The Chilean Pipe Organ Site
(preliminary english version)

organ listing by preferred use

According to the information we have, the choir organ of the metropolitan church Santiago is the only one built in the colonial era that has been preserved.   more... According to the historian Fernando Márquez de la Plata, it is the work of brother Georges Kranzer, of the company of Jesus, also an organist, who built it in 1754, at the request of the Father Charles Haymhausen, Jesuit, who, when he arrived in Chile in 1746, He brought with him a series of musical instruments. The instrument was made in the Jesuits' artisan workshops in Calera de Tango. According to information from Father Francisco Enrich, in his History of the company of Jesus in Chile (Santiago, 1891), Father Haymhausen, in 1766, had a choir built "at the foot of the church (the Colegio Máximo de San Miguel) that occupied the entire central nave and in it they placed an organ worked by another of the brothers. This organ was not large, but it had many well-articulated registers and very soft and harmonious" (vol. II P. 220). Father Enrich adds that 120 years after its construction, the organ worked well, next to the main altar of the Cathedral of Santiago, place where it had been transferred after the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1769. This transfer saved the instrument from disappearing in the fire of the Company Church. In reality, the instrument that Father Enrich heard in the cathedral at the end of the century Last year it had undergone a renovation with some materials from the Casa Flight et Son, of London, builder of the large organ in the central high gallery of the cathedral, in 1847-1850. The "Jesuit organ" functioned for more than 50 years in our century. According to the testimony of Father Jorge Azócar Yávar, who was chapel master of the cathedral temple, he had a Bourdon 16 record and a pedal keyboard placed of 12 notes, in the 1910s (letter to the author, May 31, 1973). In 1973 the Sacred Art Commission decided to carry out the restoration of this instrument, a task that was entrusted to Mr. John Moir, who established the new registration project. Today, the organ functions perfectly and is regularly used for worship.

Site Map    Back Builder ....   Georges Kranzer, (Calera de Tango Chile) Built ....   1754 City ....   Santiago Class ....   Cathedral Organs Location ....   Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago Plaza de Armas N°444 Santiago de Chile Fono:671 8105 Photograph ....   Cristian Castillo, Diego Peña Blamey Rebuilt ....   John Moir, 1973 Information ....   Miguel Castillo (I) Manual (57 Keys) 1 -  Bourdon 8'   (Secciones separadas entre Bajos y Agudos) 2 -  Flute a Chimenée 4'    3 -  Prestant 4'    4 -  Larigot 1 1/3'    5 -  Cymbale (III)    6 -  Cromorne 8   (Secciones separadas entre Bajos y Agudos) (P) Pedal (Tirasse) (30 Keys)