​THE EXCEPTIONAL UNIQUENESS OF THE ORGAN ACCORDING TO GERHARD GRENZING

 

My first encounter with the Santanyí organ was in 1969 and I was profoundly impressed by its façade, its technology and its sonority. I immediately decided to study the instrument, at that time abandoned and ill-treated, and also its builder. Nowadays, just like almost fifty years ago, it still captivates and moves me. Everything about this instrument is sublime and several generations ahead of its time.

 

Its sound, so artistic, ranges from Gothic elements to details that were not copied until more than seventy years later.

 

One of its most characteristic registers is the Ple (Mixture), with twenty-five ranks, unique in the world and five times larger than any normal register. It was rebuilt by the Grenzing Workshop following the pattern of the 17 conserved pipes.

 

Another special feature of the instrument is the powerful sound of its enormous wooden pipes, the Bombarda.

 

The horizontal Trompetería, the Batalla, so typical of Iberian organs, invented in the late 17th century, is also extraordinary as it is imposing but not at all aggressive.

 

Another register that deserves mention is the Corneta with nine ranks, delivering bright colour and presence.

 

The inventions of Master Bosch were not implemented by organ builders of his time. They were too advanced and not understood. However, eighty years later they were copied or reinvented by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the most important 19th-century organ builder of France.

 

Many knowledgeable experts who visit the organ hugely admire its remarkable technology and also the great quality of its materials. The imposing but unforced sound is due to this superiority and the painstaking design of the pipes.

 

Poetry, energy and a varied timbre expand the possibilities of registrations of this not exactly big organ.

 

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