The organ in the parish church of Santa María la Real in Deba is both a contemporary and innovative instrument, but, at the same time, it preserves close ties to the organ tradition as it developed on the Iberian Peninsula. Given these distinctive features, the new organ offers us a perfect contrast to the important Romantic-style organs we find throughout Guipúzcoa.

Finding just the right place in the church for this instrument required careful design and planning, so that the rather impressive dimensions of the organ would fit discreetly into the building without interfering with other interesting parts of the churchs architecture such as the Gothic-style triforium.

This instrument has 40 stops spread over three manuals and pedal. It provides the player with a wealth of possibilities. In essence, it is a synthesis of the larger instruments we find in the Iberian tradition. This includes features such as a broad range of stops representing all three families--flautados/principals, nazards/nazards and lengüetas/ reeds—each division and family with its own distinctive sounds. And this, in turn, links up with a characteristic pipe sound that begins with the performers response to a touch which is gentle, quick and clean. And this, in turn produces that unmistakable brightness and color we so often associate with historical organs on the Peninsula. And finally, behind an instrument such as this there is a long, continuous process of research and investigation as well as a constant experimentation with and development of new techniques and materials. The result, in practical terms, is lighter, more precise and reliable action, a more effective swell box, etc.

Here is a musical instrument, a work of art, the synthesis of long years of experience, the product of new approaches as the Iberian organ evolves and prepares to fulfill the musical demands which await it from the past, present and future.