Organs of the master Bruno Goebel (1860–1944) from Königsberg in Lithuania: their history and the features of the craft of organ building

XX a. pirmoje pusėje dabartinėje Lietuvos teritorijoje beveik pusšimtį vargonų pastatė garsi Karaliaučiaus vargonų meistro Bruno Goebelio (1860–1944) dirbtuvė. Lietuvos vargonų istorijos kontekste šis meistras ir jo palikimas užima reikšmingą poziciją romantinių vargonų statybos tarpsnyje, jo kūrybinis braižas, stilistiniai sprendimai, suformuotos tendencijos turėjo įtakos XX a. antros pusės vargonų statybai Lietuvoje. Straipsnyje, remiantis Goebelio biografiniais duomenimis ir išlikusių vargonų natūros tyrimais, siekiama įvardyti šio meistro vargondirbystės braižo stilistines tendencijas, bendruosius vargonų konstrukcijos ypatumus; archyvinio šaltinio – XX a. pradžios nuotraukos – pagrindu skelbiami papildomi Panevėžio katedroje stovinčių vargonų pastatymo datos ir pirmosios stovėjimo vietos duomenys.The organ workshop headed by the organ builder Bruno Goebel (1860–1944), which operated in the first half of the 20th century in Königsberg, was one of the largest and most efficient in East Prussia. It simultaneously employed circa 40 masters and their apprentices. In total, they built approximately 300 organs of various sizes in Lithuania and the neighbouring countries. The organs built by Goebel’s workshop that have survived until today can be found in Poland and Germany. In the territory of today’s Lithuania, 45 organs were built in this workshop (see Table 1) from 1900 to 1943, of which eighteen have survived in full or in fragments. Goebel began to build organs as an independent master at the age of 34, having accumulated a stylistically rich experience of organ building in twenty years (ca. 1875–1894), which included the organ building traditions of various countries (Poland, Germany, Switzerland, France and Austria– Hungary). In 1898, one of the leading Königsberg-based masters, Max Terletzki, offered Goebel to take over his workshop. In 1928, Goebel’s son Hans opened “Hans Goebel’s organ workshop” in Kaunas, which operated until 1934. By the number of large organs built in Lithuania in the first half of the 20th century and the introduction of innovative systems in organ building, Goebel’s works surpassed other instruments built in Lithuania at that time. Goebel’s first organ in the territory of today’s Lithuania was installed in the Evangelical Lutheran church in Plikiai in 1900; only the organ façade has survived until today. However, the Panevėžys Cathedral contains an organ built by Goebbel a couple of years earlier (1898), one of the earliest organs by Goebel in general, which was transferred there in 1931 from the manor of the Eastern Prussian landowner Erbe Arnold Heubach in Kapkeim, the Königsberg district (German Gut Kapkeim; today, Vishnyovoye / Вишнёвое, Kaliningrad district); this fact is confirmed by several archival documents and a new piece of evidence published here for the first time – a photograph of the music hall of the Kapkeim manor with the organ from 1910–1925, held in the Image Archive of East Prussia (Bildarchiv-Ostpreussen, ill. 7). The date of building of this instrument, 1898, allows us to presume that it might have been one of the last organs built or initially built by Terletzki, while Goebel may have taken over to supervise the finishing works of building the organ. To generalise, the following characteristic features of Goebel’s organs should be mentioned: Neo-Gothic organ façades of various modifications, pneumatic tracker action of registers and keyboards; cone-valve chests with leather membranes, a separately mounted keydesk and a doublerise parallel bellows. Goebel’s workshop in Königsberg produced all wooden and metal pipes and their parts with the exception of pipe reeds. In the organs built by Goebel in Lithuania, similar typical stoplists of romantic organs from that period prevail (the most typical registers are presented in Table 2); several unique registers representing the organ building style of this master are distinguished – Quintadena 16’, Doppelflöte 8’, Gamba 16’, and [acoustic] Principalbass 16’