Lenter 'Orgelharmonium' at Tamm (Germany)

soundtracks of this instrument are on this page: cd-44-Lenter-Orgelharmonium

Bartholomäus Kirche Tamm

An organ-harmonium in built in Sachsenheim, Germany.

Organbuilder Markus Lenter started his company in 1999 and does what every organbuilder does: building pipe organs. Restoring them. Regular maintenance. There is more about Markus: he owns a collection of harmoniums. Mainly pressure. And all of them restored by him.

Knowing that in past times many organbuilders patented and built combination instruments, Markus picked up the idea to do the same. Hardly any of those instruments in the past survived times. Markus used an 1857 Francesco Bruni (Paris, France) harmonium for the lower manual, he even used the harmonium case. As the picture shows clearly. ( All pictures here )

Stoplist:

Lower manual ( harmonium, manual split at e1/f1)
Forte Bass - Sordine 8 - Basson 8 - Clairon 4 - Bordun 16 - Cor Anglais - Expression - Flûte 8 - Clarinett 16 - Fifre 4 - Hautbois 8 - Harpe Eolienne 16 (single row) - Voix Céleste 16 (single row + Clarinett) - Tremblant (on Clarinett) - Forte Diskant. Grand Jeu as a heel lever between the treadles.

photo: © Markus Lenter 2008

Upper manual (pipe organ, manual split at e1/f1)
Kontrabass* 16 ( C-H, Estève reeds) - Gedackt 8 - Quintatön 8 - Gamba 8 (C-H shared with Quintatön) - Fugara 4 - Koppler II-I - Subkoppler II-II - Grand Jeu. * Is meant to deminish the tonal gap when using the Subcoupler. Below on this page, there is an explanation with a picture of this feature.

The organ part is built according to 'mechanischer Kegellade' meaning a cone-valve wind-chest.

As mentioned, the orgelharmonium has a Kontrabass 16 C-H with reeds in the pipe department, to avoid a tonal gap. Here is the explanation written by the builder Markus Lenter.

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----

Van: Markus Lenter

Guten Morgen Frans!

Mit dem Tonloch ist folgendes gemeint: Wenn Sie in der Orgel einen 8´ in der Subkoppel verwenden (= ab c° 16´+ 8´), fehlt Ihnen ja die tiefe Octave. (= 16´ C-H). Da das Harmonium aber als klassisches Vierspiel auch auf 16´-Basis gespielt werden kann, sollte die Orgel dies idealerweise auch können. Das Orgelgehäuse fasst nur eine reale 4´- Pfeifenhöhe. Darum wurde der Contrabass 16´ als separater Zungenstock C-H eingebaut, allerdings nicht mechanisch, sondern wird mit einer pneumatischen Traktur angespielt. Sie können diese 12 Töne aber separat einschalten, (= Contrabass C-H) das Register wird nicht automatisch mit der Subkoppel eingeschaltet. Wenn man den 4´ alleine verwendet (und über die Subkoppel auf 8´ setzt), wäre dies bspw. nicht gut.

The 'tonal gap' means: When using a subcoupler in the organ part of the instrument with an 8' stop, than from c0 (Tenor C) upwards 8' and 16' will sound. In the great octave C-H the 16 sound is not available when using an 8' stop. And because the harmoniumpart of the instrument containing the 'klassische vierspiel' the standard 4 rows, can be played on a 16' basis, the organ department should be able to do so.
The organpart is base on real 4' pipe length. That is why the decision was made to add the Kontrabasse 16 in reeds. The Kontrabasse is not mechanical, but tubular pneumatic. This stop has it's own drawknob. It is not pulled by pulling the subcoupler, because when you should decide to play 4' + subcoupler, the 16' would be pulled too and would disrupt the playing.

Markus sent me this picture for enlightment:

Kontrabasse 16