Local craftspeople build huge pipe organ

Local craftspeople build huge pipe organ

By Yudha Kartohadiprodjo

JAKARTA (JP): Although pipe organs are most commonly
associated with the grand cathedrals of Europe, it is the hands
of Sukabumi craftspeople which are responsible for creating the
largest organ in Indonesia.

The organ in question is found in Paulus Church, Jl. Taman
Suropati, Central Jakarta, and will be inaugurated tonight, the
62nd anniversary of the church.

Over a three year period, craftspeople from Prajawidya
Instrumentalia, led by Suwandi, worked to assemble the largest
organ in Indonesia using only local and salvaged materials.

The group has successfully made pipe organs out of bamboo in
the past and one of their organs now has pride of place in a
small Catholic chapel in a Protestant dominated area of Belgium.

The workers also manufacture bamboo harpsichords.

Paulus Church elders decided to replace the old organ because
it did not properly fill the large church, which was built in
1936 to accommodate a much bigger organ.

The new organ cost the church Rp 120 million, well below what
it would have cost had it been purchased from Europe.

"We were fortunate, the last shipment of used pipes for the
organ was ordered from the Netherlands just before the monetary
crisis hit Indonesia," said Joan Henuhilli Raturandang, chairman
of the organ inauguration committee.

The pleasant acoustics of his church inspired Rev. Van Dop, an
ecclesiastical music and church acoustics expert, to search high
and low for a better organ.

The reverend began to salvage bits of old Indonesian organs
with a view to building a bigger organ for the church, but his
painstaking search eventually lead him to seek out old organs in
the Netherlands.

He then put his organ project into the capable hands of
Suwandi and his eager craftsman and set them to work on it.

In three years they succeeded in assembling the biggest pipe
organ in Indonesia. With 22 stops and 1,392 pipes, the huge
instrument now sits gracefully on top of the congregation
platform in Paulus Church.

"We only planned to assemble a pipe organ with 16 stops. But
when we reached 16 stops we said to ourselves: 'Why not try for
some more?'" Rev. Van Dop said.

Good acoustics and correct placement are essential to get the
best out of an organ. A resonant room with 3 seconds or more
reverberation is desirable.

The earliest organ was made in Alexandria around the 3rd
century B.C. by Ctesbius, a Greek engineer. It was called
hydraulus on account of the drum partially filled with water
which it used to emit sound. The hydraulus is viewed by organ
enthusiasts as a prototype of today's instruments.

Organs first appeared in church services in the 8th century.
It has a range unattainable by any other instrument and this
helped it to create a divine atmosphere for church congregations.

Organ development is indebted to the Christian devotion to
praising God. Kingdoms in Europe throughout the middle ages
competed with each other over the size of their organs.

Organ music then reached a peak in the 18th century. Johann
Sebastian Bach, who started his career as the organist in St.
James Church, Hamburg, in 1703, wrote the most famous works for
the organ during the 18th century, the best known of which is the
Mass in B Minor.

However, thereafter the popularity of organ music waned and
was eclipsed by orchestral and operatic music, and the rise of
other keyboard instruments.