Franc Goršič, the Pipe Organ Master Who Deserves to be Rediscovered

In November 2017, when Luka Posavec was on a professional excursion to Hoffenheim with the organ class of Prof. Christoph Bossert from the Würzburg University of Music, he was introduced to one of the preserved opuses of the famous German organ builder of the Romantic period, Eberhard Friedrich Walcker (1794−1872). The organ in Hoffenheim is his 62nd work and was completed in 1846. It is a mechanical organ with a cone windchest, with 27 registers arranged on two manuals and a pedal. The register of the second manual, called Physharmonica 8′, stands out in particular, and in a way it is an independent instrument within the organ.

The Walcker organ in Hoffenheim represents one of the most important preserved sound treasures of German early Romantic organ building. In 2012, the organ was restored by the Lenter Organ Company.

“Seeing and analysing the structure of the restored organ brought my mind back to the organ installed in the Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity in Ljubljana.”

Luka Posavec

It is interesting to compare the sound of the Walcker organ in Hoffenheim with the organ at the Ursuline Church, which is the work of the Slovenian master organ builder, Franc Goršič. Although the organ was built 45 years apart, it is similar both technically and sonically. The Ursuline organ is also a mechanical instrument with a cone windchest, 30 singing registers on three manuals, pneumatic fixed combinations, a crescendo in the form of a foot roller and levers on the left side of the console for the second manual, and a pedal.

With the organ in Hoffenheim, Walcker suggests the concept of subtlety and the transition of sound colours, which later develops into the symphonic organ. Sonically, one could say that Goršič at its peak is just as fine, but more intimate. It was then that the idea was born to study Goršič’s organ closely in order to understand his ideas.

Franc Goršič was a master organ builder in the true sense of the word

In the Slovenian context of the time, it was unanimously acknowledged that he took his organ profession very seriously. He only used first-class materials in his organs and never strayed from the path of honesty. Even today, his organs still sound mostly beautifully, provided, of course, that they have not been sonically destroyed or neglected in the past and are now in need of careful restoration. Franc Goršič therefore deserves to be rediscovered as a great Slovenian artist.

This is how the idea of the project of researching and discovering the organ legacy of Franc Goršič was born, which has spontaneously developed from amateur visits and tours of Goršič’s instruments around Slovenia since 2018 into a systematic project with clearly defined goals.