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Bit of Buxtehude

Nikam

New member
It was the coupler action at 6:15-6:20 that Mike pointed out and where the upper manual is seen to be pushed backwards. May well be due to tracker action, but I was hoping someone could explain the reason for the movement of the manual.
 

Marc

New member
It was the coupler action at 6:15-6:20 that Mike pointed out and where the upper manual is seen to be pushed backwards. May well be due to tracker action, but I was hoping someone could explain the reason for the movement of the manual.

I think it's because the manuals are coupled by means of a shove-coupler (Schiebekoppel in Schnitger's mother tongue language.)

Organist Sietze de Vries was doing the same (during a short demonstration some years ago) on the Schnitger et al organ in the Martini Kerk of Groningen, NL.

Maybe other board members can tell you more about the technical details. Or .... do the Google .... :)
 

Nikam

New member
Posed the question to a Scottish organ builder and this is his reply:

"The shove coupler is found on many historical organs, I suppose principally in Europe. It requires no additional mechanism apart from
the alignment of the two keyboards. Put simply, there are blocks mounted on the underside of the top keyboard and the top of the lower keyboard. When the upper keyboard is in its forward position these blocks are not in alignment and so each keyboard plays independently. When the upper keyboard is slid backwards, (normally approx 15 mm travel) the blocks are sitting one on top of the other so that when you play the upper keyboard the lower one is coupled.
Because of its simplicity we've used this mechanism on many of our house organs. If you have a suspended key action with the keys pivoting
on the back frame, you have to play the upper keyboard to couple with the lower. If on the other hand you have balanced keys with the
pivot point in the centre, the coupling is normally operated from the lower keyboard.
This is the preferred coupling method for most harpsichords."
 

Marc

New member
Good job! Thanks for the technical explanation.

(After all, we don't need Google on this board, do we? ;))
 

fanvault

New member
All those videos posted here are quite magical and mouth-watering. I do hope there will be more!

The line leading up to Arp Schnitger from Jacob Scherer, Berendt Hus, picking up Esaias Compenius and Gottfried Fritsche on the way, makes one wish for a time capsule so one could listen to the organs (say) of Hamburg and the surrounding region as they develop and grow. There was that wonderful way that departments could be simply added to those already there so the instruments grow organically over the years.

We can already, of course, make a variety of journeys in East Friesland and other parts of North Germany. There are numerous historic instruments there of all periods, with several large organs by Arp Schnitger, such as those in Norden; St. Jacobi, Hamburg; Cappel; Neuenfelde; Lüdingworth; Stade; and Steinkirchen. One can easily cheat and go across to Groningen (The Netherlands) and play any of the five Schnitger organs there, and marvel at the restoration of the Martinikerk, which at one time was unplayable and apparently beyond repair.
 
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