Joseph Gabler

Joseph Gabler (born July 6, 1700 in Ochsenhausen , † November 8, 1771 in Bregenz ) was one of the most important master organ builders in southern Germany during the Baroque period .

Life

Large organ of the St. Martin Basilica in Weingarten

Game table of the great organ of the St. Martin Basilica in Weingarten

Gabler was trained as a carpenter in the workshop of the Ochsenhausen monastery . Following tradition, he went on a hike and worked in Mainz for several years from 1719 . However, almost nothing is known about this period. After the end of his wandering years, he found a job with one of the Mainz organ builders. The organ builders Johann Jakob Dahm and Anton Ignaz Will , who were active in Mainz at the time, could be considered as teachers, but hardly Johann Peter Geissel , who was mentioned again and again in older literature , was born in 1636 but can no longer be traced in Mainz from 1689. There is also no evidence that he worked in the workshop of Anton Ziegenhorn († 1720) and his son Johann Eberhard Ziegenhorn († 1726), whose widow Gabler married in 1729; the Ziegenhorns were neither joiners nor organ builders, but carpenters. Gabler was only put on record as an organ builder in 1727, when he unsuccessfully applied for maintenance on the Mainz cathedral organs. The Mainz organ builder Johannes Kohlhaas the Elder was preferred at that time .

Between 1729 and 1733 Gabler stayed again in Ochsenhausen. During this time he received the order from Abbot Cölestin Frener to rebuild the organ in the collegiate church of St. Georg . After that, in 1733/1734, he worked again in Mainz. From 1736 or 1737 until at least 1750 he lived with his family in the vineyard near Ravensburg , where he built the large organ on the west gallery of the cathedral until 1750 , and in Ravensburg from 1763 to 1768. He then worked again in Ochsenhausen, where he furnished and rebuilt his first work based on the Weingarten model with a free-standing console, i.e. not attached to the organ case. The quite new type of free-standing console console for organs became more and more popular at that time and was ultimately adopted by most organ builders in southern Germany because they gave the organist a clear view of the altar or the conductor, choir and orchestra.

Gabler's other activities are only partially known. From 1753 to 1755 Gabler built the choir organ of the minster in Zwiefalten , from 1756 to 1759 he expanded the choir organ in Maria Steinbach , built the organ in the Martinskirche in Memmingen and two positives for the Memmingen Latin school and the music college. From 1763 to 1766 his stay in Ravensburg is attested, where he worked on the organs of the Carmelite and Trinity Churches. He spent the last years of his life in Bregenz on Lake Constance , where he was hit by a blow while building the city church organ due to high debts still being forced to work.

Along with Karl Joseph Riepp and Johann Nepomuk Holzhey , Gabler is considered to be the most important organ builder in Upper Swabia. Of his organs only those in Ochsenhausen, Weingarten and Maria Steinbach exist; only the great organ in Weingarten has remained almost completely original to this day. The organ in Maria Steinbach was greatly modified in the 19th and 20th centuries, and to a lesser extent that of Ochsenhausen; of Gabler's other works, little more than the prospectus has survived.

Vox humana legend

There are all sorts of legends entwined around the Great Organ in Weingarten, such as the Vox-humana saga, which is based on the question of whether it is possible to imitate the human voice by means of an organ register (the Vox-humana- Contrary to their name, registers hardly ever do this.). Since Gabler was unsuccessful despite mixing special metal alloys, Satan is said to have whispered to him during the night that he would help him if he would prescribe his soul for it.

On a stormy night Gabler is said to have secretly sneaked out of the monastery and made his way to Laurastein to meet the devil there, as agreed. This appeared to him as a hunter. Gabler wrote his soul to the devil with his blood as ink. In return, he received a metal for the pipe casting. After Gabler poured the metal he had received from the devil into pipes, the vox-humana register is said to have sounded like a human voice, but instead of sacred songs it only produced secular music that caused many monks to leave their cells in order to indulge in worldly pleasures . The abbot then had him brought before him. He confessed to him the "black act". Gabler was then tried and he should be burned together with the eerie register in the courtyard of the monastery. But first he should create a replacement for the diabolical register; he succeeded so well that he was pardoned. - This legend has remained alive to this day; In 1937 it was performed as a home game by Weingarten citizens on the cathedral stairs.

Secret lever saga

Another legend that is still alive today concerns a secret lever that is said to have been in the Weingarten organ. Gabler, who had not received the agreed wages from the monks (which in principle comes very close to the facts), asked for the keys to the organ some time after the completion of the great organ in order to look up a little something. He threw a single lever inside the instrument, and the organ only whimpered softly. The abbot and the convent gathered in great concern, whereupon Gabler promised immediate remedial action if the outstanding wages were paid to him. The monastery paid for it, and Gabler made the organ sound again in its old splendor with one movement.

In 1912, as part of a renovation by master organ builder Weigle , a hidden lever was found in an inaccessible place and unfortunately removed at the time; the lever was a kind of shut-off valve with a small hole that could be used to restrict the air supply. When the organ was restored by the Swiss organ building company Orgelbau Th. Kuhn AG in 1981–83, the organ builders followed the Gabler tradition and built in such a secret lever again; where is a secret to this day.

Works

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1728-1734, 1751-1755	Ochsenhausen	St. George		IV / P	47	New building using older parts, reconstruction by Gabler in the 1750s; Register largely preserved → organ
1739-1743	Vineyard	St. Martin , choir organ		II / P	22nd	Only a prospectus and a few pipes received.
1747-1748	Hasenweiler	Parish Church of the Birth of Mary		I / P	10	Originally in the chapel of the St. Michael monastery in Ravensburg . After the dissolution of the monastery in 1812, sold to Hasenweiler , where it was rebuilt by Franz Anton Kiene , new building by Vitus Klingler using the old stock in 1862, new building by Späth in 1912, new building by Hermann Weber (II / P / 21) using the existing housing in 1996 from Gabler.
1737-1750	Vineyard	St. Martin , main organ		IV / P	63	→ Organs of the St. Martin Basilica (Weingarten)
1752-1755	Double folds	Zwiefalten monastery church , choir organ		II / P	23	Just received a brochure.
1755-1759	Maria Steinbach	Pilgrimage church		II / P	24	Rebuilt several times; today II / P / 26; reconstructed by Orgelbau Schmid
1768-1771	Bregenz	St. Gallus		II / P	19th	Only housing received.

literature

• Franz Bärnwick: Newly found documents about Joseph Gabler . In: The Church Singer . tape 33 (1932/33) , pp. 96-99, 131-135 .
• Franz Bärnwick: News about Joseph Gabler, the builder of the great organ in the Münster zu Weingarten . In: Württ. Cäcilienvereinsorgan / Musica sacra . tape 64/63 , 1933, pp. 106-111 .
• Helge Bendl: Joseph Gabler and his organ miracle . In: Baden-Württemberg . tape 47 , no. 2 , 2000, pp. 34-36 .
• Moritz Fürstenau:  Gabler, Josef . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1878, p. 296 f.
• Adam Gottron: Joseph Gabler in Mainz . In: Walter Supper (Ed.): The Baroque, its organs and its music in Oberschwaben . Berlin / Darmstadt 1952, p. 82–84 (Ochsenhausen conference report 1951).
• Heinrich Hamm : The Gabler organ of the Weingarten basilica . Kunstverlag Peda, Passau 1993, ISBN 3-927296-82-1 .
• Wolfgang Manecke, Johannes Mayr: Contemporaries - For the 300th birthday of the organ builders Joseph Gabler (1700–1771) and Georg Friedrich Schmahl (1700–1773) . In: Ars Organi . tape 48 , 2000, pp. 196-203 .
• Wolfgang Manecke, Johannes Mayr: Two masters of their trade - the organ builders Joseph Gabler (1700–1771) and Georg Friedrich Schmahl (1700–1773) . In: Castles of Baden-Württemberg . tape 2000 , no. 3 , 2000, pp. 22-27 .
• Johannes Mayr: A registration guide by Joseph Gabler . In: Ars Organi . tape 49 , 2001, p. 78-83 .
• Johannes Mayr : Joseph Gabler organ maker . Biberacher Verlagsdruckerei, Biberach 2000, ISBN 3-933614-06-6 .
• Gebhard Spahr: Joseph Gabler. Organ builder of Swabian Benedictine churches . In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings . tape 91 , 1973, p. 107-124 ( digitized version ).
• Walter Supper : The Upper Swabian organ builder Joseph Gabler . In: Swabian homeland . tape 2 , 1951, p. 10-13 .
• Walter Supper:  Gabler, Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 8 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Walter Supper: On the two hundredth year of the death of Joseph Gabler . In: Ars Organi . tape 19 , no. 39 , 1971, p. 1577-1584 .
• Joseph Wörsching: Contributions to the life and work of the great Swabian organ builder . In: Church Music Yearbook . tape 29 , 1934, pp. 54-71 .

Web links

Commons : Joseph Gabler  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Joseph Gabler in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hermann Fischer , Theodor Wohnhaas : Lexicon of southern German organ builders . Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 1994, p. 111f; see also Johannes Mayr, Joseph Gabler Orgelmacher, Biberach 2000, p. 13ff.
2. ^ Franz Bösken : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 6 ). tape 1 : Mainz and suburbs - Rheinhessen - Worms and suburbs . Schott, Mainz 1967, ISBN 978-3-7957-1306-5 , p. 82 .
3. ^ Wolfgang Manecke, Johannes Mayr, Mark Vogl: Historical organs in Oberschwaben. The district of Ravensburg . Lindenberg 2006, ISBN 978-3-89870-250-8 , pp. 63-65