Rowan West

Rowan West (* 1953 in Australia ) is an organ builder from Altenahr .

Life

West learned to play the organ on the cathedral organ in Sydney. After graduating from high school and an apprenticeship as an organ builder in Australia, he received a Churchill scholarship and moved to Central Europe in 1975. Here he immersed himself at Orgelbau Klais in Bonn, where he worked as a voicer. In 1976/1977 he attended the North German Organ Academy in Bunde and dealt with organs from the Baroque period for the first time. He graduated from the master school in Ludwigsburg in 1986. In 1987, West went into business for himself after his master craftsman examination. The company has five employees (as of 2016).

plant

From the beginning, the north German baroque organ was a focus of Rowan West's work. He built new organs in the style of Arp Schnitger and his school and restored their works. In 1999, West reconstructed the lost organ of Berendt Hus , Schnitger's teacher, behind the preserved prospect in the St. Marien town church in Celle . Since 2012, West has been restoring some Schnitger organs ( Steinkirchen , Oederquart , Grasberg ). In Linz and Berlin-Zehlendorf new buildings were built in the Central German style by Gottfried Silbermann and in Prambachkirchen and Kempten organs in the southern German tradition of the 18th century. The spectrum is expanded by new organs in the French style ( Altenhagen ) and in the style of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll ( alcoves ) as well as restorations of romantic organs from the 19th century ( Harsefeld , Buxtehude , Eutin ).

Other new buildings reflect the East Westphalian style: the organ in the Bartholomäuskirche in Bielefeld-Brackwede is based on the works of Johann Patroclus Möller , the most important Westphalian organ builder. West restored the organ of St. Andreas (Ostönnen) , the oldest playable organ in Germany. Rowan's reconstruction of the Schwalbennestorgel in Lemgo, St. Marien , in the years 2009/2010 behind the renaissance case of Gebr. Slegel from 1595 with the original Scherer - prospect pipes from 1613 received wide attention . The missing registers were found on the basis of the Scherer organ in Tangermünde and Dutch instruments copied.

Rowan West is committed to traditional organ building techniques and builds organs with mechanical sliders . He uses the sand casting process to make pipes and dovetail joints for wooden structures . As in the Baroque period, the solid wood is only processed with planes and not with sandpaper. West is a project partner in the research project “Development of Measures to Reduce Lead Corrosion on Organ Pipes from the 17th and 18th Centuries”, which is funded from 2016 to 2018 by the German Federal Environmental Foundation and the Hanover Monastery Chamber.

List of works

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1994	Bielefeld - Brackwede	Bartholomäuskirche		III / P	46	New building in the style of Johann Patroclus Möller
1996	Taufkirchen an der Pram	Parish church		II / P	25th	New building in the style of Arp Schnitger and his school
1996	Altenhagen (Hagen)	St. Meinolf		III / P	36	New building in French style
1996	Remagen	St. Peter and Paul		II / P	18th	Reconstruction and extension of the Klais organ from 1969, which was intended as a transitional organ
1997	Alcove (Upper Austria)	Parish church		II / P	16	New building in the style of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll behind a historic housing
1999	Celle	St. Mary		III / P	49	New building behind the historic Berendt Hus prospectus
2001	Belum	St. Vitus		II / p	11	New building behind the historic prospect by Georg Wilhelm Wilhelmy (1786)
2001-2002	Harsefeld	St. Mary and Bartholomew		II / P	25th	Restoration of the organ by Friedrich Altendorf (1860–1861), eleven registers reconstructed
2002	Crumbling	St. Mary		II / P	12	in the style of Hendrik Niehoff , without copying a particular instrument, lead pipes cast on sand and hammered
2000-2003	Ostönnen	St. Andrew		I / p	8th	Restoration of the organ, which dates back to the late Gothic (1431) in the oldest parts of the case and registers → Organ of St. Andreas (Ostönnen)
2005	Wolfsburg- Fallersleben	St. Michaelis		II / P	27	New building behind a historic prospect in the style of the previous organ from 1814
2006	Linz	Martin Luther Church		III / P	33	New building in the style of Gottfried Silbermann
2006-2007	Buxtehude	St. Petri		III / P	52	Subsequent restoration of the organ by Philipp Furtwängler (1858–1859), reconstruction of the 7 mixed voices
2006-2007	Berlin	University of Art in Berlin		II / P	22nd	New building in the style of the north German baroque organ
2001-2009	Grünendeich	St. Mary		II / p	17th	Restoration of the organ by Dietrich Christoph Gloger (1766), reconstruction of 9 registers
2008-2009	Prambachkirchen	Parish church		II / P	approx. 22	New building in the Central and South German style of the second half of the 18th century
2009	Eutin Castle	Castle chapel		I / P	10	Restoration of the organ by Johann Friedrich Schulze behind the case by Arp Schnitger (1693)
2009	Neustadt in Holstein	Stadtkirche Neustadt in Holstein		III / P	33	New building in the style of a Renaissance organ; Pipes and throats were copied from old models from North German organs; Particularities: The organ metal required for the pipe work was processed using historical methods (sand casting, hammered to strength) Chest movement with five registers, the pipes of which are operated with sword levers
2009-2010	Lemgo	St. Mary		II / P	20th	Case from Gebr. Slegel (1595) and front pipes of the main work by Fritz Scherer (1612–1613) preserved, otherwise reconstruction to the condition of 1613. → Organ
2006-2011	Wesselburen	St. Bartholomew		II / P	31	Reconstruction of the organ by Johann Hinrich Klapmeyer (1736–1738); Prospectus and some registers received; 18 registers in a first construction phase in 2006, the rest took place by 2011
2011	Bad Breisig	St. Mary		II / P	28	New building behind the prospectus by Johann Friedrich Constabel (1760) in the style of the North German high baroque → organ
2012	Stone churches	St. Martini et Nicolaii		II / P	28	Restoration of the organ by Arp Schnitger (1685–1687): improvement of technique and intonation, historical tuning → organ by St. Martini et Nicolai (Steinkirchen)
2012	Neuenkirchen (Hadeln)	St. Mary		II / P	18th	Restoration of the organ by Christoph Donat (1661–1662), Dietrich Christoph Gloger (1738) and Johann Georg Wilhelm Wilhelmy (1835–1836)
2011-2013	Berlin-Zehlendorf	Paulus Church		II / P	22nd	New building in the style of Gottfried Silbermann and Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost , without copying a specific instrument. As a supplement to the new building in the French-symphonic tradition of Karl Schuke Berlin organ building workshop (2011-2013)
2015-2016	Grasberg	Ev.-luth. church		II / P	21st	Renovation of the organ by Arp Schnitger (1693–1694): new leather covering, cleaning and removal of mold, maintenance work and re-intonation
2013-2017	Oederquart	St. Johannis		III / P	28	Reconstruction of the organ by Arp Schnitger behind the preserved prospect with original prospect pipes made of tin (1682) in three construction phases
2017-2018	Kempten (Allgäu)	St. Lorenz Basilica		I / P	14th	New building in southern German style behind the historic prospectus of an unknown organ builder (1740)
2018	Nassau	Johanniskirche		II / P	16	New building with alternating loops
2019	Munich	University of Music and Theater		II / P	28	Construction of a "Bach organ" → organ

Web links

Commons : Rowan West  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Homepage
• Short biography in: Organs on the Middle Rhine and a Holy Staircase (PDF file; 973 kB), p. 6.
• Swallow's Nest Organ in Lemgo, St. Marien

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Organs on the Middle Rhine and a Holy Staircase (PDF file; 973 kB), p. 6, viewed on February 26, 2014.
2. ↑ Church music St. Marien Lemgo ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 14, 2015. 
3. ↑ Deutschlandradio Kultur: Perfect Sound in the Church , seen on February 26, 2014.
4. ↑ MPA Bremen , accessed on March 6, 2017.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Roman Summereder : Aufbruch der Klänge. Materials, pictures, documents on organ reform and organ culture in the 20th century. Edition Helbling, Innsbruck 1995, ISBN 3-900590-55-9 , p. 321.
6. ^ Organ in Altenhagen , accessed on February 26, 2014.
7. ^ Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer , Matthias Thömmes: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history . Volume 40 ). tape 4 : Koblenz and Trier administrative districts, Altenkirchen and Neuwied districts. Part 2. Schott, Mainz 2005, ISBN 978-3-7957-1342-3 , p. 890 .
8. ^ Organ in Berlin, Institute for Church Music , accessed on September 14, 2016.
9. ↑ All registers were poured onto sand and hammered. The lengths and construction of the pipes were copied by Slegel and Scherer, the trumpet is copied from Albert Kiespenning from 1612 in Wijk bij Duurstede , the bear pipe is a reconstruction based on the drawings and standards in Syntagma musicum by Michael Praetorius .
10. ↑ paulusorgel.de ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 8, 2012. 
11. ^ Organ in Oederquart , accessed on February 25, 2014.
12. ^ Organ in Nassau