The ancient St Joseph church in Nazareth has become today a part of the large compound of the Annunciation Basilica, connected to the Basilica through the Franciscan Monastery. It appears there was no organ in this church in the past. The decision to do so was taken in 2011 when a collect was organized in Austria to allow the replacement of the two organs standing in the Basilica by two brand new ones.

The results of the collect were beyond hope and this is probably the reason why a third organ was ordered to be placed in the small church and used for liturgy there. The organ-builder of the three organs was Rieger, from Austria.

This small accompaniment organ has one manual keyboard with nine stops and a pedal with one stop. The organ stands on the tribune above the main entrance to the church, and nobody has access to it, neither the public nor the organist. The console is located on the floor, near the choir of the church.
The organ has been inaugurated on the 05-12-2012 by the Italian organist Paolo Oreni.

הפוסט Nazareth St Joseph church הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

At the lowest level of the Basilica is the crypta where one can see the House of Maria and Joseph. The choir organ which is located there replaces an Italian organ made by the firm Tamburini almost one hundred years before. It has been made by the same organ-builder, the Austrian firm Rieger, which has also built all the other organs used by the Franciscans in Nazareth (the two organs of the Basilica and St Joseph church), in Bethleem (the organ of theSanta Catarina Basilica), in Jerusalem (the two organs of the Holy Sepulcher church, the organ of the Saint Saviour Franciscan Franciscan Monastery and the organ of the Church of Gethsemani).

This organ was luckier than the other two organs of Nazareth for there is a slightly better acoustic in the lower part of the Basilica. It is standing on the floor and cannot be reached neither by the public nor by the organist. It is not enclosed in any wooden box, thus unprotected from heat, humidity and dirt. It has been inaugurated together with the two other on the 08-12-2012 by the IItalian organist Paolo Oreni.

הפוסט Nazareth Annunciation Basilica – choir organ הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The existence of an organ in Nazareth in the 18th century is confirmed by the testimony of the German organist Eliezer Horn. In his letters, he mentions an 8 stop organ made by the organbuilder Domenico Mancini from Naples, installed in Nazareth in 1734. Numerous organs have probably followed each other before and after the Mancini organ, but we have found no traces of them. In the middle of the XXth century, the Basilica had two separate floors. The Basilica itself was on the ground floor and in a second floor built under the ground, one could see the crypta in which was the house where Jesus lived with his parents. There was an organ on each of these floors: in the crypta was an Italian organ made by Tamburini, and in the upper church was a large instrument made by Brother Delfino Taboada, a Spanish Franciscan monk then living in Jerusalem and managing the Organ Workshop of the Saint Saviour Monastery. These two organs had very beautiful sounds, especially the Italian one, very soft, and situated in a very favorable acoustic.
These two instruments have been replaced in 2012 by two brand new organs made by the Austrian Rieger organ-builder.
The Great Organ is located, as was his predecessor, in the upper part of the Basilica. It is not enclosed. It is just laying on the floor, without any protection from heat, dirt and humidity. On the other hand, this makes tuning and repairing much easier. The modern computer allows to preset numberless registrations, programming numberless concerts, recording and replaying, selecting prerecorded registrations for most of the compositions of the great composers, etc…The acoustic of the Basilica is no great help to the instrument, as could have been expected from such a huge building.

הפוסט Nazareth Annunciation Basillica – main organ הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The fact that an organ was existing at the Church of the Nativity in Bethleem at least seven hundred years ago is known to us since the beginning of the last century: at that time, in 1906, the building of a hostel for pilgrims was planned near the church and early works connected with the foundations of the future building led to the discovery of 221 pipes belonging to an organ which was built in the 14 th century. These pipes are now exhibited at the Biblical Studies Museum of the Flagellation in the Old City of Jerusalem. We also have the testimony of pilgrims who visited the place in 1640 and mentioned the existence of an organ. The organist’s name at that time was Brother Arcangelo from Agrigente. The one- before-last instrument in such a long series of organs which stood there during so many years, had been built at the Franciscan Organs Workshop in The Holy Saviour Franciscan Monastery in Jerusalem. The building of this organ began in 1914 by Father Andrea Morato (from Granada) and finished by Father Mazzela in 1929. This organ was restaurated and electrified by Brother Delfino Taboada in 1955. The last organ was later built by the same organ builder, B. Delfino Taboada, and inaugurated by Agostino Lama (see Organ N.2). A description of this organ can be found in our chapter dealing with old organs dismantled after 1992.

The new organ was built by the Austrian organ-builder Rieger in 1999. It was due to be ready for the visit of the Pope John Paul II in March 2000, but in fact was inaugurated in 2003 by Father Armando Pierucci and Elisabeth Roloff. The instrument is composed of two separate organs which can be played either separately either jointly, on a common console or on two separate consoles placed in the choir of the church. The pipes of the the Great, the Swell and the Pedal are standing on a tribune specially built above the main entrance. The stops of the Positive, including the three stops belonging to the Pedal of the Positive, are located in the choir and can be played separately as a choir accompaniment organ, on a separate console. As a result, two organists can play together, one on the Great and the second on the Positive.

הפוסט The Great Organ of the Church of Saint Catherine in Bethleem הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

Saint George Cathedral’s organ belongs to the Anglican diocese of Jerusalem. It was constructed by Rieger (Austria) and inaugurated in 1984. It replaced the old Bevington organ, constructed in 1904. Numerous elements of this old organ were reused by G. Shamir for the construction of the concert organ of the Hecht Hall of the University of Haifa.

This organ, aided by the excellent acoustic of the cathedral, is one of the most beautiful instruments that one can currently listen to in Jerusalem.

The organ is placed on the floor, at the center of the nave, so the visitors have to walk around the organ in order to enter the Cathedral. It is placed on a three-stepped platform. The organ case is made of red oak. A decorative wooden netting representing oak leaves partially covers the pipes of Diapason 8′, on the facade. The console is integrated into the organ and the organist has his/her back to the altar.

הפוסט Saint Georges Anglican Cathedral הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The Gethsemani Church accompaniment organ in Jerusalem
This church, otherwise called Church of All the Nations, is located in front of the Gethsemani Garden, in the Cedron valley, between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. A new organ made by the Austrian organ-builder Rieger in 2014 replaces the old small organ built almost 40 years before by the late Brother Delfino Taboada, head of the organ workshop at the Saint Saviour Monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem until his death in 2000(see below the article in the Dismantled Organs section). The new organ is larger than the previous one: it has 13 stops on two manuals and one pedal. Transmission is electric and fully controlled by a Rieger computer.

הפוסט The Gethsemani Church accompaniment organ in Jerusalem הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The liturgical organ of the Austrian Hospice was constructed in 1910 by the organ-builder Rieger from Jagerndorf (now Krnov) in the Czech Republic (former Czechoslovakia), opus number 1706. It is placed on the gallery of the hospice’s chapel, with enough space for a small choir to gather around the organist. The dark oak case is in the form of a triptych with three rectangular openings in the lower part and three arches in the upper part. The central arch is dominated by a capital bearing a cross, surrounded by a rectangle. On each side there is a statue of an angel playing a trumpet, one with its wings open above its head and the other with its wings folded on its back.

This organ was originally supplied with foot-pumped bellows, since there was no electricity supply inside the Old City at that time, but in 1999 extensive repairs were made by Rieger himself, including an electric wind motor.

הפוסט Austrian Hospice הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

This organ is one of the newest in Israel. It stands where the Italian organ by Tamburini was
standing before, at the end of the church of St Saviour monastery in the Old City of
Jerusalem. The Tamburini organ, enlarged and renewed by the late Brother Delfino
Taboada, was one of the most beautiful instruments in the Middle East.
The new organ has been made by the Austrian organ-builder Rieger, the same firm
which built the new organs of the Holy Sepulcher, the Nativity church in Bethleem
and the Anglican St Georges cathedral in the last thirty years.
This organ is also the biggest and the most modern of all, as far as its technology is
concerned. It has 44 stops on three manuals and a pedal, and a computer allows 1000
pistons, sequencing, automatic memory replay and other features.
The organ stands exactly where the previous one was, on the wall behind the choir,
hidden somehow behind the decorative façade.
Another important feature: the organ has two consoles : one on the church floor,
with electric connection, and the other enclosed in the upper part of the organ with
mechanic connection.
The new Rieger organ was inaugurated in 2008. A series of concerts marked this
event, with the participation of resident organists A.Pierucci and Anne Laurent
together with the Italian organists E. Zanovello, P. Comparin and L. Signorini

הפוסט Saint Saviour Franciscan Monastery – main organ הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

This small instrument has been built by the Austrian organ-builder Rieger

in 2016. It stands in the Golgotha Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher Church.

It has two manuals and no pedal. Range: 51 notes C – re3

הפוסט Holy Sepulchre – Golgotha Chapel הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.

The choir organ built in 2014 by the Austrian firm Rieger in the lateral chapel of the Holy Sepulchre church in Jerusalem replaces a very old Italian organ made by the organ-builder Tamburini. It had become very hard to play and almost impossible to tune, mostly because it had been built almost roofless and hundreds of pigeons had settled inside for many years.
Its distribution is the same as its predecessor, 15 stops on two manuals and one pedal. Also like the Tamburini, the new organ is connected to the common console built in 1982 by Rieger to enable the organist to play simultaneously on both the organs of the church, or separately, if he (she) wishes so.

הפוסט Holy Sepulchre – choir organ הופיע לראשונה ב-קונצרטים לעוגב | עוגבים | חובבי העוגב בישראל בעמותת אוצר המוסיקה היהודית.