Re: Schollaert Music Books on a Richter Organ?

A few days ago, Bjorn Isebaert wrote:

> Hi there,  I have a question about the Richter organ of Elise and
> Marty Roenigk: is it an organ with keys or with "Tonstufen" ?

Dear Bjorn and MMDers,  I would like to clarify some details about
Roenigk's Richter.

Sometime around 1932 Carl Frei converted several organs to his 79-key
scale.  This scale is similar to the 78-keyless Ruth, 79-key Richter and
80-keyless Gebruder Bruder scales, but is not identical to any of them.

The Carl Frei scale, for example, has 17 notes in the counter-melody
instead of the 16 in the Ruth scale.  A major difference is that the
Frei scale is linear instead of being scrambled as it is in the other
three mentioned scales.  One organ rebuilt in this manner was Roenigk's
79-key Richter organ.  Another was my 70-keyless Wilhelm Bruder Sohne
organ.  I have heard rumors, but no detail, that there might be one or
two more someplace in Europe.

When converting the Richter organ, I believe that Carl Frei used the
original Richter keyframe, which I am fairly sure was keyed and not
keyless.  I am not positive, but I believe that to be the case.  On my
Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organ, he reached into his junk box and selected
an 89-key keyframe from what I believe was a Mortier.  He then added
the necessary pipework to bring it up to the 79 key configuration.
This scale is documented in Bowers and Reblitz' "Treasures of
Mechanical Music" as the "79 key Richter/Frei scale".

I have no information about what the other organs might be that he
converted, but they were probably German organs of a similar size.
My Wilhelm Bruder Sohne organ and Roenigk's Richter differed slightly
in their original Frei configuration.  Since both organs have been
restored in recent years, some further divergence has taken place.

The Richter is really only a 78-key organ and it has only a single key
for the snare drum, which has alternating beaters.  My Wilhelm Bruder
Sohne used 79-keys and has two separate snare drum keys.  Neither organ
used key #78.  Since restoration, Roenigk's Richter uses key #78 to
select a register to turn on a set of bells.  These were previously
activated by the Forte register.

Since I had 89 keys available, I elected to put the bell ringers and
bandleader on separate keys, as they were originally in the Wilhelm
Bruder Sohne scale, making a total of 81 keys.  Also, I am using key
#78 as a key frame silencer.  All of the notes, however, are identical
in both organs.

The primary repertoire for both organs using the Carl Frei scale
included selections arranged by Frei, Deventer, and Marcel Van Boxtel,
plus a few others.  I don't recall any Schollaert arrangements although
there might be a couple.  In the last several years both Roenigk's and
I have increased the repertoire by converting some tunes from old Ruth,
Wilhelm Bruder Sohne and Gavioli books and by new arrangements by Tom
Meijer and others.

This has probably been an overly long answer to the question about
the organ(s) being keyed or keyless, but I offer this for the interest
of everyone and in the hopes that I might locate one or more of the
remaining organs that Carl Frei converted to his 79-key scale in
the 1930s.

I hope this is of interest.

Bob Conant
Temporarily hiding in Lakeland, FL