XAVER VARNUS PLAYS BACH ON THE OLDEST ORGAN OF CENTRAL-EUROPE (1633)

[PipeOrganistSC]

I'm not concerned about the date of this organ being built or where it's located. I'm just enjoying the music and marveling at the craftsmanship of such an ancient organ.

[Nuk1eus]

The oldest pipe organ in the Central Europe? Maybe in Hungary, but definitely not in the whole Central Europe.

Smečno, Czechoslovakia: 1587

Doksy-Kruh, Czechoslovakia: 1620

[xavervarnus]

@Nuk1eus According to the Archaeological Examination of the Sopron organ, the oldest pipes (Flote 8) were made in 1580.

[Nuk1eus]

@xavervarnus :-D In the town I live there is an instrument from 1910 which has facade including 30 facade pipes preserved from predecessing baroque instrument. The rest of the instrument (case, pipework, windchests, pneumatic tracture, manuals, pedal, etc.) is from 1910. So we have got a baroque instrument from 1760 in our church, haven't we? :-) There is quite a lot of old instruments with reused older pipes over the Central Europe, even older than from 1580. ;-)

[Nuk1eus]

@xavervarnus In the town I live there is an instrument from 1910 which has facade including 30 facade pipes preserved from predecessing baroque instrument. The rest of the instrument (case, pipework, windchests, pneumatic tracture, manuals, pedal, etc.) is from 1910. So we have got a baroque instrument from 1760 in our church, haven't we? There is quite a lot of old instruments with reused older pipes over the Central Europe, even older than from 1580.

[frenchiecocorico1]

Very interesting. Are the stop registers divided in two parts (Bass and Treble) like the spanish organ ones. So, it seems the stop rods glide on a vertical movement while in italian organs they move horizontally and in the other european organs (german, english, french,...) they are in and out rods.

However, you are wrong because the oldest organ in central Europe is Aquincum hydraulis (3° century after J.C) discovered by Lajos Nagy in 1931 near Pècs (Hungary) the roman capital of Pannonia .

[lipsbach]

Xaver, will you send me a copy of the cd which you recorded at Wanamakers????

[issueagent]

What is the stop used for the first segment of this piece? A blocked flute?

[xavervarnus]

@issueagent Holzflöte 8

[issueagent]

@xavervarnus Wow ! That's a thick Holzflote there, Thanks a lot! :)

[Txboy85A]

Was the organ electrified later? Or does it still have it's bellows system operational?

[xavervarnus]

@Txboy85A It's still tracker.

[jimihendrix1967]

Playin on such a beautiful instrument is nice but why not tuning the instrument? some of the pipes are a bit out of tune and it spoils the harmony.

[spr1ng0ni0n]

too bad about the equal tuning, probably Tomkins or Sweelinck don't sound as nice as they could have.

[peteacher52]

Thank you Xaver , for sharing this small moment in history with us.

[isomolle]

Enjoyable music, beautiful sound. Thank you for uploading.

[Malachayas]

This organ sounds really wonderful. I just wanted to add that this is not the oldest organ in Central Europe, as far as I know. The oldest still playable Organ lies in Sion, Switzerland in the Fortress Cathedral.

[gerardbedecarter]

Fascinating.

[xavervarnus]

I'm sorry, but Switzerland is a part of Western Europe :-)

[ChalieChaplin]

older is the organ, better is for all organ players!

[Bataja706]

This is so amazing... Veit Bach couldn't imagine that somebody will play the music of his distant descendant in that very church almost half a millennium later... Fascinating

[motesicman]

beautiful voice of Holzflöte.. and natty instrument in hungary

[atyy123]

szép.