Organ Built for Humpolec Church
For an incredible virtual tour of the Humpolec Church Organ - click on the left image.
For information in Czech (informance v Cestine) go to this link:
http://www.infohumpolec.cz/vez.htm
About the new organ at St. Nicolas
Humpolec’s spectacular gothic church, St. Nicolas, is mentioned in historical texts dating back as far as 1233. It was renovated in 1722 by J.B. Santini, who combined both gothic and baroque styles in his redesign. Santinis architectural style was used as inspiration for the shape of the new organs wind chest and other details in the instruments design.
The organ was built here in the Czech Republic by our fellow countryman Jaromir Kansky. On the organs narrow base sits a flat cabinet, on the center of which stands a high, polygon-shaped tower. The cabinet has been constructed in the Southern German and Northern French tradition using oak wood all of which was shaved by hand. The pedal board enclosure is made from soft wood and is placed behind the main cabinet. The instrument is double faced, allowing it to be closed during Lent, according to custom.
The rich, oak carvings on the organ were made by F. Nedomlela, a craftsman from a town near Krnov called Bruntl, in the Czech Republic. If you look closely, you can see the head of an angel in the middle tower: its face is radiant with purity, poise and reverence, perhaps celebrating the gift of the organ, and blessing the good deed of its donation to St. Nicolas. On the organs side towers are smaller engraved heads, each showing various emotions and demonstrating that the instrument is very much alive! On the left side there is a weeping angel and on the right a joyful angel. In the curves of the organs structure, other engraved figures can been seen crawling out from within the instrument these are demons. Sometimes they are hidden; sometimes visible.
We designed the organ with an early baroque style in mind. As a result, the new St. Nicolas organ has 25 stops, two manuals (or keyboards) and a pedal board. The organs main internal mechanism, which is located behind the ornamental music rack, has 11 stops, while the second mechanism, located above the manuals, has nine colour-coded stops. There are five stops for the pedal board. Behind the pedals sit wedged bellows, which can be operated by hand ropes. The organ has five oak pipes, also done in baroque style.
All these details influence the authentic sound of the instrument. We believe that this new organ will serve the need of the St. Nicolas liturgies for many, many years to come and we hope that the people of Humpolec will enjoy this beautiful gift.
Unveiling ceremony took place on September 25th 2004 at 3:00 PM at St. Nicolas Church, Humpolec, Czech Republic.
