Wilhelmshöhe water organ

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The so-called water organ of Wilhelmshöhe is a barrel organ that is operated by a wooden paddle wheel driven by water . The original was in a grotto below the octagon bearing the giant statue of Hercules in Kassel's Wilhelmshöhe mountain park . A true-to-the-original replica will be heard at the same location from 2021. The restored and partially renewed original is exhibited in Wilhelmshöhe Castle .

history

The water puzzle of Hercules, in which the water organ sounded
Statue of Pan in the water conundrum of Hercules, behind which the water organ was hidden and where its copy is supposed to stand again
How a water-powered cylinder organ works; Depiction in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1911

From 1701, Landgrave Karl von Hessen-Kassel had a so-called giant castle built in the form of a three-storey octagon with cascades in front of the old hunting lodge Weißenstein on the Karlsberg, in the Habichtswald in the west of Kassel . The water art was presented to the public for the first time in 1714 and the Hercules statue on the roof pyramid of the octagon was erected in 1717.

The so-called Vexierwassergrotte with three wall niches is located on the slope immediately east of the octagon . In the middle and largest there was originally a sculpture of the Cyclops Polyphemus , and since the 19th century that of the mythological shepherd god Pan . The first water organ, built by Andreas Zahn and Johann Wenderoth, stood hidden behind the figure of the Cyclops and later the shepherd god. In 1778, the then court organ builder Georg Peter Wilhelm completely renewed the musical mechanism.

The organ with its three registers and 81 pipes made of lead was an integral part of the water features and was driven by water falling inside the grotto wall via a water wheel that operated a crank via gear wheels . She played six different melodies which Wilhelm composed and which the court organist Becker had engraved on a pin roller and which seemed to come from the shepherd's flute Polyphems and the panpipe Pans. The sounds were supposed to attract visitors - princely fun - who were then sprayed wet with water from over 100 small nozzles in the grotto.

During its first restoration in 1938/1939, the lead pipes were replaced by pipes made of zinc . The instrument was last played before World War II . It was dismantled after the war and stored for almost six decades. The humidity in the grotto and its age had seriously affected the organ. In 2014, it was brought back to a ready-to-play condition in three months by the Dresden organ building company Jehmlich . The original substance from 1778 was completely retained, even the brittle leather of the bellows was retained and sealed. Many details had to be renewed, however, and the wooden cog, which too often stopped the music due to numerous cracks, was replaced by a copy.

In 2016, a true-to-original copy of the organ was made from oak , poplar , maple and hornbeam wood and prepared in such a way that it would keep the constant moisture behind the pan in the convoluted water grotto, where it will take place after the restoration work on the octagon, which is expected for the end of 2021 will be installed, can survive as long as possible undamaged. The restored original, however, is to be given its new location in Wilhelmshöhe Castle. In May 2017 the original and the reconstruction were presented to the public for the first time in the Flora Hall of Wilhelmshöhe Palace.

instrument

It is a barrel organ without a housing, which is driven by a water wheel. Two two-fold wedge-shaped bellows, each with a single-fold bellows, generate the wind, the pressure of which is 1300 WS . The wind is distributed to the pipes by a sanding chest made of oak. The action mechanism consists of a pin roller ; six different pieces of music can be set by moving the roller. The stop action is mechanical. The voice pitch is 440 Hz at 18 ° C . The three registers are Gedackt 8 ', Principal 4' and Octave 2 '. The range includes 27 tones: G, c, d, e, f, g, a, b, c 1 , d 1 , e 1 , f 1 , f sharp 1 , g 1 , a 1 , h 1 , c 2 , c sharp 2 , d 2 , dis 2 , e 2 , f 2 , f sharp 2 , g 2 , a 2 , h 2 , c 3 .

Similar historical organs

Two comparable historical instruments operated by water pressure are located in Salzburg in the park of Hellbrunn Palace in the Mechanical Theater of the Hellbrunn Fountains and at the organ fountain in the park of Villa d'Este in Tivoli near Rome .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Felix Friedrich: Ertönet, you whistles. Odd and remarkable things about the organ. St. Benno Verlag, Leipzig, 2018, ISBN 978-3-7462-5273-5 , p. 62
  2. ^ C. Neuber: The Wilhelmshöher giant castle and the statue of Hercules and their builders. In: Hessenland: Journal for Hessian History and Literature , 15th year, Kassel, 1901, pp. 44–46 (here 45)
  3. ↑ Highlight in Kassel: Historic water organ for the mountain park. RTL Hessen, March 21, 2018
  4. ↑ The water organ in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe will play again. HNA, May 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ The water organ, Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe zu Kassel on the website of Jehmlich Orgelbau.

Web links

literature

  • Bernd Küster: World Heritage Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe - The water arts. (Park brochures MHK) Museum landscape Hessen Kassel, Schnell & Steiner, 2nd edition, 2015, ISBN 3-7954-2803-3 .
  • Bernhard Buch: The restoration of the water organ in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe. An instrument in the context of court water games. In: Denkmalpflege & Kulturgeschichte , Volume 4. State Office for Monument Preservation, Wiesbaden, 2017, pp. 36–42.
  • Alexander Ditsche: Ringing Waters; Hydropneumatic music and sound machines in European garden art. Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-422-07397-5 (No. 4.22: Kassel, Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe Vexierwassergrotte Riesenkopf-Plateau)
  • Andreas Hahn: The water organ in the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel. In: Ars Organi , International Organizational Journal , No. 63/2, June 2015, p. 119.

Coordinates: 51 ° 18 ′ 57.8 "  N , 9 ° 23 ′ 38.1"  E