Category:Marcussen & Søn

The organbuilding firm was founded in 1806 by Jürgen Marcussen and has been located since 1830 in the small town Aabenraa in the Southern part of Denmark. In 1848 the founder's son, Jürgen Andreas Marcussen, joined the firm and after this the firm bears the name Marcussen & Søn.

In the first decades many pipeorgans were built for churches in Denmark, Sweden, Germany etc., of which several are still in use today, including the oldest from 1820. In 1902, Johannes L. Zachariassen, a grandson of the founder's daughter took over the firm. To begin with the firms activities were still under influence of the baroque organbuilding tradition. Then a change towards organs with more fundamental tone took place, and about 1900 the development moreover was characterized by inventions as pneumatics and electricity.

In comprehension that organbuilding by this had taken up a wrong direction, the firm Marcussen & Søn - under influence of the German organ movement - as early as 1930 went back to the classic North-European organ with wide sound spectrum, reliable slider windchests, and simple mechanical action with precise function.

The central figure in this remarkable process of development was Sybrand Zachariassen (1900-1960). At the age of 21 he took over the management of the old organ-building firm and within a few decades the instruments of the firm achieved international reputation, and they have particularly contributed to the basis for the mechanical pipeorgan of our time.

These activities proceeded when S. Jürgen Zachariassen 1960 became president of the firm, with several organs delivered for European countries, and now for overseas countries as well, e.g. Japan and The United States of America, where the Marcussen-organs also were installed in concert halls. Today the total number of organs built has grown to about 1125.

In line with the considerably growing interest for preservation of historic organs, Marcussen & Søn has also been entrusted important restorations, e.g. in Holland (St. Bavo Kerk, Haarlem and Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam). In Denmark the restoration/reconstruction of the organ in Roskilde Cathedral (which is included in UNESCO's Heritage List) and Helsingør Sct. Mariæ Church, where Diderich Buxtehude was organist 1660-1668, are widely recognized.

In 1994/95 the firm was converted into a family-owned limited company and Claudia Zachariassen - 7. generation in the family Marcussen/Zachariassen - joined the firm, and since 2002 she is president for the company. Marcussen & Søn, makes all the component part of each individual organ in it's own workshops, including all such activities as carpentry, metalwork, in addition to the casting of the metal needed for the pipes, reed making and eventually the voicing.

(source: http://marcussen-son.dk/default.php3?ID=847)