Description
The virtual Gottfried Silbermann organ of Großhartmannsdorf (1741, II/P/21).
Please also have a look at the licencing conditions listed in the requirements tab. Unfortunately for this sample set we have to exclude public performances or installation in public places. We ask for your understanding in this matter, it was a requirement to get permission to sample this beautiful instrument.
If you would like to read some more information about the sample set, you can download the included PDF-booklet here.
A nice review of this set including some demo recordings can be found on the PCOrgan website.
Another review (German only) can be found on the Orgelbits Website.
This sample set makes one of the finest remaining Gottlieb Silbermann organs available for Hauptwerk. It has been sampled by Peter Ewers for his Gigastudio pipe organ series "Symphonic Organ Libraries" in 2001. Please have a look at the 'Details' tab for more information about the organ and the sample set.
Details
The Organ
The Gottfried Silbermann organ in Großhartmannsdorf has two manuals and pedal with 21 stops. It comprises 1178 sounding pipes, the prospect is completed by 26 silent pipes. The organ case is 5,50 m tall and 4,30 m wide, the middle tower of the prospect shows the emblem of the church patron, who signed the contract with Silbermann and paid a substantial part of the cost of the instrument. The organ was inaugurated on the 3rd December 1741.
This instrument is one of the best preserved organs of Gottfried Silbermann, it has been well maintained but never been modified significantly. First repairs had been carried out by Adam Gottfried Oehme from Freiberg in 1780, further works by Gebr. Jehmlich from Dresden. Since 1952 the organ is maintained by Eule Orgelbau from Bautzen. It is not known at what time the temperament of the organ has been changed. It is now tuned to equal temperament, but still nearly a full note higher than todays concert pitch. Analysis of the samples shows a tuning with a1=462 Hz.
Many recordings are available with this instrument, mostly with works by J.S. Bach. The organ has a very bright and clear sound, which is typical for the instruments of Gottfried Silbermann.
Disposition
Hauptwerk
Principal 8´
Octava 4´
Qvintadena 8´
Rohr-Flöthe 8´
Cornett 3fach
Spitz-Flöthe 4´
Qvinta 3´
Octava 2´
Mixtuur 4fach
Oberwerk
Gedackt 8´
Rohr-Flöthe 4´
Nasat 3´
Octava 2´
Gemshorn 2´
Tertia 1 3/5´
Qvinta 1 1/2´
Sufflet 1´
Cimbel 2fach
Pedal
Subbass 16´
Octavbass 8´
Posaunenbass 16´
The Sample Set
The organ has been recorded with high quality microfones and preamps in 16bit 44100Hz sample file format. The samples have been carefully denoised and prepared for use with Hauptwerk. Our own SampleLooper software has been used to compute loop points (up to nine/sample) and help setting the release markers. The original recordings have a lenght of 30 seonds/note for the manuals and 60 seconds/note for the pedal. These have been shortened to 8 seconds/note and 15 seconds/note resp.. The samples contan the original room reverbaration, which is about 1.5-2 seconds. As in our other sample sets we have created artificial staccato and portato release layers using convolution. The impulse response used in this process has been carefully designed to match the original reverb. If you do not want to use these artificial release layers, you can select to only use the default release sample in the rank audio output routing screen in Hauptwerk. Advanced Features:
The sample set is encrypted, but it still can be used with the Hauptwerk Free and Trial versions.
- The compass is extended up to g''' in the manuals and f' in the pedal. There is a switch to toggle between extended and original compass. This is mainly because some of the stops are repeating, and for the extended compass they break at c'''.
- The tremulant can be switched to work as in the original, effecting the entire organ, and to only effect the OW, which makes it much more useful.
- The organ is tuned to a pitch of a1=460 Hz. A switch is provided to easily switch this to the standard pitch of a1=440Hz, without loading a different temperament file or using the HW tuning feature.
- There are two settings for the wind model. One is as unstable as the original, the other is more stable. Naturally you can also adjust using the organ settings menu. (Unfortunately only non US customers can benefit from that).
- Eight general combinations have been added to the GUI to allow rapid registration changes
Requirements
Licence Inform.
This sample set requires HW version 3.2 or greater. Note: This sample set is compatible with the Hauptwerk Free Edition! However, when playing fast sequences of chords with full tutti the available polyphony of the Free Edition is not sufficient and the reverb tails do get cut off.
The sample set requires very little computing ressources. The memory consumption with the most common loading options is listed below:
Compressed, Single-Loop: ca. 1100 MB
Compressed, all Loops: ca. 1700 MB
Uncompr., Single-Loop: ca. 1850 MB
Uncompr., all Loops: ca. 2700 MB
Licence agreement
The licence conditions for our sample sets conditions can be found here.
Sound
Demonstrations
New recording! Played live using Hauptwerk by Anton Doornhein and kindly made available to us. As usual no sound processing has been applied to the recording.
Nicolaus Bruhns, Prelude and Fugue in e-minor
Printout of registration used in the recording
Here are the first live demos with this sample set. These demos are played live by Bert den Hertog. The sound has been recorded directly from Hauptwerk, no post processing has been apllied.
J.S. Bach, Canonical Variations on "Vom Himmel hoch", BWV 769
Variation 1
Variation 2
Variation 3
Variation 4
Variation 5
Printout of registration used in the recording
J.S: Bach, Prelude and Fugue a minor, BWV 551
BWV551
Printout of registration used in the recording
Virtual Baroque von James Pressler started a Mini-Concert Page for this Instrument. Here you can find a growing collection of nice pieces showcasing this sampleset.
You can find more sound demos in the review on the PCOrgan website.