Kotykiewicz harmonium factory

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Two-manual pressure wind concert harmonium by Kotykiewicz from a product catalog from 1922

Kotykiewicz , also Harmoniumfabrik Kotykiewicz or Hof-Harmoniumfabrik T. Kotykiewicz, was an Austrian harmonium manufacturer . The company existed from the middle of the 19th century until after the Second World War at its headquarters in Straußengasse or Margarethengasse (the house is on both streets) in Vienna-Margareten .

history

In the first half of the 19th century, the Viennese instrument maker Jacob Deutschmann further developed the physharmonica (a forerunner of the harmonium) invented by Anton Haeckl in 1818 . The instrument became easier to play and its pitch range larger. With increasing versatility, the popularity of the instruments also grew. In 1852 or 1853, Peter Titz (* 23 January 1823, † 6 February 1873), a former apprentice of Deutschmann, took over his workshop in Margarethengasse in Vienna and began to manufacture organs and harmoniums under his name.

After the death of Peter Titz in 1873, his wife Anastasia (* 1815, † 1888) ran the successful business for a few years. In 1878 this was taken over by Teofil Kotykiewicz (* April 27, 1849, † February 19, 1920), who married Theresia Titz (* 1858, † 1934), the younger daughter of Peter and Anastasia Titz, in 1879. From then on, Kotykiewicz, the son of Polish immigrants, sold the instruments very successfully under his name. He benefited from the fact that the harmonium reached the peak of its popularity from the late 19th century. Kotykiewicz reacted to the increasing demand and continuously developed his instruments.

Among the installed technologies include a Prolongement called mechanism allowed to continue to sound the selected tones that the player needed without having to hold the keys, or the percussion , in which small hammer to punch tongues beat of the instrument and generate their own sound effects. The company also sold its own music books in which the technical possibilities of their instruments were taken into account. The product range ranged from cheap instruments with only one register to those with three manuals and pedal, which not only contained reeds but also actual organ pipes . The latter was possible because the company Pressure Wind harmonium produced and not the working with vacuum Saugwindharmoniums where pipes would not work.

Kotykiewicz not only became one of the largest harmonium manufacturers in Austria-Hungary , but also exported numerous instruments abroad. In recognition of its successes, the company was allowed to continue the title originally awarded to Peter Titz as Kuk court and chamber supplier .

Harmonium with Jankó keyboard produced by Kotykiewicz in 1885 in the Vienna Technical Museum

Teofil Kotykiewicz often took part in the new trends in the music world of that time and was interested in innovations, for example in the field of musical notation, which were discussed at the time. The Kromarograph was shown publicly with a Kotykiewicz harmonium, among other things; After the death of the inventor Laurenz Kromar, Kotykiewicz donated a harmonium to the Technisches Museum Wien in order to be able to present the invention there appropriately. Kotykiewicz's striving for technical innovations was also demonstrated by the fact that in 1884 the company was one of the first to construct an instrument with the Jankó keyboard patented by Paul von Jankó in 1883 . A Kotykiewicz harmonium of this type is exhibited today in the Vienna Technical Museum .

Starting in 1929, the company sold a device that allowed professional photographers to calculate the shutter speed of the cameras of the time and readjust it if necessary. For this purpose, the punch tongue of a harmonium was mounted in front of a perforated screen, behind which a light bulb was located. If the tongue is set in motion, it lets hundreds of light flashes per second through the aperture, depending on its pitch. If the photographer moved his camera past this aperture, it recorded a series of points of light. Since the frequency of the tongue was known, the actual shutter speed of the camera could be calculated from the number of recorded points of light.

After Teofil Kotykiewicz's death, his son of the same name (* June 24, 1880, † September 18, 1971) continued the company. The Kotykiewicz company survived the First World War and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and remained successful in the interwar period. Instruments were still exported beyond Europe. Kotykiewicz 'small, light instruments enjoyed great popularity in schools - in Vienna every elementary school received such an instrument by resolution of the municipal council.

The company apparently existed beyond the Second World War, but had passed the zenith of its success. After the death of Teofil Kotykiewicz jun. the track of the company is lost in the early 1970s. Part of the Kotykiewicz family's estate was handed over to the Vienna Technical Museum in 1973 and is archived there.

Selected instruments

  • In the Technisches Museum Wien there is a harmonium constructed in 1885 with a Jankó keyboard.
  • Probably the largest fully functional Kotykiewicz instrument is owned by the United Methodist Church of Vienna. The instrument has three manuals and a pedal, in addition to 881 reeds and 232 pipes are installed. The instrument has 41 stops for selecting the tones and functions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Karl Schnürl: Kotykiewicz, Teofil. In: Austrian Music Lexicon online. Institute for Art and Music History Research, 2002, accessed on October 23, 2019 .
  2. ^ A b Elisabeth Th. Fritz-Hilscher, Helmut Kretschmer: Vienna. Music history from prehistory to the present . Lit-Verl, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-50368-8 , p. 357 .
  3. ^ Gellerman, Robert F .: The American Reed Organ and the Harmonium. Vestal Press, Lanham 1997, ISBN 1-4616-9424-8 , pp. 35 f .
  4. ^ Christian Fastl: Titz, Peter. In: Austrian Music Lexicon online. Institute for Art and Music History Research, 2002, accessed on October 23, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Teofil Kotykiewicz Harmonium Factory: Product Catalog . Vienna 1922 ( imslp.net [PDF; 17.2 MB ]).
  6. ↑ Court and State Manual of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy . Kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1918, p. 48 ( google.at ).
  7. ↑ A musical note typewriter . In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt . No. 68 . Vienna March 11, 1923, p. 18 ( onb.ac.at ).
  8. ↑ Daily report: A new keyboard . In: Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung . No. 1665 . Vienna October 16, 1884, p. 5 ( onb.ac.at ).
  9. ^ A b Online database of the Technisches Museum Wien. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Paul Schrott: An apparatus for determining the speed of momentary closures . In: Photographic correspondence . tape 65 , no. 1 . Vienna January 1929, p. 14 - 16 ( onb.ac.at ).
  11. ↑ Pianos at the Graz trade fair . In: Grazer Tagblatt . Graz August 30, 1931, p. 6 ( onb.ac.at ).
  12. ^ Krzysztof Rottermund: Teofil Kotykiewicz. Polski budowniczy fisharmonii w Wiednu . In: Muzyka kwartalnik poświęcony historii i teorii muzyki oraz krytice naukowej y artistycznej . No. 4 , 2001, ISSN  0027-5344 , p. 58 ( archive.org [PDF]).
  13. ^ Partial estate of Teofil Kotykiewicz. In: Directory of artistic, scientific and cultural-political legacies in Austria. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Our Organ. In: English-Speaking United Methodist Church of Vienna. Retrieved October 23, 2019 (American English).