Varhany v Betlémské kapli v Praze – poslední opus varhanářské dílny Vladimíra Šlajcha
The Organ in The Bethlehem Chapel in Prague – The Last Opus of Vladimír Šlajch's Organ Workshop

Summary/Abstract: Vladimír Šlajch was born in 1955 in Prague. According to his own words, he had a significantamount of luck regarding his education. In addition to the apprenticeship years spentat the cooperative Igra in Prague-Smíchov, which focused on organ issues although not inan entirely well-founded way, he also got a chance to gain experience abroad at the end ofthe eighties. He then worked for two years in a Bavarian organ company. After his return, hewent “freelance“, which was not always easy, but he was able to quickly prove himself witha number of very interesting restoration works, although at a level which, from today's pointof view, would not be considered sufficient. Nevertheless, thanks to his interventions at thetime, a number of important instruments were saved, e.g. organ in the Mirror Chapel ofPrague's Clementine, Starck's iconic organ in Zlatá Koruna from 1699 and many others. Laterhe began to fulfill his first ambition in the discipline: the building of completely new organs,first in collaboration with Dalibor Michek (organ positives, organ in Růžená u Třeště), andvery soon afterwards independently (Třešť et al.).Vladimír Šlajch's first contracts with foreign clients (e.g. the church in Traun near Linz in Austria)were carried out in a workshop in Borovany in rented premises, a new workshop was builtthere only in 1993. It had an approximately 300 m2 large production space, and a twelve-meterhighassembly hall which was equipped with a bridge crane that made it possible to start workingon construction of new large-scale organs as well as on organ restoration. For all completed orders,let's name at least the restoration of the Starck organ from 1688 in Plasy, the restored organ in HorníPolice and new instruments in Bruchsal in Germany or on Svatá Hora in Příbram.The last organ that came out of Šlajch's Borovan workshop is the organ for the BethlehemChapel in Prague. The Bethlehem Chapel was so named because of its dedication to the memoryof the Bethlehem Innocents. The original building dates from 1391–1394 and was intended forpreaching in the Czech language. One of the clergymen who preached here was Master Jan Hus,who was burned at the stake in 1415 during the church council in Constance for not being willingto retract his teaching about the necessary reform of the medieval church. Later, the chapel servedvarious other purposes, but it gradually fell into disrepair, which is why it was mostly demolishedin 1786. Its restoration began only in the first half of the 1950s.The reconstruction of the chapel on the site of the expropriated house was designed by theprominent Czech architect Jaroslav Fragner on the order of representatives of the communist regime,which based part of its legitimacy on a distorted interpretation of the Hussite heritage. Afterits reconstruction, the chapel, which was mainly used for socialist propaganda, but also for otherpublic purposes, e.g. concerts and other gatherings, was taken over by the Czech Technical Universityin Prague in 1987. The Bethlehem Chapel has thus become a space where, in addition to otherfestive events, numerous graduation ceremonies of individual CTU faculties have been held sincethen. At the beginning of the 1990s, an electronic instrument was therefore purchased and installedhere as a temporary solution.The Bethlehem Chapel is an exceptionally large space. Compared to most church naves, it isquite a challenge for the organist to manage its acoustics as it is influenced by the position of theinstrument, the overall sound concept and the final intonation of each individual pipe. The originalconsiderations included an organ built against one of the walls, which is usually the case. Theworld-renowned architect Ms. Eva Jiřičná, who became the face of the fund collection for the constructionof the organ, being a graduate of the Czech Technical University and an ardent supporterof her alma mater, came up with the idea of placing the organ in the open space. However, due tothe course of the ceremonies in the Bethlehem Chapel (when university representatives come tothe stage with a ceremonial pace) the specific placement proposed by her between the entrance andthe stage was rejected and a different solution, yet also placed in free space, prevailed. The winningproposal primarily took into account the predicted sound emission of the organ, which was verifiedwith the help of a small piped portable instrument. The diagonal placement at the back on theleft when viewed from the stage is atypical, but thanks to it, the organ can be sufficiently and clearlyheard from every place in the Bethlehem Chapel.Organ experts and admirers may be surprised to learn that the existing instrument is onlyone-manual. Certainly, many of us would expect at least a two-manual organ, which of coursehas been considered for a long time. In this case, however, the limit was not the estimated price,the final decision was made mainly with regard to functionality, especially regarding the soundand the overall concept. The thing was that the second manual would increase the size of theorgan cabinet, either in height, width or depth, and although it could somehow “squeeze” intothe existing cabinet, it would cause reducing the number of registers of the main machine, or itwould affect optimal placement of the individual components.In order for the local organ to be able to reproduce a solo voice and a sound-separated andcolor-contrasting accompaniment, the principle of the construction of the so-called split air boxis used, thanks to which each organist's hand can use a completely different spectrum of organsounds. This completely unique solution in the Czech lands was commonly used by organists inItaly or Spain. Especially in large cathedrals in the Mediterranean region, multi-manual organswere an exceptional rarity in the past, small village instruments as well as large cathedral onesalmost always had only one manual, however much they were different in other respects.The disposition of the organ can be best presented in a simple chart, which shows which registersare continuous and which are divided into bass and treble, e.g. Principal 8' can sound eitheron the entire keyboard (continuously), or only in its left half (bass), or conversely only in theright half (treble). The same applies to all other individual voices. The variety of color combinationshere is considerable. It depends on the imagination of the organist and his ability to adjust,if needed, certain passages in the compositions so that they are playable on the given instrument.

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