Jonas Ekengren's 1776 Organ in Yttergran, Sweden
On a snowy day in February 2023 I had the chance to visit and play one of the most interesting 18th century organs in Sweden. It is actually one of the smallest organs in the country, placed in Sweden’s smallest church, Yttergran Church, in the municipality of Bålsta, just a few kilometres north-west of Stockholm. The interior of Yttergran Church can fit no more than 50 people and some of the benches under the organ gallery are so short that only one person can sit on them. The church itself is beautiful and the interior is very cosy; it was founded between the end of the 12th century and the very beginning of the 13th century and was successively decorated with ceiling paintings by the renowned 15th century Swedish artist Albertus Pictor (ca.1440-1509).
The first organ in use in this church is the one still in use today, built in 1776 by the organ builder Jonas Ekengren from Stockholm. Ekengren was born on August 27, 1736, in the small countryside village of Stora Mellösa, Örebro County, where he was baptised two days later. He was son of a soldier, Eric Ekengren, and Annicka Andersdotter. Jonas Ekengren moved to Stockholm around 1756, active first as a mason, then, from 1760, as a professional chair builder. He lived in the parish of St. Mary Madgalene and there he got married on November 28, 1756, with Maria Elisabeth Norberg. The couple had five children. When Maria died in 1767, Ekengren got married a second time on January 3, 1768, with Antonetta Ulrica Lindberg (died in 1781). The couple had three children. He appears to have had quite a tumultuous love life, as he got married a third time (1782, with Margareta Catharina Kihlberg, died in 1784) and a fourth time too (1785, with Anna Magdalena Sparrman, this time married in Alunda, Uppsala County, where he was building the largest organ of his production), having another daughter from this last relationship.
Ekengrens work as a self-taught organ builder is documented first in 1781. In that first period of activity, he worked together with the organ builder Mathias Swahlberg the younger (1730-1800). His production included small and medium-sized organs, often with a single keyboard and between three and twelve stops. The very few originally preserved Ekengren organs can be visited at Hillsehög Church, Uppsala County (1773, 4 stops), Yttergran Church, Uppsala County (1776, 6 stops), Seglora Church in the open air museum Skansen, Stockholm (1777, 7 stops, originally built from Film Church, Uppsala County) and Vällinge Chapel, Stockholm County (1781, 3 stops, originally built for Salem Church, Stockholm County). Other churches preserve original façades or partial pipe components. Ekengren built larger organs with two manuals only twice in his career, one for Björksta Church, Västmanland County (1778/9, 10 stops) and another for Alunda Church, Uppsala County (1786, 17 stops). Unfortunately nothing survives today of these two larger instruments. He died in Stockholm on February 17, 1793, and his funeral service took place on February 24 at St. Mary Madgalene Church.
The organ at Yttergran Church is today the most significant exemple of Ekengren’s surviving production. It shows many recurring features in Ekengren’s work, such as the façade formed by a flat field with two side towers. The sound is gentle as well as the intonation. It has a single chromatic keyboard with 51 keys (C-d3), no pedalboard, tracker action and the following disposition:
Gedackt 8, Principal 4, Saltsinal 4 (from c1), Quinta 3, Octava 2, Mixtur II
On the wooden inscription placed right above the organ façade it is possible to read the names of the people who donated for the construction of the new organ which can be translated as follows: “Under the management of the parish priest Rev.d Solander, [together with] Mr A. Norell, Mr. J.E. Grandin, Mr. L.J. Lavreli, Mr. O.J. Bruno, Mr. J.S. Thunberg, Mr. O. Hultbom, and with the other expenses payed by the parishioners was this organ built by Mr. J. Ekengren, year 1776”.
The organist (not afraid of heights!) plays sitting on a chair placed on the very edge of the organ gallery. It is a smart space-saver solution considering the very small size of this church. As mentioned earlier, Ekengren was a very skilled chair maker and the organ chair at Yttergran is probably the only surviving proof of his art in this field. It is said that at his death, a large number of newly built chairs were found in his workshop as well as organ parts.
This precious instrument was restored in 1968 by the expert organ builder Mads Kjersgaard and it is today in good playable condition but in need of some maintenance work. Because this is the smallest church in Sweden, the acoustics are extremely dry. I thought it would have been valuable to record some music here because there are not so many recordings of this instrument. The music which I have recorded in Yttergran is quite varied and includes compositions from Italy, Germany and Sweden written between the 16th and the 18th centuries. The 20-minute program opens with two Magnificat fugues by the south German composer Johannes Pachelbel (1653-1706): the first, Fugue IV on the 2nd tone, is played with a light registration made of Gedackt 8 and Octava 2; the second one, Fugue VII on the 4th tone, has a more nasal registration with Gedackt 8 and Quinta 3. The pieces which follow come from the Italian school. The first is an intabulated motet by Francesco Bianciardi (ca.1570-1607), cathedral organist in Siena, which shows the sound of the full organ (Gedackt 8, Principal 4, Quinta 3, Octava 2 and Mixtur). The second piece is a verse on the Gregorian hymn Ave Maris Stella composed by Girolamo Cavazzoni (ca.1520-ca.1577), played with Gedackt 8 and Principal 4. Here it is possible to hear how some of the Principal pipes do not speak properly due to some lack of maintenance. The following Canzona by Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726) is a rather quick composition, here played with a combination of Gedackt 8, Quinta 3 and Octava 2. Wishing to show all the possibilities of this charming little organ, I scheduled to play a short piece by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) with the unusual 4-foot Saltsinal treble stop accompanied with the 8-foot Gedackt which covers the whole keyboard. The last part of the program is dedicated to 18th century Swedish music, which is the most appropriate repertoire for this kind of instrument. The three anonymous 18th century pieces are part of a collection of ten pieces composed during the last years of the 18th century: the lovely 3/8 Andante (with variations) gives a good impression of the charming Gedackt 8; the solemn Marcia is a paraphrase of Abbé Vogel’s Hosianna Davids Son, one of the most popular Swedish Advent hymns, here played with the full organ without the Mixture; the short Fughetta is played with Gedackt 8, Principal 4 and Octave 2. These three anonymous pieces are followed by the Fugue n.2 composed by the court chapel master Henrik Philip Johnsen (1717-1779). This last piece is taken from Johnsen’s Six fugues pour les orgues ou le clavecin published in 1770, here played as a concluding piece with the full organ.
