“All my predecessors were already organ builders”

Organ builder Alexander Steinbeißer has been working as a restorer in the workshop for scientific musical instruments at the Deutsches Museum in Munich since 2013. RESTAURO spoke to him about his current projects

Musical instruments are Alexander Steinbeißer’s great passion. He has been working as a restorer in the workshop for scientific musical instruments at the Deutsches Museum in Munich since 2013. The restoration workshop specializes in historical keyboard instruments such as harpsichords, clavichords, organs and fortepianos.

When asked how he found his way into the restoration workshop for scientific musical instruments as an organ builder, Steinbeißer laughs and replies: “All my predecessors were already organ builders, it’s a kind of tradition. During your training, you learn how to build, repair, restore and tune organs. The Deutsches Museum also has many organs that are equipped with a lot of technology – organ builders have a better overview.”

He is currently restoring a still playable positive organ, also known as a positive, by Nicolaus Franciscus Lamprecht from 1693. The positive came into the collection of the Deutsches Museum in 1909, presumably from the chapel of St. Emmeram in Gersthofen. Steinbeißer has now completely examined, measured and documented the positive for a new catalog of the Deutsches Museum’s organs – especially for small organs from southern Germany. His colleagues can now use this data to produce a CAD drawing, which will be helpful for further projects and presentations in the new exhibition.

Steinbeißer explains that nothing now stands in the way of a copy. This reveals another area of the restorer’s work: for the permanent exhibition “Musical Instruments”, he makes copies and functional models based on CAD models, which are used for research work and demonstrations. The traditional craftsmanship techniques he acquired during his training are particularly in demand here.

Four years ago, he built a replica of Kempelen’s speaking machine for the research project of his colleague Dr. Silke Berdux, curator of musical instruments at the museum. The original – a speaking automaton from 1791 – is the oldest device for speech synthesis. He finds it particularly challenging to recreate historical instruments whose blueprints are no longer available. This requires all his knowledge of the technology and construction of musical instruments.

As with the restoration of the positive, it is interesting for him to research and scrutinize the object. “It’s exciting to tell the story. What has this musical instrument been through? What is its original condition? And what has already been rebuilt?” Steinbeißer continues, “The Positive’s windchest, for example, is much older than the case. The case was probably rebuilt and veneered from a simple box. Such changes can only be discovered on closer inspection. With the help of an endoscope, for example, I was able to determine that the bellows are covered on the inside with old grain invoices. The grain invoices contain names, the date and old handwriting – presumably old church invoices. Such discoveries happen with many instruments. It is important to document everything.”

In addition to restoration work, he also maintains and tunes the playable musical instruments and music automatons in the house. Concerts and demonstrations normally take place regularly. Due to the current renovation work, these and the maintenance and tuning tasks are no longer necessary. “Instead, one instrument after another is coming into my workshop. I won’t be finished until the opening,” says Steinbeißer calmly, “restoration and documentation take their time. But visitors need not worry. All the instruments will be on display. They’ll just come to the workshop afterwards.”