Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1997

New organ in historical style

Windchests
slider chests
Key action
mechanical
Stop action
mechanical
Inauguration
09.11.1997
Expert
François Seydoux, Rudolf Bruhin
Case design
Uwe Schacht
Voicing
Rudolf Aebischer

Stop list


www.orgelbau.ch/ope=113750

Charmey

II/P/26

Switzerland, Fribourg
Eglise St-Laurent

© pictures Orgelbau Kuhn AG, Männedorf

Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG, 1997

New organ in historical style

Windchests
slider chests
Key action
mechanical
Stop action
mechanical
Inauguration
09.11.1997
Expert
François Seydoux, Rudolf Bruhin
Case design
Uwe Schacht
Voicing
Rudolf Aebischer

The Church of St. Laurent in Charmey purchased its first organ at Christmas 1845. This was an already existing instrument which the organ builder Moritz Mooser of Fribourg, a son of the well-known Aloys Mooser, was offering. At that time no-one had any idea of the «noble» origin of the case and façade.

During the time which followed, the organ was altered and enlarged in a number of ways: in 1898 by Jean Ratzmann, in 1907 by Henri Wolf-Giusto and in 1946/47 Kuhn Organ Builders finally built a new organ (II/26) which incorporated the old case and some of the pipes.

After the completion of an interior restoration of the church in 1986, the question of a renewal of the organ was tentatively addressed. Up until this actually became a reality in 1995/97 there was, however, a long process to follow.

The difficult steps on this journey cannot all be detailed chronologically here, and in this instance we refer to the inauguration booklet from 9th November 1997.
The untiring research of François Seydoux resulted in the following findings:

a) In 1844 Mooser used the old Rückpositiv of the Riepp organ from Salem Monastery for the case of his organ which had afterwards been used in the Stadtkirche in Winterthur and later removed by his father Aloys Mooser.

b) The gilded carvings came from the same source and were crafted by Joseph Anton Feuchtmayer (1696-1770).

c) On the languid of four front pipes (Salicional 8 ') are to be found the original inscription of Karl Joseph Riepp (1710-1775) and his employee Louis Weber dating from the year 1768. The «Liebfrauenorgel» of Salem was built between 1766 and 1768.

Now the aim was to find a new design in which the historical material from Riepp and Mooser could be integrated in a manner as true to the original as possible. A simple reduction down to the original Rückpositiv was neither in terms of size, or musically justifiable considering the size of the church in Charmey. The church community and the Authority for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments finally agreed to the following solution: the central five façade sections are an exact reconstruction of the former Rückpositv; to the sides they were extended by two additional, larger elements. The whole of the substructure of the case is newly designed.


Translation 2008: SJR


Stop list


www.orgelbau.ch/ope=113750