Sunday, April 1, 2007

Austria: Albrechtsberger





This stamp was issued Janury 31, 1986 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. Albrechtsberger was born in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna in 1736. As church musician he worked in Raab and Maria Taferl. He ultimately was kapellmeister at the St. Stephen's Dom in Vienna. It is hard to determine which organ is depicted in the background of the stamp. The stamp depicts only part of the facade of an instrument. However it looks very much like the complete facade shown below. It seems to be the instrument in Klosterneuberg, built by Freundt in 1642.  The abbey is an Augustinian house on the Danube river.

Notes from 2012: This site has a nice history of the facility and the organ. (The developer of the site sadly died in February 2012; his site is wonderfully detailed, with many videos of the organs he covers.) Here is a specification since 1990 after work by Kuhn of Manndorf, Switzerland:

Ruckpositiv (I)
Nachthorn        8
Prinzipal          4
Klein Copl       4
Spitzfloeten     4
Octave             2
Superoctav       1 (3)
Cimbal scharf  ¼ (3)
Krummhorn     8 (2)

Hauptwerk (II)
Principal          8
Principalfloten 8 (6)
Copl                 8
Quintadena      8
Octav               4
Octav Copl      4
Dulcian            4 (3)
Offne Floeten  4
Quint               3
Superoctav      2
Mixtur             4, XII-XIV (3, 6)
Cimbel gross   2/3 (3)
Dulcian          16 (1, 6)
Pusaun             8 (1, 6)

Brustwerk (III)
Coplfloeten      4
Prinzipal          2
Spitzfloeten     2
Regal               8
Tremulant (4)

Pedal
Prinzipal          16 (5)
Subbass           16 (6)
Octav               8
Choralfloeten   8
Superoctav       4
Mixtur              4, VII-VIII
Rauschwerk     2, III
Grosspusaun    16 (1, 6)
Octav Pusaun   8 (1, 6)
 
1990 Installation: 1
1984 Installation: 2
1950 Installation: 3
1934 Installation: 4
With an extra key B below low C: 5
Activated/Deactivated ventil stop “Wind Hinterladen”: 6

1 comment:

Richard Robinson said...

I am curious as to why you do not think the organ on the Albrecthsberger stamp is the one in Klosterneuberg. I looked up images of the organ and the stamp appears to depict a portion of the right side of the organ facade. What do you think?