Biernacki of Warsaw’s company, made an overview. The company offered the repair connected with the reconstruction in terms of changing the tracker action, organ’s console and adding “modern” pipes. The works were not realised. In 2007–2009 the church was thoroughly rebuilt. Then, the repair of the instrument took place as well, made by the company of Michał Klepacki from Pępów. The monumental Sacred Heart’s Church in the district of Wesoła was built by Jesuits in 1909–1912, replacing the previous chapel. In the 1920s the offers to build the pipe organ in a new church were made by the following companies: Gebrüder Rieger (1923–1924), Wojciech Zagórda from Czernichów (1925), Joseph Goebel from Gdańsk (1927) and Dominik Biernacki from Włocławek (lack of date). Finally, in November 1927, Jesuits commissioned the instrument from the company of Rieger. Its parts arrived in the church in May 1928 and yet at the beginning of June the final acceptance of the organ took place in the presence of Cracovian musicians: Bolesław Wallek-Walewski and Tomasz Flasza. The ceremony of consecration of the new instrument (Opus 2317) took place on 10th June 1928. Firstly, the organ had 33 ranks, 3 manual keyboards, a pedal and pneumatic tracer action. The instrument was probably damaged as a result of explosions in 1945. It was repaired by the Rieger company in 1947. First serious works with the organ are not scrupulously documented. It is known that on 18th November 1956 the consecration of the instrument after the renovation under the guidance of Prof. Józef Chwedczuk took place. The executor of the works was probably the company of Wacław Biernacki from Kraków. The number of voices was extended to 45, and tracker action was replaced by an electro-pneumatic one. In 1972 the pipe organ was tuned and in 1981 several repairs were made by Lech Skoczylas from Kraków. In 1989 the repair was made by Albert Kunz and Lech Skoczylas from Kraków. In 2007 the reconstruction was made by Michał Klepacki from Pępów after the consultations with Jerzy Kukla from Lublin. The number of voices increased to 47, new bellows were built, the console was installed as well as electronic memory system. The earlier organ console of the Rieger company is currently kept in the side part of the gallery. The presented article proves that the Rieger company with its seat in Silesia to some extent shaped the picture of organ building in the territory of Southern Poland since the end of the 19th century.

Organy w kościele Świętego Krzyża w Bytomiu-Miechowicach. Historia i koncepcja rekonstrukcji

100%

Koenig F.

Folia Organologica. International yearbook of organ and organ music

2018

issue 1

59-73

The article presents the history of the organ in the church dedicated to the Holy Cross in Bytom-Miechowice and the concept of recreating in the temple a historical instrument from 1905. History of the organ in the church of the Holy Cross in Miechowice dates back to at least a few centuries ago and concerns instruments found in the previous baroque church from the 17th century which was made famous by Fr. Norbert Bonczyk in the poem Old Church of Miechów from 1879. The earliest reports about the organ in Miechowice come from the visit protocols from the first half of the eighteenth century which mention the existence of 5-voice organ located on the music choir of the church. The studies on the church in Miechowice specify that the last organ in the so-called “old church of Miechów” was built in 1840 although no specific source is provided. Probably after the construction of the present church (the so-called new church) and its dedication in 1865, the organs were moved to the new temple. Archival research shows that at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the instrument was taken care of by, among others, T. Cieplik, once an organist of this church and later the founder of the musical conservatory in Bytom and a merchant, and E. Kurzer, an organ maker from Gliwice. The firm of Paul Berschdorf from Nysa also took part in renovating the organ in Miechowice. In the parish archives, bills have been kept which confirm the work of the mentioned people. Later, the organ was replaced with a new instrument. However, until 2014, it was not clear who its builder was and when it was built. The original documents were probably in the possession of the founders and they are not in the parish archives. It was only archival research abroad in Cologne and Leipzig in November and December 2014 (Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln; Deutsche National Bibliothek Leipzig) which made it possible to establish that in 1905 the new 26-voice organ was built in the temple by Schlag und Söhne company from Świdnica. The instrument survived until the 1960s. Thanks to the research, its exact disposition is known and we have learnt that the company of Carl Berschdorf also worked on the instrument offering in 1939 its full extension to 42 voices. This project, however, was never realized due to the outbreak of World War II. In the 1960s, intensive work on removing the effects of mining damage was carried out in the church. Then, Schlag’s organ was dismantled and the case and the beautiful neo-gothic facade fitting the entire interior of the temple were destroyed. Fortunately, the only photograph of the Schlag organ prospectus has survived in the parish chronicle. In 1968, a temporary instrument was built on the basis of the former organ which remains in use today. Presently, further work is in progress being the next stage of saving the temple of the Holy Cross. First of all, the process of leveling the church must take place. A conception has therefore arisen that, in view of the need to completely renew the structure and interior of the temple, the historical 26-voice instrument from 1905 should be restored. An early project was prepared by Julian Gembalski from the Academy of Music in Katowice. Currently, work is underway to create technical and executive designs that are to be included in the overall cost estimate of the planned temple revitalization project. The matter seems more urgent since the cost estimates are to be approved in November 2019. The assumptions of the initial project by prof. J. Gembalski combine the desire to recreate the organ in its external form with a certain pragmatism in relation to the technical side of the instrument. In this case, it is not about making a faithful copy of Schlag’s organ, but rather a new instrument adapted to the place and time employing the latest achievements in the field of organ building. The project therefore includes the construction of the casing and having the architectural prospectus reconstructed in appropriate proportions based on the preserved photograph. The organ is to receive 26 voices divided into two manuals and pedal, but with a slightly widened range of keyboards which is to create better performance conditions for the music (up to “g3” in the manual and up to “f1” in the pedalboard). Although there were probably conical windchests in the historical instrument, it seems interesting to propose the use of electromagnetically operated slider and pallet windchests. What needs to be taken into account is not only the sound but also the durability of newer techniques and lower maintenance costs in the future. Still, when deciding to employ newer technical solutions, the quality of the sound cannot be overlooked. Therefore, there is a need to examine other Schlag und Söhne instruments from the same period in terms of parameters affecting the sound of the organ like mensuration, materials used, construction details of the pipes, and finally their intonation.

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2 Folia Organologica. International yearbook of organ and organ music

1 2019

1 2018

1 Koenig F.

1 Matoga P.

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Historia organów firmy Rieger w kościołach jezuickich na terenie Krakowa

Organy w kościele Świętego Krzyża w Bytomiu-Miechowicach. Historia i koncepcja rekonstrukcji