Kuhn Organ Builders Ltd, 2007

New organ

Organ built by
Goll, 1902
Prospekt: Josef Anderhalden, 1737
Windchests
slider chests
Key action
mechanical
Stop action
electrical
Inauguration
20.05.2007
Expert
Rudolf Bruhin
Voicing
Raymond Petzold


www.orgelbau.ch/ope=114150

Engelberg

II/P/26

Switzerland, Obwalden
Klosterkirche, Chororgel

© pictures Orgelbau Kuhn AG, Männedorf

Kuhn Organ Builders Ltd, 2007

New organ

Organ built by
Goll, 1902
Prospekt: Josef Anderhalden, 1737
Windchests
slider chests
Key action
mechanical
Stop action
electrical
Inauguration
20.05.2007
Expert
Rudolf Bruhin
Voicing
Raymond Petzold

The little sister of the largest!

Almost everyone knows it - the largest organ in Switzerland - splendidly adorning the Monastery church of Engelberg. The instrument actually used for the daily liturgy is, however, not this organ, but the choir organ, which is fondly referred to as «the little sister». With 26 sounding stops, this instrument is, however, anything but small. Its dignified size is an expression of the long monastic church music tradition which, from the beginnings, was also a source of inspiration for secular music.

We have replaced the old membrane chest organ, built by Goll in 1902, with a new slider windchest organ. The façade, which dates back to the 18th century, and all the historical stops were incorporated into the new instrument. Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of the advisors and Patres, through this we were able to build a choir organ worthy of its traditional value.

The tonal design of the organ incorporates all stops from the original 1902 specification. This includes a finely differentiated eight foot range in the style of its time of construction. In order to take into account the developments of the 20th century, we have also extended the stoplist with stops which, thanks to expert scaling and voicing, fit harmoniously into the instrument's tonal spectrum as a whole. Taking into account modern aural perception, we altered the 2 2/3 ' mixture ranks in the Hauptwerk in such a way as to enable the lowest rank of the mixture to be turned on or off.

The «Vox humana» stands on a separate windchest with a swell box. It is easily accessible and can also be tuned from the console. In contrast to the previous arrangement, the console was moved roughly 35 cm to the left and now lies exactly in the centre of the façade. Through this the distance across which the action functions have been reduced which is advantageous to the player.


Watercolour of the monastery of Engelberg by Jean-Jacques Sperli (1779-1841), Kilchberg/ZH