History
The organ of St. Zenone, Boara Polesine/Veneto (40 km south of Venice) is a beautiful
example of a large-sized organ of the famous Venetian organ builder Gaetano
Callido. This is confirmed by the presence of the Contrabassi 16’, made of open
wooden 16’ pipes, by the composition of the 7 rank Ripieno up to Trigesimasesta and the
presence of the small Regale-like stop, the Tromboncini 8’.
Most stops are divided in Bassi and Soprani (Bass and Treble), due to
the split keyboard, which is common amongst historic Italian organs. The first octave
is called “scavezza” (short), typical for these organs.
A beautiful feature of this organ is the fact that it has been left almost
unaltered from its original construction, thus no one pipe had to be rebuilt, except the Trombone of
the pedal board, stolen during the World War II and a few broken pipes of the
Tromboncini.The church archives only show small interventions until the siginificant
restoration in 1992, carried out by Alfredo Piccinelli, the famous Italian organ
builder and a specialist of Callido organs. Being a specialist in organ
building but not very much considering rules of the musical canons, all organs “touched”
by him were set to equal temperament. Today we know by research, that Callido
never used equal temperament but very often a Tartini-Vallotti like tuning, so
we decided to set back the virtual organ to this most adequate Italian historic
tuning.
The splendid Ripieno gives to the organ luminosity and
clarity, though the measures of the fonds, especially the Italian Principale 8’
are very large. The beauty and mildness of its sounds is due to the very low
wind pressure, about only 42 mm (!) water column, as found in Italian historic
organs.
During the restoration the organ case and its colour was completely
changed for exigency of visibility. Now again the Boara Polesine’s Callido organ gives the visitor the
mystery of its sounds, its solemnity and its vivid colour (Text by Paolo
Osti).
Gaetano Callido - The Venice
organ builder
CALLIDO
Gaetano (Antonio) was born
in Este (Padua) in 1727 and died in Venice
in 1813. He was the pupil who, due to his talent and fame, surpassed his
master. In 1742 he became the apprentice of Pietro Nacchini. When in 1762
Callido decided to end their working relationship in order to undertake
his own independent career, the two men remained close friends. Callido enjoyed
the respect of his master Nacchini as well as the respect of his
contemporaneous.
Already in 1763 he found himself in the situation of having to build six organs (one of them with two manuals), and in the course of a few years
his activity was extended not only to all the territories under the direct
sovereignty of Venice, but also to the Marche, Romagna and even Constantinople.
In 1766 he received the prestigious task to completely rebuild the three organs of the Basilica of San
Marco in Venice. His indefatigable activity with a
production rhythm of an average of ten organs a year and the merits and
advantages deriving from this work for him and for Venice were recognized
by the Senate who, with the decree of the 27th of March 1779 exempted him
from transit taxes and customs duty for the transportation of his instruments
out of the territory of the Republic. The political events and social-economic
changes at the end of the 18th century, in particular the suppression of
the religious corporations decreed by the Napoleonic government, didn’t
seem to have much influence on his work which continued at a sustained rhythm
until 1806 when the control of the factory was passed on to his sons.
From
Callido’s prodigious activity, remains the schematic account in the list of the organs he constructed: it consists of three boards of fabric
where upon, in Indian ink, the names of the locations
and the churches in which the organs were build are written in chronological order and with
progressive numeration. The list finishes with number 430 in 1806. It remains
the empty space until the year 1812, which was reserved but never filled
in.
Organ design concepts
In
manufacturing his instruments, Callido basically followed the style of
Nacchini, with only a few changes, both from the standpoint of tonal
composition and type of construction. He conceived an organ normally as a
one-manual instrument, with a limited pedal division. Callido's organs were by
no means all alike, but their size was dependent upon the presence or absence
of certain stops, all chosen among a limited pallet of stops from which the
builder never departed.
The “male” stop pyramide include all
Principal-scaled ranks that form the "Ripieno".
The stops can be used
separately in various combinations or all together, collectively activated by a
"Tiratutti" consisting of a rotating handle placed on top of the
corresponding stop knobs:
Principale (8') almost
invariably divided, bass and treble
Ottava (4')
Quinta Decima (XV - 2')
Decima Nona (XIX – 1 1/3')
Vigesima Seconda (XXII - 1')
Vigesima Sesta (XXVI - 2/3')
Vigesima Nona (XXIX - 1/2')
Trigesima Terza (XXXIII - 1/3')
Trigesima Sesta (XXXVI - 1/4')
The last two ranks are
often missing in the smaller instruments and are of full compass only in the
larger organs, being normally limited to one or two octaves in the bass. The
reason for limiting their compass is quite simple: since the highest pitched
pipe in the ripieno of a Callido organ is C at 1/8', all ranks break back by
one octave once they reach this limit. With this configuration, which is common
to the majority of Italian historical organs (although the
"breaking-back" points may vary at times), a number of pitch
duplications are present from mid-keyboard up, to the point that, starting at
F#4, only two different pitches are present while playing five pipes. In order
not to extend the duplication of pitches towards the lower register and to
avoid increasing the number of duplications at the treble, Callido normally
ended the XXXIII and XXXVI ranks at the point where they would start breaking
back (at F2 and C2 respectively) or further up the scale only by a few notes.
The “female” stop pyramide ("registri da concerto" or
"consort" stops) include:
Flauto in Ottava (Flute in VIII - 4') often, but
not always, divided, bass and treble. Normally built as a tapered flute, it is
also found in the form of a metal stopped flute (with stoppers or caps made of
leather-coated cork and inserted into the resonators of the pipes) or even as
metal chimney flutes, with soldered-on caps.
Flauto
in Duodecima (Flute in XII – 2 2/3'), normally not divided in bass and
treble (but it is divided for example in the Feltre organ). It was normally
built as a tapered flute, although some examples of stopped pipes at the lower
register and tapered at the treble do exist.
Cornetta (Flute in XVII – 1 3/5') - treble only, consisting of
tapered flute pipes.
Voce Umana (principal-scaled, 8', treble
only, tuned downwards!)
The reeds:
Tromboncini (trumpet-like regal at 8') bass and
treble
Violoncelli (regal
with wooden resonators - 8') bass and treble
Violetta, usually in
the bass only, but also as a complete stop, especially in the later
instruments. It is a 4' string stop of narrow cylindrical scale, tuned to the
unison.
The Pedal division includes the following
stops:
Contrabassi, Ottava di
Contrabassi and Duodecima di Contrabassi.
These
are three ranks of open wooden pipes at 16', 8' and 5 1/3' pitch respectively,
which are activated simultaneously. In smaller organs only the first two (16' +
8') are present, or just the 16'. In the smaller instruments the 16' pipes are
often found as stopped.
Tromboni ai Pedali (a
trumpet-like reed, with 1/2 length resonators at 8' pitch)
Of particular interest
are the reed stops, for their unusual shape and sound. The resonators of the
Tromboncini are made of tin and consist of a lower four-sided portion and a
"bell" on top. Their four-sided lead sockets are inserted into walnut
boots. The tuning wires are made of brass, with cow horn sledges to facilitate
the sliding over the tongues for tuning. The stop at low C (8' pitch) is of 1/8
length, the resonator approximately one foot long.
The pipes
From the standpoint of
construction, the instruments built by Callido are of unsurpassed quality. Each
pipe is a true masterpiece, with thin, regular, absolutely perfect solder
joints. The windchests and all other parts are manufactured with the highest
attention for details. Callido was quite obviously trained in a very strict way
and demanded the same perfection from his workers.
The low wind pressure
was also a determining factor for obtaining a rich, unforced sound. It was
usually set between 48 and 55 mm (!)
at the water column, with only a few verified examples of slightly higher
pressure.
Tuning was strictly done
by cutting the pipes to length and adjusting with the cone, except for the
façade pipes, which were cut close to length and subsequently fine tuned by
further carving the back of the resonator at the top in a curved shape.
The winding system
The most common winding
configuration in Callido organs includes two multiple-fold bellows (consisting
of five folds) made entirely of spruce wood. They were normally placed one on
top of the other and were activated by ropes through a system of pulleys. Their
size was rather standardized: larger size bellows were used for the larger
instruments, and smaller size for instruments requiring less wind.
The tuning system
As far as we know
Callido never used equal temperament,
already present in other parts of Europe at the time. Already
well known for a few centuries, it was considered uninteresting and not
desirable, especially due to the unpleasant "wide" tierce intervals
which are present even in the most commonly used keys. Equal temperament
continued to be rejected in Italy well into the 19th
century. Giovan Battista de Lorenzi, a very ingenious builder from Vicenza, in 1870 created a
"moderate temperament" which, although very close to equal, was
intended to reduce the "out of tune" effect of the most used tierce
intervals.
We know that Callido's
master, Pietro Nacchini, for some of his works used a tuning method which
consisted in tuning the 11 quint intervals from Eb to G# flat by 1/6 comma
each, a method which was very close to the practice of Gottfried Silbermann.
Callido may also have used this method, but he departed from it at some point
and he adopted a variety of similar
systems, among which the temperament invented by Francescantonio Vallotti, Music Director at the Basilica of St.
Anthony in Padova, and Alessandro Barca in 1779, which avoided the wide G#-Eb
interval, making it almost pure.
Source: Essentials taken
from THE DIAPASON, December 1998, Vol: 89/12
