The Holiest Master’s
11th August 2006
The picture: Mr. Ján Přibyl
and me.
The
church was built in the years 1929-1932 according to the plan of a Lublan
architect Josipa Plečnika. The organ is electro pneumatic, the table, which has
4 manuals, stands on the right side of the choir.
After
the organ had been constructed, it was not possible to install a new organ
immediately. In the first years, a small organ was used during
a mess. The small organ was driven to the church
from a former school St Alois ´s Chapel.
More information about the organ is not known. It was sold somewhere to the borderland
in 1936 when the new organ was built. According to Jana Přibyl it was bought
and enlarged for Saint Agnes Church at Spořilov and the money gained from the
selling was used for the expenses on the new instrument. The company„Josef Mölzer“from Kutná
Hora built the new organ in 1936. The disposition was designed by the prelate
Dr. O. Stanovský. Mr. Vojtěch Smolík was the director of the choir at that
time. The organ was blessed on the Golden Sunday in 1936. The console was
constructed from a pure larch wood; bulbs were installed on it in a form
of line. The table was situated into the middle of the choir and it had four
manuals and a pedal. Around the manuals into the half of an ellipse, there
were 95 register joints, two free combinations and handling of various
additional mechanisms. Only three manuals were really in operation. The pipes
for the forth manual should have been situated in the church tower and the
sound should have been floating as an echo into the church through two windows
above the altar. The fourth manual should have had 23 registers. The manual should have been electro pneumatic
and the whole manual should have been constructed as so called „systém unit“.
So the whole organ was situated on the main choir. It had three manuals and the
pedal was divided in 45 registers. The number of pipes was 3234, the wind trunk
was cylindrical and the instrument was pneumatic.
Pedal:
Joints:
1.
Principalbas
16‘
1. Pedal I
2.
Violonbas
16‘
2. Pedal II
3.
Subbas
16‘
3. Pedal III
4.
Salicetbas
16‘
4. Pedal IV
5.
Octavebas
8‘ 5.
II-I
4‘
6.
Cello
8‘
6.
II-I
8‘
7.
Pozoun
6‘
7. II-I
16‘
1st
Manual: 8.
III-I
4‘s
8.
Principal
16‘
9.
III-I 8‘
9.
Principal
8‘
10. III-I 16‘
10.
Salicional
8‘
11.
I-I
4‘
11.
Viola
8‘
12. I-I 16‘
12.
Flute hollow
8‘
13. II-II 4‘
13.
Octave
4‘
14.II-II 16‘
14.
Mixtura
2 2/3‘ (5x)
15.
III-II 8‘
15.
Tromba
8‘
16. III-III 4‘
17.IV-I
8‘
2nd
Manual:
16.
Kvintadena
16‘
18. IV-II 8‘
17.
Principal
8‘
19. IV-III 8‘
18.
Gamba
8‘
20. General joint
19.
Dolce
8‘
21. Switch 16‘
20.
Concerto flute 8‘
22. Switch of languages
21.
The thick cover
8‘ 23.
Switch of the 2nd manual from the
cylinder
22.
Kopula
4‘
24. Switch of the 3rd manual from the
cylinder
23.
Prestant
4‘
25. Switch of registers
24.
Nasard
2 2/3‘
26. Free combination 1
25.
Flautina
2‘
27. Free combination 2
26.
Larigot
1 1/3‘
28. Pianopedal
27.
Cymbal
2‘ (3x)
Stiff combination:
28.
Clarinet
8‘
29. Piano
3rd
Manual:
30. Forte
29.
Cover fine
16‘
31. Mezzoforte
30.
Houslovka
8‘
32. Fortissimo
31.
Aeolina
8‘
33. Pleno
32.
Vox celestis
8‘
34. Tutti
33.
Cover
8‘
35. Tremolo 2‘‘
34.
Flute fine
8‘
36. Tremolo 3‘‘
35.
Flute traversa 4‘
37. Tremolo 4‘‘
36. Flute
trubicová
4‘
38. Cylinder
37.
Horn
2‘
39. Jalousies of the 3rd manual
38.
Kvinta
2 2/3‘
40. Jalousies of the 4th manual
39.
Flagiolet
2‘
41. Indicator
of the cylinder
40.
Terc
1 3/5‘
42. Indicator of the jalousies of the 3rd
manual
41.
Septima
1 1/7‘
43. Indicator of the jalousies of the 4th
manual
42.
Oboe
8‘
44. Indicator of the wind
A proposal
of the register disposition which has never been realized:
43.
Tuba
16‘
44.
Bordun
16‘
45.
Flute
vel.
16‘
46.
Gamba
8‘
47.
Vox
celestis
8‘
48.
Cover
8‘
49.
Flute fine
8‘
50.
Šalmaj
8‘
51.
Viola
4‘
52.
Vox
celestis
4‘
53.
Tibia
4‘
54.
Clairon
4‘
55.
English horn
4‘
56.
Horn
4‘
57.
Nasard
2 2/3‘
58.
Kvinta
2 2/3‘
59.
Violina
2‘
60.
Piccolo
2‘
61.
Flautina
2‘
62.
Polnice
2‘
63.
Night horn 2‘
64.
Terc
1 3/5‘
65.
Subbas pedal
16‘
During
the following decades the bad condition of the organ called for a complete
repair. On this occasion the register disposition was changed as a result
of the late influence of the „Orgelbewegung“ movement.
The reconstruction started in 1972, the organist Vilém Pejša was working on the
reconstruction (during his life he had built an organ in the Klatovy Theatre
and probably in Kopřivnica as well). During several years he managed to build
a new table and the second manual, but he did not finish the work, because
he died at the beginning of the nineties.
After
him the organist František Bilský was working on the reconstruction, he was
a member of the then organ company „Igra Praha“. He finished the
reconstruction of the instrument. The general reconstruction was completed on
the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the church blessing in 1992. It is
necessary to add that during the twenty years when the organ had been out of
operation, a small two-manual organ was built temporarily on the choir.
According to the organist František Bilský, it was an organ of Em. Š.
The
changes influenced the prospect of the organ as well. The front row of the
middle part was arranged in a completely different manner, the pipes are
lowered in the direction to the middle, and as an ornament five dummies of copper
pipes were situated into the middle of the prospect. The table has again four
manuals and again the 4th manual is out of order. It was supposed that it would
be connected to the electronic synthesizer with loudspeakers behind the altar.
I have to confess that I do not support such experiments because of
practical reasons and because of certain sound aesthetics. The organ in the
church is under the influence of the whole-year temperature changes which have
a direct impact on the instrument tuning. So it is continuously changing
but mostly the changes influence the organ as a unity (the exception
represent for example tongue voices, the changes are into a different
extend than for example at labial voices). As the consequence of the above mentioned
I suppose that the planned adaptation of the synthesis sound
mechanisms would not collide with
these processes. In my opinion I find the then Mölzer´s design of
a distant pipe mechanism very interesting and real.
The
current disposition:
1st
Manual: (C-a3) 2nd
Manual:
Principal
16‘
Cover
8‘
Principal
8‘
Kvintadena
8‘
Cover
8‘
Kopula
4‘
Salicionál
8‘
Principal
4‘
Octave
4’ Horn
2‘
Flute tube
4’
Kvinta 1 1/3‘
Superoctave
2’
Flute
syčivá
1‘
Mixtura
1 1/3’
(6x)
Cymbál
2/3‘(3x)
Trompeta
8‘
Klarinet
8‘
3rd
Manual:
Pedal:
(C-f1)
Cover
16‘
Principalbas
16‘
Principal
8‘
Subbas
16‘
Flute
8‘
Salicetbas
16‘
Vox angelika
8‘+ 4‘
Octavebas
8‘
Prestant
4‘
Flute špičatá
8‘
Flute
horizonatal 4‘
Choirbas
4‘
Nasard
2 2/3‘
Mixtura
22/3‘
Flageolet
2‘
Pozoun
16‘
Tercie
1 3/5‘
Akuta
1‘ (5x)
Oboe
8‘
Joints:
III/II 8‘, III/II 16‘, III/II 4‘, I 4‘, II/I 8‘, III/I 8‘, III/I 16‘, III/I
4‘, III 16‘,
III 4‘,P/I 8‘, P/II 8‘, P/III 8‘, P/II 4‘, P/III 4‘
Additional
mechanisms: Switch of manual registers, Tremolo II. m., Tremolo III. m., Switch of languages, Free combination-IV,
Pléno Tutti, Switch of crescenda, Switch of joints , Automatic pedal, Crescendo
cylinder, Jalousies of the 3rd manual.
Worked out by Ján Přibyl.
You can download the above
mentioned description
here as
a Word document.
I thank Ján Přibyl for
showing the organ.