KUHN

Temple Fribourg

Organ details

History

1879
On 17 August, four years after the church was built, the first organ was inaugurated. It was an instrument by the Lucerne organ builder Johann Andreas Otto (1838–1914), comprising 16 stops on two manuals and pedal. The organ is believed to have been similar to the one Otto had built the previous year for the Catholic Church of Meierskappel (Canton of Lucerne). On 31 August, the Bernese organ expert Carl Locher gave the inaugural recital on the new instrument.

1918
The Fribourg organ builder Henri Wolf-Giusto installed an electric blower.

1937
During the renovation of the church, the organ was sold to the church of Thierachern (Canton of Bern), where the Metzler organ workshop of Dietikon (Canton of Zurich) rebuilt it and installed it in a historic case.

1938
The Kuhn organ workshop of Männedorf (Canton of Zurich) built a completely new organ, its first instrument to feature slider chests and mechanical key action. The organ had 19 stops on two manuals and pedal. The stop action, however, remained pneumatic. The instrument was inspected by the organ experts Ernst Graf and Ernst Schiess of Bern, together with Leo Kathriner of Hauterive.

1972
As part of an interior renovation of the church, the organ was dismantled and subsequently reinstalled. It was probably on this occasion that the façade pipes, which had previously all been cut to the same length for visual uniformity, were restored to their natural speaking lengths. The stoplist was also slightly revised.

2011
The organ underwent a complete overhaul as part of a further renovation of the church. An electronic combination system was installed, and a 16′ Bombarde stop was added to the Pedal division. The instrument now has 23 stops on two manuals and pedal.

(https://orgelverzeichnis.ch)

Multimedia library

Specification

I
(C-g3)
II
(C-g3)
Pedal
(C-f1)
Principal 8
Hohlflöte 8
Octave 4
Rohrflöte 4
Octave 2
Mixtur 1 1/3
Trompete 8
Suavial 8
Gedackt 8
Principal 4
Blockflöte 4
Nazard 2 2/3
Waldflöte 2
Terz 1 3/5
Scharf 1
Oboe
Tremblant
Contrabass 16
Subbass 16
Octavbass 8
Gedacktbass 8
Octave 4
Bombarde 16
Trompete 8