Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1990
New organ
www.orgelbau.ch/ope=113310
III/P/66
Switzerland, Schaffhausen
Ref. Kirche St. Johann
The egg of Columbus
The first organ in the protestant church of St. Johann, built in the 15th century, was set on a swallow's nest on the upper north wall at the centre of the middle nave. In 1529 it was broken up in the throws of the Reformation being described as a «disagreeable» "Babstleier" (instrument of the Pope) and tempter towards unchristian Roman worship. When the town council wished to reinstate the organ, there was a hefty reaction from the clergy which resulted in no further attempts being made for almost 300 years. In fact, it wasn't until 1879 that at last Johann Nepomuk Kuhn was given the go-ahead to build a new organ for the church, this time on the west gallery. This instrument was a mechanical cone-chest organ (according to the contract III/P/52). The splendid Neo-gothic case was designed by the then well-known architects and altar builders Franz and August Müller from Wil, Canton St. Gallen. In 1929 there followed alterations, in some respects radical, carried out by Kuhn and in part acting on the (somewhat unwelcome) advice of Albert Schweizer.
During a complete restoration of the church it was decided to look into the issue of the organ once again. At the beginning (in 1979) there was talk of a completely new instrument based on the ideas of the Parisian organist Gaston Litaize. However, the longer time went on, the stronger the call for the preservation of the old organ became. In the meantime the Neo-gothic style was somewhat in favour with the Authority for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments. Meanwhile the building alterations to the interior of the church were underway, independently of any planning or work involving the organ. The plans for the utilization of the church drawn up in 1983 allowed for the church being used as a concert hall with the option of seating the audience facing the other way. To create ideal circumstances for this, the west gallery was set back and in front was constructed a hydraulically raised stage with orchestra tiers.
It was not until this point that the organ builders came into action. Simply put, there were two requirements, one of which ruled out the other, which ought to be met: preserving the organ as a historic monument as closely as possible to its current form, but at the same time setting back the front of the case by at least 2.5 m. The solution to this problem was found in restoring Manual I and II in their original form and moving Manual III (Swell), originally the furthest back, a storey lower, placing this division in the lower part of the case. The Pedal organ, situated at the side, was also altered by arranging the ranks two rows high. At the presentation of this solution in autumn 1985 the town council breathed a sigh of relief, immediately describing the solution publicly as «The egg of Columbus». We described the project more plainly as an «organ modification in the manner of a restoration». The front of the organ could be set back by 288 cm. The instrument was once again given mechanical cone chests with modern Barker machines being fitted for the three manuals. Out of the current 66 stops 51 are completely or partly old, 4 stops were reconstructed and 11 were newly added, mainly in the Swell.
Friedrich Jakob, 2006
Translation: SJR