Gabriel Kney (born 21 November 1929) is a Canadian builder of
pipe organs
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...
based in
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximat ...
.
Kney was born in
Speyer
Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer lie ...
, Germany. At the age of 15, he apprenticed to Paul Sattel of Speyer to become an organ builder, and concurrently studied organ and composition with Erhard Quack and Ludwig Doerr at the Bishop’s Institute for Church Music in Speyer.
In 1951, he moved to Canada to work as a voicer with the Keates Organ Co.
In 1955 he formed with John Bright the Kney and Bright Organ Co to build
tracker organs. Blanton (1957) described their first instrument as "a handsome little organ with mechanical action, slider chests, 1-3/4" pressure". They were at the vanguard of the tracker organ revival in Canada, so much so that they were then to build 30
electro-pneumatic
The electro-pneumatic action is a control system by the mean of air pressure for pipe organs, whereby air pressure, controlled by an electric current and operated by the keys of an organ console, opens and closes valves within wind chests, allowi ...
organs before customers caught on and started ordering instruments with mechanical action. In the early 1960s, they rebuilt the organs of
Aeolian Hall in London and
St Michael's Cathedral in Toronto.
In 1967, Kney formed Gabriel Kney Pipe Organ Builders, Ltd., and by 1990 he and his seven employees had built more than 110 organs for customers across the United States and Canada. Some of the best examples of this company's designs are the organs of
Roy Thomson Hall
Roy Thomson Hall is a concert hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located downtown in the city's entertainment district, it is home to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Toronto Defiant. Opened in 1982, its circ ...
in Toronto, Ontario,
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral is an Episcopal cathedral in the Quality Hill neighborhood of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, United States. It is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of West Missouri.
History
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral wa ...
in Kansas City, Christ Church Parish in Pensacola, Florida, and the
University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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References
External links
Gabriel Kney, Pipe Organ BuilderAudio archive of performances on the 1987 Gabriel Kney organ at the University of Saint Thomas in St. Paul, MN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kney, Gabriel
1929 births
Living people
Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Canada
Canadian pipe organ builders
Companies based in London, Ontario