Organ Works

The old Neo-Gothic town church of Pforzheim was demolished after war damage and replaced in 1968 by a strictly geometric new building. The musicians’ gallery is separated from the main space by concrete pillars. In the panelled rear of the gallery are generous recesses in which stand the front pipes of the organ behind. The case front is typical of its time, with glass swell shutters. It forms an integral part of the church architecture and its design has been left untouched in the renovation work.

Also in 1968, Steinmeyer of Öttingen provided a new instrument of 60 stops with four manuals and pedal as their Opus 2192. It had mechanical key action, electro-pneumatic stop action and free-standing console. The windchests stand next to one another on two levels, resulting in a very shallow layout and direct projection of sound into the building. In the middle stand the Schwellwerk with Oberwerk above. The Hauptwerk is placed lower right with Kronwerk above. One the bottom left is the Grosspedal chest with Kleinpedal above.

There has been no substantive work on the organ since its installation. Despite the excellent building quality, certain failings have arisen over the years, affecting technical and tonal reliability. A report on the organ considers that, being conceived at the height of neo-baroque fashion, it is limited in meeting present-day requirements as the main instrument in a centre of church music. Alongside technical renovation, the decision was made to introduce tonal changes and enlargement of the specification in order to correct the sharpness, lack of balance and carrying power in the sound of the organ, and thereby to accord with current musical practice and to open up hitherto unavailable tonal possibilities. To this end all stops have received intensive voicing attention aimed at broadening the tonal palette whilst preserving the original open character.

The specification has been retained as far as possible. Nine ranks have been replaced or rearranged within the organ, others are new additions. The Schwellwerk 16-8-4 foundation stops have received superoctave extension to g4 on extra electric chests.

A new auxiliary division has been added within the organ to the left of the Pedal, expanding the tonal scope with five romantically inclined voices and six octave and quint extensions, specifically intended to serve choral accompaniment. It has cone chests, with individual actions for each pipe, and can thus be played from both manuals and pedal.

As well as measures to ensure reliability, case stability and cleaning of all components, all action parts, console, electrics, slider solenoids, windchests and wind system have been thoroughly overhauled or partially replaced. The swell box action has also been improved. All this has resulted, among other things in a more sensitive playing action, more reliable stop action and a stable wind supply.

To optimise the tonal projection of both divisions, the Kronwerk, together with roller-board, was raised up and thus distanced further from the Hauptwerk below. A new setter system with touch screen and a range of octave couplers further enhance the usefulness of musical resources.