The Jörgensen Tribute Organ is a virtual instrument for use with Milan Digital Audio’s Hauptwerk Software.

Origin

Åfjord Church

The virtual organ is based upon recordings from 3 Norwegian churches.

The main organ is located in  Åfjord Church, a 450 seat wooden church built in 1879. The current Jörgensen organ was delivered by J. H. Jörgensen Orgelfabrikk in 1978, and has 18 speaking stops, two 56 note manuals, a 30 note parallel pedalboard, and is fully functional. The organ is well maintained and is unmodified since it’s delivery.

Hommelvik Church

Since the Åfjord organ is somewhat smaller than many typical Norwegian Jörgensen organs, some additional stops were recorded in two other churches,  Hommelvik Church  - a similar size wooden church with a Jörgensen organ from 1949, and Ålesund Church, which has one of the largest and best maintained Jörgensen organs, originally delivered in 1945.

The total number of speaking stops in this composite Jörgensen organ is then 30. Great care has been taken to make sure that the additional Stops appear in a correct balance and are used in the typical Jörgensen tradition regarding sound and placement.

Inside Åfjord Church, looking towards the organ.

Many Norwegian churches are built with a structure of large timber logs, and then use wooden planks to cover the walls, both on the outside and the inside. They typically hold 300-500 seats. The use of all wooden materials makes for dry acoustics rather different from churches made from stone materials, and the acoustics can be a challenge for the organ builder. The ”Jörgensen Sound” seems to work well with this kind of acoustic environment.

Implementation notes

For a long time I have missed a smaller and not too overwhelming bright sounding Norwegian sample set for rehearsing and church music purposes mainly, so the Jörgensen Tribute organ is not meant to compete with the large and/or Symphonic, French, Cathedral or Baroque historical instruments available. It is “A typical Norwegian church organ for a typical Norwegian church organist.” Hopefully this also works well in other countries. It ended up a little larger than typical, and is now more like a medium size Jörgensen organ, but still feels and sounds like a small organ.

Jörgensen Hauptwerk Console