The culture of Siberian Germans was rich in musical and singing traditions. Families encouraged their children to study and listen to music. Prayer meetings were accompanied by choral singing and playing musical instruments. As early as in the 1920s, musical festivals were held in German villages of Siberia, where large choirs from other villages came together.
Both Lutheran and Catholic wedding festivities were always accompanied by musicians. There were entire family orchestras in the villages up to the end of the 20th century. This tradition began to disappear with the mass emigration of Germans. However, some families of Siberian Germans still kept reed organs, guitars and violins.
The active use of musical instruments in everyday life made it difficult for the museum staff to collect them. Nevertheless, a few exhibits entered the collection, including this reed organ, a keyboard-pneumatic musical instrument which was used to play religious music.
Some reed organs had a large front, which could be adorned with decorative organ pipes and other elements. Reed organs, like pipe organs, were used in Western Christian liturgy and home praying sessions. They were easy to use and did not require specific maintenance, and were several times cheaper than pipe organs.
In pre-revolutionary Siberia, the reed organ played a significant role in cultural development.
The musical instrument became widespread among Lutheran families in Siberia, who played it not only in churches, but also in schools and private homes.
The small number of reed organs in the region was determined by the territorial remoteness from the European part of the country. Transportation routes and infrastructure were not yet sufficiently developed. There were few specialists who made and maintained organs. And the situation was much different from that in European cities where organ-building firms were located. For the most part, representatives of Siberian Western Christian communities were unable to buy an expensive pipe organ.
