Johann Tobias Turley, also Thurley (4 August 1773 – 9 April 1829), was a German organ builder based in Brandenburg.
Life
Turley was born in Treuenbrietzen as the son of the baker Johann Friedrich Turley (1728–1783). After the early death of his father, he learned the same trade at the request of his mother. In 1793, he became a citizen and master baker in Treuenbrietzen. Turley was self-taught in organ building and in 1796 created a first organ in the Dorfkirche in Brachwitz.
In 1814, he gave up the baker's trade and turned entirely to organ building. From 1816 onwards, he received his first orders from the Potsdam government, such as for Hohenbruch.[1] The organ expert and organist in Neuruppin Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Wilke advised him to give the metal plates for the organ pipes equal surfaces by means of a rolling and stretching machine to be developed. Turley invented a corresponding rolling machine for the production of pipes and had it manufactured by the Königlich Preußische Eisengießerei [de] in Berlin.[2] He first used the invention in his organ buildings in the Kreuzkirche in Joachimsthal and in Blankenburg (1817).[3]
Turley was married twice. On 31 October 1793, he married Maria Louise Bergmann from Treuenbrietzen, who died in 1808. His second wife was Marie Elisabeth Plötz, a divorced tailor's daughter from Wittbrietzen [de], whom he married on 4 May 1809.[3]
His son Johann Friedrich Turley II. learned organ building from his father and assisted him in the last years of his life.[4]
Turley died in Treuenbrietzen at the age of 55.
Selected works
Turley is said to have built 20 organs and carried out 30 repairs.[4]
Some new constructions have been preserved. Instruments that no longer exist are set in italics.
Newly built around 1815, noted in the chronicle as "mehr schlecht als recht", unplayable in 1914 due to woodworm infestation, the tin pipes were given up in the First World War, replaced by painted pipes on plywood, replaced in 1938 by a new building by Alexander Schuke Potsdam Orgelbau [de] from Potsdam, only the facade has been preserved, but redesigned in 2001.
smallest preserved organ, newspaper May 1824 in wind chest, rebuilt several times, 2006 and 2011 restoration by Karl Schuke Berliner Orgelbauwerkstatt, Flöte 4' stop not playable.[9][10]