The organ existing in the Renaissance church of Santiago in Castaño del Robledo is an instrument of great singularity and beauty. It was built by the organbuilder Francisco Ortíguez in 1750 and it seems to be the first instrument having existed in that church.
Like all the works executed in the environement of Seville, the organ project presented by Ortíguez to the church in Castaño was supervised by the “Archbishop organbuilder”. In that period, this post was held by the organbuilder Francisco Pérez de Valladolid. The documents related to Ortiguez’s project as well as the reports signed by Pérez de Valladolid during the process of construction of the organ are still existing in the archives in Seville. That circunstances have permited the reconstruction of the bellows, the keyboard and the original stops disposition. This disposition is as follow:
Except for the presence of a “Corneta en ecos”, the aesthetic of this disposition is linked to the organs built before 1700. Having no horizontal trumpets or Docena (2 2/3’) is very unusual in the organs constructed during the 18th century in the churches in the area of Seville.
In fact, the analysis of the pipes reveals that Francisco Ortíguez has used the pipes of a pre-existing instrument. These pipes show a kind of crashmanship very particular that can be related to the work of flemish organbuilders of the 16th and 17th centuries. The mensurements and intonation of the pipes seems to be stablished taking in account a very large church. That doesn’t correspond to the dimensions of the little church in Castaño del Robledo.
It is necessary to remember that Francisco Ortíguez had worked as an organbuilder at the cathedral in Seville until 1740. There, he had to dismantel the early organs built by the flemish Maese Jorge between 1567 and 1579 during the construction of the new organs carried out in the period 1725-1740. Due to that fact, it is possible to stablish as a hypotesis that Ortíguez had used the pipes of that early organs to build the instrument preserved in Castaño del Robledo.
In any case, the organ in Castaño del Robledo has one of the more interesting ensembles of very early organ pipes today existing in Spain.
Even if the general state of the organ was very poor before the restoration, the pipes existed in good conditions as to permit a perfect restoration. The work was carried out by Gerhard Grenzing’s workshop during 2006-7.
The organ in Castaño del Robledo has a pitch A=415 Hz and a meantone temperament of 2/7 comma. |
