Reet (Rumst, B) | Saint Mary Magdalene

The organ at Reet is Christian Penceler’s opus magnum, completed in 1713 in a case decorated by Petrus Paulus Verlest. Well preserved archives inform us in considerable detail about the instrument’s history after completion: in 1766 Joannes Van Overbeek installed three new reservoirs before Smet and Van Overbeeck made further repairs between 1779 and 1783, including the addition of two stops. In 1815 Smet and Van Overbeeck “father and son” accomplished the substitution of the reed stops on the Great, and in 1832 Smet refurbished the keyboards, installed a pedal board and made further changes to the specification.

Merklin made an uncompromised transformation between 1862 and 1870 retaining only the Great chests – built either by Van Overbeeck or by Smet – and part of the pipe work from Penceler and Smet/Van Overbeeck still surviving. He also relocated the Great division about a meter lower in the case and added a Récit expressif on top of it.

The restoration project orientates towards the reconstruction of the 1832 organ concept, which means the preservation of Penceler as its absolute core with the modifications of Van Peteghem and Smet around it. Because it contains the largest and most important remaining material of Penceler anywhere, its preservation and appraisal lead us to the decision of setting pitch at 410 Hz. The Great specification was dictaminated by the lay-out of the old chest but retaining the Smet/Van Overbeeck reeds. The baseboard Positif was reconstructed after another Smet organ in the church of St. Sulpice in Diest and it now houses all the remaining ranks from Penceler/Smets.

A wedge-bellow winding system with 3 reservoirs was reconstructed and placed within the tower. The restoration evolved in two phases: the first comprised the restoration of the case, the chest and the Great action as well as the restoration of the front pipes carried out in 1999-2000 by Nijs en Zonen. The Schumacher Company was entirely in charge of the second phase which encompassed all the remaining tasks: reconstruction of the bellows and the reservoirs, restoration and reconstruction of the rest of the pipe work, installation and voicing. Once completed in 2009, Penceler’s largest instrument resounded again in its original jeweller case.