.....................................
|
THE
MEAN-TONE ORGAN
|
|
It
is not known exactly when the
organ at Oosthuizen was built or
assembled in its current
configuration. Organ specialist
Jan van Biezen has already
proposed that it is an
amalgamation of several older
instruments. A document from the
church archives dated 1548 and
signed >>Dierick Willemsen
coster ende orgl in
oijsthuijsen<< (... warden
and organist ...) shows that an
instrument existed at that time.
The date of thc church's
completion -1521- is often taken
as the year in which the organ
was built as the case, pipes,
and keyboard range clearly
display characteristics of the
end of the 15th and beginning of
the 16th centuries.
During the 2002-3 restoration,
the pipe-work was carefully
re-examined and restored with
great care. The note markings on
the pipes bear the handwriting
of organ-makers that suggests
the assembly was the work of
Pieter Backer, active around
1670. He seems to have used and
combined parts of other organs,
perhaps those previously in the
churches of Monnickendam, Hoorn
and Medemblick (where Sweelinck
was married). The Octaaf 4 stop
for example, had served as
diapason pipes before their use
in Oosthuizen, and may date from
the beginning of the 15th
century. Backer also worked in
Hoorn, where a 15th-century
organ was then still in
existence, but at that time - as
we know, thanks to coster
ende orgl Dierick Willemsen
- there was already an organ at
Oosthuizen, which Backer could
have used. |
The disposition is not really
typical of the 16th century: the
Sexquialter register, for example, was not
built in
the Low Countries before the
17th century. The keyboard compass,
on the other hand, does correspond to the
standard expected at
around 1500: 38 keys from F-G-A to g"-a".
From the point of view of the oganisation
of the
pipework and the decoration,
the prospect - aside from some 19th
century additions - certainly still
displays all
the stylistic characteristics
of the Late Gothic period.
Leon Berben
Disposition:
Prestant 8' -
Bourdon 16'
- Octaaf 4' -
Quint 3' - Woudfluit 2'
- Sexquialter II ( discant from c'
), - mixtuur II,III,
Tremulant. Meantone
tuning, halftone over 440.
|
|
