Church organ collection finds home in Bavarian castle

By Paul Winterer Jan 5, 2012, 3:06 GMT

Berlin - Organ music is central to church tradition in Germany and elsewhere, but for Sixtus Lampl it is a lot more than that.

Lampl, a retired chief curator for historic preservation for the German state of Bavaria, is the owner of a collection of more than 60 church organs.

When he wants to hear organ music, he doesn't have to go to church. He simply chooses one of his 14 that are still functioning and starts to play.

Lampl and his wife Inge spent decades collecting the historical organs, which are housed in a castle in the south-eastern town of Valley, about 20 kilometres south of Munich.

Typically, the instruments came from churches that were getting rid of their old organs in favour of new ones more suitable to modern music styles.

Many of the organs in Lampl's collection were set to be scrapped before he stepped in to rescue them. Moved by the craftsmanship displayed in the construction of the organs, Lampl began collecting them the way other people collect beer mugs.

Ultimately, his goal became to create the most important organ museum in the world. The 60 organs he and his wife have amassed is already believed to be the largest collection in the world.

Lampl is a lover of baroque art and style. He has retrieved hand-written scripts from the baroque period from Bavarian monasteries and transcribed them into modern language.

As a child he was sent to a Benedictine boarding school near Munich.

'At the age of 12 I learned from the monks how to play the organ,' the prominent art historian and musicologist recalled.

The slight hunch in his back might be a result of time spent inside the cramped interior spaces of organs. It is ironic, however, that as a lover of baroque music, he would be the one to rescue romantic organs.

This is because, in the 1950s, the music tastes of organists demanded that the romantic-sounding organs be replaced by ones that could produce a baroque sound.

Many churches did not know what to do with their old organs, including some that had more than 1,000 pipes. Lampl didn't think about it for long. When he found out about them, he got a truck and hauled them away.

'It was not uncommon for the musicians of the church to come running after me asking what I wanted with the old scrap,' Lampl said.

Before long, he needed to rent some storage space. In 1987 he and his wife bought Valley Castle, which had fallen into disrepair, and restored it accurately down to the last detail.

The couple had to fight tenaciously against the opposition of authorities to an extension that the Lampls said was necessary to save the facade of the building from collapsing.

They obtained another old building - a large high-ceiling hall - which they tore down piece by piece and rebuilt next to the castle.

The Zollinger Hall, named after its architect, is an acoustically unique concert hall in which the sound is good enough to make recordings.

In his museum, Lampl shows the historical significance of the organ - which is king of the instruments as far as he is concerned - and their technical inner workings. He can tell an anecdote about every one of them.

The oldest is from the Bavarian town of Walpersdorf and was made around 1700. 'Unfortunately, it is no longer playable,' Lampl said. The smallest organ in his collection is hardly bigger than a refrigerator and is only about 50 years old.

Visits to the museum must be arranged in advance and the tour takes about two hours. It includes a description of the invention and development of church organs and a demonstration of some of the organs that are still playable.

Lampl sometimes parts with organs he has collected, knowing that they are going to be used to create music again. 'If a church community asks and I have an instrument suitable for its needs, then I sell it for a pittance,' he said.

He fulfilled his dream of creating the museum with no financial backing from the state or the church.

In order to secure the collection he created a foundation called Altes Schloss Valley (Old Castle Valley) within the German foundation for the preservation of historic heritage. An association has also been formed to collect donations for the organs.