enEnglisch
Marmoutier (Maursmünster), St. Étienne
Andreas Silbermann 1707-10 and Johann Andreas Silbermann 1746
State of preservation:
Organ case of 1710; Majority of pipes, key and stop actions, manual keyboards by father Andreas and son Johann Andreas Silbermann.
In 1789 an unknown organ maker transfered the instrument from its previous place in the southern transept to the new western gallery. After the abbey was dissolved the parish could not finance any major alterations or modernisations, so only one stop (Tierce in Pos) got lost, presumably as payment for a big cleaning by Wetzel. In1955 restoration by Alfred Kern and Ernest Mühleisen.
Andreas Silbermann here probably materialised everything he had learned during his time in the Paris workshop of François Thierry; nonetheless he would not do without what he considered essential like a 16' in the pedal, though uncommon for French organs. In 1710 the organ stayed unfinished at first (20 stops in 2 manuals) either of financial reasons or the heavy injuries Silbermann suffered from a row with a drunken worker.In 1746 Johann Andreas Silbermann added four more pedal stops, the „Cromorne“ and the echo, and repaired the bellows in 1755..
Music Sample
J. S. Bach (1685-1750) : Pastorale in F BWV 534, played by Bernhard Leonardy