Calcanten und Orgelzieherinnen

Until the introduction of an electric wind supply, playing the organ depended upon a well-trained partnership of organist and bellows-blower. This book traces for the first time the history of the men and women who carried out the latter task over a period of some 2000 years, referred to in the sources by terms such as suffleator, calcant, bellows-worker, organ-blower etc. These workers were needed in amphitheatres, churches, synagogues, palaces, houses and gardens. As their wages were so meagre, many took on additional work as sextons, instrument-makers, gravediggers or musicians.
Selected documents dating from the 15th to the 20th century bear witness to the variety of work and the different working conditions in courts or in the country. 20 illustrations offer a glimpse of their workplaces, mostly hidden away in the bellows-chamber. An additional chapter by Markus Zepf describes the bellows most frequently used in organs and regals, their construction and their technical development.