Organ failure

摘要

Across continental Europe, historical instruments are falling silent, muted by a new and mysterious form of corrosion. Tom Clarke speaks to the chemical detectives who are striving to protect our musical heritage. Since 1467, the pure sound of the Stell-wagen organ has filled the parish church of St Jakobi's in Luebeck, Germany. Named after the great organ builder Friedrich Stellwagen, who renovated it in the seventeenth century, aficionados rate the Liibeck organ as among the world's best for performing Renaissance and early baroque music. But in 1992, its largest pipes began to lose their voice. Close inspection revealed the problem: air was escaping through tiny holes that had appeared in the metal. News of the renowned organ's affliction spread quickly among Europe's close-knit community of organ builders, players and enthusiasts. And the word in the organ loft was that Luebeck's Stellwagen was not alone. Pipes in many instruments dating from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from churches in Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal are similarly rotting away ― those of the organ in Bordeaux Cathedral are in danger of collapsing under their own weight.