Thu Jul 06, 2023 10:51 am
I am happy to inform everyone that completed my new sample set of Gonda-Erdősi Organ from Polgár (Hungary) . The organ has two manuals and pedal and 22 stops.
Polgár is a small lowland town with 8,000 inhabitants in Eastern Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar county.
Polgár was already an inhabited settlement in prehistoric times. The settlement had its heyday in the 1600s, when it was an independent and privileged city, mainly thanks to its military. After that, its importance declined, and it is still only one of many small towns whose population lives mainly from agriculture. The town already had a church in the Árpád era, which was destroyed by the Tatar invasion of 1240. The town's population became Calvinist during the Reformation, so there was no Catholic church in the town at the beginning of the 1700s. Thanks to the changes in the religious proportion of the population, the Catholic church was built in 1748. After 100 years, this church proved to be very cramped, it was demolished, and based on the plans of the famous Hungarian architect József Hild, a huge classicist style church was built, which was completed in 1858.
The church's first organ was built by Ludwig Mooser (Mooser organs are also in the Esztergom and Eger basilicas), it was a two-maual organ with 31 registers, but it was completely destroyed in the Second World War. The church remained without an organ for decades, because the communist era did not favor the construction of an organ.
Finally, in the 1970s, the organ of the church was built against the communist rulers with donations from the church and the faithful. The construction of an organ was an almost impossible task at that time, the goal was to use the scarce financial resources available to build an organ that would fill the huge church with its sound, and would also be suitable for concerts in addition to liturgical purposes. This almost impossible mission was accomplished by the duo Nándor Gonda - József Erdősi. Nándor Gonda soon realized that it was impossible to build a large organ with the available money. That is why, abandoning traditional plans, he designed a completely original organ based on the results of the German avant-garde movement, which, thanks to its special mixed registers and intonation, became suitable for fulfilling the stated goals. József Erdősi accepted the plans in disbelief, and then with increasing enthusiasm, he built this fantastic organ almost from materials that had been thrown away. This organ can be truly appreciated by those who lived through the communist times. This organ is proof of the desire to create, enthusiasm and faith. You can read a detailed and professional description of the organ here. I recommend reading this to all organists, it is a very exciting study. This organ is almost unknown even to Hungarian organ fans, even the local parish priest does not know what a valuable instrument their parish owns.
The sample sets are available in wave format 48kHz/24bit, stereo, multiple loops (8) and multiple releases (3 levels).
Equal, a=434 Hz. The reverb 4.5 - 5 s, reflects the original acoustics of the church.
Hauptwerk v4.2 and v5 and v6 and v7 supported for the Organ Definition Files.
The sample sets made in several forms.
Stereo near, stereo far and six-channels surround.
In the surround versions you can adjust the perspective by setting the volume of the near, and far an rear recordings.
The sample RAM requirement is not high, the stereo version requires 5-7 GB, the surround version requires 12-16 GB for 16-24-bit loading.
We created an IR Reverb file for Hauptwerk 5-7 users, which we recommend for the near version.
Screenshots
Audio demos
More information
Acknowledgements:
I owe special thanks to the organists István Nagy and András Dékány, thanks to their intercession I was able to record and prepare the organ sample.
The following friends helped me to make and publish the sample set (in alphabetical order): Dominique Dantand, Gerard Lefranc, Nagy Istvan and Jean-Pierre Silvestre. If something's done well, it's thanks to them. Thank you for their work.
(Augustine)
Polgár is a small lowland town with 8,000 inhabitants in Eastern Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar county.
Polgár was already an inhabited settlement in prehistoric times. The settlement had its heyday in the 1600s, when it was an independent and privileged city, mainly thanks to its military. After that, its importance declined, and it is still only one of many small towns whose population lives mainly from agriculture. The town already had a church in the Árpád era, which was destroyed by the Tatar invasion of 1240. The town's population became Calvinist during the Reformation, so there was no Catholic church in the town at the beginning of the 1700s. Thanks to the changes in the religious proportion of the population, the Catholic church was built in 1748. After 100 years, this church proved to be very cramped, it was demolished, and based on the plans of the famous Hungarian architect József Hild, a huge classicist style church was built, which was completed in 1858.
The church's first organ was built by Ludwig Mooser (Mooser organs are also in the Esztergom and Eger basilicas), it was a two-maual organ with 31 registers, but it was completely destroyed in the Second World War. The church remained without an organ for decades, because the communist era did not favor the construction of an organ.
Finally, in the 1970s, the organ of the church was built against the communist rulers with donations from the church and the faithful. The construction of an organ was an almost impossible task at that time, the goal was to use the scarce financial resources available to build an organ that would fill the huge church with its sound, and would also be suitable for concerts in addition to liturgical purposes. This almost impossible mission was accomplished by the duo Nándor Gonda - József Erdősi. Nándor Gonda soon realized that it was impossible to build a large organ with the available money. That is why, abandoning traditional plans, he designed a completely original organ based on the results of the German avant-garde movement, which, thanks to its special mixed registers and intonation, became suitable for fulfilling the stated goals. József Erdősi accepted the plans in disbelief, and then with increasing enthusiasm, he built this fantastic organ almost from materials that had been thrown away. This organ can be truly appreciated by those who lived through the communist times. This organ is proof of the desire to create, enthusiasm and faith. You can read a detailed and professional description of the organ here. I recommend reading this to all organists, it is a very exciting study. This organ is almost unknown even to Hungarian organ fans, even the local parish priest does not know what a valuable instrument their parish owns.
The sample sets are available in wave format 48kHz/24bit, stereo, multiple loops (8) and multiple releases (3 levels).
Equal, a=434 Hz. The reverb 4.5 - 5 s, reflects the original acoustics of the church.
Hauptwerk v4.2 and v5 and v6 and v7 supported for the Organ Definition Files.
The sample sets made in several forms.
Stereo near, stereo far and six-channels surround.
In the surround versions you can adjust the perspective by setting the volume of the near, and far an rear recordings.
The sample RAM requirement is not high, the stereo version requires 5-7 GB, the surround version requires 12-16 GB for 16-24-bit loading.
We created an IR Reverb file for Hauptwerk 5-7 users, which we recommend for the near version.
Screenshots
Audio demos
More information
Acknowledgements:
I owe special thanks to the organists István Nagy and András Dékány, thanks to their intercession I was able to record and prepare the organ sample.
The following friends helped me to make and publish the sample set (in alphabetical order): Dominique Dantand, Gerard Lefranc, Nagy Istvan and Jean-Pierre Silvestre. If something's done well, it's thanks to them. Thank you for their work.
(Augustine)