At Gebr. Reil in Heerde I acquired a lot of knowledge for my studies in organ building. Albert Reil taught me how to design and make metal pipes. I learned the voicing of it from Han Reil and in particular the fine voicing, which brings the pipe corpus into resonance and achieves the optimal sound of the pipe. Later, courses were given here to student organ builders under my supervision. I have described and drawn on this subject in a number of books; supplemented with a video. These are published by Boeijenga in Leeuwarden.
I got to know the special sounds of the Reil organ in Ermelo and I was curious whether Piotr Grabowski had stored those sounds properly in the samples. Only the sounds of the DRY samples are used by me; they are recorded close to the pipes. To my delight I was able to determine that the sounds match the organ in Ermelo perfectly. Piotr Grabowski did his job well.
The sounds of the Principals have the vocal character that is typical for Albertus Hinsz and the subtle sound of the Baarpijp is also easily recognizable. The Baarpijp has conical pipes with fundamental tones that are slightly less powerful than the principals. In addition, subtle overtones are heard that are part of the character of the Baarpijp. These sounds are well captured in the samples, but because pipes sound much less loud in the living room than in the church, this is especially noticeable in the overtones.
A delicate voicing is needed, but Hauptwerk is a system with very extensive possibilities to reproduce even the finest details of a pipe sound. This is impossible for simple systems, but my Hauptwerk organ produces sounds that are equal to my pipe organ. Critically listening organists have tested it, but they have not been able to determine a difference. To me the Baarpijp sounds like it sounds in Ermelo.
A Baarpijp 8' is a typical Dutch sound, usually used together with the Quintadeen 8'. A Vox Humana 8' is also always available on the same keyboard. It is referred to as the Dutch Trio. The Quintadeen is voiced together with the Baarpijp. If the Baarpijp sounds good, the Quintadeen will be voiced accordingly.
The Fluit 4' of the Hoofdwerk as well as the Roerfluit 4' of the Rugwerk are poetic sounds with which the organist can express his feelings. The sounds of this organ are inspiring. I got to know hundreds of organs in most European countries by using the beauty of the sounds. I never take sheet music with me, because then I force the organ to follow a style. I think it is more important to get to know the style of the organ; hear which sounds are appropriate. I have absolute hearing.
The reeds of this organ are also beautiful. Adjusting to the speakers and the environment is all I do. Major corrections are not necessary. I never use the reverb from the other samples, with any organ. Hauptwerk has enough Impulse-Response recordings from which the organist can choose to play the organ in a suitable acoustic.
Piotr Grabowski
The Immanuel Church in Ermelo was built in 1899 and expanded in 1922 with a tower. The two-manual organ was built in 1981 by the organ builders Albert and Han Reil. It was at a time when organ builders discovered that the best organs had been built in the Baroque era, but the knowledge of this historic craft had been lost and had to be reinvented. The best method was to meticulously copy an original baroque organ. In this way, the artisanal working method of the Baroque era became clear and they learned the sound formation of these organs. Together with Klaas Bolt, who had been working on this work for some time as an organ expert, they were able to build an exact copy of the Schnitger organ of the Jacobikerk in Uithuizen. This organ was placed in 1973 in the Princess Juliana Church in Scheveningen.
Four years later they repeated this study by copying the organ of Albertus Anthoni Hinsz organ in Tzum (Friesland), built in 1763-1764, an organ of exceptional quality. The Dutch word ‘copy’ should be read as the German word’kapieren’ = to understand. It was not about making a copy, but about studying the historical method. It became an excellent instrument and subsequently Albert and Han Reil won the contract to completely restore the original organ in Tzum.
The registers of the Ermelo organ are almost identical to those of the Tzum counterpart, with the exception of the pedal. The original organ has no pedal stops, only a couple to the manuals. The pedal windchest was made in Ermelo with 5 registers.
Here too, Han and Albert Reil discussed everything with organist Klaas Bolt, who was involved in the study as an advisor.
A few changes have been made to the sampleset. The original tremulant affects the entire organ, but this can be changed in the Simple Jamb tab by turning divisions off or on separately for the tremulant here. One link has been added (Rugwerk / Pedal) and it is also available from the Simple Jamb tab. The keyboard size has been expanded slightly in the sample set: the manuals from C-f3 to C-a3 and the pedal from C-d1 to C-f1. I don't use that, because I want to play the original organ.
