Tedeum brings the church room of st. St. Stephen’s almost vibrates

For one and a half years the organ of st. Stephanus mute. At the beginning of january 2017, the organ was removed and taken to the vleugels organ factory in hardheim for restoration. But it was not just a matter of cleaning the old pipes. Technically and in terms of safety, a number of things had to be overhauled or renewed, and over the years changes had been made to the instrument, which in the end were not only to its advantage.

For the first time it was rebuilt

Therefore, with the exception of the bellows, which were electrified in the 1960s, the organ was first rebuilt to the 1909 stebel organ as it stood on 26. Consecrated by archbishop friedrich von abert on october 1909.
Later installed extensions and improper repairs were removed and missing or defective pipes and damage due to aging were replaced with matched replicas. From this original state (two manuals, one pedal, 15 sounding stops of reed pipes) the organ was then supplemented with five new stops, some of them with reed pipes. A special novelty is the so-called auxiliair, the new stops can be controlled individually by the manuals as well as by the pedals. The new console was modeled on the old one for reasons of historical preservation, but is full of electronics. The renovation time was about half a year. The fact that the organ was not reinstalled until june 2018 was due to the structural renovation of st. Stephanus owed.
Now the organ of st. Stephanus for the first time again for the parish. Pastor thomas ringer buried more than 100 churchgoers for the occasion. This is not a dedication of the new organ, but one wants to use it to dedicate it with the completion of the renovation of the church on church dedication day in october.
The spokesman of the organ friends of st. Stephanus, armin gob, summarized the history of the organ up to today’s renovation, and wolfgang kiebling, organist at st. Stephanus, presented the new stops. Stephanus, outlined the technical renovation.
Then regional cantor erich staab from the office for church music of the archdiocese of bamberg was given the honor of playing the first notes on the new organ. He did so with pleasure and skill, playing works by samuel wesley and georg friedrich handel, among others. The church visitors experienced the whole fulle of the organ from the quietest flute tone to the full sound of the coarse pipes.

Special features of the organ

In between, staab presented the individual and special features of the organ. With the tedeum, where erich staab "pulled out all the stops" and almost made the church hall vibrate, the performance came to a dreadful end.
Afterwards the visitors could visit the organ and ask questions to staab and the organ builders vleugels. At an agape prepared by the organ friends on the church forecourt, there was also a lot of talk about the organ.