Burundi: Composers, 2011

 

Burundi issued sheet of stamps in 2011. It is four stamps in a mini-sheet. My version is not perforated. I am fairly certain a perforated version is available. This sheet is Scott #975. It shows Amadeus Mozart with a keyboard and musical score; Beethoven with organ pipes; Antonio Vivaldi with a violin; and Chopin with a piano. It seems there were also issued a set of 4 individual stamps, #971-974 showing the same composers but with different background elements. (Hans Timmerman's site shows the Beethoven stamp as a sheetlet of four identical stamps. It is denominated 1020 francs, rather than 1090 as described in Scott, and it has the same background (pipes) instead of the monument described in the catalog.) It may be possible to discern what organ is shown in the Beethoven stamp, but I am not able to figure it out. My version is in mint condition, from County Stamp Center.

DDR: Musical Instrument Museum

This cover includes two stamps from the former German Democratic Republic (Deutsch Democratische Republik, DDR). They are from a set of 4 stamps issued in 1979 showing various important instruments in the Musical Instrument Museum in Leipzig. The present stamps show a lira da gamba and a German tenor trumpet. But on the cover, the organ-interest items are not the stamps, but the postmark and cachet. Included in these two black-toned images are two different organs in the museum.  I was not able to find a list of holdings at the museum. The organ in the postmark thus remains a mystery. The cachet, we are told, shows an Italian positiv from the 1500's. The stamps (Scott 2031 and 2034) and the postmark include 1979 dates. The museum began as a private endeavor in 1886. It was absorbed by the University of Leipzig in 1929 and has been under their aegis since.

Romania: Rupea organ

This cover shows an organ facade in the postmark, and also includes a full-color cachet of the same instrument. The cover was postmarked October 1, 2001 in Rupea, Romania.

ForumArte Romania 

was born out of a desire to contribute to the promotion and diversification of the cultural life of the Braşov area, to the awareness of the integrating role of the culture for the city and its people. Through creative impulses and novel events, the foundation aims to combine traditions with contemporary. Three key elements define the work of the Foundation: Education, Music and Heritage.
 
Their site has a fairly detailed discussion of the Rupea organ along with several helpful photographs. It would seem that the church in which the organ is located underwent renovations beginning in 2005. By 2008 the organ was re-installed in a second church and work undertaken upon it. It was then that an inscription was found within the instrument, dating it to at least 1699. It is believed the original organ was built by Zackarias of Crit. The restoration was done by S.C. Construcţii Orgi şi Tâmplărie S.R.L. The latter's site gives some nicely detailed photos and a stoplist. Work was completed in 2012 at the instrument was re-installed in its original location, on its own rather substantial platform. The article tells us there are a scant 12 registers, making it s fairly small instrument. The postmark and cover seem to simply commemorate the 275th anniversary of the organ 1726 apparently being the year it was installed in this particular setting, on its dedicated gallery near the chancel arch. Who knows if this recognition might have goaded certain powers to undertake the restoration work begun in 2005.

The stamp on this cover shows the first electric tram in Romania, dating from 1896. The original stamp was issued with a denomination of 1615 lei in 1995 (Scott 4060). However this stamp has been surcharged to 2500 lei. The surcharged stamp (Scott 4477) was issued in 2001, in an era of hyper-inflaation. 

Panama: Music paintings

The central American nation of Panama issued a set of 6 stamps in 1968 depicting paintings of musicians and musical instruments. They were issued as a sheet of 6 (Scott 488, a, b, c, d, e, f). There was also issued a souvenir sheet (Scott 488A) of a single stamp ("Harp" by Memling). I have the set of 6 stamps, unattached. This painting, "Allegory of Music," was painted by Laurent de la Hyre in 1649 for a home in Paris. It now is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York, USA. The central portion of the painting (oil on canvas) is the allegorical figure of Music tuning a theorbo. Various other instruments are included, and musical scores. In the background is a portion of an organ facade. This was one of a set of seven paintings of the Liberal Arts executed by de la Hyre.

Kyrgyzstan: Paintings, 2003

This mini-sheet of six stamps was issued in 2003 by Kyrgyzstan. It features classic paintings. My version is imperforate. The UR stamp is a famous painting by Titian which includes an organ. This sheet is not included in Scott, and I cannot find it among my usual sources. It may be that it was not an official issue. I found other "wall-paper" type issues (pop stars, sports stars) at one of the sites.

Burrundi: Beethoven

Burundi issued this mini-sheet of four stamps in 2011. Mine happens to be imperforate; a perforated version is available. The sheet is called "Composers" and shows portraits of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Chopin. The image of Beethoven includes organ pipes in the background. There is not quite enough detail to the rendering for me to determine if this is a specific instrument or not, and if so what instrument it might be. The sheet's selvage includes more images, presumably of (other) composers, though I cannot determine who they are. LR may be Liszt. UR looks somewhat like the Bach statue in Leipzig.

Monaco: Salle Garnier

Monaco issued a set of six stamps in 1979 celebrating the 100th anniversary of their opera house, the Salle Garnier. Five of the stamps show scenes from various operas produced in the theater. The sixth (Scott 1172) shows a painting which is above the stage. The painting shows various musical instruments and players. Among them is an organ and organist. It wasn't until I was examining the image on the card that I looked more closely at the stamps and discovered the organ tie-in on this particular stamp. What a find! This is a first day of issue card. The image printed on the card replicates the painting: the organists and pipes are quite clear. With the postcard and stamp images in mind, one can just barely discern the details in the photos below. I couldn't find any images that showed the instruments, let alone the organ, any more clearly.

Niger: Handel homage, 2015

 

The African nation, Niger, issued a mini-sheet of 4 stamps in 2015 honoring George Frederick Handel. The four stamps each include a  different portrait of the composer and a varying background. Three of the four stamps identify the background as representative of UR: the opera Ottone; LL, the opera Orlando; LR, the oratorio Messiah. The UL stamp show an unidentified pipe organ facade. Not knowing all the instruments associated with Handel all that well, I cannot identify the organ shown. Indeed, it may be an artist's rendering of a generic instrument. The selvage shows yet another image of the composer, at work on the score of Messiah. My copy of the mini-sheet is unused, a gift from Mark Jameson.

Villareal, Spain: St James Cathedral

This cover is notable for the postmark. It was created to mark the third Religious Music and Poetry Week held at the St James Cathedral in Villareal, Spain.The drawing shows the "organ at the main altar of the church." The pictures I could find of the altar area of the cathedral show an organ, but it is an instrument installed in a gallery, not like the one pictured. I was able to find information that Gerhard Grenzing did restoration work on the instrument, but the site doesn't include a date, and the instrument restored is the altar gallery instrument, again not the one shown in this postmark.

In this picture above, on the right side, high up on the wall one can see the organ. Below is Grenzing's image of the instrument.

I also found this image (at a tourism site) of an organ in what seems to be a rear gallery in the cathedral. Again, it does not look like the instrument shown in the postmark.

The stamp shown on the cover is Scott 2365, issued 11 April 1984. As such it was issued just prior to the beginning of the conference referenced in the postmark. The stamp shows da Vinci's Study of Man, and the stamp is called, "Man and the Biosphere" in the Scott catalog. The relationship between the stamp subject and the postmark is thus murky at best, and perhaps doesn't actually exist in any meaningful way.

This cover below shows the same postmark, but also includes an image of the gallery organ shown above. One is curious then if the organ in the postmark is really one in the cathedral, or merely emblematic of church organs in general.

I am thankful to my friend Mark Jameson in Reading, GB for the gift of this cover and the enigma of the organ in its postmark.

Australia: Royal wedding

HRH Prince William married Catherine Middleton in 29 April 2011. The wedding took place in Westminster Abbey. Australia issued a mini-sheet of two stamps in anticipation the event on 12 April. The two stamps include a $2.25 denominated stamp with cream-colored background and a 60c stamp with gold-colored background. Both stamps feature the same straightforward image of the couple. The selvage of the mini-sheet, however, shows the interior of the Abbey, including the organ. The history of the Westminster Abbey organ is well-documented.

Antigua: Spring Garden Moravian Church

This mini-sheet consisting of a single stamp was issued 19th December 2005 by the island nation of Antigua (also Antigua and Barbuda). It is part of a set of stamps for Christmas, ten individual stamps, plus 2 mini-sheets. All of the stamps commemorate church buildings in Antigua, featuring a view of the exterior of the church. The other mini-sheet also with a $5 denomination shows the exterior of St. John's Cathedral. The current stamp is the only one in the set to show an interior scene, and it happens to include the organ facade along with clergy and choristers. I tried to find out more information about the church but their website is not active. The only detail I could discern was that the church was founded in 1756. Most of the organ's facade is in the selvage, but it seems a single pipe made it within the perforations.

Bach portrait

 

This image of JS Bach at an organ console is rather famous in some circles. It's unique for it shows the composer seated at an organ console. We gain insight into the attire one might wear whilst playing during this era, something about the console layout, etc. Details about the image are scarce however. All I have been able to determine is that the Getty image most often encountered is based on a print of perhaps 1725 found now in the British Museum. One colleague suggested that the basis of the print may be the console of the organ in the New Church, Arnstadt.

This picture has been used in several stamp images over the years, sometimes black&white, sometimes colorized, sometimes reversed, etc. I also recently encountered this image, similar but slightly different. I wonder if the two images are related somehow.

 

(The image has also been satirized in various ways. It's such a fascinating image that it's a shame we don't know more about the details.)

 

  

Handel memorial

This mini-sheet consisting of a single stamp was issued in 2009 by the Handel Haus Stiftung (Handel House Foundation) to commemorate the 250 anniversary of the death of Handel. Located in Halle, Germany the Handel House preserves and promotes all things Handelian.This bespoke stamp was a promotional item in 2009. The stamp consists of a portrait of Handel, that by Thomas Hudson from the 18th century, hanging in the Handel House facility. For our purposes, however, it is the selvage that is more compelling, for it contains elements of a pipe organ, along with potions of a musical score. The facade shown is not familiar to me; others may recognize it. The mini-sheet also includes what seems to be a slogan of sorts, "Es lebe der liebe Sachsie." That seems to me to render as "love live the beloved Saxon" (Handel), but my knowledge of idiomatic German is limited.

Romania: organ cover

This cover doesn't have a pipe organ stamp, but rather includes a detailed photograph of an organ in an illustration on the left portion of the envelop. In philatelic parlance this is a cachet. Using Google translate I get "musical autumn." "Clujeana" doesn't translate, maybe because of missing diacritical markings. It may be referring to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, the second largest city in that country, and a possible site for a major autumn concert series. The third line of text specifically mentions the sixth Mendelssohn organ sonata, the one in which the chorale "Vater unser" features prominently. Below the image, the recitalist, a German, is named. It would seem the venue/sponsor of the recital went to a great deal of trouble to publicize the event. One wonders if other covers feature other concerts from the autumn season concert series. The postmark includes the same copy as the cachet, but also includes an image of Mendelssohn and his signature. The stamp itself (Scott 4159) is also from 1997, and depicts a monument and a cathedral, issued for a maximum card event that year, Balcanmax. Maximum cards are a rarified form of philatelic endeavore in which the stamp, the postmark, and the postcard or envelop all share a common theme or design element. In this case, the postmark and cachet are thus united, but the stamp foils the effort. Nonetheless, it's a nice piece of organ ephemera and a nifty way to publicize an organ recital. Without knowing the name of the building in which this pictured organ is located, I have not yet been able to track down more specific information about it. The postmark mentions the Transylvania Philharmonic orchestra, which is based on Cluj. If one could ascertain the venues in which they may perform, one may learn which organ this is.

Soviet Union: Alfred Kalnins postal card

The Soviet Union issued this card in 1979, the hundred anniversary of the birth of composer Alfred Kalnins. Born in Lativa, the postcard hails Kalnins as a "people's composer of the Lavitan Socialist Republic." In addition to composing, Kalnins was an organist, teacher, conductor and music critic. His most enduring composition is his nationalistic opera Banuta. He spent most of his life in and around Lativa, except for a stint in New York City (1927-1933). He held organist and teaching position in Parnu, Leipjaj, and Tarnu, before settling near the end of his life in Riga, and serving as organist of the Riga Dom and rector of the Latvian Academy of Music.

The art on this postcard features a building facade, perhaps that of a music conservatory in one of the cities mentioned here. Also included is a page from a musical score, presumably an image of one of Kalnins' works.

The 4-kopek postage image includes a representation of Kalnins and the facade of an organ. I do not believe the organ is that in the Riga Dom, but that begs the question which organ is it? Two other instruments of some import are related to Kalnins, that in St Anna's Cathedral and Holy Trinity both in Leipaja. I have not been able to find images of those churches' interiors nor their instruments.

Poland: Bach

Though at the time not a member of the European Union, Poland issued in 1985 a stamp that seems to fit the music heme that year. Scott 2712 depicts JS Bach and an organ case. There were actually two versions of this stamp issued. One has an inscription at the bottom (like my example above) which in rough translation acknowledges the 300th anniversary of the birth of Bach. This version saw only limited release and is fairly valuable. The second version omits the inscription and is more common. The stamp also features a large Baroque organ case. I cannot tell what instrument it may be; others more acquainted with Bach organs may recognize it. This stamp, because it was released as a single stamp in a very large selvage, actually qualifies as a mini-sheet, or souvenir sheet.

German Democratic Republic: Musical Instrument Museum

I got this cover from my friend Mark Jameson in Great Britain. While the stamp does not show a pipe organ, both the postmark and the cachet show an organ. The stamp shows a German tenor flugelhorn from about 1850. The postmark shows an indeterminate organ; the cachet shows an Italianate positiv from around 1500. Looking through the Museum's website I could not find an image of any of these instruments. It seems that this cover was posted August 21, 1979. The stamp was issued in that same year. The museum was founded in 1886 by Paul de Wit, near the St Thomas Church in Leipzig. It's not quite clear if 1979 was an anniversary year for any other point in the museum's history. There are two additional small stamps in the upper left corner of the cover, perhaps to pay additional postage to Uruguay. With the music-related stamp, the postmark and cachet, along with special postal markings, this is a very compelling cover even if the stamp itself is non-organic. Though I could not find the two specific instruments shown on this cover, here are a couple other instruments from the museum's collection.

Monaco: UNESCO issue

Monaco issued a set of 4 stamps celebrating the 25th anniversary of UNESCO in 1971.  Other stamps in the set featured: "culture" (scholar, book, film, television); "science" (alchemist, radar, rocketry); and the high value was an image of Prince Pierre of Monaco. The low-value in the set was called "arts" and included an organ case/facade and a detail of Michaelangelo's painting "The creation of Adam" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Rome, Italy. The case is distinctive, but one cannot determine the organ from the stamp alone. The Cathedral in Monaco has recently gotten a new organ. The stamp does not depict that instrument. Monaco has recently issued a stamp celebrating the new cathedral organ. When I have a copy, I'll post a new blog entry with an image of the stamp and (hopefully) a specification.

 

There was/is another organ that was in the cathedral, but it is not the organ used for the stamp image. I have tried to locate the instrument to no avail. If anyone can help identify this instrument, please contact me.

 

I heard from my friend Mark Jameson regarding the organ(s) in the Monaco cathedral:

I have found the 1934 spec of the 1922 Charles Mutin organ that lasted until 1968, original organ was c1887.  In 1971 I suspect the Mutin had been replaced by an Allen.   I have e-mailed Olivier Vernet [organist] to try to obtain more history for use in the next Journal – Monaco & organ, San M, Vatican & Italy for stamps.

Togo: Schweitzer

In 1975 Togo issued a set of stamps honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Albert Schweitzer, and coincidentally about ten years after his death. He is pictured with a group of children on the regular mail stamp; there is also a group of 3 air-mail stamps: the doctor playing an organ; with a pelican; and at Lambarene Hospital. The present stamp (Scott C259) is oriented vertically as is the "pelican stamp;" the others in the set are horizontal.

Togo: UNESCO Issue

Togo issued a set of 7 stamps in 1967 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of UNESCO. The set featured classical composers and instruments. Bach and a pipe organ facade are on the low-value of the regular issue (Scott 599) and the 45f air-mail stamp (Scott C67). Other composers in the series include Beethoven (violin and clarinet); Duke Ellington (saxophone, trumpet, drums); and Debussy (piano and harp). Ellington appears on two stamps as does Beethoven, in addition to Bach. The organ may or may not be the familiar Sauer instrument in Leipzig.