2023.03

Orgelkunst opens this autumn edition with a contribution on Jehan Titelouze, the composer and canon born in the Spanish Netherlands, whose Hymnes de l’Église saw the light of day in Paris four hundred years ago. Authors Léon Berben and Johan Zoutendijk provide ideas for further studying, performing, and appreciating his music. In addition to questions concerning historical registration practices and ornamentation, the distribution of voices across the different manuals and the pedal is also discussed. The ‘thumb technique’, which allows the cantus firmus to be played as a leading voice on a separate manual, is explained in detail.

Anyone who has recently visited St. Salvator’s Cathedral in Bruges will undoubtedly have noticed the new monumental organ case on the west wall, housing the 1935 Klais organ, now supplemented with new stops and a completely new inner mechanism. On a recently built gallery in the south transept stands the old, beautifully sculpted Van Eynde organ from 1719, restored and reconstructed so that it can sound in all its glory once again.

The September issue concludes with the story of the rejection of architect Alphonse Simil’s design for the construction of a Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.