A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Chrismann, Franz

CHRISMANN, Franz Xavier, secular priest, eminent organ-builder, date and place of birth unknown. He worked chiefly in Upper and Lower Austria and in Styria. His name first appears in connection with a monster organ at the monastery of St. Florian, near Linz, begun in 1770, but left unfinished in consequence of a quarrel with the provost. The fame of this organ spread far and wide, though it wae not completed till 1837. He also built organs at the abbey Spital-am-Pyhrn, and in the Benedictine monastery at Admont, both organs destroyed by fire. The latter he considered his best work. Mozart and Albrechtsberger were present in 1790 at the opening of an organ built by Chrismann in the church of Schottenfeld, one of the suburbs of Vienna, and both pronounced it the best organ in Vienna. Though little known it is still in existence, and in spite of its small dimensions the workmanship is admirable, particularly the arrangement and voicing of the stops. Chrismann died in his 70th year, May 20, 1795, when engaged upon an organ for the church of the small town of Rottenmann in Styria, where there is a monument to his memory. The date and place of his death have only recently been ascertained.

[ C. F. P. ]