History
Organ in the Church
of San
Agustín, Capillas.
This was probably the
first instrument built by local organ-builder Tadeo Ortega, and dates from
1776, when he was twenty-seven.
A typical
eighteenth-century rural Castilian instrument, it is full of character and
produces an immense volume of sound on very low wind pressure. The flue chorus is particularly fine, and the
reeds somewhat rustic and very different from those at Frechilla.
Little is known
about the history of the instrument, but it was cleaned and repaired at various
times between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth. By the middle of the twentieth century, it
had become a ruin, with some pipes missing and many severely damaged. In the late1980’s some registers were made
playable, and then in 1997 the organ was totally dismantled and taken to the
workshop of Alain Faye in the south of France. He carried out a full restoration, using as
much of the original material as possible.
The organ retains its original soundboards and much of the
mechanism. The majority of the pipes
were recoverable, but most of the mixtures are new, as is the 8’ internal Trompeta Real. Enough original material did remain,
fortunately, for these new pipes to be an accurate re-creation of the
originals. The wind is now supplied
by an electric blower feeding a parallel reservoir which, to judge from the
newspapers glued to it, dates from 1911.
This was probably the time at which the instrument had last received
attention before recently being brought back to life
The Castilian Organ-Builder Tadeo Ortega
Tadeo Ortega was
born in Burgos in
1749 but moved to the neighbouring province of Palencia before
he started working as an organ-builder in 1772.
The Capillas organ is almost certainly the first instrument for which he
took total responsibility. For much of
his life, he lived in the neighbouring villageof Fuentes
de Nava, where two of his late two-manual
instruments survive in original condition.
A full restoration of one of them (in the Church
of San
Pedro) was begun in October 2005 and is
being carried out by the French organ-builder Bernard Cogez. The other (in the Church
of Santa
María) is still playable, and is to be
fully restored once the restoration of the church is completed.
In all, Tadeo Ortega
built or rebuilt some 25 instruments during his working life, all the in the Castilian
region of Tierra de Campos, the last
being in Castromocho in 1821. He died in
Palencia in
1823. He was the last of the great
organ-builders of Castile,
although little celebrated during his life.
His instruments, however, are of exceptional quality. They are both mechanically robust (several
are still working reliably in virtually original, unrebuilt condition) and
tonally impressive.
Text by Nicolas James, England, 2005
Recording technique
The organ was recorded and processed in August 2005 with 48 kHz, 24 bit, 6-channels, using the multi-layer release technique introduced by OrganART.
All stops were recorded with multiple release levels
for short and long key attacks
for authentic acoustical mapping.
Special
Thanks
This project is especially
dedicated to organist Francis Chapelet,
France, for all his great efforts
concerning the restoration of
Spanish historic organs.
I
would like to thank the parish
of San Augustin, Capillas, for enabling
and supporting this
project. Special thanks to Nicolas James, Southampton, for
setting up all the contacts, translations and
local help.
