Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1993
New organ
www.orgelbau.ch/ope=113550
II/P/15
Switzerland, Zurich
Kath. Kirche St. Stephan
In considering the architectural design of the organ, two separate problems required consideration. One of these was, as is so often the case, the need to pay respect to the large and colourful rose window in the west wall. It is always problematic when an organ has to be built around something else instead of being free to simply follow the design principles of the organ itself, as the remaining wall space never has an ideal shape for an organ. The logical design of the upper edge of the organ would actually have been a concentric curve around the rose window. This is not, however, a practical shape to incorporate into an organ design. As a compromise, the organ roughly surrounds the window and highlights the circular form with certain elements. Also to be born in mind was avoiding the partial concealment of the window when viewed from a different perspective from that of the parallel projection as seen on the plans. The three possibilities shown in the diagrams give an idea of the considerable planning work which went into the organs eventual design. In such cases this is essential so that all parties concerned are convinced of the effectiveness of the end result.
The other design problem was of a historic nature. The church was built at the turn of the last century in richly decorated Neo-Gothic style. In the sixties, this architectural period did not yet stand under protection and features of it were widely wiped out. During the most recent total renovation of the church in 1993 an attempt was made to re-establish something of the style of the Neo-Gothic in the interior, so as to return to more coherence between the style of the room itself and that of its furnishings. The organ, with a modern design, was an integral part of this idea.
From a musical point of view, there were similar tricky problems to solve. In spite of very modest finances, an instrument was to be built which could offer a wealth of possibilities for both liturgical use, with the manifold accompaniment functions connected with it, and also for concert use. For this reason a purely Baroque style positive organ did not come into question. The small Schwellwerk was given a string stop and a reed stop, which tends towards the Romantic in character.
The flue pipes of in the Pedal Organ are constructed as mechanical transmissions from the Hauptwerk. The Fagott 8 ' is the only real pedal stop. This stop gives the pedals a solo voice as well as facilitating independence in the pedal line when playing in plenum without couplers. With only 15 sounding stops in total, the three transmissions and a double-draw helped to make possible a very economical design which could offer rich musical variety.
Translation 2008: SJR