History
of the Organ
in the Parish Church
of Santa María, Frechilla (Palencia)
The organ case
was built in 1684 by Mateo de Lago, a joiner from Frechilla. It is constructed of pine.
Between 1687 and
1691, Juan García, an organist and organ-builder also from Frechilla, built an
instrument of which the fluework survives unaltered in the present organ. This instrument had one divided keyboard of
42 notes, with a short bottom octave.
In 1718, the Cascabeles (bells) with their
accompanying angels were added.
In 1730, the
gallery on which the organ now stands was built high up on the north side of
the church, near the west end. The organ
was moved to the gallery by Antonio Rodríguez Carvajal from Sahagún. He added three notes to the treble of each
register, giving the instrument its present compass of 45 notes with a short
bottom octave. He also added three new
stops, namely the Címbala, the Corneta and the vertical Trompeta Real which stands at the back
of the case. He also added the Pájaros (nightingale), two sets of Tambores (drums, each consisting of two
pipes so as to produce a dissonant rolling effect). Finally, he added the angel and trumpet still
to be seen at the top of the case.
In 1788, the
organ was enlarged and restored by Antonio and Tomás Ruiz Martinez,
organ-builders from Torquemada. They
were also responsible for building the largest instrument in the province of
Palencia (organ at Amusco dating from 1786-7) and also the largest in the neighbouring province
of Valladolid (organ at La Seca dating from 1792). The
Frechilla organ was provided with new bellows, in which four feeder bellows,
driven by a single handle, feed a large multi-fold diagonal bellows. This is still in working order. He also replaced the wind trunk, soundboards,
stop action, suspended tracker action, and keyboard. The latter is of boxwood. To bring the organ into line with the fashion
of the day, he added the six half-registers of chamade reeds.
The organ was
cleaned and the bellows repaired in 1832, 1886 and 1911. By the end of the early 1950’s, it had become
silent.
In 1980, a
programme of repair was started on the organ by the French organ builder Daniel
Birouste and the organist Francis Chapelet.
The bellows were repaired, the organ was again cleaned, and a small
number of missing pipes replaced in the trebles of the Lleno and the
Címbala. The bass of the vertical
Trompeta real, which had also disappeared, was renewed. Otherwise the organ retains its original
pipework dating from 1691, 1730 and 1788, together with the 1788 wind system,
soundboards and action, which remains light, responsive, and relatively quiet. The organ was fully operational again by 1983,
complete with an electric blower which feeds the diagonal bellows, but the
instrument remains fundamentally in its 1788 condition in that since then it
has never been fully dismantled.
The combination
of largely seventeenth-century fluework, eighteenth-century reeds of the
highest quality complete with original shallots and tongues, and the superb acoustic
of the tall church, produces a sound of great magic.
Text by Nicolas James, England
Recording technique
The organ was recorded and processed in August 2005 with 48 kHz, 24 bit, 6-channels, using the multi-layer release technique introduced by OrganART.
All stops were recorded with multiple release levels
for short and long key attacks
for authentic acoustical mapping.
Special
Thanks
This project is especially
dedicated to organist Francis Chapelet,
France, for all his great efforts
concerning the restoration of
Spanish historic organs.
I
would like to thank the parish
of St. Maria, Frechilla, for enabling
and supporting this
project. Special thanks to Nicolas James, Southampton, for
setting up all the contacts, translations and
local help and Michael Walther,
organ builder, France, for endless hours of tuning
and small scale restoration.
