Knud Smenge
(1937–2018)

The Danish-born Australian organ builder Knud Ludvig Smenge was born in Herning, Denmark on 12 December 1937.

From the late 1950s until the late 1970s, Smenge trained and worked for 21 years with the internationally-renowned organ building companies of Marcussen & Son and Bruno Christensen & Sonner, where he gained his widely-admired skills as a craftsman and voicer.

In 1979 Smenge, then in his early 40s, moved to Melbourne and took up the position of Tonal Director and Head Voicer for the long-established Australian organ building firm of George Fincham & Sons, who were seeking to infuse a new organ-building style into their work. Radical advances were made in the sound and appearance of the Fincham firm’s instruments and the highly acclaimed organ at Mary Immaculate Church in Waverley, NSW, voiced by Smenge, was a direct result.

After only two years with the Fincham firm, Smenge established his own organ building business in West Melbourne in 1981, initially working from a converted banana store opposite the Victoria Market before moving to more spacious premises in Haines Street, North Melbourne. From 1991 Smenge’s factory, a generously planned workshop, was in the country town of Healesville, northeast of Melbourne.

His first instrument was a continuo organ for the Victorian College for the Arts, and this was followed by the reconstruction of an earlier German organ for St Mary’s Anglican Church in North Melbourne, which set the pattern for his subsequent work.

As an independent organ builder in Australia from 1981 to 1999, Knud Smenge built 41 new instruments for clients across all the Australian states, the ACT and Hong Kong. He also rebuilt and restored many other instruments including a restoration of the earliest organ built in Australia: the 1840 instrument in St Matthew’s, Windsor, NSW.

Many of Smenge’s instruments were quite small – 15 were chamber or continuo organs, for which there was an active market; 10 were practice organs, mostly in private houses and two were concert organs for the universities in Hobart and Newcastle. The remainder of his instruments, varying widely in size, were for schools, churches or cathedrals, commissioned by Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran and Uniting Church congregations.

Smenge was an exponent of the organ reform movement and championed clear-sounding, brightly-voiced instruments with mechanical action. Highly esteemed, his work was acclaimed for its great attention to design, detail and craftsmanship. For over two decades, Knud Smenge was a leader in the Australian organ building industry.

Smenge was a gregarious person who made visitors feel very welcome - his sense of humour was quirky, and his command of English was as colourful as it was amusing. His workshops were frequently visited for musical and social events, especially when new organs were completed.

His Danish-influenced style of organ building was well accepted by Australian musicians and listeners although, by the 1990s, it was somewhat anachronistic compared with what firms in Europe were then undertaking. However, his style was distinctive and consistent, and it differed considerably from those of his main competitors - the Sydney organ builders Roger Pogson and Ronald Sharp.

Smenge undertook all of the design work for his instruments, including the mechanical components, consoles, casework and he scaled and voiced the pipework – that was perhaps the strongest attribute of his work.

Knud Smenge finally retired from organ building in 2002 after over two decades working as an organ builder in Australia and over 40 years working an organ builder internationally.

Aged 80 years, Knud Smenge died in Alexandra, Victoria, on 4 May 2018. Married three times, he is survived by three children in Denmark, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service was held at St John’s Lutheran Church, Southgate, Melbourne on 25 May 2018.

Smenge’s legacy lives on in the organs he created, all noted for their outstanding technical and tonal quality and esteemed for their appearance and durability. His work revolutionised the Australian appreciation of contemporary organ building in the late 20th century.

From articles by Christopher Parsons and John Maidment