| Description: | Once again, I had the honor and pleasure of testing a new sample set from Augustine (AVO), namely the model of the organ from the church “Our Lady of Perpetual Help” in the small town of Bodajk in northwestern Hungary.
It is a two-manual instrument with 26 stops and a baroque orientation, built with minimal funding in 2021 by organbuilder Péter Takács, incorporating old pipe material from a previous Rieger organ from 1910.
With its lively, transparent sound, characterful principal stops, charming flutes and colorful aliquot voices (including even a Septim 1 1/7'), this small organ invites experimentation with styles and colors.
Here and in some of my following uploads, I am trying out the sample set on pieces from the collection “Préludes, Fugues et Autres Pièces pour L'Orgue” by Johann Christoph Schmügel (1727–1798), which was published in Brussels in 1778.
Born and raised in the town of Prietzier in Mecklenburg, Schmügel received his first music lessons from his father, who was an organist and whom he assisted from the age of 16. Around 1750, the young Schmügel was drawn to Hamburg, where he was taught by Georg Philipp Telemann, who later described him as one of his best composition students. In 1758, Schmügel took up the post of organist at St. Johannis Church in Lüneburg. His pupils there included Johann Abraham Peter Schulz, whose compositions were strongly influenced by the style of his teacher.
In 1766, Schmügel moved to the Nikolaikirche in Mölln, where he probably between 1767 and 1777 wrote the twelve organ pieces that he then published in his collection “Préludes, Fugues et Autres Pièces pour L'Orgue”. Stylistically, they are in the realm of the "Empfindsamer Stil" (sentimental style) and the early classical period. In my opinion, many of these compositions are of an astonishingly high quality, so it is definitely worth taking a closer look at Schmügels music – for example, at his Affettuoso in F minor. |
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