Ernst Roever (1857-1923)
|
Fr. W. Ernst Roever came from a locally famous family of North-German Organ builders. In 1884, he left his father's company in Stade to take over the workshop of Adolph Reubke (who died that year) in Hausneindorf near Quedlinburg.
Up until 1920, many significant organs were built in this workshop; these were installed in the regions around Hamburg, Magdeburg, Muehlhausen, Leipzig and Berlin. But there are also specimens from his workshop which can be found abroad. For example, today in Moscow, there is still one of his original pieces - a three-manual, 38-stop organ, which has retained its display pipes.
A characteristic of Ernst Roever's organs is the unit chest - developed by his father, but perfected by Ernst through small adjustments. Today, one can say that the pneumatic unit chests made by Ernst Roever are characterised by their robustness and small susceptibility to interference, and by the very short delay between depressing a key and hearing the corresponding sound from the pipe.
Owing partly to the untimely death of his son - who was due to inherit the company - during the First World War, and partly to the economic recession after the end of the war, the company had to close in 1921. Ernst Roever died in 1923.
His legacy to us is in the form of very many instruments, which are marked out by their extremely robust construction and high-quality materials. The specification and voicing of the instruments have a definite flavour of the romantic organ builders from the turn of the century, of whom he is one of the most accomplished, albeit relatively unknown, representatives.
|
|
|