Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1987
New organ
www.orgelbau.ch/ope=113180
III/P/53
Switzerland, Basle-Town
Ref. Pauluskirche
A Jewel of the Art Nouveau
The previous organ of St. Paul's Church in Basel was built in 1901 by the organ builder Jakob Zimmermann (1869-1929). In 1892 he had taken over the Basle branch of the organ building firm Carl G. Weigle of Stuttgart-Echterdingen, which had been established in Basle in 1885 by Karl Weigle.
The interior as well as the outer appearance (case and facade) of this pneumatic organ (III/P/35) was altered in 1939/41 and the instrument continued to render its services. However, from a technical point of view it became more and more unreliable and eventually the option of having a new organ built was considered. In 1981 the organ committee recognised the following considerations:
The intact room, the condition of the case and the tonal qualities of a large number of the stops spoke in favour of a new instrument in the manner of a reconstruction i.e. an instrument should be built which would reflect how it could, in ideal circumstances, have stood in St. Paul's Church in 1901.
This decision made by the authorities was also binding for us. The facade which had, in part, been cut down was to be rebuilt in its original form. Luckily the large medallion in the centre had survived and only the 16 ' pipes which had been removed needed reconstructing. The silver sheen of high percentage tin pipes was not in great favour with the Art Nouveau movement. Zinc pipes sprayed in aluminium-bronze were preferred. At that time, however, a different solution to the problem had been found: the front pipes were made of spotted metal (50% tin). Our reconstruction is in keeping with this. The bands of ornamentation which run in front of the pipes, a typical feature of the Art Nouveau, were also restored or, where necessary, reconstructed.
Out of the 53 sounding stops of the present organ, 30 originate completely or in part from the old instrument. Romantic foundation and solo stops are also to be found among the new additional stops (e.g. Doppelflöte, Viola, Violoncello, Klarinette). The new instrument is therefore wonderfully suited to the performance of Romantic organ music.
The new organ was built with slider windchests and a mechanical action. Particular attention was paid to the technical considerations. A three-manual instrument with six normal couplers is reasonably comfortable to play when the stoplist is Baroque. However, with a Romantic stoplist, a fully mechanical system is stretched to its limits. With miniature elements from the Barker technology we were able to construct a coupling aid which assisted the mechanical system. Known to us internally as the «Basle lever» this system was very successful and led, in later stages of development, to a new type of Barker machine, which we call the «Kuhn lever».
Friedrich Jakob, 2006
Translation: SJR