Krzeszow, Poland
Krzeszow Organ by Michael Engler (1732-37)
The instrument was built in 1732-1737 by Michael Engler. A representative instrument of the Silesian organbuilding has 3 manuals and a pedal, alltogether 50 stops. The Positiv occupies the lowest manual and is positioned in two small cases in the balustrade. One case is dedicated for the C part of the windchest the other for the D part. Hauptwerk (2nd manual) and Oberwerk (3rd manual) and the Pedal are located in the main case which spans wide through the full width of the church nave. The Oberwerk occupies the center of the case, Hauptwerk is divided into the C and D side to the left and to the right of the Oberwerk, and the Pedal is located in the two side towers and at the back of the organ case. All the three divisions are perhaps surprisingly situated on the same horizontal level, although this design is rather common in the Silesian (and Central-Germany) organ building of the period. The "Werk-Prinzip" was not abandoned, but restructured. Perhaps, the general idea of this design was to achieve more homogeneous sound.
The instrument bears the typical characteristics of the Silesian organs. Rich in fonds, well supplied with aliquot stops, crowned by the mixtures with a tierce ranks. There are two undulatings stops on the manuals (Vox humana and Unda maris). The reeds are few in number in manuals, but they give a robust fundament to the Pedal, starting with Posaune 32'. The sonority of the full chorus of the instrument is determined by the 16' fundament of the Hauptwerk (there are three 16' stops on HW) on one side and by the 8 (or 12 if coupled) ranks of mixtures on the other side of the sound spectrum. The voicing is round and mild. The manual reeds are specific in color. The Trumpet is soft, almost Oboe-like, while the Positiv reed has the timbre similar to a somewhat thicker Regal. The extensive use of strings (Gamba, Salicional, Traveur) is also a mark of the Eastern organbuilding tradition.
One technical peculiarity is preserved in Krzeszow: the keyboard of the Positiv is movable, allowing a transposition down a whole tone, thus allowing the Positiv to be used in Kammerton with other "chamber" instruments of the period. In addition to the Positiv transposition, there are also 4 Pedal stops which may sound in Kammerton.
In 1873-1874 the instrument was partially rebuilt by Schlag, the modifications affected mostly the console (introduction of the Barker machine etc.) but fortunately only few stops were removed or altered in voicing. The Positiv lost its aliquotes, Hauptwerk was given two more reed stops on a new windchest, several stops in Pedal were adjusted.
In 2005, the restauration comittee decided to go back to the original Michael Engler state of the instrument. The restauration work has been done by the organbuilders Jehmlich from Dresden in 2006-2008. As the result, the instrument has now the identical composition as when finished by Michael Engler in the 18th century.
The value of the instrument is underlined by the fact that it is probably the best preserved Michael Engler's instrument, practically the only one surviving up to the present substantially unaltered. The other extant big instrument of the organbuilder, the St. Moritz organ in Olomouc (built 1745), was subject to extensive modifications in the course of 20th century.
Features
Sample Quality
The samples are offered in 24bit/48kHz quality; multiple releases (3 levels) and occasional multiple attack samples are used. Hauptwerk v.4.2 and higher supported. The reverberation time is about 5-6 seconds. The sample set is presented in the surround version (4 channels). There is a front stereo channel pair, and a rear stereo channel pair.
The Compass, the Tuning and the Temperament
The organ is presented with extended compass, the low C# added. The temperament is meantone modified and there is special Krzeszow Temperament Chart available with the sample set.
RAM consumption
- The full sample set loaded in surround, 24-bit quality: 20.3 GB
- The full sample set loaded in surround, 20-bit quality: 19.1 GB
- The full sample set loaded in surround, 16-bit quality: 10.8 GB
- The wet only option in 16-bit: 6 GB
How to load the wet sample set only (no surround option)
Specification
Pedal | Positiv | Hauptwerk | Oberwerk |
Principal 16' | Principal 8' | Principal 8' | Principal 8' |
Major Bass 32' | Flaut amabile 8' | Burdon Flaut 16' | Rohrflaut 8' |
Violon Bass 16' | Flaut allemande 8' | Quintadena 16' | Salicet 8' |
Sub Bass 16' | Quintadena 8' | Viola di Gambe 16' | Octava 4' |
Salicet Bass 16' | Octava 4' | Flaut major 8' | Flaut minor 4' |
Quintadena Bass 16' | Quinta 3' | Gemshorn 8' | Quinta 3' |
Octav Bass 8' | Superoctava 2' | Traveur 8' | Superoctava 2' |
Flaut Bass 8' | Sedecima 1' | Octava 4' | Quinta 1 1/2' |
Gemshorn Quinta 6' | Mixtura (III ranks) | Nachthorn 4' | Sedecima 1' |
Super Octava 4' | Gemshorn Quinta 3' | Mixtura (IV ranks) | |
Mixtura (VI ranks) | Hautbois 8' | Superoctava 2' | |
Mixtura (VI ranks) | Trompet 8' | ||
Posaunen Bass 32' | Cimbel (II ranks) | Vox humana 8' | |
Posaunen Bass 16' | |||
Trompet Bass 8' | Unda maris 8' |
Ventils for all the divisions.
Intramanual couplers available.
A transposition coupler for Positif available (Kammerton).
Screenshots
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Console view: This is the general console view. It serves to define the keyboard MIDI inputs for all the divisions. The active part of this view are the manuals, and the pedal. Specifying the MIDI inputs is done by right-clicking on the desired manual or pedal. Also, all the stops of the organ can be drawn on his screen by clicking the desired register with a mouse.
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Mixer view: The virtual listening position is adjusted here. Dragging the sliders downwards means to mute the mic perspective, dragging them up is making it louder.
The mixer settings can be stored, retrieved, reset. 3 different mixer settings can be stored/recalled any time. |
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Left+Right Jambs view: All the stops and other controls of the organ can be found also here. The layout for dual touch screens. The design allows for portrait or landscape orientation, according to the orientation of the touch screens.
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Left + Right Jambs Vertical view: the dual stop jambs offer vertical (portrait) orientation as an alternative. |
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Simple Jamb: simplified version of a single jamb to allow for more readable version of the stop names on small LCD touch screens. There are two variants: landscape and portrait. All the stops of the organ can be found here. Physical pistons or draw stops can be assigned to a virtual button on screen by right-clicking on the button. |
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Updates
The version 1.40 can be downloaded from within the user area (My Products).
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Krzeszow Surround Sample Set
Krzeszow organ model, Surround variant, including Wet. Minimum Hauptwerk version: 4.2. (Also works in all higher versions.)