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Regular-article-logo Monday, 16 June 2025

Tune in to 12-hour daily drill - Assembling giant church organ is labour of love for German conductor

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RUDRA BISWAS Published 27.10.14, 12:00 AM

Watch German conductor and assembler of pipe organs Hartmut Grosch in action to know what a musical race against time is like.

Since September, the 73-year-old Grosch and his Ranchi-based but Germany-trained assistant Manish Kachchap have been clocking 12-hour workdays to fit pipes and check keyboards that make up the giant 10 tonne-plus church organ gifted by Germans to the capital’s Gossner Evangelical Lutheran (GEL) Church.

The organ will be officially inaugurated on November 2, next Sunday, which also happens to be All Souls’ Day.

“We will probably be working till the last day,” Grosch told The Telegraph while checking the notes of the two keyboards, each fitted with 56 keys.

“As of now, around 10 per cent of the work remains incomplete. Of the 1,725 pipes of various sizes that make up the giant organ, we have already fitted 1,600. We have to fit the rest and then begin the arduous task of tuning each one,” he said.

There’s more. “The synchronisation of various parts too have to be checked. However, we shall ensure that the organ gets inaugurated on the scheduled date and time,” Grosch said.

It takes at least six months to install a giant church organ. But, at the GEL church, there was a lot more to be done.

“We begun work in February, a month before the organ arrived in Ranchi in March,” the conductor said.

“The organ is at least two floors tall and weighs over 10 tonnes. So, scaffolding on the first floor landing at the GEL church needed strengthening to withstand the load. Civil work ended in August. In September, we began unpacking boxes and assembling the numerous parts,” he added.

The church organ has two keyboards, each fitted with 56 keys, to be played with both hands. The pedal has another set of 30 keys to be played by both feet. The organ is fitted with 1725 pipes of various proportions. No loudspeakers or sound boxes are needed. Air is blown into the organ with electric motors. When a key is depressed, the wind bellows through 1,725 pipes, producing magnificent notes.

“The notes are so loud that you can hear it hundreds of metres away,” the German conductor smiled.

He added that magnificence extracted its price.

“The most difficult task is fine-tuning all the 1,725 pipes to ensure that each produces the correct note,” he said.

Praising his assistant Manish, the veteran conductor said once he leaves for his country, the young man would play the instrument and take over regular maintenance jobs.

But, right now, Grosch is looking forward to play the grand instrument himself.

Next Sunday, the organ will be inaugurated by Matthias Puppe, the superintendent of Rheinsburg parish from Germany, before 6am, when the first Sunday church service gets underway.

Eliazer Topno, GEL church general secretary, told The Telegraph that Ulrich Schoentube, the director of Gossner Mission in Germany, as well as the outfit’s volunteers Helga Ottow and Klaus Roeber, among others, would be present for the inauguration.

Which is your favourite choir instrument? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com

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