Clarín Opus I was a totally different experience for us in terms of our professional career. It was the first time that we built an organ that hadn’t been commissioned, but that originated as an initiative to offer an instrument with specific characteristics.
For more information, please visit the official website of the project www.proyectoclarin.com
In many little Castilian villages, we can find organs like the one in Marugán, which have keyboards worn out by thousands of years of music. We believe that music should be played with similar instruments.
Clarín Opus I
Exibición
Opus I Window valves detail
Opus I The action detail
Clarín Opus I In Erlangen (Nürnberg)
Facultad orgánica Francisco Correa de Arauxo
Clarín Opus I In Musikmesse - Messe Frankfurt
Clarín Opus I In Musikmesse - Messe Frankfurt
Technical details
The aim is to offer a pure Baroque Spanish organ, suitable for research and teaching and, at the same time, show our knowledge of Iberian organs. That is the reason why we have chosen a model very representative of this style, which belongs to a tradicional school in Castile. Its size allows its location in different spaces, and it has all of the characteristic features of this model.
The case has been made in exactly the same size of the original. The ornamentation, moldings and carvings have been also reproduced. Its working was handmade, following the visual model. All of it is made in special pine wood from Soria.
Construction and decoration of the case
It’s been chosen to recreate the polychromy that used to be the canon by mid 18th century, that is to say, polychrome flat surfaces and fine gold carvings and cornices. The reproduction of the original’s decoration was discarded, since it does not belong to the time of the construction of the organ.
The applied techniques are the traditional ones: plaster stucco over wood, and natural glue distemper, in green, blue and red colours, made with natural earth pigments. The carvings and moldings are gilt over plaster cast. It’s finished with long-lasting varnish.
The instrument
The simplicity of the instrument does not detract its sofisticated system or the delicacy of its construction.
The “machinery” has been designed after the model, applying the traditional Castilian techniques which have shown the best endurance over the last 250 years.
It consists of a sliders windchest, made up in seasoned premium class pine wood, with walnut sliders, as it was done in the works of the best workshops.
Windchest, sliders and window valves
The windchest is chromatic, and every stop is split. The grooved blocks link this sequence of notes with the piping’s pattern in the front.
Windchest, sliders and window valves
It has also a small grooved block for the Violón bass notes, and a raised small windchest for the Corneta.
Made of seasoned, neat Sorian wood, they are grooved on both sides, and all possible friction points are secured with tanned sheep-skin. All pieces are wrapped in tanned sheep-skin, called “Baldés”, traditionally used in Castilian organs.
The action
The action is very simple, with roller board reduction. It has wrought iron registry mechanics and wooden pull and connecting rods. All the parts have been built following the model and using similar wood, although some traditional techniques have been overriden in order to preserve the security and stability of the mechanics, like the use of wrought nails for fixation of the upper-boards and sliders in the windchest.
Forging; action and registry mechanics: detail
The keyboard
The keyboard is made of bone, for the natural notes, and blackwood, with the original’s slight decoration, and the keys are of very dry pine wood.
Its dimensions do not follow any historical standard, since there was none at the time of the organ’s construction. However, there is certain uniformity in the width of the octave.
Keyboard detail
The keys lenght is very short and the pulling point is always as close to the hand as it was possible. The actioning is thus of the maximum smoothness, precise and sensitive.
The console’s window fits very close and, like is traditional in small Iberian organs, the insertion of the music stand is quite difficult.
The piping
The piping is the area in which it has been sought the deepest approach to the principles and development of its original construction.
Although Juan de Inés worked with great austerity, he preserved the quality and restraint of his predecessors.
All the piping is made of a 50% tin and lead alloy, of a fair thickness and a solid construction. ‘A one size’ principle is kept for each family of labial stops.
Piping: detail
The replica complies faithfully with all the parameters found in the original.
The metal is cast over cloth, and the pipes have been hand planed, always at cross direction to the pipe’s lenght, as it was traditionally done.
Metals casting and forging, and pipe construction
The languids are made of lead and they keep a constant angle in all the sets.
The reed ranks are arranged in the front, set in “W”, with their horn bells.
The shallots have welded lids, as it is the normal use in this school.
The bellows
There are three wedge bellows, “one yard wide and two long”, as it was traditionally used, with six folds, and its levers. They are all made in pine wood and “Baldés” tanned sheep-skin.
Bellows construction: detail
The harmonization
The harmonization and tuning must collect all the efforts put into the construction of the single parts of the organ, for they are the ultimate goal of all that work.
The main lines and the details in the original model have been kept, aiming to obtain the right character in all the stops, both separately and as a whole.
The tuning pitch has been set in 415 Hz at 18ºC, even though it is still lower in the model, and the wind pressure in 55 mm w.c.
The harmonization of all the piping was made off the instrument, with few exceptions.
The temperament is the classic meantone, which was used in Castile until well into the 19th century.
The Timpani in D and A may be used as pedal note for these tones.
Regarding the sound volume, we think it could be suitable to different acoustic conditions, and we believe that its dimensions, architecturally as well as acoustically, provide a great range of possibilities for its location.
Clarín Opus I is the first organ made for this project, a replica of the Marugán organ, located in Segovia, an organ of Spanish Baroque style.
Composition
Left Hand
Right Hand
Flautado Violón Flautado de 6 ½ * Quincena Decisetena Decinovena Lleno III Címbala III
Bajoncilllo *
Timbales en Re y en La
8’ 4’ 2’ 1 3/5’ 1 1/3’ 1’ 2/3’
4’
Flautado de 13 * Flautado Violón Octava Quincena y Decinovena Lleno III Címbala III Corneta VI
Clarín *
8’ 8’ 4’ 2’+1 1/3’
8’
8’
* On the front facade
Clarín Opus I
Exibición
Media
11 de June de 2018
Interview about the new Iberian organ of Grandvillars
Interviews with Christine Vetter and Joaquín Lois during the last adjustments before the inagural concert
C’est votre tour – A remarkable organ in Grandvillars, in the territory of Belfort
An organ inspired by the Renaissance, made in Spain, is now installed in the church of Granvillars, in Belfort, France.
La información biográfica del organero Juan De Inés y Ortega no es muy abundante, pero sabemos que era natural y vecino de Marugán, nacido en 1720. Hijo del tambien organero, Francisco Ortega