The 1844 Early Romantic Organ
Gönningen/Baden-Württemberg/Germany 
 

Introduction and History  

The instrument is located in a medium-sized historical church in south-west Germany near Stuttgart, which was extended by neo-gothic style in 1842. The architecture is based on tuff stone material and is  famous for its excellent acoustical properties. Many international CD productions have been recorded there; see the related special link. The organ includes classical stops with expressive chiff, as well as typical romantic stops such as the Salizional, Viola and Clarinette. The original reverberation time is up to 3.5 seconds and is captured precisely within this project

The organ was built in 1844 by Franz Xaver Engelfried of Horb, Germany, and had to bear several modifications in the 19th century due to changing preferences during that period. For example, the reed stops were completely removed and other significant changes in pipe voicing were made.

In 1970, organ builder Richard Rensch of Lauffen, Germany, was entrusted with the reconstruction of the original early romantic specification of the organ, and with some extensions. Fortunately, documentations of the original organ were found, together with parts of its reed stops, making an accurate reconstruction possible. It is very important to state , that there was no general movement for the restoration of such romantic organs in Germany in 1970. There were plans, to remove this organ!

Cleaning and a general overhauling took place in 2005 by organ workshop Rensch

The instrument is one of very few early romantic organs that still exist in Germany.
The stops are charming and very colourful, especially appropriate for playing organ music of the 18th and 19th centuries, but even Bach sounds very convincing. The instrument has a mechanical tracker action, mechanical couplers and is fully playable and in very good shape. The pedalboard was virtually extended upwards to f1 to enable the playing of literature with special requirements, such as the J. S. Bach Trio Sonatas

Recording technique
The organ was recorded and processed with 48 kHz, 24 bit, 6-channels, in January 2008 for Hauptwerk 2, using the multi-layer release and multi-attack technique introduced by OrganART.  All stops were recorded with multiple release levels for short, medium and long key attacks.

All stops, which have a significant attack-sensitive behaviour, will be additonally available with original multiple attack samples (velocity version only! )

Thanks

 I would like to thank the rectory and organ committee of Goenningen for supporting this promising project.