Bach-organ

On September 26, 2007 the Bach-organ in the Grote Kerk of Dordrecht, built by Verschueren Orgelbouw (Heythuysen), was festively inaugurated. This instrument is an important enrichment of the Dutch organ property in general, and of the Grote Kerk of Dordrecht in particular. After all, never before in The Netherlands a style copy of the work of the famous organ builder Gottfried Silbermann was built. Furthermore from a stylistic point of view the instrument is an important addition to the opus magnum of the organ builders Kam in the impressive 'Dordrecht Minster'.

Starting points

The objective of the 'Stichting Bach-orgel Grote Kerk Dordrecht' was having an organ built of a type not present in The Netherlands so far and from which especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach could resound optimally. From these considerations the name 'Bach-organ' has been chosen, even though this name can be interpreted in more than one way and moreover it is a somewhat 'loaded' term.

Orientation trip and choosing an example

To enable the board of the foundation to familiarize themselves with the Eastern German baroque organs, related to J.S. Bach and his works, Peter van Dijk organized an organ trip from 17 to 19 October 2002. The organs in the following churches were visited: the Dom of Brandenburg (1725, Joachim Wagner), the Dom of Freiberg (1714, Gottfried Silbermann), the Hofkirche of Dresden (1755, Gottfried Silbermann and Zacharias Hilderbrandt), the village church of Störmthal (1723, Zacharias Hildebrandt; played by Bach himself), the St. Wenzelkirche of Naumburg (1746, Zacharias Hildebrandt; inspected among others by J.S. Bach) and the village church of Erfurt-Büssleben (1702, Georg Christoph Stertzing). Furthermore the board paid a visit to organ builder and Silbermann-specialist Kristian Wegscheider in Dresden, with whom further arrangements were made about delivery of data.

This trip taken into account the decision was made to have the Silbermann-organ of Freiberg as a sound example and to connect specifically to the Silbermann-organ of the St. Petrikirche in Freiberg (1735) and Dresden (Hofkirche) as far as the technical construction and some stops not existing in the organ of the Dom of Freiberg were concerned. Moreover this last organ had connecting factors for the conversion of the pipe scales of the organ in Freiberg from choir pitch to the desired chamber music pitch. As far as the console was concerned the Silbermann-organ of Reinhardtgrimma (1739) also served as a model.

Furthermore the plan as such was discussed with both honorary advisors Gustav Leonhardt and Ton Koopman. Their additional comment was gratefully put to good use.

In consultation with the college of the Grote Kerk of Dordrecht, the Dutch Historical Society of Zeist and the department of Heritage Buildings of the Dordrecht Municipality the location for the organ to come was established in the Lady Chapel, where the instrument was to be mounted on the ground level in the choir partition. Various organ types passed in review, after which a style copy of the work of a Saxon organ builder was selected, being either Gottfried Silbermann, especially his organ in the Dom of Freiberg (1714), or Zacharias Hildebrandt.

Since 2007 the instrument is located in the Lady Chapel of the Grote Kerk and together with the Kam-organ this offers a unique opportunity to perform within one space a great part of the organ repertoire on organs particulary suited for this purpose.

Dispositie

De cursief weergegeven registernamen zijn met sierlijke letters geschreven en vertegenwoordigen de 'lieflijke' registers. De met * aangeduide pedaalregisters zijn op het Gross Pedal geplaatst, de overige op het Klein Pedal.

Tremulant: inliggend in kanaal Oberwerk

Bassventiel bedient windkoppel Pedal-Manual

Stemhoogte: a = 415 Hz

Temperatuur: Kirnberger III