Xaver Wilhelmy | |
---|---|
Occupation | Pipe organ builder |
Citizenship | Austrian |
Alma mater | Rieger Orgelbau |
Website | |
www |
Xaver Wilhelmy is an inventor, designer and certified pipe organ builder who was the first in the world to create organ pipes from glass. Wilhelmy created the Wilhelmy American Flag Glass Pipe Organ, the first pipe organ in the world with pipes made entirely from glass. [1]
The concept of the Wilhelmy American Flag Glass Pipe Organ emerged from the tragedy of the September 11 attacks. Wilhelmy envisioned a glass pipe organ with one organ pipe to represent each of the voices that were permanently silenced. [2] Wilhelmy created a memorial proposal of light and sound for the Memorial Competition for the World Trade Center Site. [3]
The Wilhelmy American Flag Glass Pipe Organ is a series of 14 glass flue organ pipes that Wilhelmy made using kiln-working, precision stained-glass techniques, and delicate pipe organ engineering. The instrument took more than 18 months from conception to completion [4] in a project that married art, design, and engineering. [5]
Another landmark instrument includes the Wilhelmy Glass Trompetteria which consists of a Trumpet 8' and Clarion 4', and features glass reed pipes, and is in a private collection in West Virginia, U.S.A. [6] Additional individual glass organ pipes are in private collections in the US and Europe.
The Steiner Pipe Organ at Friedberg Moravian Christian Church, in Winston-Salem, NC, is home to a pair of matching glass organ pipes that are 5 feet 7 inches tall, polygonal, and are part of the Principle 8 organ stop. Wilhelmy created them using clear, textured, and iridescent art glass and mirrored glass for a gently reflective look that is in keeping with the simplicity and understated elegance of the Steiner organ and Moravian chapel. [7]
Wilhelmy is the author of "The Art of Casting High Lead Pipe Metal" published in the March 1998 issue of the ISO Journal (International Society of Organbuilders) and translated into German and French. [8]
Originally from Austria, Xaver Wilhelmy trained as a pipe organ builder at Rieger Orgelbau in Schwarzach, Vorarlberg (Austria), continued his education in Ludwigsburg, Germany, then joined Fehrle en Roeleveld Orrelbouers outside Johannesburg, South Africa, where he also trained as a piano builder, and luthier. Wilhelmy won the Austrian Creativity Competition for work related to Art, Music, and Architecture in 2005 for his work creating the first glass organ pipes in the world. [9]
Xaver Wilhelmy immigrated to the United States in 1994 where he joined Taylor & Boody Organ Builders in Staunton, Virginia as Pipe Shop Supervisor. [10] [11]
Currently, Wilhelmy is the Pipe Organ Designer, Consultant, and Educator at Geshenke Aus Glas of Staunton, Virginia, a company that specializes in glass organ pipes. [12]
Wilhelmy is the founder of The Wilhelmy School, dedicated to passing the fundamentals of pipe organ building and innovation along to a new generation of builders, performers, and conservationists in order to preserve, conserve, and improve upon the most remarkable instrument ever created. [13]
Winston-Salem is a city in and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina, and the 90th-most populous city in the United States. The population of the Winston-Salem metropolitan area was estimated to be 695,630 in 2023. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad region, home to about 1.7 million residents.
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre, volume, and construction throughout the keyboard compass. Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing pitch, timbre, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops.
Saint Thomas Church is an Episcopal parish church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Also known as Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue or Saint Thomas Church in the City of New York, the parish was incorporated on January 9, 1824. The current structure, the congregation's fourth church, was designed by the architects Ralph Adams Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the French High Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914. In 2021, it reported 2,852 members, average in-person attendance of 224 and $1,152,588 in plate and pledge income.
A theatre organ is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.
Old Salem is a historic district of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, which was originally settled by the Moravian community in 1766. It features a living-history museum which interprets the restored Moravian community. The non-profit organization began its work in 1950, although some private residents had restored buildings earlier. As the Old Salem Historic District, it was declared a National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1966, and expanded fifty years later. The district showcases the culture of the Moravian settlement in the Province of North Carolina during the colonial 18th century and post-statehood 19th century via its communal buildings, churches, houses and shops.
Mathias Peter Møller, commonly known as M.P. Möller or Moeller, was a prolific pipe-organ builder and businessman. A native of the Danish island of Bornholm, he emigrated to the United States in 1872 and founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The city of Hagerstown, Maryland, took notice of Möller's early successes and induced him to move his business there in 1881 to help make it a viable business center in Western Maryland. The company remained in business in Hagerstown until 1992, with hundreds of employees at its peak and a lifetime production of over 12,000 instruments.
An organ pipe is a sound-producing element of the pipe organ that resonates at a specific pitch when pressurized air is driven through it. Each pipe is tuned to a note of the musical scale. A set of organ pipes of similar timbre comprising the complete scale is known as a rank; one or more ranks constitutes a stop.
The symphonic organ is a style of pipe organ that flourished during the first three decades of the 20th century in town halls and other secular public venues, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has roots in 19th-century Europe, and is a variation of the classical pipe organ. It features expanded capabilities, with many pipes imitative of orchestral instruments, and with multiple expressive divisions and organ console controls for seamlessly adjusting volume and tone, generally with electric organ actions and winding. These expansions let the organist approximate a conductor's power to shape the tonal textures of Romantic music and orchestral transcriptions. These organs are generally concert instruments as opposed to church organs. The symphonic organ has seen a revival in the US, Europe and Japan, particularly since the 1980s.
The Las Piñas Bamboo Organ in St. Joseph Parish Church in Las Piñas, Philippines, is a 19th-century church organ. It is known for its unique organ pipes; of its 1031 pipes, 902 are made of bamboo. It was completed after 6 years of work in 1824 by Father Diego Cera, the builder of the town's stone church and its first resident Catholic parish priest.
EROI or the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative is a project run by the Eastman School of Music with the goal of creating a unique collection of organ instruments in Rochester, New York.
The Hazel Wright Organ is an American pipe organ located in Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. It is one of the world's largest pipe organs. As of 2019, it has 293 ranks and 17,106 pipes, fully playable from two 5-manual consoles. The organ is called "Hazel" by fans.
The Organ Historical Society is a not-for-profit organization primarily composed of pipe organ enthusiasts interested in the instrument's design, construction, conservation and use in musical performance. Formed in 1956, the headquarters moved from Richmond, Virginia, to Villanova, Pennsylvania, in 2017.
Dirk Andries Flentrop was a Dutch organ builder. He built or restored many major organs in the United States and in Europe. He was noted for his 1977 restoration of two organs from the 17th and 18th centuries in the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral.
Organ building is the profession of designing, building, restoring and maintaining pipe organs.
David Tannenberg (1728–1804) was a Moravian organ builder who emigrated to Pennsylvania. He is cited as the most important American organ-builder of his time. He constructed a number of organs during his lifetime, as well as other keyboard instruments. Many of the organs that he built are still in use.
Johann Philip Bachmann (1762–1837) was a notable organ builder. He was born in Creuzburg, Thuringia, Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1793 and worked with David Tannenberg. In 1793, he married Tannenberg’s daughter, who committed suicide in 1799.
Hinners Organ Company was an American manufacturer of reed and pipe organs located in Pekin, Illinois. Established in 1879 by German-American John Hinners, the firm grew through several partners, becoming Hinners & Fink in 1881, Hinners & Albertsen in 1886, and Hinners Organ Company in 1902. In the 1920s Hinners established a subsidiary, the Illinois Organ Supply Company, which mass-produced parts for Hinners and other firms. Business declined in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, changing technology, and increasing competition. Hinners became a service company in 1936 and closed in 1942.
The organ of the St. Pankratius in Hamburg-Neuenfelde was built in 1688 by Arp Schnitger, and is his largest two-manual organ. The instrument has 34 stops, of which about half are original. Neuenfelde itself belongs to the Altes Land and was incorporated to Hamburg in 1937.