Marcussen: Reaction to Romantacism

During the mid 1800’s, after the death of Andreas Reuter, ownership of Marcussen & Reuter changed hands to those of Jürgen Andreas Marcussen (1816-1900). It was at this time that the name of the company was changed to the one we know today, Marcussen & Søn. Pipe organs also began to be more influenced by the building styles of Romanticism. After the premature death of Jurgen Andreas’s successor, Johannes Lassen Zachariassen (1864-1922) took over the company and committed fully to the romantic style of organ building. The style that Zachariassen favored necessitated the use of advanced pneumatic technology which exploits different levels of wind pressure in different areas of a wind chest. This technology made it easier for organs to feature octave couplers, freikombinationen (free combination pedals that allowed organists to make stop changes while playing), and the crescendo pedal. All these characteristics were necessary to match the romantic music being written and were made much cheaper using pneumatics. Marcussen’s use of this technology kept the company popular and allowed much of the new music of the time to be played in proper style. 

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