According to the testimony of the then parish priest Vidergar, the old Rumpl organ in Šentvid pri Stični was breaking down more and more often. In the spring of 1911, he therefore requested the Mayer Brothers’ Organ Workshop to prepare a quotation for a new organ, which was submitted at the beginning of June.
The Mayer Brothers’ Organ Workshop (Orgelbau Gebrüder Mayer) was founded in 1872 by brothers Johann and Georg Mayer. According to their archives, the workshop built 20 organs in the area of present-day Slovenia in the period of 1902-1913. Their first organ was installed in the church of the German Knights of the Order in Ljubljana (Križanke) in 1902. Their largest work in Slovenia was built for the parish of Šentvid pri Stični in 1912. The Mayer Organ Workshop is still in operation today in the Austrian town of Feldkirch-Altenstadt.
The Vidergar’s request sent to the Ljubljana diocese was answered by Father Hugolin Sattner (1851-1934), who did not like Mayer’s organ design. Among other technical proposals, he disliked the idea of handing over a new work to a foreign organ builder. Stanko Premrl (1880-1965), also a member of the music commission of the Ljubljana diocese, was more lenient towards the foreign craftsman. Thus, Sattner and Premrl together proposed several technical and acoustic improvements to the organ builder (e.g. a super-octave coupler to manual II and a crescendo device with a roller). As can be seen from later documents and the current situation, the Trumpet register was moved from manual I to manual II, and the Quint bass was added in the pedal as a transmission from the Burdon of manual I.
On March 8, 1912, Vidergar, the parish priest of Šentvid pri Stični, signed a contract with the Mayer Brothers’ Organ Workshop.
Šentvid pri Stični gets a new Mayer organ
Between May 15 and August 6, 1912, Mayer’s organ workshop built the organ, which was installed in the choir of the church in Šentvid between August 7 and September 10, 1912. The free-standing console featured a roller cover for the two manual keyboards, each with 56 keys, and a pedal keyboard with 27 keys. For the pneumatic tracker, 1200 metres of lead pipes were planned. The organ had one main bellows, two feeder bellows, and 1381 pipes, of which 1094 were metal and 287 wooden.
Photo: Gašper Stopar
The Šentvid organ was the 150th creation of the Mayer Brothers’ Organ Workshop and their largest instrument in the area of present-day Slovenia. It was approved by the Ljubljana diocese on September 10, 1912. Composer Ignacij Hladnik (1865 – 1932) ranked it among the best organs in the Kranjska region in the publication Cerkveni glasbenik (CG 1912, No. 10, pp. 82-83).
World War I intervenes in the Mayer Brothers’ organ
Amid the First World War, the monarchy began to run short of raw materials. The non-ferrous metals were mainly tin and lead, the two most commonly used alloys for the manufacture of organ pipes. In the spring of 1918, authorised organ builders began requisitioning these materials, and in Šentvid pri Stični, the entire Principal register was taken, along with some smaller pipes of other metal registers.
After the war, the singing in the choir of Šentvid was poorer. It was only the young and later long-standing organist Pavel Žagar, originally from Trebelno, who systematically began to reintroduce choral, folk and children’s music participation. In 1924, he wrote an extensive report on the state of singing and the organ for the editorial board of the publication Cerkveni glasbenik (CG 1924, vol. 3-4, p. 37). The report revealed that the organ was “very run down and dusty, but last autumn it has been put in order. Tuning and cleaning cost over 5000 crowns.” The work was carried out by the organ builder Anton Dernič (1879-1954) from Radovljica.
In 1928, the organ builder Franc Jenko (1894-1968) rebuilt the missing pipes and arranged the electrically powered bellows.
Mayer’s organ upgraded by Anton Jenko
After 80 years of constant use, the organ began to deteriorate. The parish priest Jože Koželj turned to the Slovenian organologist Dr Edo Škulj for advice. In early 1991, Škulj responded, advising that “there are two possible steps in the renovation: 1.) Complete renovation of the present organ by replacing worn parts, or 2.) Enlargement and modernisation of the organ.” He also suggested “a third manual, namely a positive one either on the choir rail or in the lower part of the organ case”.
However, Jenko did not fully adhere to Škulj’s proposal. On December 6, 1992, Bishop Jožef Kvas blessed the renovated Mayer organ, which the organ builder Anton Jenko (1931-2009) had upgraded with a new third manual and a new console with an electrical connection to the windchests (a larger box with pulpits, bores and valves).
Photo: Gašper Stopar
Photo: Gašper Stopar
