Christian Förner

Christian Förner (* 1609 in Löbejün , † 1678 in Wettin ) was a German organ builder.

Life

Förner probably learned the organ building trade from his brother-in-law Johann Wilhelm Stegmann in Wettin. He is said to have perfected his organ- making art later in the Netherlands .

Förner was an organ builder , scientist and inventor . Various sources testify to its versatility in technical and scientific matters. So it is said that he "not only understood the field measurements , sighting, the water arts, and quite a few the gunsmiths, but also all kinds of excellent mechanical manipulations, and especially the properties of fire and water". Inventions and innovations accompanied his work. In connection with the production of his organ in the St. Ulrichskirche in Halle (Saale) he built "an extremely beautiful and useful modum [...] that the pipes must not be intoned with the mouth when the tuning is ongoing."

Another and probably Förner's best-known invention is the wind balance, a device that is still used today in organ building to measure wind pressure . This invention dates less than 30 years later when the theory of air pressure and its measurement was established by Galileo and Toricelli. The device is designed to measure the strength of the organ wind and was used by Förner for the first time when building the organ for the cathedral in Halle (Saale). Förner gave his instruments 45 ° to 46 ° wind. This relatively high wind pressure is not unusual in organ building at that time. He specified how the pipes were addressed, thereby enhancing their tonal character and improving the playability, especially of the large pedal parts and many reed registers.

Förner was of great musical historical importance because he was the first to develop a well-tempered mood that could be played in all keys of the circle of fifths . This tuning is documented and described for the organ built in 1668–1673 in the Weissenfels Castle Church. In the Förner tuning, all 12 fifths float with the same beat frequency, but eight fifths are floating below (approx. 5-6 cents smaller than pure) and four fifths are floating above (approx. 3-5 cents larger than pure). The overlying fifths are distributed over the circle of fifths in such a way that each major third contains at least one and a maximum of two overlying fifths. Because of this distribution there are no nearly pure major thirds; the cleanest thirds on c, e and f are approx. 10 cents larger than the pure major third (386 cents). The worst thirds on c sharp, f sharp and g sharp are 18–20 cents larger than pure, but still bearable. The Förner tuning differs greatly from the mean- tone tuning that dominated in the 17th century : unlike this, it has neither pure or nearly pure thirds nor a wolf fifth, and the fifth-based tuning method is completely different from the third-based tuning method of the mean-tone tuning.

It is assumed that the Förner mood was taken up and further spread by Förner's students Zacharias Thayßner , Christoph Junge , Tobias Gottfried Trost and Förner's grandchildren (including Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost and Johann Friedrich Wender ). Zacharias Thayßner built the organ of the collegiate church of St. Servatii in Quedlinburg , where Andreas Werckmeister held office, from 1677 to 1682 , and in the contract in 1677 he promised a temperature that could be used in all keys. It is also suspected that some organ works by Dietrich Buxtehude , which require a well-tempered mood, could be related to this organ: Buxtehude was friends with Andreas Werckmeister and can be shown to have sent him a large number of his organ works. He could have written some of these works especially for Werckmeister and his well-tempered Thayßner organ. Johann Friedrich Wender built the organ of Divi Blasii in Mühlhausen from 1687 to 1691 and the organ of the Bonifatius Church (today Bach Church ) in Arnstadt from 1699 to 1703 . The young Johann Sebastian Bach officiated on these two organs from 1703 to 1708. From the beginning they enabled him to write organ works that go far beyond the keys that the purely mean-tone tuning allows. However, the vocal practice of Wender and Trost cannot be precisely proven and has not been proven for the organs mentioned. Modified mean-tone moods are also conceivable.

Förner died as a bachelor in Wettin in 1678.

Works

With the exception of some wholly or partially preserved organ cases, none of Christian Förner's instruments are left. The following repairs and new buildings are known today:

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
	Croppenstedt	church				Repair of the organ by Elias Compenius
	Halberstadt	Franciscan Church				Repair of the organ
	Groeningen	Castle Church				Repair of the organ
1661	Halberstadt	St. Martini Church				Repair of the organ by David Beck
1667	Halle (Saale)	Dom		II	26th	New organ
1670 (approx.)	Fischbeck / Weser	church
1673	Weissenfels	Castle Church		II / P	30th	Housing received
1675	Halle (Saale)	St. Ulrich's Church		II / P	32	Förner commissioned the Halle-based organ maker Ludwig Compenius (II.) To build the new organ. Förner himself retained the contractual responsibility towards the client, delivered the draft and supervised the work. In the contract of May 8, 1673, it says: “Mr. Vörner has left Mr. Compenio malted tow, because he is unable to make it himself, to do it in such a way that he follows the contracts made with the church and him may. However, Mr. Vörner reserves himself with such organ building from the beginning to the end of the complete upper inspection, direction and disposition, to indicate and direct all and every process of defensive work ”. Compenius received 800 thalers from Förner for his work . As a total, Förner charged the parish 960 thalers.

literature

• Hans Klotz :  Förner, Christian. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 269 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Alexander Koschel , Frank-Harald Greß : The organs of the castle church in Weißenfels, from the Christian Förner organ from 1673, described by Johann Caspar Trost to the Voigt organ from 1985/2000 , FAGOTT - Orgelverlag, Friedrichshafen 2006, ISBN 3- 00-019678-1
• Alexander Koschel: Christian Förner and his organ in the castle church of St. Trinitatis in Weißenfels , in-house communications from the Handel House, Halle / S. 2/2000
• Alexander Koschel: JS Bach and his relations with Weißenfels , Forum Kirchenmusik, 6/2000
• Alexander Koschel: Organs in the Weißenfelser Land , Organ International , 3/2001
• Alexander Koschel: Christian Förner and his organ in the castle church of St. Trinitatis in Weißenfels , Ars Organi , 1/2002

Discography

• "JS Bach and Central German organ music from the 16th to 18th centuries - the organ of the castle church in Weißenfels / Alexander Koschel", F-3905-9, FAGOTT-Orgelverlag
• "The organ of the castle church in Weißenfels - The organ of the castle church in Weißenfels / Alexander Koschel", F-3907-2, FAGOTT-Orgelverlag

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Caspar Trost: Detailed description of the new organ work on the Augustus Castle in Weissenfels . Nuremberg 1677, p. 37 ( online ); Facsimile in: Acta Organologica. 27, 2001, pp. 36-108.
2. ↑ Felix Friedrich : Christian Förner and the organ of the Schlosskirche zu Weißenfels, Acta Organologica 27, 2001, pp. 21–34 on p. 28
3. ↑ Contract text printed in: Klaus Beckmann : Die Norddeutsche Schule. Organ music in Protestant Northern Germany between 1517 and 1755. Part II: Heyday and Decline 1620-1755. Mainz: Schott 2009, pp. 104-105.
4. ↑ Klaus Beckmann: The North German School. Organ music in Protestant Northern Germany between 1517 and 1755. Part II: Heyday and Decline 1620-1755. Mainz: Schott 2009, pp. 114–115.
5. ↑ Roland Eberlein : Tunder, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Lübeck: For which instruments did you write and how were they tuned? Pp. 5–7 ( online ), accessed April 5, 2016.
6. ^ Ibo Ortgies : Temperature. In: Siegbert Rampe : Bach's piano and organ works. The manual. Part 2 = Volume 4, 2nd Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2008, ISBN 978-3-89007-459-7 , pp. 623-640, here: 633-634, 636.