August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885)

William Osborne

William Osborne holds three degrees from the University of Michigan, where he studied with both Robert Noehren and Marilyn Mason. He served on the faculty of Denison University for 42 years as Distinguished Professor of Fine Arts, University Organist, and Director of Choral Organizations. He retired from that position in August 2003 to become music director of the Piedmont Chamber Singers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has played recitals across this country, as well as in Europe and Australia and made three commercial recordings. He is author of numerous articles, as well as of two books: Clarence Eddy: Dean of American Organists (Organ Historical Society) and Music in Ohio (Kent State University Press).

Charles Edward Horsley (1822–76), Mendelssohn’s composition student in Leipzig for two years beginning in 1841 and later a family friend of the composer, first met Mendelssohn in London in 1832 during the second of this well-traveled cosmopolitan’s ten visits to England. Through Horsley, Mendelssohn was introduced to George Maxwell, a student of the then-famed Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) and organist of St. John’s, Hyde Park, whose modest two-manual instrument built by J. C. Bishop Mendelssohn had expressed an interest in playing.

Such were the small means placed at Mendelssohn’s disposal, but he made the most of them, and many happy afternoons were spent in hearing his interpretation of Bach’s Fugues, his wonderful extemporizing, and the performance of his own Sonatas, and other Organ pieces, then only existing in his memory. As the reports of these meetings became spread through the town, other and larger organs were placed at his disposal, and at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Christ Church, Newgate St., St. Sepulchre’s, and many other London churches he played on several occasions, giving the greatest delight to all who had the good fortune to hear him. I have heard most of the greatest organists of my time, both [sic] English, German and French, but in no respect have I ever known Mendelssohn excelled either in creative or executive ability, and it is hard to say which was the most extraordinary, his manipulation or his pedipulation—for his feet were quite as active as his hands, and the independence of the former, being totally distinct from the latter, produced a result which at that time was quite unknown in England, and undoubtedly laid the foundation of a school of organ playing in Great Britain which has placed English organists on the highest point attainable in their profession.1

Horsley’s memoir can serve to remind us that Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47), a child prodigy (Robert Schumann was to call the man whose first compositions date from 1820 the “Mozart of the nineteenth century”), prolific composer in virtually every medium available to him, conductor of a vast repertory (for example, for two years as city music director of Düsseldorf, where he mounted performances of at least five Handel oratorios in his own arrangements, and later for a decade at the helm of the famed Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig), keyboardist, teacher (particularly as founding director of the Leipzig Conservatory in 1843), impresario, visual artist and poet was, unlike most of the German giants of the 19th century, very much involved with the organ as a means of musical communication.

Mendelssohn the Keyboardist
Mendelssohn began formal piano study with noted Berlin pedagogue Ludwig Berger (1777–1839) in 1815, and made his recital debut three years later at the age of nine. He then studied the organ with August Wilhelm Bach (1796–1869) (who had no direct familial connection to the earlier Bach dynasty, although he was a staunch advocate of the music of its most famous citizen), perhaps from 1820 into 1823, and wrote his first pieces for the instrument during that period. Bach, then the organist of St. Mary’s Church and later director of the Institute for Church Music, published four volumes of organ works between 1820 and 1824 and surely had a significant influence on his teenaged student.
Although Mendelssohn probably considered the piano his principal instrument, he was obviously fascinated by the organ, was intent on developing a significant organ technique, and seldom missed an opportunity at least to try the instruments he encountered on his extensive travels.2 For example, he wrote from Sargans, Switzerland on September 3, 1831 that “happily an organ is always to be found in this country; they are certainly small, and the lower octave, both in the keyboard and the pedal, imperfect, or as I call it, crippled; but still they are organs, and this is enough for me.” He mentioned turning the D-major fugue subject of the first book of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier into a pedal exercise:

I instantly attempted it, and I at least see that it is far from being impossible, and that I shall accomplish it. The subject went pretty well, so I practiced passages from the D major fugue, for the organ, from the F major toccata, and the G minor fugue, all of which I knew by heart. If I find a tolerable organ in Munich, and not an imperfect one, I will certainly conquer these, and feel childish delight at the idea of playing such pieces on the organ. The F major toccata, with the modulation at the close, sounded as if the church were about to tumble down: what a giant that Cantor was!3

Alas, the organ on which he practiced in Munich was also “crippled,” as he mentioned in a letter to sister Fanny on October 6, 1831:

I also play on the organ every day for an hour, but unfortunately I cannot practice properly, as the pedal is short of five upper notes, so that I cannot play any of Sebastian Bach’s passages on it; but the stops are wonderfully beautiful, by the aid of which you can vary choral[e]s; so I dwell with delight on the celestial, liquid tone of the instrument.4

He wrote his parents from Düsseldorf on August 4, 1834 about an outing to “Werden, a charming retired spot, where I wished to inquire about an organ; the whole party drove with me there; cherry tarts were handed to me on horseback out of the carriages. We dined in the open air at Werden; I played fantasias and Sebastian Bachs [sic] on the organ to my heart’s content; then I bathed in the Ruhr, so cool in the evening breeze that it was quite a luxury, and rode quietly back to Saarn.” In that same letter he talked of another

handsome new organ [that] has just been put up at considerable expense in a large choir room, and there is no way to reach it but by narrow dark steps, without windows, like those in a poultry-yard, and where you may break your neck in seventeen different places; and on my asking why this was, the clergyman said it had been left so purposely, in order to prevent any one who chose, running up from the church to see the organ. Yet, with all their cunning, they forget both locks and keys: such traits are always painful to me.5

English Organs
His contact with various English organs has been well documented. On his second visit to Britain he often played the closing voluntary or extemporized at St. Paul’s Cathedral, at that point the only organ in the country with a pedalboard sufficient to accommodate the works of Bach without what one observer called “destructive changes.”
On September 8, 1837 he played several Bach fugues on a two-manual instrument in St. John’s, Paddington. Two days later Mendelssohn was the focus of a particularly memorable event following Evensong at St. Paul’s, described in delicious detail by Henry John Gauntlett (1805–76), himself an organist of considerable accomplishment:

[Mendelssohn] had played extemporaneously for some time, and had commenced the noble fugue in A minor, the first of the six grand pedal fugues of Sebastian Bach, when the gentlemen who walk about in bombazeen [sic] gowns and plated sticks, became annoyed at the want of respect displayed by the audience to their energetic injunctions. “Service is over,” had been universally announced, followed by the command “you must go out, Sir.” The party addressed moved away, but the crowd got no less; the star of Sebastian was in the ascendant. The vergers of St. Paul’s are not without guile, and they possessed sufficient knowledge of organ performance to know that the bellows-blower was not the least important personage engaged in that interesting ceremony. Their blandishments conquered, and just as Mendelssohn had executed a storm of pedal passages with transcendent skill and energy, the blower was seduced from his post and a farther supply of wind forbidden, and the composer was left to exhibit the glorious ideas of Bach in all the dignity of dumb action. The entreaties of friends, the reproofs of minor canons, the outraged dignity of the organists, were of no avail; the vergers conquered and all retired in dismay and disappointment. We had never previously heard Bach executed with such fire and energy—never witnessed a composition listened to with greater interest and gratification . . .6

Two days later Mendelssohn improvised and managed to navigate the entire piece on a three-manual instrument in Christ Church, Newgate (built by Renatus Harris in 1690, enlarged by William Hill in 1834 and considerably altered by that builder in 1838).7 Gauntlett, the “evening organist” of the church, was again present:

Many who were probably present on the Tuesday morning at Christchurch [sic], were probably attracted there more by the desire to see the lion of the town, than from an earnest attachment to classical music: but all were charmed into the most unbroken silence, and at the conclusion only a sense of the sacred character of the building prevented a simultaneous burst of the most genuine applause.

M. Mendelssohn performed six extempore fantasias, and the pedal fugue he was not allowed to go through with at St. Paul’s. Those who know the wide range of passages for the pedals with which this fugue abounds, may conceive how perfectly cool and collected must have been the organist who could on a sudden emergency transpose them to suit the scale of an ordinary English pedal board. His mind has become so assimilated to Bach’s compositions, that at one point in the prelude, either by accident or design, he amplified and extended the idea of the author, in a manner so in keeping and natural that those unacquainted with its details could not by any possibility have discovered the departure from the text . . .

His extempore playing is very diversified—the soft movements full of tenderness and expression, exquisitely beautiful and impassioned—yet so regular and methodical, that they appear the productions of long thought and meditation, from the lovely and continued streams of melody which so uninterruptedly glide onwards in one calm and peaceful flow . . .

Mr. Samuel Wesley [(1766–1837) Gauntlett’s teacher, who was to die on October 5], the father of English organists, was present and remained not the least gratified auditor, and expressed his delight in terms of unmeasured approbation. At the expressed desire of M. Mendelssohn, who wished that he could hereafter say he had heard Wesley play, the veteran took his seat at the instrument and extemporized with a purity and originality of thought for which he has rendered his name ever illustrious. The touch of the instrument, however, requires a strong and vigorous finger, and Mr. Wesley who is at present an invalid was unable to satisfy himself although he could gratify those around him.8

On September 19, as part of the triennial music festival in Birmingham, Mendelssohn first tried the 1834 four-manual instrument by William Hill in the Town Hall, and then improvised on themes from Handel’s Solomon and a Mozart symphony, both part of the same program.9
On July 9, 1842 Mendelssohn paid a visit to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in Buckingham Palace and then described the encounter in a charming letter to his mother written in Frankfurt on July 19:

Prince Albert had asked me to go to him Saturday at two o’clock, so that I might try his organ before I left England. I found him alone; and as we were talking away, the Queen came in, also quite alone, in a house dress. She said she was obliged to leave for Claremont in an hour; “But, goodness! How it looks here,” she added, when she saw that the wind had littered the whole room, and even the pedals of the organ (which, by the way, made a very pretty feature in the room), with leaves of music from a large portfolio that lay open. As she spoke, she knelt down and began picking up the music; Prince Albert helped, and I too was not idle. Then Prince Albert proceeded to explain the stops to me, and while he was doing it, she said that she would put things straight alone.

But I begged that the Prince would first play me something, so that, as I said, I might boast about it in Germany; and thereupon he played me a chorale by heart, with pedals, so charmingly and clearly and correctly that many an organist could have learned something; and the queen, having finished her work, sat beside him and listened, very pleased. Then I had to play, and I began my chorus from “St Paul”: “How lovely are the Messengers!” Before I got to the end of the first verse, they both began to sing the chorus very well, and all the time Prince Albert managed the stops for me so expertly—first a flute, then full at the forte, the whole register at the D major part, then he made such an excellent diminuendo with the stops, and so on to the end of the piece, and all by heart—that I was heartily pleased.10

In early 1845 Mendelssohn was living in Frankfurt, where he was visited by W[illiam] S[mith] Rockstro (1823–95), later a composition student of the master. They met at St. Catherine’s, where Mendelssohn played through all six of his sonatas, soon to be published. Rockstro was later to recall the “wonderfully delicate staccato of the pedal part in the [Andante con moto] of the 2nd [published as the fifth] sonata played with all the crispness of Dragonetti’s mostly highly finished pizzicato.”11

Mendelssohn the Romantic?
Mendelssohn lived his tragically short life during that century that we somewhat glibly define as the Romantic Era. Romanticism in the realm of music conjures up imagery of unbridled, passionate expression, particularly through the use of luxuriant chromatic harmonies (with Wagner as the ultimate exponent of such an approach), as well as attempts at musical pictorialism at a time when purely instrumental music was being touted as the ultimate means of expressing the otherwise inexpressible. Mendelssohn surely had a gift for the pictorial; as witness, the “Italian” and “Scottish” Symphonies, his Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (an “Overture after Goethe”), or The Hebrides (or “Fingal’s Cave”), another orchestral overture, this one generated by a visit to the west coast of Scotland.
However, scholars agree that much of his work was inspired by an obvious admiration of the idioms of Bach, Handel and Mozart, music of balanced formal structures and elegant clarity. This is particularly evident in what he wrote for the organ, as well as what he played on the instrument. He learned his reverence for Bach through his studies in theory and composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758–1832), director of the Berlin Singakademie, who inculcated those contrapuntal principles we find employed so fruitfully in the organ works. Father Abraham Mendelssohn acknowledged the impact of Zelter’s tutelage in a letter of March 10, 1835:

I felt more strongly than ever what a great merit it was on Zelter’s part to restore Bach to the Germans; for, between [Johann Nikolaus] Forkel’s day [1749–1818] and his, very little was ever said about Bach . . . [I]t is an undoubted fact, that without Zelter, your own musical tendencies would have been of a totally different nature.12

It was with Zelter’s Singakademie that the 20-year-old Mendelssohn conducted his famed “revival” of Bach’s Passion According to St. Matthew on March 11 and 21, 1829.
A prime symbol of Mendelssohn’s adulation of Bach is the recital he played on August 6, 1840 in the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig as a means of raising funds to build a memorial to Bach, a goal finally achieved with its unveiling on April 23, 1843. The substantial repertory consisted entirely of works by the honoree:

Fugue in E-flat major (“St. Anne”), BWV 552
Prelude on “Schmücke dich,” BWV 654
Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543
Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582
Pastorale in F major, BWV 590
Toccata in F major, BWV 565
The formal recital was framed with improvisations. The first served as a prelude to the “St. Anne” fugue. According to Schumann, the other was based on the Lutheran chorale O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (the language by Paul Gerhardt commonly translated as “O sacred head, now wounded”) and ended with a fugal passage that included the BACH motto (H equaling B-natural), “rounded to such a clear and masterly whole, that if printed, it would have appeared a finished work of art.”13 Mendelssohn’s adoration of the Leipzig master is also reflected in the fact that, other than improvising and his own works committed to paper, Mendelssohn as an organist, with passing exceptions, otherwise played only Bach.

As a Composer of Works for the Organ
Until recently, most were aware of only two sets of published pieces by Mendelssohn for the organ: the Three Preludes and Fugues, opus 37, issued in 1837 and dedicated to Thomas Attwood (1765–1838), a student of Mozart and organist of both St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Chapel Royal; and the Six Sonatas, opus 65, issued in 1845. However, due to the splendid and meticulous scholarship of Wm. A. Little, since 1989 we have been offered access to a larger corpus of work. Dr. Little studied manuscripts found in libraries in Berlin and Kraków, Poland, and has made available through a five-volume collection published by Novello a considerable number of preludes, fugues, duets, sets of variations and individual movements simply defined by their tempo markings. Many of these are preliminary versions of what was later published by Mendelssohn, and some are inconsequential juvenilia (including Mendels-sohn’s earliest work for the organ, a Praeludium in D minor dated November 28, 1820, written at a time when he was studying with A. W. Bach), but a handful of the truly independent movements warrant performance, and Dr. Little’s work allows the possibility of a better understanding of Mendelssohn’s evolution as a composer by comparing preliminary with more mature versions of familiar movements from the published pieces.
“[Mendelssohn’s] compositions were reflections of his celebrated improvisations, which had as a foundation the polyphonic traditions of the Baroque. The mature organ compositions went beyond a single style of music, however, and exhibited a skillful combination of Baroque and Romantic characteristics, masterfully integrated by his distinctive musical personality.”14 Although finally and distinctly “Mendelssohnian,” one can delineate a handful of distinct idioms in his works for organ: fughettas and fully developed fugues (obviously based on an understanding of the Bachian model, but not slavishly dependent on it); employment of Lutheran chorale melodies as a cantus firmus or as the basis of variation sets; the virtuosic toccata; improvisatory moments, almost approximating instrumental recitative; an awareness of the English voluntary tradition of the preceding century (a slow introductory section followed by a faster, sometimes fugal section); and the lyric, one-movement character piece, the sort of expression that was to flower fully in, for example, Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words for the piano. Idioms that seem more natural at the piano do appear; Mendelssohn’s virtuosity on the pedals results in demands on the feet that equal those made of the hands.

The Published Works
Three Preludes and Fugues, opus 37
Little, volume I
Published in 1837 simultaneously in London by Novello and in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel
The Novello edition was dedicated to “Thomas Attwood Esqre / Composer to Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal.” The Breitkopf & Härtel edition was dedicated to [in translation] “Mr. Thomas Attwood / Organist of the Chapel Royal / in London / with Respect and Gratitude.”
Prelude and Fugue in C minor
Prelude and Fugue in G major
Prelude and Fugue in D minor
Initial versions of the three fugues had apparently been written earlier (although only that in C minor appears in the Little edition) and were simply mated with preludes written during Mendelssohn’s honeymoon of early April 1837. Organists should be aware of and perhaps consult for stylistic comparisons Mendelssohn’s Six Preludes and Fugues, opus 35, for the piano, which had been written over a period of years prior to their publication, also in 1837.

Six Sonatas, opus 65
Little, volume IV
Published in 1845 simultaneously by Coventry & Hollier in London (Six Grand Sonatas for the Organ), Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig (Sechs Sonaten für die Orgel) and Giovanni Ricordi in Milan (Sei Sonate per Organo); 6 Sonates pour l’Orgue ou pour Piano à 3 mains was issued by Maurice Schlesinger of Paris in 1846.
Sonata I in F minor: Allegro moderato e serioso—Adagio—Andante recitativo—Allegro assai vivace
Sonata II in C minor: Grave—Adagio—Allegro maestoso e vivace—Fuga, Allegro moderato
Sonata III in A major: Con moto maestoso—Andante tranquillo
Sonata IV in B-flat major: Allegro con brio—Andante religioso—Allegretto—Allegro maestoso e vivace
Sonata V in D major: Andante—Andante con moto—Allegro maestoso
Sonata VI in D minor: Choral—Andante sostenuto—Allegro molto—Fuga—Finale, Andante
In July 1844 the English publisher Charles Coventry initiated what became opus 65 by commissioning Mendelssohn to write a set of three voluntaries for the organ. On August 29 Mendelssohn wrote Coventry, asking that the label “sonata” replace “voluntary,” saying that he didn’t quite understand the precise meaning of the latter term. He continued to assemble individual movements, some reworked from earlier efforts, some new for the occasion, and finally committed himself to what was published in April 1845. At one point there was discussion about titling the collection “Mendelssohn’s School of Organ-Playing,” suggesting that the pieces could serve a didactic function, but that label was abandoned prior to publication. Given their evolution, it should come as no surprise that these assemblages do not meet textbook definitions of what a typical four-movement sonata ought to be, although No. 1 hints at the conventional (its opening loose sonata-form movement finds a double in the first movement of No. 4). Chorales appear in four of the sonatas. Fugal writing appears in all but No. 5, and No. 3 contains a brilliant double fugue. Even the minimal suggestions of registration and terraced dynamics suggest a retrospective viewpoint.

The Previously Unpublished Works
Little, volume I
Fugue in C minor [Düsseldorf, July 30, 1834]
Fughetta in D major [July 1834?]
Two [Duet] Fugues for the Organ in C minor and D major [Düsseldorf, January 11, 1835]
Fugue in E minor [Frankfurt, July 13, 1839]
Fugue in C major [Frankfurt, July 14, 1839]
Fugue in F minor [Frankfurt, July 18, 1839]
Fughetta in A major
Prelude in C minor [Leipzig, July 9, 1841]
The first two pieces became the basis for the third, inscribed as “Two fugues for the Organ / to Mr. Attwood with the author’s best and sincere wishes.” An accompanying letter informed Attwood that “I take the liberty of sending to you two fugues for the Organ which I composed lately, and arranged them as a duet for two performers, as I think you told me once that you wanted something in that way.” The idea for the duets perhaps arose from an experience of June 23, 1833, when Attwood and Mendelssohn performed a four-hand version of one of the former’s coronation anthems on the instrument in St. Paul’s. The Fugue in C minor later became the second movement of Opus 35, No. 1. The Fugue in C major later became the final movement of Opus 65, No. 2.

Little, volume II
Andante in F major [July 21, 1844]
Allegretto in D minor [July 22, 1844]
Andante [with Variations] in D major [July 23, 1844]
Allegro [Chorale and Fugue in D minor/major] [July 25, 1844]
Con moto maestoso in A major [August 9, 1844]
Andante/Con moto in A major [August 17, 1844]
Allegro Vivace in F major [August 18, 1844]
Allegro in D major [September 9, 1844]
Andante in B minor [September 9, 1844]
[Chorale] in A-flat major [September 10, 1844]
Adagio in A-flat major [Frankfurt, December 19, 1844]
[Chorale] in D major
Allegro in B-flat major [Frankfurt, December 31, 1844]
With its “pizzicato” pedal line, the Allegretto in D minor seems a premonition of the second movement of Opus 65, No. 5 (see Examples 1a and 1b). The Con moto maestoso and following Andante became the two movements of Opus 65, No. 3. The Allegro Vivace became the final movement of Opus 65, No. 1. The Allegro in D major and Andante in B minor became the third and second movements of Opus 65, No. 5. The Adagio in A-flat major became the second movement of Opus 65, No. 1.

Little, volume III
Allegro moderato e grave in F minor [Frankfurt, December 28, 1844]
Allegro con brio in B-flat major [Frankfurt, January 2, 1845]
Andante alla Marcia in B-flat major [Frankfurt, January 2, 1845]
Moderato in C major
Fugue in C major
Grave and Andante con moto in C minor [Frankfurt, December 21, 1844]
Allegro moderato maestoso in C major
Fugue in B-flat major [Frankfurt, April 1, 1845]
Choral [& Variations] in D minor [Frankfurt, January 26, 1845]
Fugue in D minor [Frankfurt, January 27, 1845
Finale—Andante sostenuto in D major [Frankfurt, January 26, 1845]
The Allegro moderato e grave in F minor became the first movement of Opus 65, No. 1. The opening of the Allegro con brio in B-flat major generated the first movement of Opus 65, No. 4 (see Examples 2a and 2b). The following Moderato and Fugue in C major provided the genesis of the third and fourth movements of Opus 65, No. 2, while the Grave and Andante con moto are the obvious parents of the opening movements of that same sonata. The Chorale, Variations and Fugue in D minor, with some reworking became the bulk of the Sonata in D minor, Opus 65, No. 6. The Finale—Andante sostenuto in D major in 3/4 meter was transformed with substantial alterations into the final movement of that same sonata as an Andante in 6/8 (see Examples 3a and 3b).

Little, volume V
Praeludium in D minor [November 28, 1820]
Fugue in D minor [December 3, 1820]
Fugue in G minor [December 1820]
Fugue in D minor [January 6, 1821]
Andante—sanft in D major [May 9, 1823]
Volles Werk [Passacaglia] in C minor [May 10, 1823]
Chorale Variations on “Wie groß ist des Allmächt’gen Güte” [July and August 1823]
Nachspiel in D major [Rome, March 8, 1831]
Fuga pro Organo pleno in D minor [Berlin, March 29, 1833]
Andante con moto in G minor [London, July 11, 1833]
In this volume of early works (including Mendelssohn’s first essays for the instrument), only a single piece seems to have inspired a mature work: The Nachspiel [Postlude] in D major provided the basic material of the Allegro maestoso e vivace of the Sonata in C, Opus 65, No. 2, which blossoms into a quite different fugue from that of the sonata.
For organists Mendelssohn’s works for their instrument admirably fill the void that had developed after the death of Bach, a period virtually devoid of significant writing for the instrument. They have maintained currency to the present and inspired an interest in the instrument on the part not only of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries (as witness, Schumann’s Six Fugues on BACH, opus 60, written in 1845 and published a year later), but several of his successors as well.

Evidence of Baroque Practices

by Johannes Geffert

The pedagogy of organ performance must deal with the tension between playing technique and musical interpretation. On the one hand, all physical possibilities of playing ought to be developed, trained, and educated in a most intensive and versatile manner. On the other hand, musical interpretation demands a specially and carefully selected playing technique.

 

Since organ lessons usually follow several years of thorough piano study, playing on the manuals does not pose many problems at first, even when historical fingering (early fingering) is used. However it is a completely different matter when learning to play the pedal clavier. In wide sections of the organ world the opinion is generally accepted that in the organ music of the baroque and classical periods the pedals are to be played only with the toe of the shoe. A beginner whose repertory consists primarily of works from these early periods fails to develop a versatile technique that adequately serves pedal playing for subsequent periods which require both heels and toes.

I have observed that in my classes in improvisation, the most common limitation that impedes artistic abilities is a lack of a fluent pedal technique. This ubiquitous problem has led me to search for historical sources and to read most carefully and critically such writings in order to examine the arguments which furnish the reasons for toe-playing of music from the baroque era.  The very first sources mentioned in specialized literature which deal with questions of pedal application in detail are:

Johann Samuel Petri (1738-1808): Anleitung zur praktischen Musik (Guide to Musical Practice), Leipzig 1767/1; 1782/2, facsimile, Verlag Katzbichler, Giebing 1969.

Daniel Gottlob Türk (1750-1813): Beytrag von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten (On the Most Important Duties of an Organist), Halle 1787, facsimile Frits Knufs, Hilversum 1966.

Justin Heinrich Knecht (1752-1817): Vollständige Orgelschule (Complete Organ School), Leipzig 1795, facsimile, Breitkopf und Härtel, Wiesbaden 1989.

Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809): Der angehende praktische Organist (The Beginning Practical Organist), Erfurt 1801, facsimile, Frits Knufs, Buren 1981.

J. C. Kittel: Choralbuch für Schleswig Holstein (Choral-Book of Schleswig-Holstein), Altona 1803.

Johann Samuel Petri

Petri sees himself for all practical purposes as a self-taught organist. Although he was brought up in musical surroundings--his father had first been a cantor, and his uncle had applied for the position of cantor of St. Thomas, Leipzig in 1755--he was not allowed to begin keyboard lessons until the age of sixteen. Such a late start on the clavichord had to be a hindrance to his technical facility. After only nine months' instruction Petri took over his teacher's post as organist following his mentor's death. Thus he became an organist without a thorough grounding in organ technique. Such laxness in making appointments appears to have been a common practice of the times, underscored by comments found in the writings of Türk, Knecht, and Kittel. The young Petri was not only an organist but also played the flute and stringed instruments, and even tried his hand at composing.  In 1762 he was appointed music teacher in Halle where he met Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. He wrote in his Anleitungen: "Mr. Bach from Halle, whose friendship and teaching I myself have had the benefit of in 1762 and 1763, is the most powerful organ player I have ever heard."1

So we safely assume that in Petri's Anleitungen the considerable number of eighteen pages which concern the playing of the pedals and which surpass many times over the comparatively poor directions given by Türk and Kittel was influenced by his contact with W. F. Bach. Petri's examples given in the Anleitungen are extensive and virtuosic, and they exhibit a freer and more artistic shaping than those of Knecht whose exercises are more schematic. At the beginning of his book Petri writes: " . . . so the organist should be allowed to display all of his artistic skill at a wedding ceremony, after the service or before the Te Deum and should be heard playing fiery and animated preludes, fugues and pedal solos with the full organ . . ."2 As do his later colleagues in their organ methods, Petri begins his instructions with pedal scales. In his preliminary remarks dealing with pedalling he quite naturally refers to using the heel according to his rule: " . . . depending on the position of the keys one foot may be used successively several times." (See Example 1)

Following that, he goes on to describe the under-and-over placing of the feet and also a so-called "footshoving." The latter is used when it is not possible to place one foot underneath the other one. (See Example 2)

Petri's demands concerning fluent pedal playing are stringent: " . . . pedal application for runs therefore have to be learned first."3 He also demands versatility: "But does one always know beforehand on which key or the other one will end up? Thus to be on the safe side you should be prepared for all cases."4 He favors using different pedal formulae: " . . . so that the beginner does not get used to only one alone."5

Petri's extremely different pedallings which he applies to scales fortify the impression of a talented, practical, and efficient self-taught organist rather than that of a methodically trained professional pedagogue. In cases in which his pedallings (with the heel!) do not please he advises: " . . . use the feet alternately although in some cases . . . it is a little troublesome."6 Obviously Petri reckons toe-playing to be a mere simplification of a fully differentiated and elaborate pedal technique!

On the whole Petri makes high de-mands upon pedal-playing: " . . . runs like rolls or barrels and semicircles," " . . . leaps in which the feet must climb about each other in a crosswise manner several times," " . . . polyphonic and mixed pedallings." In this connection Petri refers to possible difficulties when playing intervals with one foot owing to a "too short shoe."

Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart also comments upon special shoes for organ-playing and heel-playing in his book Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1784) (Ideas on the Aesthetics of Music).

Playing the pedals poses great difficulties, owing to both its immense power as well as its varying nature. You may seldom use the right foot as you do the left, because the one really belongs to the sphere of the violoncello obbligato and the other borders the nature of the violon and the bass trombone. One has to have one's own shoes made for playing the pedals, making the heels very high so that one can play thirds and even fourths by leaping. Otherwise, the theory of playing the pedals is the same as the basso continuo.7

Schubart also describes W. Fr. Bach: 

. . . doubtless the greatest organist in the world! . . . his organ playing matches or even surpasses that of his father's . . . Besides his great father no one else has ever reigned over the pedals with such an omnipotence as he has. He takes up a fugue subject with his feet, makes mordents and trills with his feet and is able to dazzle even the largest audience by his ability to play the pedals.8

Does not Petri in his versatile and practical approach to pedal-playing, and the fact that he was a student of the brilliant W. Fr. Bach place him in the same "Bach tradition" attributed to Kittel? Burney even calls Schubart "scholar of the Bach school . . . He was an organist in Ulm for some time."

Daniel Gottlob Türk

Turning to Türk, one finds little information about his training on the organ. Records show that he was taught music at the Kreuzschule in Dresden by Homilius, a Bach scholar, and he had piano lessons for three months with Johann Wilhelm Hässler. In chronicles written by Scherder of Altenbruch it is revealed that Türk took up music late in life--in fact only after he completed his apprenticeship to a draper and served for years as a journeyman in that business.9 Nevertheless, he was appointed organist of the well-known Frauenkirche in Halle in 1787. In his Beytrag von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten (On the Most Important Duties of an Organist), Türk relegated pedal instruction to a mere three pages, and he describes ways of playing a few scales, but advises organists who are beyond that low level to skip them.10 On the whole, the bulk of his writing was aimed at "improving the musical liturgy" and is meant for schoolmasters, preachers, church committees, and persons who choose to become liturgical organists. The intention of teaching a person to become a competent artistic or virtuosic musician was evidently not in his thinking! Türk gives an example to show "where both parts of each foot are needed" and refers to Petri. (See Example 311)

Türk writes:

It does not suffice to play the low registers with the left, and the higher ones with the right foot, because this would cause an incoherence and leave many gaps, even at a moderate pace. [This can be interpreted as being in favor of playing cantabile tending towards a true legato.] . . . In fact each foot acts as two fingers; because you play with the toe (front part) and with the heel [!]. Training continuously in this manner one may reach a quite high level of dexterity.12

It would be difficult to discern exactly what Türk classified as real pedal dexterity. However, as exemplified by Türk himself, organ-playing was at a very low level both in rural and in urban regions: "Many a person has the silly custom of resting his foot on the pedal throughout his most tasteless runs. This results in most hideous dissonances and everything ends up as a motley jumble."13 His advice for accompanying instrumental music is also highly significant: "It is better not to play with the pedal those passages which are very rapid, especially the runs, and which you cannot shape in a clearly distinct and 'round' manner; instead, these should preferably be played with the left hand."14 Türk writes in his introduction what he demands from a good organist: good choral (hymn) playing, a thorough knowledge of the basso continuo, and the ability to play good and appropriate preludes.

Justin Heinrich Knecht

Knecht denounces the technique of touching the pedals lightly for single notes, a performance practice that Petri did not condone: " . . . therefore an organist must be careful to express everything by the pedals in order to avoid a gap here and a gap there."15 The first volume of Knecht's organ method, which is of interest here, was published in 1795. For the first time a formally trained organist with a technique based upon virtuosic expectations comes up with a didactic work. Naturally it stresses basic playing techniques. As a student of Vogler, Knecht already belongs stylistically to a different musical world, a fact which promptly arouses Türk's criticism. Knecht devotes his attention to proper development of pedal technique and related matters for eleven pages, and he addresses his teaching not only to beginners but also to the more advanced players.

It is curious to note that he attacks problems of pedalling from two perspectives: one for the organist who is required to play upon a pedalboard of only an octave or a little more, and one for the fortunate person who had a full pedalboard of twenty-five or more notes. For the former, he advises a rigorous toe-playing approach. It was easier on a small pedal clavier to use toes, alternating feet as much as possible. On such a limited span of pedal keys either foot could play any note. For the latter, the pedalboard of at least two octaves, it was physically difficult for the right foot to reach the low end and vice versa.16, 17

Knecht himself did not consider pedalling with "toes only" a sensible practice on a full length pedalboard as is now the case in many quarters today. He therefore describes a second kind:

According to this [second kind] when playing an ascending scale passage one places the toe on a pedal key and turns the heel towards the next key in order to press it down with the heel. Then one turns the toe towards the third key and thus continues using alternately heel and toe . . . depending on the position of the upper keys of the pedals one has to use the heel more often . . . One should train oneself to use this pedalling which is to be preferred to the first [toes only] in every respect, and which the great organist Vogler mostly used.18

In addition, Knecht makes it a rule: "Except in cases of urgency, beware of pressing the upper note with the heel or hopping from one key to the other with the toe."19

As exceptions Knecht then brings forth examples of scales in which two consecutive upper keys are played by the toe of the same foot and even a scale in which an upper key is played with heel.20 Note the high G-sharp in the example below, a possibility which even the most ardent advocate of heel-playing might find questionable and uncomfortable. (See Example 4)

Knecht summarizes: "If one combines both pedallings a third one emerges which is the most convenient and which also has practical advantages."21 In his final exercises for polyphonic pedal-playing he gives additional instructions as to the choice of heel or toe to generate a strict legato.

Considering all of the aforementioned, it is safe to assume that Knecht was a highly skilled organist. His musical sensibilities evidently prompted him to pay attention to the danger of allowing the pedal to interfere with the overall musical fabric when dealing with contrapuntal music. "Using the pedal too much, especially when holding deep and low sounds fills the ear too much and becomes monotonous."22 According to Knecht it usually suffices "when one touches the pedals lightly to stress the main notes in order not to darken a melody or an outstanding delicate accompaniment by a continuous droning of the pedal."23 This was not a new idea, having already been mentioned in 1710 by Friedrich Erhard Niedt in his book Musicalischen Handleitung.24

Johann Christian Kittel

Turning to Kittel, we learn that his writings are considered to have special importance since he is known to have had lessons with J. S. Bach for two years when he was sixteen years old. Kittel does not favor us with any information about pedal playing technique passed on to him by the great master himself. He mentions only that he received instructions for composing music and for playing the 'Clavier'.25 Assuming that all keyboard instruments were covered by the term 'Clavier' his organ studies were not touched upon as being special. This is why Forkel writes about him later: "He is a thorough (although not a very dextrous) organ player."26

It is very interesting that in his instruction book Der angehende praktische Organist (The Beginning Practical Organist), Kittel does not give any practical explanation for performing nor does he supply any exercises for the novice. His book rather elaborates upon the theological, artistic, and aesthetic values necessary for playing the organ effectively in church. In this context he explains numerous rules dealing with figured bass and the theory of composition which underlie the matter of accompanying the German chorals. This is the only context which Kittel touches when he mentions a "method which is completely formed along the principles of Bach."27 Also, his account of having 'lessons' (Unterricht) with Bach28 refers solely to this context.

Yet, his own compositions reveal that he wrote in a simpler, sensitive and galant style, especially from an aesthetic point of view; Bach's former student had moved quite a distance away from his teacher. Kittel describes music as a language of sensitivity:

Happy is he who was given by nature and science the power of the Almighty to move, to heighten and to lead the hearts of thousands closer towards the Supreme Being by his playing . . . Lo, these tears of affection which are the most holy ones to be shed, these hearts so moved all wave up to God and you are the one who made flow these tears and moved these hearts . . . Reflect diligently upon the purpose of your playing, and always try to improve your moral behavior . . .  the character of organ playing is strength, cordiality, dignity, solemn earnestness, majesty.29

Even though these objectives are disdained in many circles today, in my opinion they are not evidence of a decay in church music. (Every kind of theology forms its own corresponding music.) However, concerning Kittel's ideas here, there is nothing much left of the school and tradition of J. S. Bach.

There was a good and practical reason for Kittel to write his book for beginners: the level of organ playing in Germany was extremely bad in all but the largest metropolitan centers. Proof of this can be found in another writing of Kittel: the Choralbuch für Schleswig Holstein, Altona 1803. Kittel describes the same applications for the pedals as Knecht does: the exclusive toe-playing with alternating feet, here called the "first and superior" kind, and the second kind which is to play with toe and heel of the same foot, here called the "older way." He warns of using the latter, however, "because one may easily destroy the pedal keyboard by clumsy usage. This second way may be used with the first (toe) method, but the first is to be preferred in all respects."30 One can estimate the quality of his fellow organists when it can be seen that he has to explain the distribution of the four parts of the choral for the two hands!

Summary and analysis

Surveying the teaching literature chronologically, I am convinced that it was deemed necessary and of great importance to provide help for organists who had no means of serious organ study and who depended largely upon self-help method books for private study. We cannot draw valid conclusions about the playing proficiency of all four writers dealt with so far. We know that Knecht and Petri held respectable positions and wrote studies that would have been helpful to even advanced players. Türk and Kittel, on the other hand, were concerned primarily with the liturgical aspect of organ playing. They act not as experienced organists drawing upon a rich vein of professional training as performers upon the organ, but as high clerical officials with that as their primary station in life--not first and foremost performers.

The first author, Petri, still deals quite naturally with heel playing, and his demands upon pedal dexterity are the most extensive of all. Kittel, the last author of the four, favors and demands the playing of the pedals with toes only, but we must not forget that his words were directed at the beginner and the untrained.

In my opinion the reasons are less to be found in a historical tradition than in pedagogic aims. At the end of the 18th century the duties of appointed teachers and organists were being merged. "The union of school and church offices hopelessly overburdened the musician-educators, and the situation corresponded to the union of throne and altar."31 The education of teachers thus implied obligatory organ study, whether the future teacher was talented and willing or not. "In many cases this was not in the least appropriate for creating qualified organists."32 "Someone who could already accompany the chorals regularly with the organ, without pedals, was considered in some rural districts to be an advanced organist."33

At the end of his book, Der angehende praktische Organist, Kittel writes:

Many organists do not have any knowledge of music theory. Their art on the whole is limited to making scanty work of a choral and to playing an easy and studied prelude or postlude without faltering or stumbling. To be fair, one cannot demand much more from any single man who should at the same time be an organist, a teacher, and maybe a verger, and who never has had the benefit of a scholarly education . . . and who is troubled by poor domestic circumstances.34

Seen from this angle, Kittel's pedalling directions can be understood in a completely different light: using the toes for the pedals is undoubtedly the easiest and most natural way for beginners. Kittel's strong emphasis on toe playing and his warning about damaging the pedalboard when using the heel is aimed at those poor students who were totally without talent or the time to develop a genuine technique. Regular pedal exercises would undoubtedly have brought forth a different and more musical pedalling.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to obtain any knowledge about J. S. Bach's pedal playing from these available sources with which we have been dealing. Forkel describes Bach's pedal technique from the viewpoint of a later generation:

Bach . . . used . . . the pedal obbligato in a way known to very few organists. He did not only pedal the ground tones (bass notes) or the lowest notes ordinarily played by the fifth finger of the left hand, but played a complete melody with his feet which was of such a nature that others would scarcely have been able to play it with their five fingers.35

A contemporary of Bach by the name of Mitzler praises him: "With his two feet he was able to execute passages of a kind that would have given many a skillful player of the keyboard great pains to negotiate with his five fingers."36 Gerber writes: "His feet had to imitate every subject and every passage which the hands had played beforehand. No appoggiatura, no mordent, no tied trill was allowed to be missed or to sound less nice and round."37 A certain Bruggaier recorded: "J. S. Bach is singularly outstanding concerning his most skillful usage of the organ pedals."38 In another instance he continues: "Bach's double pedal playing originates from the same disposition as do fugues for solo violin. Both are an expression of an instinct for virtuoso performance which sometimes ignores technical limits."39

The only instructions for using toe pedalling ascribed to J. S. Bach himself come from his student Tobias Krebs.40 Krebs' comments, however, I am compelled to analyze in the same context as those of Kittel's pedal instructions: as a guide for neophyte organists, often forced to teach themselves. Albrecht writes about a toe-heel technique learned from Johann Caspar Vogler who was also a student of Bach.41

In all likelihood, those organists who were able to play the organ, including pedals, in true virtuosic style during the baroque era numbered only a few. Among the organists from Tunder to Krebs (1630-1780) one can find only a handful with a pedal technique that well-trained organists today take for granted. Because of this fact it is impossible to point to any scheme or course of study of that time that could have brought about widespread technical proficiency in pedal playing. Those who excelled were gifted and were persons of vision. A survey of the organ music of the period in question reveals that the bulk of it does not require a facile pedal technique and can be played most easily using only toes. It is the monumental and demanding masterpieces of the few that prompt us to doubt the efficacy of following the "toes only" plan for all baroque pieces.

Historical research uncovers other good reasons for widespread pedalling using only toes. Many of the old organs had pedalboards of such varying dimensions that a universal technique was out of the question. Many historic organs are indeed impossible to play using heels for the simple reason that the pedal dimensions preclude it. The pedals are too short, front to back, for anything but toes, and often the console layout made the player sit in a rather unbalanced position that would have prevented using heels. In spite of these drawbacks, in some situations it is possible for the expertly trained organist to use heels occasionally. So much de-pends upon such things as size of the foot, height of the player, as well as the training. In all of the writings to be found, only one person, Eduard Bruggaier, gives specific details about pedalboards and their dimensions.42 According to the results of his measuring the long keys of the Compenius organ in Frederiksborg (43 cm) or those of Gottfried Silbermann (55 cm) it would be possible to play with the heels, even with the size of our feet nowadays. In any case, I am confident that if there is enough space to pass one foot over or under the other for toe-playing, there is also space enough for using the heel on the keys.

Many sources document that even when historic organs were being built, undersized pedalboards provoked anger and criticism by the true virtuoso players. Of course, such organists were the tiny minority. Arnolt Schlick wrote in Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten in 1511: "So do not make the pedal keys too slim or too broad, but take a reasonable common measurement for the usage of everyone so that he may strike two parts with one foot . . . the sharp key of the pedals should not stand upwards at the end, but be even."43

Jacob Adlung from Erfurt, a predecessor of Kittel, wrote about the keys:

The keys should not be too short, because the feet are otherwise not able to be placed one after the other comfortably. The width of the keyboard has to be the same in every other organ, because it would be annoying having to change the accustomed way of playing for each organ. It should be possible to reach the outer keys without trouble when sitting in the middle, and furthermore having enough room for the feet.44

Again:

The whole pedalboard should be in-stalled a little inwards, because if one wanted to play something special, it would otherwise not be possible to move. The reason for this is that feet sometimes have to follow each other and there must be enough room for them. If you want to gain space by setting the bench farther away, the manual would be too far away to play . . . Such players who do not make much fuss about the pedals do not need such de-vices: however, one has to build in such a manner that it is convenient for a wide range of players . . . Also the lightness of touch is to be praised . . . times change; nowadays one wants to play two or three tailed notes [sixteenth or thirty-second notes] which one also should be able to slur.45

In the organ method book of Johann Gottlob Werner it is printed: "It is preferred to make the pedal keys out of oak wood and to adjust the length in such a manner that it is convenient to place one foot after the other . . . It should also be considered that proceeding with the toe and heel of one foot should be possible in a most convenient way."46

Johann Christian Wolfram writes:

In cases in which the organist is obliged to stretch far out to reach the manual and consequently is in constant danger of falling off the bench or if the manual is too close, too low, or too high . . . in all these cases the manuals have been installed wrongly, because it hinders good and convenient playing. It is incredible how unconcerned our good ancestors were in this respect[!]. One finds old organs at which the poor organists must have made a quite comical figure!47

When writing his book, Wolfram "had in mind the organists and rural school teachers who in most places performed the duties of the church organist."48

People everywhere were lamenting the poor organ playing in the churches and also were criticizing bad organ construction. From the point of view of the poor organ builders, it was quite probable that they had to build the minimum instrument for the situation, considering that the church would not spend more money than was necessary and their instruments were to be played by organists quite pedestrian in capabilities. Pedalboards did not have to be complete and versatile divisions for the run-of-the-mill usage.

In the end, perhaps one should even be allowed to point out that 200 years ago people generally were of smaller stature. According to a study by Professor George Kenntner49 the average height has increased by 20 cm (7 7⁄8 inches) from 1750 to today. Therefore, what we consider too-small pedalboards today might not have been such a problem then.

Always of great interest are the questions as to whether musicians and musical aesthetics helped to develop the art of organ building or whether the latter brought on styles of playing, or whether compositions helped develop technical improvements in the instrument or vice versa. How extremely different are the historic instruments from each other in cases in which we can be certain the old organ has not been altered. Just a few examples: Some actions are quite easy to play while others on the contrary are almost impossible because of the hard action; wind may be steady, even under full organ, whereas a neighboring organ has wind so shaky that it is truly an abomination; organs are tuned to different intonations, so a piece of music that sounds right on one will sound ugly on another; organs with short octaves allow the hand to span a tenth with ease, while on a standard keyboard that is not possible for many players; the compass of the keyboards vary in range as much as an octave. In short, organ playing is always a new experience and depends completely upon the individual instrument and its location.

Thus, a true historical interpretation, applying the most detailed knowledge possible, about practical performing conditions would be nothing more than a mere attempt to find the 'best' solution for the individual instrument, and let us admit that after all is said and done, the musical outcome is in the hands and feet of the organist interpreting the music.

When I teach pedal playing I sympathize with Petri: One has to be 'armed' to encounter all kinds of pedalboards, all shapes and styles. I believe that a pure application of toe-playing must be understood and practiced, but not to cling to it rigorously. To understand it is necessary to employ it to make musical sense: " . . . a secure and effortless technique will free the player to concentrate on playing more musically and communicating with the listener . . . "50 This in fact is the whole point: to let the music speak, and not be overly compelled to adhere to narrow views on toe or heel.

Prepared for publication in English by Emmet G. Smith, Fort Worth, Texas.

Notes

                  1.              Petri, Anleitungen sur praktischen Musik, p. 101.

                  2.              Petri, loc. cit., p. 298.

                  3.              Petri, loc. cit., p. 315.

                  4.              Petri, loc. cit., p. 317–318.

                  5.              Petri, loc. cit., p. 321.

                  6.              Petri, loc. cit., p. 321.

                  7.              Ch. F. D. Schubart, Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst, Verlag Reclam, Leipzig 1784/1, p. 220.

                  8.              Ch. F. D. Schubart, loc. cit., p. 96.

                  9.              According to G. Fock, Zur Biographie J. Kittels, in Bachjahrbuch 1962.

                  10.           Türk, Von den wichtigsten Pflichten eines Organisten, loc. cit., p. 158.

                  11.           Türk, loc. cit., p. 159.

                  12.           Türk, loc. cit., p. 158.

                  13.           Türk, loc. cit., p. 158.

                  14.           Türk, loc. cit., p. 107.

                  15.           Türk, loc. cit., p. 314.

                  16.           See Knecht, Vollstandige Orgelschule, loc. cit., vol. l, p. 45.

                  17.           See Christian Namberger, Untersuchungen zu ergonomischen Optimirung von Orgelspielanlagen, Verlags-GmbH Kleinbittersdorf, 1999.

                  18.           Knecht, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 47.

                  19.           Knecht, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 48.

                  20.           Ibid.

                  21.           Knecht, loc. cit., vol. 1, p. 51.

                  22.           Knecht, loc. cit., vol. 1, p. 85.

                  23.           Knecht, loc. cit., vol. 1, p. 81.

                  24.           Friedrich Erhard Niedt, Musicalische Handleitung, Hamburg, 1710, facsimile, Frits Knuf, Buren, 1976, Chap. IV, p. 43.

                  25.           Letter to the 'Consistorium' in Zeitz in 1756.

                  26.           Johann Nikolaus Forkel, J. S. Bach, facsimile edition, Frankfurt, 1950, p. 43.

                  27.           Kittel, Der angehende praktische Organist, Preface.

                  28.           Kittel, loc. cit., 3. part.

                  29.           Kittel, loc. cit., Introduction, p. 4ff.

                  30.           Cited by Knufs facsimile, p. 65.

                  31.           Arnfried Edler, Typen des protestantischen Kantors im 19. Jahrhundert und ihre Musik, in Zur Orgelmusik im 19. Jahrhundert, Verlag Helbling, Innsbruck, 1983, p. 17.

                  32.           Ibid.

                  33.           Arnfried Edler, loc. cit., p. 17.

                  34.           Kittel, Der angehende praktische Organist, loc. cit., 2. part, p. 95.

                  35.           Johann Nikolaus Forkel, J. S. Bach, loc. cit., p. 37.

                  36.           Musicalische Bibliothek, IV, l, p. 172. Cited by Peter Krams, Wechselwirkungen zwischen Orgelkomposition und Pedalspieltechnik, Wiesbaden, 1974, p. 67.

                  37.           Ernst-Ludwig Gerber, Historisch-Biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, Leipzig, 1812/14, vol. I, p. 90; cited by Peter Krams, ibid.

                  38.           Eduard Bruggaier, Studien zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels in Deutschland bis zur Zeit Johann Sebastian Bach, dissertation, Frankfurt, 1959, p. 137.

                  39.           Bruggaier, loc. cit., p. 149.

                  40.           See Klotz, Orgelspiel, in MGG, vol. 10, col. 389.

                  41.           Christoph Albrecht, Zur Artikulation Bachscher Orgelwerk, in Der Kirchenmusiker, 1988, p. 3.

                  42.           See Bruggaier, loc. cit.

                  43.           Cited by Peter Krams, Wechselwirkungen, loc. cit.

                  44.           Jacob Adlung, Anleitung zu der musicalischen Gelahrtheit, Erfurt, 1758, facsimile, Bärenreiter, 1953, p. 359.

                  45.           Musica mechanica II, p. 26, cited by E. Bruggaier, loc. cit.

                  46.           Johann Gottlob Werner, Orgelschule, Penig, 1807, p. 31.

                  47.           Johann Christian Wolfram, Anleitung zur Kenntniss, Beurtheilung und Erhaltung der Orgeln, Gotha, 1815, facsimile, Frits Knuf, Amsterdam, 1962, p. 117.

                  48.           J. Ch. Wolfram, loc. cit., Prologue VI.

                  49.           George Kenntner, article in Friedericiana, Zeitschrift der Universität Karlsruhe, part 46.

                  50.           Gerard Brooks, Your Feets Too Big, in Organists' Review, August, 1997.   

Alexander Fiseisky

Alexander Fiseisky, born in Moscow, is one of the most famous and influential organists in Russia. He graduated with distinction from the Moscow Conservatoire as pianist and organist. He is an organ soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic Society, head of the organ class at the Russian Gnessins’ Academy of Music in Moscow, and president of the Vladimir Odoyevsky Organ Center. He organized and served as artistic director for organ festivals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, and Tallinn, among others. In 1997 he was honored by President Yeltsin with the title ‘Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation’. Fiseisky has given concerts in more than 30 countries. In the Bach Anniversary Year of 2000 he played J. S. Bach’s entire organ works, twice in the context of EXPO 2000 in Hannover, and once in a single day in Düsseldorf as a Bach Marathon. As a result of that event, in 2002, in Moscow, an entry was put in the book Records of the Planet Earth. Sought after as a juror in international competitions both at home and abroad (Calgary, St. Albans, Kaliningrad), he has directed seminars and masterclasses in Europe (Vienna, Hamburg, Hanover, Warsaw, London) and the USA. He is the dedicatee of numerous compositions, including works by Mikhail Kollontai, Vladimir Ryabov, Milena Aroutyunova, and Walther Erbacher. A musicologist, he has edited anthologies of organ music of Russia and of the Baltics (Bärenreiter-Verlag). He has many recordings to his credit, including the complete organ works of J. S. Bach.

Historical sketch
While the history of the organ in the territories of modern Latvia stretches back to the Middle Ages, Latvian organ music itself (as well as classical Latvian music in general) emerged only in the last quarter of the 19th century. This anomaly arose from the history of the country, which was almost always under foreign rule and, accordingly, influenced by different cultural traditions.
Since the ninth century, those who lived in the territories of modern Latvia were often attacked by Scandinavians, and later by Germans, who wished to control and use the old Viking trade routes. Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Church had missionary designs on the indigenous peoples—the Kurs (or Curonians), the Zemgals, the Latgals, the Selonians, and the Livs (or Livonians)—who were still pagan. From 1164 onwards these objectives attracted a succession of representatives of different groups of German society: soldiers, merchants, and missionaries. Overcoming resistance of the local peoples, German crusaders in 1201 established Riga as the residence of an archbishop, the whole region being occupied by them by the end of the 13th century. From that time until the early 20th century, Latvia was under foreign rule: German (1290– 1581), Polish (1581–1621), Swedish (1621–1710), and Russian (1710–1917). In Latvian cultural life, developing under the ruling nations, the dominant influence was German. The Baltic German elite, although never amounting to more than about ten per cent of the population, maintained its privileged position in Latvian society, even when the Baltic territories were controlled by Poland, Sweden, or Russia.

Organs in Latvia in the 13th–16th centuries
Historical sources record that in the winter of 1205–1206 a liturgical drama (ludus prophetarum) was performed in Riga. From 1216 there existed a musical guild in the Livonian Order and from 1240 a “Domkapelle” also. The guilds took part in festivities, ceremonies, and processions, in which it is highly likely that portatives were used. However, the first documented reference to organs in the Baltics dates from 1329: in the small towns of Paistu (Paisten) and Helme (Helmet) (northern Livonia, now Estonia), the organs were destroyed by enemy action.
The 14th–15th centuries were characterized by a permanent struggle between the Livonian Order and the Archbishop of Riga for political domination. The documents of this time describe organs, mostly in the large churches of Riga. The church of St. Peter in Riga was known to provide musical instruction in the 14th century, in which perhaps positive organs were used, while the church of St. Catherine was known to have an organ in 1392. The best performers (trombonists, cornettists, trumpeters, drummers) received the title of Town Waits. These posts were given only to Germans.
According to Magister Brotze1 there was in the chancel of the church of St. Johannis in Cesis (Wenden) the tombstone of a councilor, Symon Schotdorn, and his wife Gerdrut, from the year 1441; it indicates that they were the donors of the church’s first Praising Sounds. As Paul Campe correctly noted, “it is uncertain whether, under the Praising Sounds, the carving on the tombstone was meant to indicate a particular musical instrument or a special kind of church music.”2
At the beginning of the 16th century, immediately after the “Augsburger Reichstag” (the Confessio Augustana of 1530), the Protestant liturgy was established in the Baltic territories. The first churches to be converted to Protestantism (already in 1522) were those of St. Jakobi and St. Peter in Riga. The latter received in 1520 a new organ built by Balthasar Zcineken, the first organ builder in Latvia known by name.3 This organ replaced the older one, which had existed since 1465.
In 1530 Nicolaus Ramm made the first translation of a liturgical text into Latvian, No szirdes dubben buus töw titczet (The Ten Commandments).
The music for the majestic and dignified services in the churches of Riga was provided by choir, solo singers, and organ. Documents from the Inneres Rigaer Ratsarchiv mention an organist, Lasserus, who received several payments for playing in the services in 1542 and 1543. One of them reads: “Dito noch anno 43 denn andern Mydewecke [Mittwoch] Inne [in] der Faste[nzeit] für den Laßerus demme [dem] organisten—20 Mark” (“The same again in ’43 on the other Wednesday in Lent for Lasserus, the organist—20 marks”).4
In the second half of the 16th century church services followed both the traditional German and the local order. By the end of the century the first printed compositions—masses, motets, spiritual songs (including Missa Rigensis)—by the Riga cantor Paul (Paulus) Bucaenus (?–1586) had been published (Sacrae cantiones, Riga, 1583).
Soon they were followed by the first collection of music with Latvian texts, Undeudsche Psalmen und geistliche Lieder oder Gesenge welche in den Kirchen des Fürstenthums Churland und Semigallen in Lieflande gesungen werden (Königsberg, 1587), based on Die Korte Ordeninge des Kerkendienstes der Cöfflichen Stadt Riga (Lübeck, 1530).
After the great fire of 1547 that destroyed the organ in Riga Cathedral, a new instrument was built there (1594–1601, III/P/42), which cost 5,685 thalers and 3 marks. This instrument was built by Jacob Rab(e) (d. 1609), an organbuilder from Lübeck who established his workshop there in 1598.
In the Duchy of Courland there existed organs before 1600 in the following churches: Holy Trinity in Jelgava (Mitau), 1586; St. Catharine in Kuldiga (Goldingen), 1593; the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bauska (Bauske), 1595.
From the middle of the 16th century, the Baltic territories became a subject of contention between Lithuania and Russia. In the year 1558 the army of the Russian Tsar Ivan “The Terrible” reached Riga. The army of Lithuania, together with that of Poland, went to war against Russia. As a result of the Livonian War (1558–1583), the Russians left the Baltics, and Latvia was divided and brought under Swedish and Polish-Lithuanian rule.

Cultural, religious, and musical life in the 17th and 18th centuries
If during this period cultural activity in Latvia continued to be mostly a product of the German-speaking elite, the Latvian peasantry had a vibrant oral folk tradition in their own language. As early as the 16th century, when Baltic German clergy supplied religious writings in Latvian to the peasantry, these two cultural lines began to converge, aided by Ernst Glück’s publication in 1694 of his Latvian translation of the Bible.
Seventeenth-century sources describe organs in Durbe (Durben), Valmiera (Wolmar), Cesis (Wenden), Edole (Edwahlen), Piltene (Pilten), Ventspils (Windau), and other places. Most at that period were positive organs. Master Moritz (Mauritius) Wendt, who lived in Riga from 1608 to 1633, made a positive organ for Grobina (Grobin). He also received some orders from Königsberg (1622) and Danzig (1623).5 In 1609 he was given the task of renovating the organ in the church of Kuldiga, but, as by 1611 he had failed to fulfill this commission, another organbuilder was engaged: Johannes Pauli (Paulus),6 who worked in Riga in 1611–1614, in 1630–1633 (when he built the new organ in the church of St. Johann), and in 1642. In January 1642, Jakob Wendt, the son of Moritz Wendt, finished a new organ in Jelgava.7
The collaboration of important cities in the Baltic area can also be traced in the activities of such organbuilders as Christopher Meinecke (Christoff Mencke) from Lübeck (who worked in Riga in 1674–1675), Martin Siewert (Sievert) from Danzig (in Riga 1676–1687), Gabriel Branditius (Brenditius) from Köslin in Pommern (in Durben and Riga 1674–1698), and Bartholomäus Schumann from Königsberg (in Riga 1695–1705).8
During the reign of Duke Jacob (1642–1682), and especially that of his son Duke Friedrich Casimir (1682–1698), Jelgava became the cultural center of Courland. The court orchestra and the court wind instruments, which normally included 12 trumpets with drums, were used on many occasions.
It can clearly be seen from the contract between Duke Friedrich Casimir and his “Musikdirektor” Maximilian Dietrich Freisslich how important the position of director of music had become and how many obligations had to be fulfilled:

We, Friedrich Casimir, by the Grace of God, Duke of Liefland in Courland and Semgallen, document and acknowledge by this our sealed open letter that we have appointed and confirmed our dear faithful Maximilian Dietrich Freisslich to be our director of vocal music in our church and organist, and we do so herewith and with all our might, in the expectation that he should be first of all loyal, gracious, and attentive, giving warning of avoiding our most terrible anger, but should promote, preserve and aid our best purposes, and then should also present music in our church when there should be made music and singing, and when banquets are held, he, being also experienced in composition, should have care of the pieces heard and should compose, and should inspire the vocalists to practice much, so that each of them will be able to perform his part properly, should play the organ when the parish enters the church and when they leave, but also for concerts and singing, and at banquets and for singing should play the harpsichord, and should allow himself to be a willing and unwearied, faithful, and diligent musician and servant. For such service we promise and order that he should receive for all together as a fee and board per year one hundred and fifty Rthl (Reichsthaler) Albertus, which should be given to him each time from Our Chamber.

Certificated by Our Signature in Our Own Hand and stamped with Our Princely Seal. Dated at Mitau, the 18. Augusti Anno 1694.9

The first hymnbooks in the Latvian language had already appeared in 1587 and 1615. During the 17th century the tradition of simple liturgical music steadily developed. The congregation sang in unison, accompanied by the organ. As a result of this, remarkable collections of music appeared in Riga in 1686, composed by Gustav von Mengden (1625 or 1627–1688), who was born in Riga (or in Sunzel Castle) and later became a district official.
These were two collections of liturgical songs, published by Georg Matthias Nöller (Riga, 1686), for soprano and basso continuo on Mengden’s own texts, Sonntages Gedanken eines Christen, So sich an Gott Ver-Miethet and Der Verfolgte, Errettete und Lobsingende David—outstanding monuments to German-Baltic Protestant church music.
Another talented musician of the next generation was Johann Valentin Meder (1649–1719), born in Wasungen on the Werra. From the catalogue of his sacred works made by his son Erhard Nikolaus, a notary in Riga, in the year of his father’s death, he was an extraordinarily prolific composer. This catalogue lists about 130 compositions, including 12 Masses, four Passions, five Magnificats, and many concertato motets. Apart from this, his secular music comprises a “Singspiel” (Die beständige Argenia), two operas, and one opera-ballet, plus vocal and instrumental chamber music. He was esteemed by Mattheson, Buxtehude, and others. From 1701 to 1719 he was cantor and organist at Riga Cathedral, where under his direction his St. Luke and St. Matthew Passions were first performed.
At the beginning of the 18th century a new style in art, Courland baroque, appeared in the cultural life of Latvia, first in evidence in Courland, which maintained close contacts with Germany, Holland, and Poland. An important role in establishing this new style was played by the workshop of the Sefrenss family. Nikolass Sefrenss “the younger” (1662–1710) finished in 1697 the altar of the church of St. Anna in Liepaja (Libau).

Cornelius Rhaneus
One of the next commissions that came to his workshop was the organ case in the church of Ugale (Ugahlen). The case was built by his future son-in-law Michael Marquardt, who worked in the Sefrenss workshop as a woodcarver. The instrument itself (1697–1701, II/P/28, featuring a Rückpositiv), the oldest organ in the Baltics still preserved in its original form, was built by Cornelius Rhaneus (1671–1719) from Kuldiga—the most famous Latvian organbuilder of his time.

Ugale (Ugahlen)
Cornelius Rhaneus, 1697–1701

Hauptwerk (CDE–c3)
16' Bordun
8' Principal
8' Hollflöt
8' Quintade
4' Octava
4' Rohrflöt
3' Raußquint
2' Superoctava
2' Waldflöt
13⁄5' Sexta
Mixtur 3 fach
8' Zincke

Rückpositiv (CDE–c3)
8' Flötte
4' Principal
4' Blockflött
4' Salicional
2' Gemshorn
2' Offenflött
1' Sedecima
8' Schalmeij

Pedal (CDE–e1)
16' Subbass
8' Gedactbass
8' Viola di Gamba
4' Octave
3' Quinte
2' Octave
16' Posaune
8' Trompete

Manual coupler
Pedal coupler
Cimbelstern
Pedal for Flying Bird and Angel (makes the wooden ornamental angel on the Rückpositiv conduct and the bird above the organ appear to fly)

Rhaneus also built organs for the castle chapel in Jelgava, 1695–1697; a church in Lestene, 1707–1708, 33 stops with a Rückpositiv (the case of this organ, which was finished in 1707, as well as the decoration of the church, was built in 1704–1709 by Nikolass Sefrenss with assistants); and the church of St. Catharine in Kuldiga, 1712–1715.

18th-century organbuilders
At the beginning of the 18th century Swedish and Polish-Lithuanian rule came to an end in Latvia. Swedish political domination of the Baltic world was challenged when Russia under Tsar Peter the Great deprived Sweden of her Livonian territories in the Great Northern War (1700–1721). The rest of the Baltic coastal region came under Russian jurisdiction when Catherine the Great purchased the Duchy of Courland from the ducal family in 1795. By the end of the 18th century all Latvian speakers had become subjects of the Russian Empire.
At that time, after Riga, Kuldiga became the second center for organ building in Latvia. The following organbuilders worked there: Mal. H. Erasmus, 1694–1744; Albrecht Jordan (b. 1689), 1746–1772; and Paul Frölich (1720–1775) from Frauenburg (East Prussia), 1758–1775.
Gabriel Julius Mosengel (Moosengel), the son of the famous organbuilder Johann Josua Mosengel (1663–1731) from Königsberg, also worked there from 1719 to 1730. In 1786 the church of Edole received a richly decorated organ by Christoph Wilhelm Braweleit (Braveleit) (1752–1796) from Labiau (East Prussia)—a pupil of Adam Gottlob Casparini (1715–1788).
The organbuilder Johann Heinrich Joachim (1696–1762) from Schafstädt (Thuringia), who settled in Jelgava, became well known in the first half of the 18th century. He renovated the organ in Sabile (1752) and built new instruments in the church of St. Gertrude in Riga (1753) and in the church of St. Anna in Jelgava (1755). Apart from his activities in Latvia, at the recommendation of the Duke of Courland, Ernst Johann Biron (1690–1772), he built an organ in the Lutheran Church of SS. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg (1737). His most important work was the organ in the church of the Holy Trinity in Liepaja (1758, 36 stops), which he was not able to finish because of increasing deafness from 1753.
Gottfried Clossen (Kloss, Klossen, Kloos, d. 1740), an organbuilder from Danzig, built an organ in the church of St. Peter in Riga (1728–1731, 1734, III/P/43) and repaired the organ of the cathedral in that city (1738).10
The rich appearance of organs in Latvia at that time often featured in contemporary reports. In the “Church register” of Rujiena (Rujen), for example, we find a wonderful allegorical description from the middle of the 18th century of the organ case, given by pastor Matthias Philipp Vorhuf (d. 1761):

On the Positive, which is placed in the gallery, you will find various pictures, figures, and inscriptions neatly carved in wood. At its highest point there is a sphere with two wings topped by the statue of Saturn who has an hourglass on his head and a scythe in his right hand, and an angel on each side. On the left where the ten stops may be drawn, Potiphar’s wife can be seen sitting on her bed trying to prevent Joseph in his attempt to escape. The inscription here reads FUGA AMBRIS. To the left near the bellows are the words POTPHE RAHI PRAESDES ONIORUM UXOR.
At the back, on the right, above the positive, there is a panel with various allegorical representations, e.g., a two-winged hourglass set on a skull decorated with a laurel wreath. Close to the ears one can see a tube emitting smoke and steam. The skull itself is placed on an anvil to the right of which lie the wheel of a gun mount, a mirror, a burning glass. On a pedestal we see two masks with a snake coiling itself round them, a hemisphere with four stars and the last quarter of the moon together with another mask. To the left of the anvil there are a helmet, a sheathed rapier, a retort with a glass to collect the liquid, and underneath the flask we see two books. Right above the hourglass the Latin text reads EXITUS ACTA PROBAT and at its foot:
QUID TERRA CINISQUE SUPERBIS
HORA FUGIT MA RECESAET HONOS
MORS IMMINET ATRA
In the four corners of the panel on which all this is shown are four small genii holding leafed branches. At the top of the Positive lies a MULIER UMBILICO TENUS DENUDATA MUNPO; behind this ‘woman’ lies a man at her head and two others at her feet. One of them seems to be tearing at his hair while screaming loudly, whereas the other one is holding a flask in each hand.11

The most famous organbuilder in the Baltics in the 18th century was Heinrich Andreas Contius (1708–1792) from Halle/Saale, to whom J. S. Bach gave a laudatory mention in 1748.12 Besides renovating smaller instruments, he constructed an organ in the church of St. Jakobi in Riga (1760/61, II/P/25; the case is preserved).
At the suggestion of the organist of Riga Cathedral, Johann Kristian Zimmermann, he enlarged the organ there in 1773–1776 by adding two stops to it: a Fagott 8' in the Oberwerk and an Untersatz 32' in the Pedal. He also extended the right and left hand cases, constructed new bellows, and renovated the Positive organ in the cathedral school.
In the instruments of Contius, features of a new style are noticeable—a Rückpositiv was not used, and the decoration became more restrained.
In 1773–1779 he worked in the Holy Trinity church in Liepaja, where he constructed within the existing case a new instrument (II/P/38). Here he began working with his son-in-law Johann Andreas Stein (1752–1821), who came from a family of organbuilders from Augsburg. On the occasion of constructing the organ in the church of St. Simonis in Valmiera (1779–1780), they founded a workshop there from which the organ for the Reformed Church in Riga (II/P/14) came in 1783. Stein also built new organs in the churches of St. Johann in Cesis (1786-1787) and Evele (Wohlfahrt, 1788). At the end of the century he established his own workshop in Pärnu in Estonia.
Around 1800 domestic organbuilders began to appear. At first they were self-taught, mainly constructing positives for private residences and schools. Later some attained regional importance.
Born about 1743, Theodor Tiedemann worked from 1778 to 1806 in Riga; from 1807 to 1835 his son Johann Theodor Tiedemann was active in Courland, and later in Lithuania.

Organ music in the 18th century
During the 18th century the organ became increasingly popular. The standard of playing also improved. An important role in this process was played by the German composer Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728– 1788), who was invited to Riga by the Russian Privy Councilor Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff (1722–1792). Vietinghoff, a great lover of music and theatre, who had his own private orchestra of 24 musicians, gradually established between 1768 and 1782 the City Theatre of Riga, which became the center of cultural life in that city.
Johann Gottfried Müthel was born into a family of musicians. He received his first music instructions from his father, organist of St. Nicolai in Mölln. Later he studied with Paul Kuntzen, organist at the church of St. Mary in Lübeck, and in 1747 he was appointed chamber musician and organist at the court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In 1750 he visited J. S. Bach, lived in his house in Leipzig, and received some lessons from him. After Bach’s death, Müthel continued his studies with Bach’s son-in-law, Johann Christoph Altnickol, in Naumburg. Later he visited Johann Adolph Hasse and Johann Baptist Georg Neruda in Dresden, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach in Potsdam, and Georg Philipp Telemann in Hamburg. In 1753 he settled in Riga and there directed the Kapelle of Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff. From 1755 he worked as the assistant organist at Riga Cathedral, and in 1767 he was given the post of principal organist in the church of St. Peter, which he held until his death. His output includes works for organ and harpsichord, chamber music, and vocal compositions. He was one of the first to compose for fortepiano: Duetto für zwey Claviere, zwey Fortepiano oder zwey Flügel (Riga, 1771).
Musical life in Latvia became very active, especially after the Riga Music Society was founded in 1760. Performances were given by local musicians, as well as by guest troupes and recitalists. The music of Haydn, Mozart, Cherubini, Grétry, Paisiello, Salieri, and others was regularly performed.
Among foreign recitalists, Abbé Georg Josef Vogler should be mentioned, as he is known to have given organ recitals in Riga and Liepaja in 1788. In Riga he performed with great success in the building of the Brotherhood of Black Chieftains (Bruderschaft der Schwarzhäupter) on his own instrument the Orchestrion, which he had brought with him. The popular Johann Adam Hiller (1728–1804), the founder of Singspiel, lived in Jelgava from 1782 to 1785.
At the turn of the century the most important figures in church music in Latvia were Julius August Fehre (1745–1812), August Jenisch (1766– 1811), and above all Georg Michael Telemann (1748–1831), a grandson of Georg Philipp Telemann.
In 1773 Georg Michael Telemann was invited to become the cantor and Musikdirektor at the churches of St. Petri and St. Jakob, and the cantor at the cathedral in Riga. In addition, in 1813 he was given the post of the organist of the cathedral. He held all those posts until 1828. From 1773 until 1801 he also served as a teacher in the cathedral school in Riga. In 1785 he published Beitrag zur Kirchenmusik, bestehend in einer Anzahl geistlicher Chöre, wie auch für die Orgel eingerichteter Choräle und Fugen (A Contribution to Church Music, Consisting of a Number of Spiritual Choral Works as well as Chorales and Fugues Arranged for the Organ) (Königsberg). Another important publication was the chorale Auferstehn (Riga, 1809) on the text written by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803). In 1812 he published in Riga (or Mitau) a collection of chorale melodies (Sammlung alter und neuer Choral-Melodien).

Latvia in the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century
The 19th century brought momentous changes to Latvia. At the instigation of Emperor Alexander I, during 1816–1819 the Baltic barons freed their serfs. As a result, between 1860 and 1890 many peasants finally possessed the farms on which their families had worked for generations. Those of them who remained landless moved to the cities, which put a certain political pressure on the German burghers there. Latvian nationalist activists, particularly in Riga, grew in number, with their leaders coming from the ranks of young university-educated Latvians.
In 1886 they founded the Riga Latvian Association and hoped that their campaign against German Baltic control would gain support from the Russian government. As their hopes failed to be realized, political rhetoric in Riga during the Russian Revolution of 1905 included calls for an independent Latvian state. However, it took the collapse of the Russian Empire to create the conditions for the emergence of an independent Latvia, eventually proclaimed on the 18th of November 1918.
Against this background the intensity of musical life during the 19th century gradually increased. Many compositions from the central repertoire of European music were performed in Latvia, among them Haydn’s The Seasons (1802), The Creation (1803), The Seven Words on the Cross (1804), and Mozart’s Requiem (1811).
Famous recitalists performed in the country, primarily in such centers as Riga and Jelgava: John Field, Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, Sigismund Thalberg, Clara Schumann, and others. The visits of Franz Liszt (1842), Hector Berlioz (1847), and especially Richard Wagner’s activities during his stay in Riga and Jelgava (from August 1837 to July 1839), were of enormous value in establishing a national school of Latvian music.
An important figure in improving the art of choral singing in the country was Heinrich Dorn (1800 or 1804–1892), who arrived in Riga from Hamburg in 1832 and in 1836 established the Düna Musikfest. His activities were continued through the Latvian musicians Janis Cimse (Zimse, 1814–1881) and Janis Betins (Behting, 1830–1912), who devoted themselves to the development of musical education in Latvia, and through Karlis Baumanis (1835–1905), one of the first Latvian composers to have a higher formal education, whose Dievs, sveti Latviju (God bless Latvia), written in 1873, became the Latvian national anthem after the declaration of independence in 1918.
After the establishment of the Russian Theatre in Riga in 1883 (known from 1902 as the Russian Opera), the influence of Russian culture in Latvia became stronger. Although the First Music Institute had existed in Riga from 1864 and despite the Riga Latvian Society having established the Music Commission (Muzikas Komisija) in 1888, most of the professional Latvian musicians continued to receive their instruction at the conservatoires of St. Petersburg and Moscow. So it was also for the founders of Latvian classical music, Jazeps Vitols (1863–1948) and Andrejs Jurjans (1856–1922), who were the pupils of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire.
Musical education also continued through the participation of the population in church services. During the 19th century evangelical hymnbooks were published to meet the needs of the Baltic Lutheran parishes.
In 1839 the Evangelical Chorale Book Appropriate to German, Latvian, and Estonian Hymnbooks in the Russian Baltic Provinces (Evangelisches Choralbuch zunächst in Bezug auf die deutschen, lettischen und estnischen Gesangbücher der russischen Ostsee-Provinzen) was published in Leipzig by Johann Leberecht Ehregott Punschel (1778–1849)—a Latvian Lutheran pastor of German extraction. It included 363 chorales. Its second, enlarged edition was issued in 1844. By the end of the century two other collections of chorales had appeared, one by Wilhelm Bergner (the younger) (1883, Riga, 171 chorales), and the other by Rudolf Postel (1820–1889) (1884, Jelgava, 235 chorales).
At the turn of the century a new generation of Latvian composers entered upon the scene: Emils Darzins (1875– 1910), Emilis Melngailis (1874–1954), Alfreds Kalnins (1879–1951), Janis Zalitis (1884–1943), and brothers Jazeps Medins (1877–1947), Jekabs Medins (1885–1971), and Janis Medins (1890–1966).

19th-century organbuilders
From the middle of the 19th century up to the First World War, the art of organ building in Latvia reached its zenith. A large number of positive organs, very often built by self-taught peasants, appeared in the country districts. Besides positive organs, which continued to be the type of instrument most in demand, many new church organs also appeared. For example, Johann Christoph Christien—who worked from 1810 to 1839—is known to have already built 37 new organs in Katlakalns (Katlekaln) near Riga before 1831.
From the 1840s, in addition to Riga, Liepaja also developed as a center of organ building, the most famous builder in Riga being August Martin, and in Liepaja Karl Herrmann.
Karl Herrmann (1807–1868) moved to Liepaja from St. Petersburg, where he had worked as an organist. In 1830–1835 he constructed instruments in Kandava (Kandau), in 1836–1843 in Dobele, and in 1844–1868 in Liepaja. Altogether he produced about 80 church organs and more than 50 positive organs, of much variety in both construction and sound.
His son and successor Karl Alexander (1847–1928), after installing an instrument in the church of Jesus in St. Petersburg in 1877, stayed in that city from 1878 until 1893. Father and son enlarged the organ in the church of the Holy Trinity in Liepaja to 77 stops on four manuals and pedals during the period 1844 to 1874, while the nephew of Karl Herrmann, Karl J. Herrmann, worked in Jelgava from 1863 to 1883.
August Martin (1808–1892) from Dachwig (Thuringia) worked in Riga from 1837. He is known to have built about 67 church and 19 school organs in the Baltics, Russia, and Poland during 1840–1885. His largest instrument, originally built for the Old Church of St. Gertrude in Riga (1867–1876, III/P/31), was removed in 1906 to the New Church of St. Gertrude in that city. His son Emil Martin (1848–1922), who worked for four years under Friedrich Ladegast, installed the instrument in the Catholic church of St. Jacob in Riga (1913, II/P/35, Opus 322). Friedrich Weissenborn from Thuringia, who lived in Riga, Krustpils, and Jekabpils (Jakobstadt), produced 85 organs in Latvia and Lithuania during the period 1865–1894.
From the middle of the 19th century the large firms in Germany dominated Latvia: Friedrich Ladegast (five organs, the most sizeable being that in the church of St. Simonis in Valmiera, 1885–1886, III/P/33); Barnim Grüneberg from Stettin (Liepaja, Holy Trinity Church, 1884–1885, IV/P/130, to this day the largest tracker action organ in the world); Georg Friedrich Steinmeyer & Co. (Jaunpiebalga, 1914, Opus 1200, II/P/24); Wilhelm Sauer (1882–1906, ten organs, including the Old Church of St. Gertrude, Riga, 1906, III/P/45); Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Cie. (1882–1913 and 1937, 25 organs altogether, including Riga Cathedral, 1882–1883, Opus 413, IV/P/124).

The Bergners of Riga
The primary representatives of the German musical tradition in Latvia were Wilhelm Bergner (the elder) (1802–1883) and Wilhelm Bergner (the younger) (1837–1907). The father worked actively in a number of spheres. In 1836–1882, as organist in the church of St. Peter in Riga, he organized many cultural events, including performances of oratorios and organ concerts. Apart from many other activities he became the director of the Riga Music Society and the founder of the Children’s Singing School in that city. He composed much, but not many of his compositions were published or performed. His most popular collections of music were Choralbuch (Riga, 1850), which was reprinted many times, and Preludes for the Most Frequently Used Church Melodies of the Evangelical Church (Vorspiele zu den gebräuchlichsten Kernmelodien der evangelischen Kirche) (Riga, 1861).
His son, also a tireless promoter of music in Riga, established the Riga Bach Society in 1865 and the Cathedral Choir in 1878. From 1868 until 1906 he held the position of organist at Riga Cathedral, and, among his many activities, his organ performances with the Helsingfors Symphony Orchestra under Georg Schnéevoigt should be noted. He also was responsible for the first performance in Riga of Anton Rubinstein’s religious opera Moses (1892), which took place under his direction in the City Theatre in February 1894. Altogether there were four performances, which were enormously successful. After the third performance Bergner received a telegram from Rubinstein: “Many thanks to all the participants for everything, especially to you. So disappointed not to have been present.”13
Bergner’s role in the history of the cathedral organ was also enormous. As a result of his activities, on September 14, 1882, the administration of Riga Cathedral finally accepted his proposal for yet again enlarging the cathedral organ, by adding 18 more stops to its then total of 102. It was confirmed that this commission should be given to the organ company Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Cie., the contract with which was already signed on November 16, 1881. Karl Walcker suggested adding yet four stops more, and his proposal was finally incorporated. The instrument of 124 stops was finished in 1883, and at that time was the largest organ in the world. It was supplied with two consoles; the main one, from which the whole of the pipework could be played, was erected in the upper balcony; the second, from which 17 manual stops and eight pedal stops in the Swell box could be played, was erected on the lower balcony.

Riga, The Cathedral of St. Mary
Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Cie, Opus 413, IV/P/124, 1882–83, Ludwigsburg (Germany)

Restoration: VEB Eule Orgelbau, Bautzen, 1961–62; D. A. Flentrop, Zaandam, 1982–84

I Manual: Hauptwerk (C–f3)
16' Principal
16' Flauto major
16' Viola di Gamba
8' Octav
8' Hohlflöte
8' Viola di Gamba
8' Doppelfloete
8' Gemshorn
8' Quintatön
8' Bourdon
8' Dulcian
51⁄3' Quinte
4' Octav
4' Gemshorn
4' Gamba
4' Hohlflöte
4' Rohrflöte
31⁄5' Terz
22⁄3' Quinte
2' Octav
1' Superoctav
51⁄3' Sexquialtera 2 fach
11⁄3' Scharff 4 fach
8' Cornett 5 fach (c–f3)
4' Mixtur 6 fach
16' Contrafagott
8' Tuba mirabilis
8' Trompete harmonique
8' Coranglais
8' Euphon
4' Clairon
2' Cornettino

II Manual: Brustwerk (C–f3)
16' Geigenprincipal
16' Bourdon
8' Principal
8' Fugara
8' Spitzflöte
8' Rohrflöte
8' Concertfloete
8' Lieblich Gedeckt
8' Viola di Alta
8' Dolce
4' Principal
4' Fugara
4' Salicet
4' Flauto dolce
22⁄3' Quinte
2' Superoctav
2' Waldflöte
13⁄5' Terz
22⁄3' Sexquialtera 2 fach
22⁄3' Mixtur 5 fach
8' Cornett 5 fach (g–f3)
16' Aeolodicon
8' Ophycleide
8' Fagott & Oboë
4' Oboë

III Manual: Oberwerk (C–f3)
16' Salicional
16' Lieblich Gedeckt
8' Geigenprincipal
8' Viola d’amour
8' Wienerfloete
8' Gedeckt
8' Salicional
8' & 4' Bifra
8' Harmonika
8' Bourdon d’echo
4' Traversfloete
4' Dolce
4' Geigenprincipal
4' Spitzfloete
2' Piccolo
22⁄3' Mixtur 4 fach
8' Vox humana
8' Basson
8' Clarinette

IV Manual: Schwellwerk (C–f3)
16' Quintatön
8' Floeten Principal
8' Unda maris
8' & 2' Piffaro
8' Melodica
8' Flûte d’amour traversière
8' Bourdon doux
8' Aeoline
8' Voix celeste
8' Viola Tremolo
4' Floeten Principal
4' Gedecktfloete
4' Vox angelica
2' Salicet
22⁄3' Harmonia aetheria 3 fach
8' Trompete
8' Phÿsharmonika

Hauptpedal (C–d3)
32' Principalbaß
16' Octavbaß
16' Violonbaß
16' Contra Violonbaß
16' Subbaß
16' Floetenbaß
16' Gedecktbaß
102⁄3' Quintbaß
8' Octavbaß
8' Hohlflötenbaß
8' Gedecktbaß
8' Violoncello
62⁄5' Terzbaß
4' Octavbaß
4' Hohlflöte
2' Octav
102⁄3' Sexquialtera 2 fach
51⁄3' Mixtur 5 fach
32' Grand Bourdon 5 fach
32' Bombardon
16' Posaunenbaß
8' Trompete
4' Cornobaßo

Pianopedal (C–d3)
(in Swell box of IV Manual, except Bassethorn, Serpent)
16' Violon
16' Bourdon
8' Dolceflöte
8' Violon
4' Viola
2' Flautino
16' Serpent
8' Bassethorn

IV,III,II/I, II/I, I/P, “Noli me tangere” (P/I)
III/II, III/I, III/P, II/P
IV/II, IV/I, IV/P, I,II,III,IV/P

Auxiliary stops:
Tremolo for Vox humana 8' and Bourdon d’echo 8' (III)
Tremolo Oboë 8' = Fagott & Oboë 8' with Tremolo (II)

Temporary lock of the crescendo roller
Automatic drive for the crescendo roller: “Conductor”
Hand operated crescendo and decrescendo
Crescendo indicator dial: 0–124

I. Cancel tablet for Manual I
II. Cancel tablet for Manual II
III. Cancel tablet for Manual III
IV. Cancel tablet for Manual IV
V. Main Pedal Cancel
VI. Enclosed Pedal Cancel
VII. Manuals I, II, III General Cancel
Cancel tablet Omnia Copula

Second Console (on the lower balcony):
Manual (C–f3); Pedal (C–d1)
Manual = Manual IV of the Main Organ
Pedal = Enclosed Pedal of the Main Organ (except Bassethorn, Serpent)
Cop.: Manual to Pedal Coupler

All pipes in the organ case are decorative
Tracker action (with Barker levers)

The inaugural concert with Wilhelm Bergner, Rudolf Postel, and the head of the organ class of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, Lui (Ludwig) Homilius, took place on January 19 (in the old calendar), 1884. Besides other works, the first performance of Franz Liszt’s Nun danket alle Gott (which was dedicated to the new organ of Riga Cathedral) was given.
During the following years the Walcker organ was used a great deal for recitals in Riga. Most of the guest recitalists were German organists. Among them were the blind organist M. Nathan from Hamburg, Hugo Trötschel from Weimar, and Karl August Fischer (1828–1892), the “Saxon King of the Organ” who performed on the new Walcker organ and gave an excellent report of the instrument in the German press.14

Beyond Riga
The second important center of the organ world in Latvia continued to be Jelgava. There were both German and Latvian churches there. In the German Church of the Holy Trinity the instrument (II/P/26) by Johann Friedrich Schulze (1793–1858) of Paulinzella was in use from 1850. Rudolf Postel was its organist, and also the conductor of the choir and orchestra of the Jelgava German Music Society. His concert repertoire included the music of Johannes Brahms and Niels Wilhelm Gade. Among his pupils in Jelgava were Ludvigs Betins and Jazeps Vitols.
The Latvian congregation in Jelgava worshipped in the church of St. Anna, where Atis Kaulins (1867–1944) was organist.
The most famous Latvian organbuilder over the end of the century was Martins Kreslins (Martin Kresling, d. 1911) from Jekabpils, who built about 130–140 organs and harmoniums. Some of his instruments still exist today; for example, in Bauska (1891, III/P/36), in Araisi (1904, II/P/15), in the church of Usma (1879, II/6) (the church was transferred to the holdings of the Ethnographical Museum in 1936). Another creative figure both as organist and builder, Janis Betins, undertook many experiments in the art of organ building.

19th- and 20th-century Latvian organists
In the organ classes of Russian conservatoires most of the students were representatives of the Lutheran confession. Johannes Kappel, Miina Härma, and Konstantin Türnpu from Estonia, Ludvigs Betins, Andrejs Jurjans, Alfreds Kalnins, Emils Darzins, Atis Kaulins from Latvia were students of Lui Homilius (1845–1908) at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Jacques Handschin (1886–1955) was a teacher of Janis Zalitis, Teodors Reiters, Adolfs Abele, Eduards Kalnins, Teodors Kalnins, Rudolfs Vanags, Voldemars Liepins, Janis Turss.
Many Latvian organists achieved a high standard as recitalists, and from the 1880s regularly performed in the Baltics, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Russian provinces, as Lutheran churches all over the Russian Empire had been increasingly used for concert purposes from the second half of the 19th century. Among them were: Oskars Sepskis (1850–1914), who also studied in Berlin and Dresden, and for the last 20 years of his life worked as the organist of the Old Church of St. Gertrude in Riga; Adams Ore; Ludvigs Betins; and Janis Sermukslis (1855–1913), who also studied in St. Petersburg. From the 1890s they were joined by Atis Kaulins, Pauls Jozuus, and Alfreds Kalnins.
Alfreds Kalnins lived in Liepaja from 1911 to 1915 and from 1918 to 1919. He was organist in the church of St. Anna and a conductor of the choir, which he himself organized. As a result of his activities, the new organ by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker was erected there (1913, Opus 1763, IV/P/56). The inaugural concert, the program of which included the premiere of Kalnins’s cantata Muzikai (To Music) for soloists, choir, and organ, took place on December 22, 1913.
The gifted virtuoso Nikolajs Vanadzins, who studied under Handschin from 1913 until 1917, played recitals in St. Petersburg during 1921–1922. His concert repertoire included major works by Bach, Reger, Widor, Glazunov, Lyapunov, and others. After Handschin’s emigration in 1920, he worked as the head of the organ class of the conservatoire until 1923.
For several years, from 1890 to 1900 and from 1910 to 1913 Ludvigs Betins (1856–1930) also held the post of the head of the organ class at the Moscow Conservatoire. It was on December 23, 1891, that the leading professors of the conservatoire met together in order to decide on the syllabus for the organ class. Together with Sergey Taneyev, Anton Arensky, and others, Ludvigs Betins was present at that meeting.15
Foremost among other organ students at the Moscow Conservatoire were such Latvians as Ernests Vigners (1850–1933), Marija Gubene (1872– 1947), and Elizabete Olga Francmane (1882–1967). The latter after Boris Sabaneyev’s death in 1918 for some time held the post of the head of the organ class there.16 From 1920 until her death she taught music theory at the Latvian Conservatoire.17
According to press reports,18 valuable organ compositions were written by Ludvigs Betins and Oskars Sepskis, who were also famous for their organ improvisations. Unfortunately, their organ music is lost, but one of the first Latvian organ compositions to survive was Vater unser (1875) for choir and organ by Karlis Baumanis.
The composer and organist Andrejs Jurjans lived in Khar’kov from 1882 to 1920 and was the first Latvian musician to collect and research Latvian folk music. Under the title Tautas muzikas materiali he published some 2,700 melodies that he had collected. He worked in Khar’kov in a music school and as the organist of a Latvian church, but he also took part in the concerts of the German congregation. As a composer, Jurjans composed the first symphonic works, the first cantatas, and the first instrumental concertos.
Around the turn of the 20th century, the first works for organ solo were written by such Latvian composers as Adams Ore, Nikolajs Alunans, Jazeps Vitols, Alfreds Kalnins, and others: concert pieces, chorale preludes for liturgical purposes, and miniatures for positive or harmonium. The organ was also often used as an accompanimental instrument or in ensemble, for example in Sapnojums (Dream) by Jazeps Medins for soprano, cello, harp, and organ (1901).
Adams Ore (1855–1927) received his first instruction in music from his sister and from August Pabst in Riga. He continued his studies in Stuttgart with Immanuel Faisst (organ and composition), and in Berlin with Theodor Kullak (piano). In 1882–1883 he visited Rome and Naples. In 1886 he began piano and organ concert tours in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Russia, and Finland. Soon he established his reputation as an international organ virtuoso, and critics reported upon his excellent pedal technique. He also played in Latvia, although quite seldom. Adams Ore never worked as a church musician, and most of his life was spent abroad, but he never lost his inner connection with his motherland. He became the first Latvian composer to have his organ music published. His organ compositions derive from the Romantic tradition of the 19th century.
His Andante Cantabile in F major, op. 15 (composed in the middle of the 1880s; Berlin, Simon, 1912), and written in two versions—for organ, and for harmonium—mirrors stylistically the liturgical organ music of the end of the century. His Pastorale Klusa nakts (Stille Nacht), op. 75 (Leipzig, Merseburger), follows the tradition of the lyrical romantic poem. Finally, his large-scale compositions, such as the Fantasia O sanctissima!, op. 25 (Leipzig, Merseburger), Concert Piece in D minor, op. 36, no. 1 (Baerenreiter 8421), or Choralfantasie Gaidi, mana dvesle! (Harre, meine Seele!), op. 76 (Leipzig, Merseburger), were written for a large Romantic instrument and require a skilful performer; they are characterized by touches of brilliance, pathos, and virtuosity.
Composer and conductor Nikolajs Alunans was born in Mazsesava in 1859, and his first organ lessons were from Rudolf Postel, organist of the Holy Trinity church in Jelgava. From 1882 to 1888 he studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and conducting with Anton Rubinstein at the Conservatoire in St. Petersburg. From 1893 until his death in 1919 he lived in Riga, where he gave lessons in music theory and piano, worked as a conductor at the Latvian Theatre (1898–1901), as music director of the New Latvian Theatre (1902–1905), and as the conductor of the first Latvian orchestra Eifonija (1907–1914). Besides this, from 1892 he wrote musical criticism for various newspapers. Alunans wrote a number of compositions for orchestra, choir, ensembles, and solo instruments, his only piece for the organ being Paraphrase on Robert Radecke’s Song ‘Aus der Jugendzeit’ (1908) (Baerenreiter 8421). He is also known as the author of a number of publications on different aspects of music theory.
The founder of classical Latvian music, Jazeps Vitols, after finishing his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire (1886) was invited to teach there. In 1908 he became the head of the composition class of the conservatoire (a post he held until 1918), where among his students were Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, and Igor Stravinsky; among his friends in St. Petersburg were Alexander Glazunov and Anatoly Lyadov. From 1897 to 1914 he was music critic for the German language St. Petersburger Zeitung and from 1918 to 1919 director of the Latvian Opera. In 1924 Jazeps Vitols published in Riga his collection of chorales Meldiju gramata, which included the harmonization of 143 church melodies. Among the large number of his compositions there are only two pieces for organ solo, Pastorale (1914) (Baerenreiter 8421), and Fugue (1937) (Baerenreiter 8421).

Latvia in the first period of independence (from 1918 to 1940)
Between the two World Wars, Latvian cultural life flourished. Poets such as Janis Rainis (1865–1929) and Aspazija (Elza Rozenberga) (1868–1943) achieved the height of their popularity. On January 11, 1920, the Latvian Conservatoire was established in Riga. According to the Decree of August 20, 1919, of the Latvian Government, Jazeps Vitols became the rector of the conservatoire. He held this post from 1919 to 1935 and from 1937 to 1944. Pauls Jozuus (1873–1937) became the head of the organ class of the conservatoire and was in charge of it from 1920 until his death.
Soon after that, People’s Conservatoires were established in Jelgava (1921), Daugavpils (Dünaburg, 1924), and Riga (1929). The Opera Theatre (known from 1919 as The National Opera) introduced Latvian operas as well as those of Wagner and Russian composers. Music programs with the Radio Symphony Orchestra were broadcast after its establishment in 1924.
The most famous organ recitalists of that period were Adams Ore, Adolfs Abele, Alfreds Kalnins, and Harald Creutzburg (1875–1946)—the successor of Wilhelm Bergner at Riga Cathedral (until 1933)—who also worked as the conductor of the choir of the Riga Bach Society.
At that time Latvian organ builders, as well as Herbert Kolbe (b. 1887) from Germany, built mostly small instruments. In addition to them there was August Terkmann from Estonia, who built an organ (II/P/16) for the Lutheran church of St. Anna in Kuldiga in 1927, and Waclaw Biernacki from Poland for Liksna (II/P/27+1 borrowed stop) in 1931. The latter organ was considered to be one of the best instruments in Lattgalen.
The last organ of Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Cie. in Latvia was erected in the concert hall of Riga University in 1937 (Opus 2544, III/P/59+11 borrowed stops).
Among the most significant organ compositions at that time are: Introduction and Allegro (1928), Klosteridylle (Monastery Idyll) (1928), Skerzo (1928), Procession (1937), Variations on a Theme of Janis Kalnins (1938), and Agitato (1938) (Baerenreiter 8421) by Alfreds Kalnins (1879–1951).
Kalnins received his music instructions at the Music School (Schule der Tonkunst) in Riga and from 1897 to 1901 at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, where his teachers were Anatoly Lyadov (composition) and Lui Homilius (organ). As a church musician he worked in St. Petersburg (1900–1901), between 1903–1911 and 1915–1918 in Estonia (Pärnu, Tartu), in 1911–1915 and in 1918–1919 in Liepaja, and in 1920–1923 in the church of St. Jakob in Riga, where he became famous for his brilliant and thoughtful improvisations. In 1927–1933 he lived in the USA, working there as a choir conductor and organist. From 1933 he became the organist of Riga Cathedral and held that position until 1946. From 1944 to 1948 he was the rector of the Latvian Conservatoire. While Kalnins’s output includes two operas (his Banuta, 1920, in which he used the national idiom, became the first Latvian opera), a ballet Staburags (1943), many choral compositions, instrumental works, songs, and piano pieces, his organ works are of particular value. His knowledge of the organ and his experience in organ performance helped him to create fine music for his favorite instrument.
Jazeps Medins (1877–1947) graduated in 1896 from the Siegert Musical Institute in Riga as a cellist, pianist, and violinist, and became first a teacher and then, from 1901 to 1910, the director of that institution. He composed his first symphony in Baku (Azerbaijan), where he worked as the conductor of the Opera Theatre (1916-1922). From 1922 to 1925 he held the same position at the Latvian Opera Theatre in Riga. In the 1930s he wrote a number of compositions for orchestra, instrumental pieces, and vocal music. His only known organ pieces, Three Preludes: F-sharp minor (Baerenreiter 8421), G minor, and C major, were also written during this period (1939). From 1945 until his death he taught the piano at the Latvian Conservatoire.
Other important organ works created in Latvia during the first period of independence are Fantasy on the Latvian folk song ‘Arajini, ecetaji’ (1932) by Jekabs Graubins, Prelude in E major (1939) by Arvids Zilinskis, Gebet (Prayer) (1938) by Peteris Barisons, Pastorale in A-flat major (from the First Suite in E-flat major, 1937) by Peteris Zolts, and Meditation (1934) by Lucija Garuta.
As a result of the double occupation of the country by Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War, many musicians emigrated, among them Jazeps Vitols, Janis Medins, Janis Kalnins, and Wolfgang Darzins.

From 1940 until the end of the 20th century
With the establishment of “The Union of Latvian Composers” in 1944, the creative work of composers in Latvia received official support from the government. Many valuable compositions were written soon after the end of the war, among which we should mention the Fifth (1945) and Sixth (1949) Symphonies of Janis Jvanovs (1909–1983), the Piano Concerto (1951) of Lucija Garuta, and Partita in Baroque Style (1963) of Margeris Zarins.
Between 1940 and 1991, just as in the other territories of the former Soviet Union, many organs (approximately 80) were destroyed. Nevertheless, the Wilhelm Sauer organ (II/P/17) was installed in the Latvian Conservatoire in 1973, and Eberhard Friedrich Walcker & Cie’s organ in Riga Cathedral was restored twice, first by Hermann Eule (Bautzen) (1961–1962) and then by D. A. Flentrop (1982–1984). This organ had an enormous role in the cultural life of the USSR, being a kind of flagship in the organ landscape of the whole country.
More than one generation of Soviet composers was awakened to writing for the organ by its exquisite sound. Latvian composers also produced a number of valuable organ compositions. Some interesting organ works were written by Jekabs Medins (1885–1971), Indulis Kalnins (1918–1986), Romualds Jermaks (b. 1931), Pauls Dambis (b. 1936), Peteris Vasks (b. 1946), Imants Zemzaris (b. 1951), Ligita Sneibe (Araja, b. 1962), and others.
The most renowned Latvian composer nowadays is Peteris Vasks. After graduating from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire in Vilnius (Lithuania) in double bass (1970), Vasks continued his musical studies in the composition class of Valentin Utkin at the Latvian Conservatoire in Riga (1974–1978). During the 1990s his music gained wide popularity, being performed and recorded by orchestras, soloists, and ensembles in Europe, the USA, and Canada.
Vasks has been awarded several international prizes, including the Herder Prize (in Vienna, 1996) and the Baltic Assembly Prize (1996). His compositions include a number of symphonic scores, chamber music, and works for choir. Besides ‘Cantus ad pacem’, concerto per organo solo (1984) (Baerenreiter 8421), he has created two more works for organ solo: Musica seria per organo solo (1988) and Te Deum pro organo (1991). The composer’s own words, “The organ seemed to me the most suitable instrument with which to communicate the main problem of humankind—that of life and annihilation,” probably can well explain his deep interest in this instrument.
One of the most talented Latvian musicians of his generation, Aivars Kalejs was born in Riga in 1951. He studied at the Latvian Conservatoire in Riga (1969–1977), from which he graduated in 1974 as a composer (class of Professor Adolfs Skulte) and in 1977 as an organist (class of Professor Nikolajs Vanadzins). During the succeeding years his international reputation as a recitalist, composer, and musicologist steadily continued to grow.
At present Aivars Kalejs holds the posts of organist at both the New Church of St. Gertrude and Riga Cathedral, participates in major international organ festivals, continues his researches in the field of the organ history of Latvia, and works intensively as a composer. Although his works include compositions for orchestra, choir, and different instruments, organ music occupies the central place among them. Many of his colorful and brilliant organ pieces have already been performed, recorded, and published, among them: Per aspera ad astra (Baerenreiter 8421).
The organist of the church of St. Paul in Riga, Atis Stepins, belongs among the most gifted Latvian musicians of the younger generation. Born in Liepaja in 1958, he graduated from the Latvian Conservatoire as a pianist (1977–1982, in the class of Professor Konstantin Blumenthal) and organist (1977–1982, in the class of Larisa Bulava and Dozent Peteris Sipolnieks) and as a composer (1983–1987, in the class of Professor Adolfs Skulte).
His reputation as a concert organist was established after he won Second Prize in the Vincenzo Petrali organ competition in Ragusa, Italy in 1990. Besides his activities as a recitalist he works as the dozent of the organ class at the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music.
Stepins is the composer of a string quartet, piano pieces (among them Twenty Four Inventions), and chamber music: Variations for Violin and Organ (1988); Trio for Alto Saxophone, Percussion, and Organ (1997). Apart from the Variations on the Christmas Carol ‘Alle Jahre wieder’ by Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck (Baerenreiter 8421), his other pieces for organ are: Fantasia in A major (1984), Three Little Preludes and Fugues (1985), and Symphonic Poem for Two Organists (1986).
The organ class of the Latvian Conservatoire (known from 1990 as the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music) was directed by Nikolajs Vanadzins from 1938 to 1978, and many graduates from it became known as concert organists: Peteris Sipolnieks (1913–1984), Olgerts Cintins (1935–1992), Jevgenija Lisicina, Professor Talivaldis Deksnis (currently head of the organ class of the academy), Larisa Bulava, Vita Kalnciema, and others.
Finally, as a fitting tribute to the long developmental path of the organ and its music in Latvia, the Latvian Association of Organists and Organ Builders was established in Riga in March 1998.

Alexander Fiseisky

Alexander Fiseisky, born in Moscow, is one of the most famous and influential organists in Russia. He graduated with distinction from the Moscow Conservatoire as pianist and organist. He is an organ soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic Society, head of the organ class at the Russian Gnessins’ Academy of Music in Moscow, and president of the Vladimir Odoyevsky Organ Center. He organized and served as artistic director for organ festivals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, and Tallinn, among others. In 1997 he was honored by President Yeltsin with the title ‘Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation’. Fiseisky has given concerts in more than 30 countries. In the Bach Anniversary Year of 2000 he played J. S. Bach’s entire organ works, twice in the context of EXPO 2000 in Hannover, and once in a single day in Düsseldorf as a Bach Marathon. Sought after as a juror in international competitions, he has directed seminars and masterclasses in Europe and the USA. He is the dedicatee of numerous compositions, including works by Mikhail Kollontai, Vladimir Ryabov, Milena Aroutyunova, and Walther Erbacher. A musicologist, he has edited anthologies of organ music of Russia and of the Baltics (Bärenreiter-Verlag). He has many recordings to his credit, including the complete organ works of J. S. Bach.

1. Historical Sketch
Until the 13th century, the indigenous people of the territories of modern Estonia suffered numerous invasions from the West, the South, and the East. Nevertheless, they were able to keep their independence, and the Estonian language emerged in the sixth century. During the 13th and 14th centuries the Estonians were Christianized, in the course of which the southern parts of Estonia were divided in 1224 between the German Schwertbrüderorden (a military-religious order) and the bishops of Dorpat and Ösel. The northern part of the country, together with the city of Reval (Tallinn) founded by German merchants in 1230, was under Danish rule from 1238 to 1346.
The country was ruled by the Teutonic Knights and local bishops, who were supported by the merchants of the towns and the landed gentry. This ruling class was almost entirely ethnic German, and the native Estonian farmers fell by degrees into bondage. The church, showing no interest in the Estonian language, had only limited influence on the local people until the Reformation, when, during the 1520s, the Estonian people began to take a more active part in church life.
As a result of the Livonian war (1558–83), the Order of the Teutonic Knights collapsed. The northern part of Estonia was occupied by Sweden, the southern part brought under Polish–Lithuanian rule, while the island of Saaremaa remained Danish. From 1645, all Estonian territory was under Swedish jurisdiction. After the Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War (1700–21), which was accompanied by a devastating plague, Estonia fell under Russian rule, remaining a part of the Russian Empire until 1917.
Under these circumstances, Estonian culture always developed under the influence of the ruling nations, that of the Germans being particularly strong. The Baltic German aristocracy, the clergy, and the merchants of the Hanseatic League maintained their privileged position in Estonian society, even when the Baltic territories were controlled by Poland, Sweden, or Russia. The church’s administration in Lutheran Estonia from the 16th century until Estonia’s declaration of independence in 1918 was, for instance, always headed by Germans.

2. Organs in Estonia from the 13th to the 16th century
Early Estonian music developed in monasteries and church schools, founded even during the subjugation of the Estonian tribes by foreign invaders. Twelfth-century unison church hymns written in neume notation can be found in liturgy books preserved in the Tallinn City Archives. In 13th-century sources, the main churches of Tallinn are mentioned for the first time: the Cathedral of St. Mary (1219); St. Nicholas’ Church (1230); and St. Olai’s Church (1267). It is evident that organs began to spread in parallel with the growing influence of the church in Estonia. However, the first documented reference to organs in Estonian territories dates only from 1329: in Paistu and Helme (northern Livonia) organs were destroyed by enemy action.1 Some years later (1341), an organist working for a church in Tallinn is mentioned.2
After the great fire, which almost completely destroyed Tallinn on 11 May 1433, a new organ was built in St. Nicholas’ Church (Niguliste) by the organ builder “Orgelmaker” Albrecht; it was later rebuilt in 1489 by Hermann Stüwe from Wismar and six assistants. Most of the organ builders working in Estonia during this period came from the Hanseatic cities of North Germany. Around 1500, the church of St. Nicholas, the largest and wealthiest church in the influential Hanseatic city of Tallinn, boasted a total of three organs3: the first on the west wall; the second in St. Antonius’ chapel; and the third in the chancel, built in 1502 by the local organ builder and Dominican monk Peter Schmidt.4 Tradition hands down the name of one more local “Maker of Organs”: Yllies. His name is mentioned in the report of the treasurer of St. Olai’s Church (Oleviste) in 1540.5
A new organ in St. Nicholas’ Church was built in 1547 by a certain “Meister Hans.” In 1584 this organ was enlarged by the organ builder Bartolt (Bartold) Fiehoff (Viehoff, Fehoff)6 and fitted with a Rückpositiv.7 Between 1588 and 1590 the same builder built an organ of 38 stops for St. Olai’s Church.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, positive organs became fashionable among the wealthier nobility, citizens, and town officials. For instance, in 1499 the “Domherr” and “Stadtschreiber” (Town Clerk) Magister Christianus Czernekow bequeathed his positive organ to the organist Matthias: “ . . . Item domino Mathie, organiste in summo, positivum stantem in camera mea . . .”8 The above-mentioned Bartolt Fiehoff also built a positive organ in 1585–86 for the church of St. Johannis in Tartu (Dorpat).
With the spread of Protestantism, church music in Estonia acquired new significance. Lutheran hymns, accompanied by the organ, became the musical basis of the liturgy. Following the guidelines of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon about education, the Latin school at St. Olai’s Church in Tallinn was reorganized in 1528 as a Lutheran town school (Stadtschule). Its curriculum included basic studies of Protestant music. Choral singing was practiced under the direction of the Kantor—a special teacher who also became responsible for the musical accompaniment of the church services. Gradually the Kantors became the main figures in the cities’ music life. The first Protestant Kantor in Tallinn whose name has come down to us was Petrus Mellin (1531–2).
After the Reformation, the Tallinn churches of St. Nicholas and St. Olai became the focus of cultural life. In the second half of the 16th century, the choir of St. Nicholas’ Church, consisting of about 50 members, performed vocal music from handwritten Kantionalien (liturgical books) by Lukas Lossius, Jacob Meiland, Melchior Vulpius, Hieronymus Praetorius, and others.

3. Culture, religion and musical life in the 17th and 18th centuries
In 1630, the Swedish King Gustavus Adolfus II established a Gymnasium in Tartu for the purpose of strengthening Protestantism. Two years later this Gymnasium was transformed into a university (Academia Gustaviana) and became the most important center of cultural life in Estonia. In Tartu, for the first time in the history of the country, the music of an Estonian folk song was printed (Friedrich Menius, Syntagma de origine livonorum, Dorpat 1635). Another important publication appeared in Tartu in 1640, the Oratio de musica of Jacob Lotichius, who later became the Kantor of the Cathedral School in Riga (Latvia). Concerts and theatrical performances regularly took place in the University of Tartu.
The churches continued to be centers of musical life, the concerts that regularly took place there being contributed by choir, organ, solo singers, and the musicians in the service of the town. It should be noted that organists in Estonia maintained a privileged position compared with town musicians. While the latter received a payment of 20 Taler per year (with three tons of rye and other food in addition), the organists of the Tallinn churches of St. Nicholas and St. Olai in the middle of the 17th century received 100 Taler a year (as well as accommodation and other benefits).9
Much attention was paid to church music; for instance, St. Johannis, the main church in Tartu, employed two organists in the 1680s—one of them, the cantor figuralis, being responsible for the choir, the other, the cantor choralis, for hymn singing.
Use of the Estonian language had also grown. The first attempts at translating Lutheran hymns into Estonian had already been made in the 16th century, while the earliest surviving historical source in the Estonian language is Pastor Henrico Stahl’s anthology of religious hymns, Hand- und Haußbuch Für die Pfarherren und Haußväter Esthnischen Fürstenthumbs (Handbook and Domestic Book for the Clergy and Nobility in Estonia, 1632–38). The first collection of music was published in Estonia (in 1637) by Tallinn’s Gymnasium (founded in 1631 by Gustavus Adolfus II). From the end of the 17th century, lessons at schools were increasingly held in the mother tongue. The New Testament was translated into Estonian in 1686, followed by the entire Bible in 1739.
Country parish churches established the post of sacristan (Küster in German, köster in Estonian), whose duties included instructing young people in reading and writing, prayers, and singing hymns. In 1684 Bengt Gottfried Forselius founded a seminary near Tartu to train young people for such posts, and from the 19th century the köster was also the village schoolmaster and organist.
A tendency towards secular influences is noticeable in the art and religious life of that time. The decorative depiction of saints on organ cases was replaced by allegories from non-religious art. The organ gallery in the chancel of St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn, finished in 1639, was decorated with seven wooden sculptures. The “Allegory of Music” was placed in the middle between six other female figures. Together they portrayed the seven fine arts (septem artes liberales).
Important among organ builders working in Estonia at this time were Johannes Pauli (Pawels, Paulus) from Riga, who built and repaired several organs in Tallinn and Kuressaare (Arensburg) between 1611 and 1644, the Swede Andres Bruse (mid-17th century), and above all Christopher Meinecke (Christoff Mencke) from Lübeck, who, working first with Bruse, was active in Tartu until 1645, and from 1660 in Tallinn (St. Nicholas, III/P/3010, 1668).

Tallinn, St. Nicholas’ Church
Christopher Meinecke (Christoff Mencke), 1668 (does not exist)
HAUPTWERK (upper manual)
16' Principal
16' Quinta-Thön
8' Octava
8' Rohrflöte (4'')
4' Super-Octava
2' Rausch-Pfeife
Mixtur IV–V
16' Trommet
8' Trommet
RÜCKPOSITIV (lower manual)
8' Principal
8' Gedackt
4' Octava
4' Gedackt
Tertian II
Scharf III
8' Krumbhorn
8' Dulcian
BRUSTWERK (played from the upper manual)
8' Quinta-Thön
4' Gedackt
2' Octava
Sesquialtera II
8' Regal
PEDAL
16' Untersatz
8' Octava
8' Gedackt
4' Gedackt
16' Posaune
16' Fagotto
8' Trommet
4' Cornet

Tremolo
Koppel

Sources:
Leonid Rojman, Organnaja kul’tura 'stonii [The Organ Culture of Estonia], Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo [State Musical Publishing House] 1960, p. 84.
Hugo Lepnurm, Istorija organa i organnoj muzyki, Kazan’ 1999, p. 74 (translation of the Estonian original “Oreli ja orelimuusika ajaloost,” Tallinn 1971 [“On the History of the Organ and Organ Music”]).
During the Great Northern War (1700–21), almost all organs in the Estonian territories were destroyed. There is a reference to only one organ preserved in a small church in Mänspä on the island of Hiiumaa (Dagö), built by an unknown organ builder at the beginning of the 18th century. After the war and until the end of the century, most of the existing organs were in poor condition because of the country’s extraordinary poverty. Only a few installations or renovations of organs are known; Gottfried Kloos (Clossen, Klossen, Kloss, died 1740), an organ builder from Danzig, installed a Vox humana stop and a Zimbelstern in the main organ of St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn (1720–21).
In the 1780s, the organ builder Johann Friedrich Gräbner from Bremen, who later became a citizen of Tallinn, began working in Estonia. He also built harpsichords, clavichords, lutes, harps and fortepianos. In April 1789, he visited St. Petersburg and handed over plans for two organs with 45 and 60 stops to Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potyomkin (1739–91). Shortly before that, he had finished an organ for the Cathedral of St. Mary in Tallinn and brought a report about his work to St. Petersburg:

We, the undersigned members of the council of the church “de la Noblesse” and the Cathedral, certify by this document that Johann Friedrich Gräbner, an organ builder, designed and built a wonderful and majestic organ [ . . . ], which gained the endorsement of all experts.11
The most famous organ builder in the Baltics in the 18th century was Heinrich Andreas Contius (1708–92). Between 1764 and 1771, he built a new organ in St. Olai, Tallinn (III/P/60)12 (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart gives the starting date as 176713). Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler played this organ on his way from Stockholm to Moscow in 1787; according to his report he “never encountered a better organ.”14
Contius’s son-in-law, Johann Andreas Stein (1752–1821), born in Karlsruhe, established his own workshop in Pärnu (Pernau) at the end of the century. In 1805, he installed an organ in the church of Kihelkonna on the island Saaremaa. This instrument, with a case in the late rococo style, is the oldest church organ in Estonia still preserved.

The Church of Kihelkonna
Johann Andreas Stein, I/P/14 (Pärnu), 1805
Friedrich Weissenborn, II. Manual (J'kabpils [Jacobstadt], Latvia), 1890
I. MANUAL (C–f³)
16' Bourdon
8' Principal
8' Gedackt
8' Gamba
4' Octave
4' Flöte
2 2/3' Quint
2' Octave
Mixtur II–III
8' Trompete
II. MANUAL (C–f³)
8' Geigenprincipal
8' Hohlflöte
8' Piano
4' Geigenprincipal
PEDAL (C–c¹)
16' Subbass
8' Principalbass
4' Octave
8' Posaune

II/I, I/Ped.
II. Manual in Swell Box

Sources:
Leonid Rojman, Organnaja kul’tura 'stonii [The Organ Culture of Estonia], Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo [State Musical Publishing House] 1960, p. 85.
Andreas Uibo and Jüri Kuuskemaa, Historical Organs in Estonia, Lilienthal/Bremen (Eres Edition 2408) 1994, p. 72.
Among the foremost musicians in 17th-century Estonia was Johann Valentin Meder (1649–1719). Born in Wassungen on the Werra, he worked as a Kantor in the Tallinn Gymnasium (1674–83), and was a prolific composer. The first performance of his Singspiel Die beständige Argenia took place in Tallinn in 1680.
Notable contributions to the development of the art of the organ in Estonia were also made by Erasmus Pogatz (organist at St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn 1583–1630), Christopher Asmes (organist at St. Olai’s Church in the first half of the 17th century), and representatives of the Busbetzky musical dynasty. The most important of the latter was Ludwig Busbetzky, a pupil of Dietrich Buxtehude and from 1687 to 1699 organist at the German church in Narva.
Playing the organ became widespread in private homes from the middle of the 17th century. Organists were evidently invited to play at weddings there, for in 1665 a special decree was issued by the Tallinn Magistracy emphasizing that: “ . . . at weddings of housemaids only two musicians and an organist should play, and each of them should receive two Taler for his work.” In 1777, August Wilhelm Hupel, a member of the Independent Economics Society founded in St. Petersburg in 1765, wrote about organists coming from rural families: “ . . . our farmers are not completely without a musical ear: nobles have sent them to study and now they can satisfactorily accompany dances.”15
Musical life became more active in the second half of the 18th century, when it became fashionable to take music lessons and to give concerts in private homes. One instrument that was probably played on such occasions, a positive organ built by Johann Karl Thal from Antsla (I/2, 1795), is now exhibited in the Theatre and Music Museum in Tallinn.
Established by Carl Christian Aghte, the Hündelberger Theater-Kompanie (1776–82) performed the first Singspiels under his direction. In 1784, August von Kotzebue founded the Tallinn Liebhaber-Theater, known from 1809 as the Staendiges (“Permanent”) Theatre, where such works as Mozart’s operas Die Zauberflöte (1795') and Don Giovanni (1797) were performed.

4. Estonia in the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century
The 19th century brought momentous changes to Estonia. The abolition of serfdom between 1816 and 1819 by Tsar Alexander I (reigned 1801–25) was the decisive step towards liberating the Estonian peasants from the grip of their Baltic German landlords; however, it took several decades before the peasants came into the possession of their farms. In the course of agrarian reform and development of the education system, national self-awareness began to awaken. It was during Alexander II’s reign (1855–81) that the Estonian national movement came into being. Its leaders saw it as their main task to develop Estonia culturally, but step by step the movement became increasingly more political. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Estonians demanded cultural and political autonomy, but the Tsarist government refused any concession. It took the collapse of the Russian Empire to create the conditions for the emergence of an independent Estonia, proclaimed on February 24, 1918.
Against this background, concert-giving activity in Estonia steadily expanded. In Tallinn, compositions of the Viennese classical period were performed, among them Mozart’s Requiem (1814) and Haydn’s Creation (1817). In 1819 and 1821, compositions by Peter Andreas Johann Steinsberg using folk melodies and folk dances were performed in the Estonian language for the first time: Häbbi sellel’, kes petta tahhab (“Shame on One Who Wants to Cheat”) and Krappi kaie willetsus, ehk: Kes paljo lobbiseb, peab paljo wastama (“Krappi Kais’ Need, or: Who Chatters Much Has Much to Answer”).
Many famous musicians performed in Estonia, among them Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt, Sigismund Thalberg, and Anton Rubinstein, while the conductor Arthur Nikisch brought the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra to Tallinn in 1899.
Among composers particularly active in Estonia in the first half of the 19th century was Johann Friedrich de La Trobe (1769–1845), who came from Chelsea near London. From 1829 he worked as a music teacher in Tartu; in 1834 he conducted Handel’s Alexander’s Feast in St. Johannis Church there with more than a hundred singers, and in 1835 he founded the Tartu Choral Society, to promote the development of choral music in the town. De La Trobe’s works included mainly sacred vocal compositions, as well as piano and chamber music. His son-in-law Woldemar von Bock (1816–1903) studied law in Tartu before living in Riga (1857–66) and afterwards in Quedlinburg. His collection, Chorale Studies for the Organ, was published in Erfurt in 1855.
The surviving organ works of de La Trobe (the Chorale Preludes, 1805, and the Fughettas, 1798, from the early period of his life)—as well as those of von Bock—are of little artistic value.
The national epic poem Kalevipoeg (“Kalev’s Son”) by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, written between 1857 and 1861, became a landmark in Estonian literature. Poetry became the most important genre, represented by Lydia Koidula-Jannsen, Ado Reinwald, Mihkel Veske, Marie Under, and Betti Alver.
In 1841, the pianist Theodor Stein (1819–93) and Ferdinand Johann Wiedermann founded the Musical Society, followed by such associations as the Men’s Choral Society of Reval (1849), the Reval Choral Union (1854), the Harmony (1858), and the Jäkelsche Choral Union (1859). The art of choral performance developed rapidly, reaching its zenith in 1869, when the First Song Festival (Üldlaulupidu) took place in Tartu, involving 1,000 singers and an audience of 15,000. It was initiated by the journalist Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819–90). Here for the first time choral works by Aleksander Saebelmann-Kunileid (1845–75) were performed, settings of patriotic poems by Lydia Koidula-Jannsen (1843–86): Mu isamaa on minu arm (“My Native Land, My Dearest Love”) and Sind surmani (“I’ll Cherish You till Death”).
In 1827, Eduard Philipp Körber published his Little Estonian Hymnal in the Tartu Dialect (Das kleine ehstnische Choralbuch in Dörptscher ehstnischer Sprache). Soon afterwards, Johann Leberecht Ehregott Punschel (1778–1849) presented the Evangelical Chorale Book Appropriate to German, Latvian and Estonian Hymnbooks in the Russian Baltic Provinces (Evangelische Choralbuch zunächst in Bezug auf die deutschen, lettischen und estnischen Gesangbücher der russischen Ostsee-Provinzen) (Leipzig, 1839). This book included 363 chorales. Its second, extended edition was issued in 1844.
These collections of hymns were complemented by tutorial books in the Estonian language for those who wanted to learn to play the klavier. One of the first books of this kind was the unfinished work by Johann Heinrich Rosenplänter (1782–1846), How One Can Learn to Play the Piano [and the Organ] (Õppetus kuida klawwerit [ja orelit] mängida) (manuscript, 1830).16 A little later, the Saxon Johann August Hagen (1786–1877), who from 1815 was the organist at St. Olai’s Church in Tallinn,17 published his instructive book Instruction on How Singing People, and Whoever Else Wishes, Can Learn to Bring Forth Songs from the Written Notes, in Order to Play Them on the House Organ and to Sing Themselves, As Well As Together with Their Pupils (Õppetus, kuida laulomehhed, ja kes muud tahtwad, joudwad notidest laulo wisid ülleswõtta, lauloerrelatte peäl mängides ja nende järrel lauldes, ni hästi nemmad isse, kui ka nende õppetus lapsed) (Tallinn, 1841). In 1861, a new work by Hagen was published: A Guide to Organ Playing for Those Who Wish to Attain the Position of Country Organist and to Prepare Themselves for It (Juhhataja errela mängimisseks neile, kes maal errela mängimisse ammetid noudwad ja ennast selle wasto tahtwad walmistada); and finally, the textbook of Andreas Erlemann, Instruction in Music (Musika õppetus), was published in 1864, placing special emphasis on the organ.
In addition to these theoretical works by Hagen and Erlemann, the large number of chamber organs built by self-taught enthusiasts had a significant influence on the musical education of the people. As a rule, most of these instruments had only wooden pipes. At the end of the 19th century, hardly any sizable family in Estonia did not possess a chamber organ. Schools contributed much to the spreading of music, as they also possessed organs. Thus the organ in Estonia really became the folk instrument.
Organs of a larger scale were built by Carl Tanton, as well as by the Germans Ernst Kessler and Wilhelm Müllverstedt, who had settled in Tartu. Some of their church organs are still preserved in Kullamaa (C. Tanton, I/P/12, 1854), Otepää (E. Kessler, I/P/12, 1853), Vigala (W. Müllverstedt, II/P/14, 1886), and other Estonian towns.
The Church of Vigala
Wilhelm Müllverstedt, II/P/14. Originally the organ was built for the church of St. Peter in Tartu (1886); was moved to Vigala in 1888.
I. MANUAL (C–f³)
16' Bordun
8' Principal
8' Gedackt
8' Gambe
4' Principal
4' Flöte
4' Spitzflöte
2 2/3' Quinte
2' Octav
Mixtur IV
II. MANUAL (C–f³)
Phisharmonika
PEDAL (C–d¹)
16' Subbass
8' Principal
8' Bassflöte

Calcant
Sperrventil Pedal
Pedal Coupler

Source:
Andreas Uibo and Jüri Kuuskemaa, Historical Organs in Estonia, Lilienthal/Bremen (Eres Edition 2408) 1994, p. 78.

Müllverstedt had often been in St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he repaired and tuned, in particular, the house organ “Sebastianon”18 of the Prince Vladimir Odoyevsky, and the old organ (1889) in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. As Professor Alexander Fyodorovich Goedicke (1877–1957) remembered, in the 1890s the Tartu master regularly visited towns in central Russia to tune and repair organs. There were about 60 organs in Russia in the care of Müllverstedt.19
Gustav Normann (1825–93), a very productive organ builder, was the founder of the “organ building school” in Northern Estonia. He built one of his more significant works for St. Johannis’ Church in Tallinn (III/P/40, 1869).20 Others of his surviving instruments include those in Harju-Madise (I/P/7, 1859) and Simuna (II/P/20, 1886).
Normann’s successors were the father and son Gustav and August Terkmann. Gustav (1855–1911) founded his own organ workshop in Tallinn in 1882 and produced mainly small organs with tracker action for village churches. One of his instruments (II/P/13, 1902) can be seen in Järva-Madise.
His son, organ builder August Terkmann (1885–1940), who had been a trainee of Laukhuff, used pneumatic and electropneumatic action in his instruments. Active in the Estonian countryside, as well as in St. Petersburg, Astrakhan and Simbirsk, he also built some larger organs in Tallinn, in particular for the Estonia concert hall (III/P/56 + 3 borrowed stops, 1913)21 and in St. Johannis’ Church, (III/P/36 + 23 borrowed stops, 1914).22

Tallinn, The Estonia Concert Hall
August Terkmann, III/P/56 + 3 borrowed stops, 1913 (does not exist)
I. MANUAL
16' Principal
8' Principal
8' Seraphon-gambe
8' Hohlflöte
8' Rohrflöte
8' Gemshorn
4' Octave
4' Rohrflöte
2' Octave
2 2/3' Quinte
Mixtur III
8' Trompete
II. MANUAL
16' Bourdun-doux
16' Quintatön
8' Principal
8' Bourdun
8' Quintatön
8' Traversflöte
8' Gamba*
8' Salicional
8' Unda maris
4' Principal
4' Traversflöte
4' Salicional
2' Waldflöte
Cornett III–IV
8' Clarinette
8' Basson
III. MANUAL
16' Lieblichgedackt*
8' Geigenprincipal
8' Gedackt
8' Flauto amabile
8' Gamba
8' Viola d’amour
8' Aeoline
8' Vox celestis
4' Fugare
4' Flauto dolce
2' Flautino
Harmonia aetheria III
Cornett IV
16' Fagott*
8' Trompete
8' Oboe
8' Vox humana
4' Clairon
PEDAL
32' Untersatz
16' Principalbaß
16' Violonbaß
16' Subbaß
16' Gedecktbaß (* Manual III)
8' Octavbaß
8' Cello (* II)
8' Flöte
8' Dolce
4' Flöte
(102'3' Quinte)**
16' Posaune
16' Fagott (* Manual III)

* Borrowed stops
** Thus in the source

Source:
Leonid Rojzman, Organnaja kul’tura 'stonii [The Organ Culture of Estonia], Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe muzykal’noe izdatel’stvo [State Musical Publishing House] 1960, pp. 85–86.

The large German companies were very productive in Estonia, above all
E. F. Walcker & Co. and Wilhelm Sauer. Walcker built two large organs in Tallinn: St. Olai (III/P/65, 1842) and St. Nicholas (III/P/43, 1895). Of the most important Sauer instruments to have been preserved, that in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Tallinn, is noteworthy (III/P/71 + 2 borrowed stops, 1914).

Tallinn, Cathedral of St. Mary
Wilhelm Sauer, III/P/71 + 2 borrowed stops (Frankfurt/Oder, Germany), Opus 1171, 1914
I. MANUAL (C–a³)
16' Principal
16' Bordun
8' Principal
8' Gamba
8' Doppelflöte
8' Flauto amabile
8' Quintatön
8' Gemshorn
8' Gedackt
8' Dolce
51'3' Nasard
4' Rohrflöte
4' Gemshorn
4' Octave
2' Waldflöte
Mixtur III
Cornett III
8' Trompete
II. MANUAL (C–a³)
16' Gedackt
16' Salicional
8' Dulciana
8' Rohrflöte
8' Salicional
8' Koncertflöte
8' Viola
8' Flauto traverso
8' Principal
4' Dolce
4' Flauto amabile
4' Principal
2 2/3' Nasard
2' Piccolo
Progress II–III
Cymbel III–IV
8' Klarinette
III. MANUAL (C–a³)
16' Gedackt*
16' Gamba
8' Voix celeste
8' Aeoline
8' Gemshorn
8' Gedackt
8' Viola d’amour
8' Quintatön
8' Flauto amabile*
8' Portunalflöte
8' Schalmei
8' Geigenprincipal
4' Flauto dolce
4' Salicet
4' Fugara
2' Flautino
Harmonia aetheria III
8' Aeolodian
8' Oboe
8' Trompete
PEDAL (C–f¹)
32' Untersatz
16' Lieblich Gedackt (* Manual III)
16' Gemshorn
16' Subbass
16' Quintatön
16' Violon
16' Principal
102'3' Quinte
8' Dulciana (* Manual III)
8' Gemshorn
8' Bassflöte
8' Cello
8' Principal
4' Flauto
4' Principal
16' Posaune
8' Trompete
4' Clairon

* Borrowed stops

III/II, III/I, II/I
III/Ped., II/Ped., I/Ped.

Sub-octave Coupler II/I
Super-octave Coupler II/I
General Coupler

Prepared Combinations: Piano, Mezzoforte, Forte
3 Free Combinations
Crescendo Roller
Swell Pedal for Manual III and Lieblich Gedackt 16', Dulciana 8' (Ped.)

Piano Pedal
Mezzoforte Pedal
Forte Pedal

Stops Off
Reeds Off
Pedal Couplers Off
Crescendo Off

Pneumatic Action

Restoration: Orgelwerkstatt Christian Scheffler (Frankfurt/Oder, Germany), 1998

This organ incorporates many elements of an earlier instrument by Friedrich Ladegast (III/P/51, 1878). Ladegast built also a number of organs in provincial towns, of which the instrument in the Town Church of St. Johannis (II/P/21, 1867) in Valga (Walk) should be first of all mentioned.

Valga, Town Church of St. Johannis
Friedrich Ladegast, II/P/21, 1867

I. MANUAL (C–f³)
16' Bordun
8' Principal
8' Doppelflöte
8' Flauto traverso
8' Viola d’amour
4' Rohrflöte
4' Salicional
2' Octave
Cornett III
Mixtur IV

II. MANUAL (C–f³)
8' Lieblich Gedackt
8' Gamba
8' Bassflöte
4' Principal
4' Flauto amabile
2 2/3' Quinte
2' Waldflöte
PEDAL (C–d¹)
16' Subbass
16' Violon
8' Cello
16' Posaune

II/I, I/Ped., II/Ped.

Source:
Andreas Uibo and Jüri Kuuskemaa, Historical Organs in Estonia, Lilienthal/Bremen (Eres Edition 2408) 1994, p. 78.

Other German organ builders who also worked in Estonia include E. Ch. Lemke (Narva, 1837); Guido Knauff from Coburg (Viljandi [Fellin], St. Paul’s Church, II/P/31, 1866); and the brothers Schwalbenberg.
Of great interest is the activity of another Estonian organ building dynasty, that of the three brothers Tannil, Juhan, and Jakob Kriisa. From Haanja in southeast Estonia, they continued an old popular tradition by building first smaller organs. Slowly their business expanded, their sons joined the firm, and at the beginning of the 20th century their instruments were to be found all over Estonia; one of their biggest was installed in the church in Võru (1910).
The importance of the organ in Estonian music is underlined by the fact that almost all significant Estonian composers were organists. This is particularly true in the older generation such as Johannes Kappel (1855–1907), Konstantin Türnpu (1865–1927), and Miina Härma (1864–1941), all of whom were graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, where their organ professor was Louis (Ludwig) Homilius (1845–1908).
Having finished his conservatoire studies in 1881, Kappel became the organist at the Dutch church in St. Petersburg. In later life he remained connected with that city, conducted Estonian choirs, and regularly took part in song festivals in Tallinn and Tartu.
Türnpu finished his studies in 1891 and became organist at St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. As a choir trainer, he was unequalled in Estonia at that time. His choir performed major works of the central classical repertoire, such as J. S. Bach’s B-minor Mass, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and others.
Härma (who graduated in 1890) became an active recitalist not only in Estonia and Russia, but also beyond their borders. The inclusion of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, and Reger in her programs introduced these organ classics to the Estonian public.
Kappel, Türnpu and Härma composed neither symphonic nor organ music. Their works consist mainly of choral music and solo songs. The first Estonian symphonic music was written around 1900 by the succeeding generation.
Rudolf Tobias (1873–1918) composed in 1896 the tragic overture Julius Caesar, and Artur Kapp (1878–1952) a dramatic overture, Don Carlos, in 1899. Both musicians were graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, the artistic traditions of which, represented in the music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov, and Glazunov, deeply influenced Estonian music.
Tobias, the founder of classical Estonian music, was born into a sacristan’s family in the village of Käina in 1873. He received his first music instruction from his father. From 1893 to 1897, he studied organ with Homilius and composition with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. For a diploma, he submitted the cantata Johannes Damascenus for mixed choir, male voice choir, soloists, organ, and symphony orchestra. Having finished his studies, he became the choirmaster and organist at the Estonian church of St. Johannis in St. Petersburg. He was held in high regard as a performer and improviser.
In autumn 1904, he settled in Tartu and there conducted symphony and choral concerts, gave music lessons, and wrote articles on music, thus inspiring Estonian musicology. In 1908, he moved to Leipzig, and then from 1910 lived in Berlin, where he published articles as a music critic in (for example) the Deutsche Allgemein Musikzeitung. From 1912 onwards, he taught music theory at the Royal Music Academy (Königliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik). He died in 1918 in Berlin.
Besides the overture Julius Caesar and the cantata Johannes Damascenus, his output includes a concerto for piano and orchestra, string quartets, chamber music, and vocal compositions. For organ, Tobias wrote more than thirty preludes and choral arrangements, Fugue in D minor, Largo, Prelude and Fughetta in C minor, as well as a Concerto for Organ and Orchestra in F minor. He made use of the organ in almost all of his large choral works—in the oratorios On the Other Side of the Jordan, Jonah’s Mission, the cantata Johannes Damascenus, and others.
Artur Kapp, a classical master of Estonian music, was born in Suure-Jaani in 1878. He received his first instruction in music from his father, a village sacristan. After graduating in 1898 from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, studying organ with Homilius, he continued his studies there in the composition class of Rimsky-Korsakov (diploma in 1900), and then for a few years he worked as the second organist (as assistant to Homilius) at the Lutheran church of St. Peter in St. Petersburg.
From 1904 to 1920, he was director of the music college and head of the local department of the Russian Musical Society in Astrakhan. In 1920, he became the musical director of the Estonia theatre and a teacher at the Tallinn Conservatoire (from 1925 professor of composition). Among his pupils were Edgar Arro, Gustav Ernesaks, Eugen Kapp, Riho Päts, Villem Reiman, and others. He died in 1952 in Suure-Jaani.
His output includes symphonic works and oratorios, concertos and compositions for different instruments, as well as chamber and vocal music. His organ works are of great importance; the first was the Sonata in F minor, which Kapp wrote while studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire (1897). This was followed by Variations on a Chorale Theme (1902), two concertos for organ and orchestra (1934 and 1946), a trio for violin, cello, and organ (1936), the Sonata in D major (1948), choral fantasias, and other compositions.
In Kapp’s truly independent works, various stylistic influences are obvious. His style attempts to combine the tradition of the classical Viennese school, polyphony and a Romantic internationalism.
Homilius’s predecessor as head of the organ department of the St. Petersburg conservatoire, Heinrich Stiehl (1829–86), had lived in Tallinn since 1880, being the organist of St. Olai. Besides the above-mentioned musicians, Louis Homilius was also the teacher of such renowned composers of Estonian music as August Topman (1882–1968), Mart Saar (1882–1963), and Mihkel Lüdig.
Mihkel Lüdig was born in Reiu in 1880. He received his first instruction in music from Max Peters, the organist at Pärnu. In 1897, he began his studies at the Moscow Conservatoire, but in the next year moved to St. Petersburg, where he graduated from the conservatoire organ class (of Homilius) in 1904. His other teachers there were Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Solovyov (composition), and Czerny (piano). After graduating the conservatoire, Lüdig worked in St. Petersburg as an organist and choirmaster. From 1912 to 1914, he was solo organist in Count Sheremetyev’s symphony orchestra. Lüdig’s organ recitals were always well received by both experts and press. Honored by the composer’s request to give the first performance of Alexander Glazunov’s first organ work, the Prelude and Fugue in D major, op. 93 (1906), he did so in the Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire on January 29, 1907. In 1917, Lüdig moved to Tallinn, where in 1919 he established the Higher Music School, of which he became the director (1919–23). At the same time, he was the organist of the Charles’ Church in Tallinn (until 1924). He spent three years in Argentina and returned to Tallinn in 1928. From 1934 until his death in 1958, he lived in the village of Vändra.
Mihkel Lüdig’s output includes symphonic works and oratorios, as well as chamber and vocal music; his choral compositions are of great importance. Apart from Three Fugues for Organ (1946), Lüdig composed another work with organ (or piano) accompaniment: the romance In Remembrance of Mother.
Among the pupils of Louis Homilius, the talented Peeter Süda should also be mentioned. Born on the island of Saaremaa (Ösel) in Lümanda district in 1883, Süda studied organ at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire from 1902 to 1911 (first with Homilius, and, after the latter’s death in 1908, with Jacques Handschin). In 1912, he passed the final examination in composition, his teachers being Anatoly Lyadov, Nikolai Solovyov, and Alexander Glazunov. After completing his education, Süda lived in Tallinn, gave private music lessons, and performed as a solo organist. Even as a student, his organ playing was praised. It is known that Professor J'zeps V'tols, for instance, said of Süda’s playing in the final examination, “What playing! Precise, clear cut, pure, and exciting in its virtuosity. One should play the organ exactly as Süda does.” In 1919, Süda became the teacher in composition and organ at the newly established Tallinn Higher Music School. He died in 1920 in Tallinn.
Süda’s compositional output comprises mainly organ pieces, which are of great importance in the development of Estonian organ music. As a brilliant executant, whose knowledge of the potentialities of the instrument was excellent, Süda used the polyphonic style with great mastery. Süda wrote the following organ works (the autographs are preserved in the Theatre and Music Museum in Tallinn): Fugue in F minor (1910), Basso Ostinato (1913–14), Ave Maria (1914), Prelude (1914) and Fugue (1920) in G minor, Scherzino (1916/1918), Gigue à la Bach (1919), and Pastorale (1920).
By the turn of the century, the first music schools in Estonia had been established: in Tartu (1897) and Tallinn (1898). In 1900, the Estonian Symphony Orchestra first appeared under the direction of the composer Aleksander Läte (1860–1948). Soon afterwards the first professional theatres were opened in Estonia’s larger towns: Vanemuine (Tartu, 1906), Estonia (Tallinn, 1906), Endla (Pärnu, 1911), and the Tallinn Dramatic Theatre (1916). In 1905, Artur Lemba (1885–1963) composed the first opera in the Estonian language, Sabina (St. Petersburg, 1906), the second version of which bore the title Lembitu tütar [“Lembitu’s Daughter”] (Vanemuine theatre, Tartu, 1908).
The choral tradition developed with great momentum. There were seven song festivals from 1869 to 1910, with more than 10,000 singers taking part in the last of these, while the composer Juhan Simm (1885–1959), who played a significant role in the organization of subsequent song festivals, founded in 1911 the Tartu university choir.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the literary movement Young Estonia (Noor Eesti) was inaugurated and presided over by the poet Gustav Suits. The motto of the movement “Let us remain Estonians, but let us also become Europeans!” became the inspiration of cultural Estonia.

5. Estonia in the period of its first independence (1918–1940)
The period between the First and Second World Wars witnessed many brilliant events in Estonian artistic life. The greatest literary achievement was the five-part epic novel Truth and Justice (Tõde ja õigus) by Anton H. Tammsaare (written 1926–33), depicting Estonian life between the 1870s and 1920s.
The Tallinn Song Festivals attracted constantly rising numbers of participants (with 17,500 singers in the 11th Song Festival of 1938). From the 1920s, operas were regularly performed in the Theatre Estonia. The concert repertoire in the 1921–22 season included such works as Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss. In 1936, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms was performed under the direction of Eduard Tubin (1905–82) in Tallinn, and in the following year the composer himself came to conduct his Firebird Suite and the Capriccio for piano there.
As mentioned above, in 1919 the Higher Music School (from 1923–93 the Conservatoire, and from 1993 the Estonian Academy of Music) was established in Tallinn. In 1919, the Tartu Higher Music School (Tartu Kõrgem Muusikakool) was opened. The Tallinn Conservatoire was directed from 1923–33 by Rector Jaan Tamm, and August Topman was the head of the organ department. Hugo Lepnurm (1914–99), who studied organ there from 1928 to 1933, recalls that Topman laid particular emphasis on preparing his students for their work in Lutheran churches. Since playing services occupied little time and yielded little income, Topman tried to prepare his students for a greater variety of activities, stimulating their interest in choral skills and teaching. Sometimes he joked, “any organist, especially in the provinces, should be able to conduct choirs and the fire brigade band, accompany guest soloists, perform operettas in the House of Culture, be the chairman or at least secretary of the agricultural society, and, if still able, play the organ well.”
In the period between the wars, Peeter Laja (1897–1970), Alfred Karindi (1901–69), Edgar Arro (1911–78), and Hugo Lepnurm were among Topman’s best pupils.
Peeter Laja first became known in 1923, when, at that time a student of the Tallinn Conservatoire, he made his debut in the Estonia Concert Hall, performing as a soloist in G. F. Handel’s Organ Concerto in B-flat (from Op. 4), accompanied by an orchestra under Raimund Kull. Laja’s programs contained compositions of both international and Estonian composers (A. Kapp, R. Tobias, P. Süda, and others).
A distinctive performer, Alfred Karindi was born in Kõnnu. He studied organ (with Johannes Kärt) and composition (with Heino Eller) at the Tartu Higher Music School, where in 1925–28 he taught music theory. From 1927, he was organist of the Tartu university church (here he played the organ that was later moved to the Estonia concert hall) and performed in concerts as organist and conductor. In 1928–32, he was a teacher and a conductor of the mixed students’ choir at the Tartu university. In 1931, he finished his studies as organist and composer at the Tallinn Conservatoire. At the beginning of the 1930s, he moved to Tallinn, where he pursued an active career giving concerts, conducting choral works, including Mozart’s Requiem (1940), and performing as a solo organist. Between 1940–50 and 1955–69, he taught at the conservatoire (from 1946 as a professor). Karindi wrote a symphony, cantatas, piano, chamber, and vocal works. His output includes a number of interesting pieces for organ, of which the central place is held by his four sonatas: No. 1 in E minor (1928), No. 2 in G minor (1932), No. 3 in F minor (1944), and No. 4 in E minor (1963).
Born in Tallinn, Edgar Arro studied the organ at Tallinn Conservatoire with August Topman (1929–35) and composition with Artur Kapp (1934–39). From 1935 to 1940 he worked for the radio. It was one of his tasks to improvise on the organ in the morning hours. Occasionally, he gave solo concerts. From 1944, he was a teacher at the Tallinn Conservatoire (Professor from 1972). Arro wrote symphonic works and oratorios, compositions for choir and different chamber ensembles and—together with Leo Normet—the popular musical comedy Rummu Jüri. Throughout his life as a composer, he had a strong liking for the organ. His first work, Sonata for Organ (1938), was written while studying at the conservatoire. In the early 1940s, it was followed by Maestoso (1943). Of his other organ music, the collection of about 56 concert pieces Eesti rahvaviise orelili (Estonian Folk Tunes for Organ) is of great interest.
A little different was the artistic life of Hugo Lepnurm during the period between the two World Wars. After graduating from the conservatoire, he served as assistant to Professor Topman (1936), but soon he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies with Marcel Dupré (in the winter of 1938–39). In Paris, the young Estonian musician got to know the work of celebrated French organists and he had the chance to listen to Rachmaninov, Cortot, and Menuhin.
During the 1920s two other large organs were built in Tallinn. One of them was the largest organ ever built in Estonia by the company E. F. Walcker & Co. and installed in the Charles’ Church (III/P/81 + 3 borrowed stops, 1923). The other was built by August Terkmann for the Holy Ghost Church (IV/P/71, 1929).23 The Brothers Kriisa were also very active, and among their notable instruments in the 1930s were Paide (II/P/20, 1933), Urvaste (II/P/25 + 1 borrowed stop, 1938), and Suure-Jaani (II/P/25 + 1 borrowed stop, 1937). This last was installed by the Kriisas behind a Johann Andreas Stein case from 1804.

The Church of Suure-Jaani
The Brothers Kriisa, II/P/25 + 1 borrowed stop, 1937

I. MANUAL (C–a³)
8' Principal
8' Viola di Gamba
8' Doppelflöte
8' Gemshorn
8' Salicional
4' Octave
4' Flauto dolce
Cornett III–V
Mixtur III–IV

II. MANUAL (C–a³)
16' Bordun
8' Principal
8' Gedackt
8' Viola d’amour
8' Voix celestes
4' Flauto
2 2/3' Quintflöte
2' Flautino
1 3/5' Terzflöte
Cymbel IV
8' Trompete
Tremolo

PEDAL (C–f¹)
16' Kontrabass
16' Subbass
16' Gedacktbass (Tr. Manual II)
8' Octavbass
8' Violon
16' Posaune

II/I, Super II/I, Super I, Sub II/I
Super II, Sub II
I/Ped., II/Ped., Super II/Ped.

II. Manual in Swell Box

Source
Andreas Uibo and Jüri Kuuskemaa, Historical Organs in Estonia, Lilienthal/Bremen (Eres Edition 2408) 1994, p. 77.
A milestone in Estonian culture was the foundation of the Music Museum in 1934 in Tallinn (from 1941 the Theatre and Music Museum); it became the custodian of archival material and manuscripts of Estonian composers, recordings of folk songs, musical instruments, and other holdings.

6. Estonia from 1940 to the end of the 20th century
With the establishment of the Union of Estonian Composers in 1941, the creative work of native musicians received official support from the government. In the 1940s, some professional choirs were founded on the initiative of the famous choirmaster and composer Gustav Ernesaks (1908–93); their performances on radio and in the concert halls of the Soviet Union were well received. In 1947, the tradition of the Song Festivals was revived after a break of nine years (the 21st Song Festival in 1990 assembled some 30,000 singers and half a million listeners).
In 1947, the theatre and the concert hall Estonia, both of which had been destroyed in the Second World War, were rebuilt. In the years 1948–49, the Tallinn organ builder Gutdorf Brothers transferred the organ of the university church in Tartu, built by Herbert Kolbe (1928), to the concert hall and installed it on the stage. In doing so, the specification was enlarged (III/P/75). This instrument was superseded as early as 1961 with an organ by Rieger–Kloss (IV/P/66). Two others by this company were installed in the Vanemuine theatre in Tartu (III/P/47, 1978) and in St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn (IV/P/63, 1981), which had been turned into a museum and concert hall.
In the 1940s, the work of the most important representative of the Tartu school of composers, Heino Eller (1887–1970), reached its climax. Eller wrote three symphonies (1936, 1948, 1961), five string quartets, music for piano, chamber music, and vocal compositions. An estimable pupil of his, Eduard Tubin, wrote ten symphonies, two operas, two ballets, chamber and choral music, and a Pastorale for alto and organ (1956).
The decades following gave rise to a new generation of Estonian composers who were influenced by 20th-century Western European music: Veljo Tormis (*1930), Eino Tamberg (*1930), Jaan Rääts (*1932), Arvo Pärt (*1935) and Kuldar Sink (1942–95). Tamberg’s and Rääts’s compositions show neoclassical tendencies. Pärt and Sink tend towards serial techniques. Tormis, following the tradition of Mart Saar and Cyrillus Kreek (1889–1962), is interested in folklore and prefers choral music.
Eller taught Alo Põldmäe (*1945) and Lepo Sumera (*1950), while Ester Mägi (*1922), Jüri Tamverk (*1954), Erkki-Sven Tüür (*1959) and Urmas Sisask (*1960), a composer of a number of organ works, are among the distinguished pupils of Saar.
Apart from the works presented in the collection Organ Music from the Baltic States, Volume 2: Estonia (Bärenreiter, BA 8422), the following compositions for the organ written by Estonian composers in the 20th century should be mentioned: Kaljo Raid (*1921), Sonata in Classical Style (1948); Peeter Laja, 5 Pieces (1950); Leo Virkhaus (1910–84), Organ Prelude on Psalm 108 (Be Thou Exalted) (1973); Igor Garschnek (*1958), 3 States (1980); and Arvo Pärt, Trivium (1976), Annum per annum (1980) and My Path Has Peaks and Troughs (1989).
In the post-war period, the tradition of centuries of organ-playing in Estonia manifested itself above all in the work of Hugo Lepnurm. After his evacuation, he returned to Tallinn in 1944 and continued teaching organ, solfeggio, and music theory at the conservatoire (from 1945 as a professor). He also gave many concerts in the USSR, was organist at Tallinn’s Cathedral of St. Mary, and made recordings. In 1971, he published his book On the History of the Organ and Organ Music (Oreli ja orelimuusika ajaloost). Lepnurm’s compositions are not numerous, but include a number of interesting pieces, especially for the organ: a toccata (1943/50), two cycles of variations for violin and organ (1942, 1954), and a concerto for organ and orchestra (1956). Among his pupils, the Tallinn organist Rolf Uusväli (*1930), Andreas Uibo (*1956), and Urmas Taniloo (*1953) from Tartu are well known.
An important part in the revival of public interest in early music and its authentic performance was played by Hortus Musicus, a specialist ensemble (artistic director Andres Mustonen), founded in 1972. Since 1987, the International Tallinn Organ Festival has taken place every year in the Estonian capital. The tradition of organ building is continued by Hardo Kriisa (*1940), a representative of the third generation of the famous organ dynasty. His workshop is in Rakvere.'

Notes

James B. Hartman

James B. Hartman is Associate Professor, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, where he is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews and articles to The Diapason.

Across the centuries many outstanding musicians--from Johann Sebastian Bach to Charles-Marie Widor--are recognized for their outstanding achievements in composition, performance, and other notable contributions to organ culture. At the same time, many of these individuals contributed to other musical fields--instrumental and choral--not directly related to the organ. On the other hand, in the wider musical world sometimes this focus has been reversed, when outstanding practitioners in the instrumental and choral fields exhibited significant capabilities with respect to the organ.

This article will chronicle the activities of six selected outstanding figures of the broader musical society whose connections with the organ are perhaps not so widely known. The criteria for their selection include their prominence in music history within their chosen areas of activity, along with the availability of significant information about their involvement with the organ to make interesting stories. While their status in the world of the organ does not match those of the "giants" mentioned above, they worked industriously and successfully within the context of their other major activities as "alternative" organists.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) was the son of an innkeeper in the tiny village of Le Roncole, near Parma, Italy. His first music lessons were at age 3 with the village schoolmaster-organist, succeeding him at his death six years later. His father bought his promising 8-year-old son a battered spinet; Verdi's love for the instrument was such that he kept it for eighty years. In 1823 he was sent to a grammar school in the nearby town of Busseto, where he lodged with a cobbler; he walked three miles back to Le Roncole every Sunday and on other feast days to play the organ, often carrying his boots so as not to wear them out. In Busseto the young Verdi studied for four years with Ferdinando Provesi, the choirmaster and organist of the collegiate church of San Bartolomeo and director of the Philharmonic Society. By age 12 Giuseppe had decided to pursue a serious musical career. He gave his first organ concert at age 13, replacing someone who was ill, when he played some of his own music on the chapel organ.

In 1829, at age 16, his application for the post of organist in nearby Soragna was rejected, perhaps because of his youth, so he continued to deputize for his ailing teacher at Busseto in composing for services, processions, and concerts, while also playing at Le Roncole. As an unpaid apprentice it was expected that he would take over both the salary and the position when Provesi died. Other musical activities included teaching younger pupils, copying parts for the Philharmonic Society, and playing the piano at musical gatherings. By the time he was 18 he had written an assortment of musical compositions, including marches for a brass band, various pieces of church music, and piano pieces.

In 1833 Verdi went to Milan to further his musical education, but he was refused enrollment at the Conservatory on the grounds that it was overcrowded, he was over the maximum age for entrance, he had problems with his hand position on the keyboard, and was a "foreigner." This rejection was a source of bitterness throughout Verdi's life. Nevertheless, he studied canons and fugues with the Conservatory's accompanist and director of music. Meanwhile, his former music teacher in Busseto, Provesi, died, leaving his post at the church vacant, and Verdi applied for it, unsuccessfully. Verdi's lifelong passion for theatergoing started about this time, and his habit of reading novels and plays unrelated to music prepared him for his later intense commitment to opera.

In 1834 musical "civil wars"--street brawls, church invasions, lampoons, arrests, and prosecutions--were waging between members of the Philharmonic Society, which supported Verdi, and opposing factions over the proposed appointment at Busseto. These events resulted in a royal decree banning the use of instrumental music (other than the organ) in church; this edict remained in effect for seventeen years until Verdi succeeded in having it removed in 1852.

Partly to avoid involvement in these uproars, Verdi applied for the position of cathedral organist at Monza, a larger town close to Milan; the Philharmonic Society threatened to restrain him with physical force if he tried to leave Busseto. On this occasion his examiner, the court organist, assured him that he had enough knowledge to be a maestro in Paris or London. In April 1836 he signed a nine-year contract as maestro di musica of Busseto; he took up his new position in 1838.

Now Verdi began work on an opera for Milan's Teatro Filodrammatico, which he continued until leaving Busseto in 1839. His first effort, Rocester, was never performed, but parts of it were reworked into Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio, which opened on 17 November 1839 with moderate success. At this point Verdi's interest in the organ had ceased with his increasing involvement with opera. By 1860 Verdi was the most successful opera composer of the age. In time, his works, such as Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, La Traviata, Aida, and Otello, became among the world's best-known and most-loved musical dramas. On the other hand, he wrote no compositions for solo or accompanying organ, and none of his operas include the instrument in any way. The organ world's loss--not a significant deficit considering Verdi's many misfortunes and missed opportunities surrounding the organ--was the opera world's gain.

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) was the first-born son of a family of eleven children of a village schoolmaster and organist in the town of Ansfelden, near the provincial capital of Linz, Austria. Young Anton ("Tonerl") received his first music lessons from his father, then from his cousin-godfather, who was a competent composer of church music. In 1837 he became a choirboy at the nearby Augustinian monastery, St. Florian, where he later served as a substitute organist. The organ there was a large four-manual instrument built by Krismann in 1771; it was one of the greatest on the continent at the time, and one from which the young player received inspirations of beauty and grandeur.

Until 1840 Tonerl led a secluded but thoroughly musical existence as a chorister who also studied piano, organ, and violin. In that year he enrolled in a one-year course of studies at Linz that would qualify him as an elementary school teacher, although for a while he had considered studying law and entering the civil service. Nevertheless, in 1845 he returned to St. Florian as a deputy organist and became chief organist in January 1855; this appointment lasted for ten years. Earlier, on a journey to Vienna in October 1854, he requested an examination by three outstanding Viennese organists who gave him enthusiastic testimonials; these were followed in 1855 by similar tributes from a well-known master organist from Prague. However, he was rejected for the post of cathedral organist at Olmütz in the summer of 1855.

Although Bruckner had intended to study organ with one of his examiners, he abandoned this plan when the post of organist at Linz cathedral became vacant. Bruckner, who was attending as a listener at the preliminary competition, joined in at the last moment and beat his competitors with his improvised performance of a fugue; he won again in the main competition in January 1856. This appointment freed him forever from the drudgery of teaching and the monastic seclusion at St. Florian, and introduced him to the livelier surroundings of the provincial capital.

In November 1861 Bruckner passed his final examination at the Vienna Conservatory. His improvised fugue on a given subject so overwhelmed the examiners that one of them stated, "He should have examined us! If I knew one-tenth of what he knows, I'd be happy." Another one thought that his improvisations closely resembled Mendelssohn's music.

Although Bruckner's earlier application for the position of organist-designate at the imperial court chapel in Vienna had been unsuccessful, he was finally given the post at the Hofkapelle in September 1868. It was an unpaid but prestigious position without much opportunity to assist on great occasions, apart from playing for the emperor and his family; eventually he achieved a paying position. In addition to playing the organ at services and coaching the choirboys, he directed performances of his own church music. His organ recitals at St. Epvre in Nancy and at Notre Dame in Paris in 1869 were warmly reported in the press, and were welcomed by the organ-building firms of Cavaillé-Coll and Merklin-Schütze, on whose new instruments Bruckner had improvised. Encouraged by these successes, Bruckner briefly considered a career as a concert organist. He apparently made strong impressions on such knowledgeable musicians as Franck, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Auber, and Thomas.

On a journey to England in August 1871 as an official delegate of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and participant in an international organ competition on a new instrument in Royal Albert Hall, Bruckner's performances received mixed reviews, but his improvisation on God Save the Queen was a highlight of his program of works by Bach and Handel. In July 1886 he was honored with the Franz Josef order and he was also received by the emperor personally, who enjoyed listening to his organ playing. In 1886 Liszt had just died, and Cosima Wag-ner invited him to perform at her father's funeral; Bruckner marked the occasion with improvisations on themes from Parsifal.

Reports on Bruckner's performing style as an organist vary greatly. Although he never composed seriously for the instrument, his powers of free improvisation were generally admired. One of his obituaries suggests that the professional critics had a poor opinion of him. Nevertheless, his early experiences at St. Florian undoubtedly left indelible imprints on his creative imagination, since some aspects of his orchestral style reveal influences of the dynamism of the organ.

His compositions for organ include: Four Preludes (ca. 1836); Prelude in E-flat major (ca. 1837); Prelude and Fugue in C minor (1847), strongly reminiscent of Mendelssohn; Two pieces in D minor (ca. 1852); Fugue in D minor (1861), which has been described as "academic and uninspired"; and Prelude in C major (1884). In the broader musical field his international recognition rests on his nine symphonies, choral church music, chamber works, piano pieces, and a few solo songs.

Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) was born in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, Czechoslovakia; his parents ran a village inn and his father was a butcher. He had violin lessons and played for village occasions as a child. When he was a butcher's apprentice, while living with his childless aunt and uncle in Zlonice in 1853, he had music lessons with the town cantor who filled the post of organist and choirmaster, as was the custom with village schoolteachers in those days. At this time Dvorák began to learn harmony and keyboard instruments.

Eventually his father allowed his son to become a musician and to qualify as an organist, so in 1857 the youth entered the Prague Organ School, where he remained for two years, studying theory and singing, as well as organ with the director of the choir at the Cathedral of St. Vitus. Young Dvorák was poor, shy, and sensitive, and not particularly fluent in German, so his talent was not immediately recognized at the school. Nevertheless, in 1859 he graduated with a second prize; his leaving certificate testified that he was "admirably fitted to fulfill the duties of organist and choirmaster." At the graduation concert Dvorák played some of his academic-style preludes and fugues. Around this time he supported himself as a violist in a small orchestra that played in restaurants and at dances. He also worked as an organist and teacher, and eventually married the sister of one of his pupils.

After his marriage he left the National Theater orchestra, in which he had played the viola for eleven years, to become organist at St. Adalbert's Church in 1874; this post left more time for composition, besides raising his status in the eyes of his mother-in-law. While there, Dvorák was appointed to a committee that judged the competing bids for the reconstruction of the church organ and supervised the completion of the project.

In the course of his career Dvorák served on numerous committees and administrative bodies dealing with musical matters, such as theater and arts societies, music competitions, and editorial boards; more specifically, a jury for government stipends to artists, and a member of the board of directors of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1890.

A purely private matter was his donation of a new organ, on the occasion of his fifty-third birthday, 8 September 1894, to the church at Vysoká, near a mining town about forty miles south of Prague, where his brother-in-law had his estate.

Concerning Dvorák's ability as a performing musician, little attention has been paid to his achievements on the organ, but his abilities undoubtedly were much above average. Although he held a regular organist's position only from 1874 to 1877, he was appointed as organist for the inauguration of the renewed Czech University in Prague in 1882.

Although Dvorák produced no works specifically for solo organ, a number of his compositions--several songs and vocal duets--specify organ accompaniment. His total creative output includes eleven operas, choral and vocal works, nine symphonies and other symphonic works, various instrumental concertos, chamber music, and piano pieces. His "New World" Symphony (op. 95 in E minor, 1893) and the "Dumky" Trio (op. 90, 1890-91) are frequently heard on recorded radio programs.

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was born at Pamiers, a little town in the Ariège region in the south of France. The youngest of six children, Gabriel's father was a teacher and his mother was the daughter of a retired captain. His earliest introduction to music was when he lived with foster parents in another town, where he would listen to a harmonium being played in an old convent chapel, which inspired him to improvise on the instrument on his own. One day the 4-year-old child was overheard by an elderly blind lady, an excellent musician, who suggested to his parents that his evident talent should be developed.

Eventually, in 1854, he secured a scholarship at Louis Niedermeyer's École de Musique Classique et Religieuse in Paris, a newly established boarding school for training organists and choirmasters. He remained there for eleven years, studying organ (the school had a 12-stop instrument and a pedal piano), piano (one classroom contained fifteen pianos), singing, plainsong, and theoretical subjects. His acquaintance with contemporary music came from Saint-Saëns, who became his piano teacher in 1861 after the death of Niedermeyer, and who remained a close friend and furthered his academic career. While at school Fauré and his friend, Eugène Gigout, planned their future careers as eminent church musicians.

Fauré was not particularly inspired by the organ, perhaps thinking that the mechanical instrument lacked the sensual subtleties of the piano. Even so, the organ's special feature, its powerful bass pedals, left a lasting impression as indicated by the strong bass lines in some of his piano pieces. According to Saint-Saëns, Fauré was a "first-class organist when he wanted to be," but he never kept up his technique and preferred to improvise. He left the school in January 1866 with the first prize in piano performance, organ, harmony, and composition. During this period he composed his first songs, piano pieces, and one choral work.

Fauré's first position was as organist at St. Sauveur in Rennes, which he held from January 1866 to March 1870. He was in trouble with the clergy from the outset, when he used the sermon time for a smoking break. He was dismissed after appearing at a morning service dressed in white tie and tails worn at a municipal ball the night before. His next appointment, at Notre-Dame de Clignancourt in Paris, also ended abruptly with his dismissal for missing a service to hear a Meyerbeer opera.

Following military service in 1871 Fauré was employed briefly as organist at St.-Honoré d'Eylau, a rich parish church in Paris. A more important appointment was as second organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, assisting Charles-Marie Widor; the church had a magnificent 100-stop Cavaillé-Coll instrument. The two musicians amused each other by improvising competitively in tandem during services; their subtle modulations probably were not understood by the clergy or other listeners, however.

A high point in Fauré's career was his appointment in 1877 as choirmaster, a prestigious but low-paying position, at Ste. Madeleine, Paris's most distinguished and fashionable church, where he succeeded Saint-Saëns, who had resigned; he held this position until 1896. Although Fauré's duties did not specifically involve organ playing, the church's impressive Cavaillé-Coll instrument was available for practice purposes when he was not teaching or working on his compositions.

Fauré's renown strengthened during the 1920s, and societies devoted to giving concerts of his music and publishing his works were formed in France in the 1930s and in succeeding years. He was not a widely popular composer, and his music had more appeal to connoisseurs than to the wider musical public. Even so, he cannot be counted among the "giants" of musical history.

Fauré's creative works include one opera, sacred choral works, nearly 100 songs, chamber music, piano pieces, and works for piano and orchestra. His Thème et variations, op. 73, Dolly Suite, 4-hands, is frequently heard on recorded radio programs, and performances of his Requiem still attract good audiences. Although Fauré respected the organ as an instrument having a classical repertoire, his compositions did not include any works for solo organ, but several of his choral and vocal works specify organ accompaniment. Consistent with his respect for Bach, he wrote the preface for an edition of Bach's "48" and revised the whole of Bach's organ works with unofficial help from Joseph Bonnet and his friend Gigout.

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was born in Lucca, a small city in northern Italy, which had enjoyed a considerable reputation for its church music up to the end of the eighteenth century. The Puccini family had an impressive musical lineage of five generations of musicians in two centuries (eighteenth and nineteenth). Giacomo, the fifth of seven children, was expected to follow the family tradition and become organist at San Martino Cathedral. Giacomo's father encouraged his lazy son's mastery of the organ--the child was 5 years old at the time--by placing coins on the organ keyboard so that the boy, trying to grasp them, would have to push down the keys and produce sounds.

Following his father's premature death in 1891, Giacomo's uncle on his mother's side assumed the position at San Martino and continued instructing Giacomo until the child reached the appropriate age of succession. In time, Giacomo's organ playing improved to the level of assisting his uncle at San Martino, as well as performing in other smaller churches. He also played the piano at weddings, in taverns, and in houses of prostitution, as well as at a local convent, where he was rewarded with cups of hot chocolate in addition to his small fee of a few lire that was to be sent directly to his mother.

As a member of a fun-loving gang of youths, when he was playing the organ at a small village church where his brother acted as organ-blower, they decided to get extra money by stealing some organ pipes and selling them to a scrap dealer. In order to avoid detection of the crime, Puccini adjusted his playing of harmonies by avoiding notes of the missing pipes, which delayed discovery of the theft for a long time. Another source of income was from his only pupil, a young tailor--both were 16 years old at the time--and the lessons continued for four years, 1874-8. Puccini wrote his earliest compositions, consisting of short organ pieces, for him; the young man later became a composer of organ pieces himself.

Around this time, Puccini began composing in earnest, chiefly organ music for the church service. Many of these pieces were improvisations that Puccini later transcribed; some of them were derived from folk songs and popular operas, which startled both the priests and congregations. Puccini also introduced lively marches as postludes to play the congregation out of the church; for this he was reprimanded by his elder sister who was preparing to become a nun.

Puccini's first contact with opera was through his teacher, who introduced him to the scores of Verdi's Rigoletto, Traviata, and Trovatore. This experience probably had a decisive influence on Puccini's subsequent career, because he and several friends made a thirty-mile round trip to Pisa to hear Verdi's masterpiece, Aida. At this time Puccini abandoned the family tradition of becoming a full-time church organist and decided to pursue operatic craft at the Milan Conservatory, which he entered in 1880 with the aid of a scholarship from Queen Margherita. His scholarly record was consistently brilliant in counterpoint, his main subject, although he had yet to discover the secrets of the stage.

Puccini's fame rests chiefly on his twelve operas, particularly Manon Lescaut (1893), La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1893), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1926); two of his operas, Edgar (1889) and Tosca (1893), contain parts for organ. He also composed various pieces of church music, several choral works, two orchestral works, chamber music (chiefly string quartets), two pieces for piano, and seven songs with piano. His catalogue of works also contains several pieces for organ (before 1880).

Charles Ives (1874-1954) was born in Danbury, Connecticut, where his father, George Ives (1845-1894), was a music teacher who directed bands, choirs, and orchestras. The father had an intense interest in musical innovation and experimentation, such as microtones, bitonality, and acoustics, which he shared with his two sons, Charles and Moss. For example, independence of mind was developed by practicing ear-training exercises such as singing in one key and being accompanied in another. Charles recollected playing drums in one of his father's bands that marched past another group, generating a discordant clash of conflicting keys and rhythms; this phenomenon is reflected in some of his later unconventional compositions.

While at home, young Charles studied drums, piano, and organ with various teachers, becoming a competent pianist by age 12. In 1889 he took his first salaried post as organist at the Second Congregational Church, then at the Baptist Church, in Danbury. At the same time, he composed songs and choral works, along with occasional organ solos that may have been used as interludes in church services or in church-sponsored recitals.

In 1893 Ives moved to New Haven to attend Hopkins Grammar School in preparation for entry into Yale University. While at Hopkins he took a job as organist at St. Thomas's Episcopal Church to help his father pay his expenses. In March 1894 he tried out for an organist position at the Baptist Church, but his application failed.

When Ives began full-time study at Yale in September 1894--he went there primarily for the athletics and as part of the family heritage--he was already an accomplished organist, a skilled composer of band music, and songwriter in the popular style. For his entire four years at Yale he played the organ at Center Church in New Haven--the oldest and most prestigious church there--where he was allowed to play his own compositions. Prior to, and during this appointment he commuted to New York to take organ lessons from Dudley Buck, one of the leading organists of the country. At Yale he took composition lessons from Horatio W. Parker, an established young composer of church music. Under Parker's direction Ives composed his First String Quartet, over forty songs, and several marches, overtures, anthems, part songs, and organ pieces.

Following his time at Yale, Ives moved to New York in September 1898 to take a position as a clerk with the Mutual Life Insurance Company; later he founded his own insurance company, Ives and Myrick. Even before the end of the Yale term, he had secured a position as organist at Bloomfield Presbyterian Church, New Jersey, to begin the following summer. He commuted to this position for two years before moving to Central Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, where he remained until June 1902. In these organist positions Ives remained a well-rounded musician, playing services and recitals, and composing practical pieces. His recital repertoire included works or arrangements by Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Brahms, and often music of his own. One of his works that received its premiere at Central Presbyterian Church was The Celestial Country, an ambitious work scored for two solo quartets and choir, string quartet, brass, tympani, and organ. Around this time Ives decided never to apply for another musical position in order to achieve his musical freedom from the demands of audiences. Although his ultimate decline in composition is sometimes attributed to health problems, he simply may have exhausted his ability to achieve his high artistic aims. Even so, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his Third Symphony in 1947.

Ives's music has its roots in the nineteenth-century Romantic conception of music as an embodiment of emotion and national feeling. The principal aim of his mature works was the personal representation in music of the range of human experience--particularly American experience--in all its drama, emotional power, and confusion. This aim is often revealed in the titles of some of his compositions that deal with specific events: for example, The Fourth of July, Decoration Day, Holiday Quickstep, Thanksgiving, and Washington's Birthday. His musical productions include choral music, vocal music, chamber music, orchestral music (including four symphonies), two piano sonatas, and the Variations on America for organ (written at age 17). Although the original scores of a number of his compositions for organ have been lost, they were incorporated into works for other instruments.

Ives's compositional style reflects his earlier experiences with his father's innovative experiments: explorations of tonality and serial procedures, polymetric and polyrhythmic constructions, experiments with quarter-tones, the use of space as a compositional element, and layered polyphony and multidimensionality. Ives's works were rarely performed during his lifetime, nor were they widely published. In recent years the Charles Ives Society has generated editions and playing materials of his music that are a challenge to all and a threat to some.

In addition to the six alternative organists discussed above, several other well-known names might be added to this group.

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) learned to play many wind instruments from his father in London before embarking on an intense period of musical training, including the Leipzig Conservatory, 1858-60. Returning to London, he worked as a teacher and accompanist, as well as organist at St. Michael's, Chester Square, 1861-7, and at St. Peter's, Cranley Gardens, 1867-72. His musical collaboration with W. S. Gilbert produced some of the best-known pieces of popular musical theater, many of which still are traditional offerings of school and college musical groups.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) first learned music from his father, an organist and pianist. He began conducting local orchestras while attending grammar school, and then played the organ at Wyck Rissington, Gloucestershire, in 1892, although the instrument never figured in subsequent professional appointments. Some of his orchestral compositions became enduring contributions to the musical world. His powerful Choral Fantasia (1930) for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, also includes the organ.

Hamilton Harty (1879-1941) learned piano and counterpoint from his organist father. From age 12 he held organ posts, first at Magheracoll Church in Antrim County, Ireland, then at Belfast and Bray (near Dublin). He played viola in a Dublin orchestra and became known as a piano accompanist in London. In 1920 he became the conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, which he formed into one of the country's finest orchestras.

Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) entered the Royal College of Music, London, at age 13, where he studied piano, organ, and composition, receiving his diploma in 1900; he also studied at Oxford University (B.Mus., 1903). He was organist at St. James, Piccadilly, 1902-5. In 1905 he moved to New York as organist and choir director at St. Bartholomew's Church on Madison Avenue. Following his debut as a conductor in Paris, he was engaged by the Cincinnati Orchestra in 1909, then by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1912, an internationally famous organization that he led for twenty-four years.

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) began to compose at age 8, even before any formal instruction. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1919, achieving prizes in counterpoint and fugue, accompaniment, organ, and improvisation (with Marcel Dupré), history of music, and composition. In 1931 he was appointed organist at l'Église de la Sainte Trinité in Paris, remaining in that position for over forty years. Many of his composed organ works reflect aspects of the theological creed of the Catholic faith. Although not a member of any particular school, Messiaen has had a major influence on contemporary music.

William Herschel (1738-1822), British musician and astronomer, is an unusual figure to conclude this section, considering his unique combination of occupations. He pursued an active career as violinist and conductor in the 1760s, and he played the organ at the Octagon Chapel in Bath from 1766 onwards. In 1780 he was accepted into the Bath Literary and Philosophical Society. In the following year, using a telescope he had partially designed and constructed himself, he discovered the planet Uranus.

There is a music wherever there is a harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far may we maintain the music of the spheres.

--Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)

Religio Medici [1642]

by James B. Hartman

 

Anyone familiar with the biographies of distinguished composers and performers throughout music history can never fail to be amazed at the impressive stories of children exhibiting exceptional talent. Musical ability often manifests itself early in life, and many of these early bloomers go on to significant and sustained achievements in later years. The accounts of their creative childhoods are a source of interest not only to music lovers generally, but also to psychologists who have studied the progress of such individuals in an attempt to understand and explain these extraordinary phenomena. The following survey will chronicle the highlights of the emergence and development of musical talent in a selected group of musical prodigies from the 16th to the 19th centuries whose abilities were later realized in the fields of organ music composition and performance.1 Some concluding generalizations, derived from the writings of psychologists who have studied this fascinating topic, will end the presentation.

 

Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643), the son of a musician in Ferrara, Italy, became one of the greatest organists and keyboard composers of his time. As a boy he possessed a remarkable voice and went from town to town singing, followed by crowds of admirers. Although little is known of his early life, he studied organ with a court organist and occupied his first position as organist at the age of 14. At the age of 25 he went to St. Peters in Rome where he also spent his final years. This prolific composer was later described as "father of the organ style" that prevailed in England and other countries for over a century. His compositions were central to keyboard study as well. Froberger studied with him for several years and J. S. Bach copied out his Fiori musicale (1635), a publication of liturgical organ music.

William Crotch (1775-1847), born in Norwich, England, was a remarkable child prodigy who was able to play at the age of 2 the tune to "God Save Great George Our King" on an organ made by his father, a carpenter. He gave his first concert at the age of 3, played before the royal family at 4, and was exhibited by his mother on tours of England and Scotland until the age of 9. At the age of 10 he played his own harpsichord concerto in London and began composing an oratorio. At the age of 11 he went to Cambridge University where he assisted the professor of music and was organist at two colleges. He transferred to Oxford University at the age of 13 and was appointed organist at Christ Church within two years. He took his D.Mus. at Oxford at the age of 24. Some of his Oxford lectures were published in 1831. While at Oxford he composed the "Westminster Chimes" for a church clock in Cambridge; this tune was used in the Houses of Parliament following 1860. His later years were mainly academic, including various professorships in music as well as a ten-year term as Principal of the Royal College of Music from its founding in 1822. His compositions include organ works, piano pieces, songs, and choral works. He was also a watercolorist of considerable ability.

George Washburne Morgan (1823-1892), whose name is largely unknown today, was believed to be the first famous organist heard in the United States in the late 19th century. Born in Gloucester, England, he exhibited remarkable musical gifts at a very early age, playing his first church service when only 8 years old, later becoming assistant organist at Gloucester Cathedral. Following his arrival in the United States in 1853 his remarkable playing generated much enthusiasm, particularly due to his phenomenal pedal technique. He served as organist in various New York churches and gave many concerts both in New York and throughout the country. His performances of "concert music"--an unknown factor in organ music prior to his arrival--placed him at the head of his profession.

William T. Best (1826-1897) became one of the world's most prominent organ recitalists of the 19th century. The son of a solicitor in Carlisle, England, he studied organ in his home town where he was assistant organist at the local cathedral, followed by a post at Pembroke Chapel at the age of 14. While still in his twenties he occupied a number of prestigious positions in London, moving to Liverpool at the age of 29 to preside at the organ in St. George's Hall. Following several appointments elsewhere he returned to Liverpool where he remained until his resignation in 1895. He performed extensively beyond England, including the inaugural recital on the new Town Hall organ in Sydney, Australia, in 1890 (both the Hall and the Hill & Son's organ were the largest in the world at the time). Best's orchestral use of the organ included many of his own transcriptions along with other original organ works and he edited editions of the works of Bach, Handel, and Mendelssohn. During his own time he was described as the "Prince of Organists."

Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1887) was born into a family of French organists and organbuilders in Boulogne. Although largely self-taught, his first lessons were from his father, substituting for him at the organ of St. Joseph's in Boulogne at the age of 12. There he exhausted several organ blowers during his daily practice sessions, sometimes as long as ten hours. He succeeded his father as organist at the age of 22. Following study with Lemmens in Brussels he began giving recitals in Paris at the age of 25. His later career included European and North American tours, inaugural recitals at many large organ installations, and appointments at the major cathedrals of Paris: St. Sulpice, Notre Dame, and La Trinité. He was one of the founders of the Schola Cantorum and succeeded Widor as professor at the Paris Conservatory where several of his pupils (Bonnet, Boulanger, Jacob, Dupré) achieved fame in their own right. Perhaps the most prolific composer of organ music since Bach, he also published collections of pieces and edited much older organ music. In 1893 the President of the French Republic nominated him a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in recognition of his achievements.

Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), born in Vaduz, Lichtenstein, began music lessons at the age of 4. At the age of 7 he played the organ at a local church where a special set of extended pedals were installed to accommodate his short legs. Soon afterwards he composed a three-part mass with organ accompaniment. At the age of 12 he was sent to the Munich Conservatory where he studied until he was 19. Later, at the same institution, he became a noted teacher of organ and composition, becoming one of the most sought-after composition teachers of his time. He was appointed director of the Conservatory at the age of 28 and was also director of church music to the court. During his lifetime he composed in many different genres--operas, masses, symphonies, chamber music--but is most remembered for his organ music, especially two concertos and twenty sonatas.

Auguste Wiegand (1849-1904), born in Liège, Belgium, developed his musical abilities so rapidly that he was appointed organist at a local church by the early age of 7. He entered the Liège Conservatory at the age of 10, winning several prizes and medals for his accomplishments before the age of 20. As professor at that institution he also served as organist in several other cities, travelled to England many times to inaugurate organs there, and performed throughout Europe. He later studied organ at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels. His major success was that of the first city organist at the Town Hall, Sydney, Australia, 1891-1900, where he played over 1,000 recitals during that period. His broad-based recital programs on the huge Hill & Son organ included many arrangements and transcriptions; his concerts were received with great enthusiasm by large and appreciative audiences. Following his departure from Sydney he again toured Europe and spent his final years as organist of Oswego, New York. His compositions include a "Storm Idyll," a popular form of organ entertainment at the time.

Clarence Eddy (1851-1937), born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, showed marked musical ability at the age of 5. He held his first church position at the age of 14, then went to Hartford, Connecticut, to study with Dudley Buck at the age of 16. At the age of 20 he studied in Germany with Professor Augustus Haupt, the most prominent teacher in that country, who gave him a written recommendation as "undoubtedly a peer of the greatest living organists." Following a successful European recital tour he settled in Chicago and developed a reputation as a leading American organist. He played more dedicatory recitals than any other organist of his day. While director of the Hershey School of Musical Art he gave a remarkable series of one hundred weekly recitals without repeating a number; he was 25 years old at the time. His many concert tours included playing at various expositions in the United States and abroad. He published two multi-volume organ methods to supplement his teaching activities, in addition to a number of original works. As a founder of the American Guild of Organists, Eddy became affectionately known as the "Dean of American Organists."

Edwin H. Lemare (1865-1934) was born on the Isle of Wight where his father, the organist of a local church, was his first teacher. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London at the age of 13 and was awarded an Associateship at the end of his studies there. Following graduation he occupied church positions in Sheffield and London. After the death of W. T. Best in 1897 Lemare was acclaimed Best's successor as the greatest living English organist. Following his American tour in 1900 he served as a very highly paid municipal organist in several cities in the United States over a period of thirty years. He had considerable influence on organ playing in America on account of his legendary registration of orchestral compositions and transcriptions of Romantic composers, especially Wagner. His own 126 original compositions ranged from the simple and sentimental to complex concert pieces; the best known of the former type is his "Andantino in D-flat," later arranged as the popular song, "Moonlight and Roses." He had a remarkable musical memory and was a gifted improviser.

Alfred Hollins (1865-1942), born in Hull, Scotland, became blind when still in infancy. Nevertheless, he exhibited exceptional musical abilities, including absolute pitch, from an early age. At the age of 2 he could play tunes on the piano and identify notes or chords played by others; by the age of 6 he could improvise. Following lessons from a family member and at an institute in York, at age 13 he entered the Royal Normal College for the Blind where he developed into a brilliant pianist. He played for Queen Victoria when he was 16 and gave his first public organ recital shortly afterwards. Later he studied piano with Hans von Bülow in Berlin and toured Germany with a repertoire of piano concertos; on one occasion he played three piano concertos in a single concert. He learned his music by listening to his wife play each part through, which he then rapidly committed to memory. His longest church appointment was at St. George's in Edinburgh, which he held for forty-five years. As an active organ recitalist he toured widely throughout the world. In addition to composing fifty-five organ works Hollins also published church music, songs, and piano music. His book, A Blind Organist Looks Back (1936), contains many insights into the life of a touring concert organist in the early 19th century.

Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), was born in Rouen, France, into an intensely musical family; his father and both grandfathers were organists and his mother was a cellist and pianist. Family connections included friendships with the organbuilder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and organists Charles-Marie Widor and Alexandre Guilmant. He studied with both Widor and Guilmant at the Paris Conservatory where he received many prizes. At the age of 11 he was appointed organist at a church in his home town. At the age of 20 he became Widor's assistant at St. Sulpice in Paris. At the age of 28 he won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome, the greatest distinction a French musician could attain. In 1920, at the age of 34, Dupré startled the musical world by playing from memory the entire organ works of J. S. Bach in a series of ten concerts. This celebrated performer and improviser performed in various countries over the years. He published a quantity of solo and ensemble music for organ along with works for other instruments. He also wrote several books on organ playing and published editions of Bach, Franck, and others.

 

  *     *     *

Psychologists who have studied the phenomenon of exceptional musical talent2 have noted a number of distinguishing factors that are exemplified in many of the preceding biographies. The musical abilities referred to may include a variety and range of acoustic and musical capacities: perfect pitch, identifying intervals and chords, reading at sight, playing from memory, playing from a full score, transposing, improvising, and composing (although not to the level of form and harmonization of more mature artists).

Musical prodigies are distinguished by the following childhood characteristics:

* The most obvious feature is that musical ability emerges early in life, usually in the first decade; this, of course, is the definition of a child prodigy. Interpretative talent, including instrumental technique and playing in public, appears first, often before the age of 8, followed by compositional talent somewhat later, except in very rare cases, earlier. As much as ten years of composition experience may be needed for the production of excellent musical works. Musical capacity continues to expand during the third decade of life.

* Heredity above average: parents often make significant contributions to the extraordinary success of their children. The importance of an early home and educational environment, including inspiring social contacts, is prominent in such cases. In fact, ability may be less important than interest, devotion, encouragement, and appropriate educational opportunities. Heredity sets limits, but within these limits and with adequate training, gifted individuals may rise to the stature of outstanding members of the musical profession.

* Unusually high intelligence.3

* Persistence of motive and effort, confidence in their abilities, and great strength or force of character.

* The manifestation of exceptional abilities in infancy is more consistently found among musicians than in other fields. The reason for this lies in the nature of music itself. Music, due to its abstract, formal nature, creates its own material independent of words. It is not fed from the outer world and interaction with others or from external experience and practice. Rather, the subject matter of music is from within, an embodiment of uniquely musical feelings and emotions that are quite independent of other mental qualities.

 

*     *     *

There are no grounds for judging whether organists, as a group, exhibited more or less musical ability in their early years than other musicians in the period just surveyed; comparative evidence is lacking. However, mature organists were probably more prominent in the public eye due to the central place the organ played in musical culture at the time. As for prominent organists of recent years, their early musical talents and abilities are not generally publicized. However, musical talent is not just a thing of the past. It is a common characteristic of today's children that must be fostered by constant encouragement, proper atmosphere, and by a combination of expert tuition and appropriate education facilities if they are to become important artists in the future. n

 

Notes

                  1.              Some explanation should be made for the omission of several major musical figures from the following list. The lifelong career of Johann Sebastian Bach is so well known that it does not need repeating here. The significant fact is that the Bach family was perhaps the most remarkable and important of all time, and the young Bach received a thorough grounding in music from his father and brothers. Although Bach's family life was permeated with music, specific biographical information is lacking on his very early abilities or achievements that would classify him as a "prodigy" as the term is applied to other figures throughout this article.

Biographies of George Frideric Handel reveal that although as a child he had a strong propensity to music, his doctor father opposed his son's inclinations, considering music a lowly occupation, and intended him for the study of law. However, when Handel was 7 an aristocrat heard him play and persuaded the father to allow his son to follow a musical career, which began with lessons in composition from the age of 9 years.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an outstanding example of a musical prodigy, according to tests in sight reading and extemporization administered to him at the age of 8 by Daines Barrington, a scientifically inclined man who reported his findings to the Royal Society in 1779. Mozart's musical memory was most remarkable; at the age of 14, upon hearing in the Sistine Chapel one performance (perhaps more) of a complex choral work, Allegri's Miserere, he wrote it down from memory with only a few errors (Mendelssohn accomplished a similar feat). Although Mozart became an accomplished organist, apart from a few short pieces and seventeen "Church Sonatas" his "organ" works are three pieces written for mechanical clock.

                  2.              Important studies include:

Carl Emil Seashore, The Psychology of Musical Talent (New York: Silver, Burdett, 1919). His discussion of the musical mind covers various dimensions: pitch, intensity, time, rhythm, timbre, consonance, auditory space, voluntary motor control, musical action, musical imagery and imagination, musical memory, musical intellect, and musical feeling. Even so, he asserted that these do not operate in isolation; the musical mind is a unity that works as an integrated whole.

G. Révész, The Psychology of a Musical Prodigy (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1925). This work, the first of its kind, attempts to portray the early development of a richly endowed pianist, Erwin Nyiregyházi (1903-1987). It covers such topics as the early appearance of musical talent in general, diagnostic tests, elementary acoustic and musical faculties, specific forms of musical ability, compositions, and the progress of the pianist's development as shown in his works. Although some aspects of Erwin's childhood progress resembled Mozart's, his musical career failed to proceed and eventually he worked for film studios in Los Angeles.

Lewis M. Terman, ed., Genetic Studies of Genius (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1926), 5 vols. The volumes in the series deal with the mental and physical traits of gifted children (vol. 1), the early mental traits of three hundred geniuses (vol. 2), follow-up studies of a thousand gifted children (vol. 3), twenty-five years' follow-up of a superior group (vol. 4), and thirty-five years' follow-up of the gifted group at midlife: thirty-five years' follow-up of the superior child (vol. 5). The fields surveyed are extensive; musical ability receives only minor consideration. Perhaps the most relevant volume to this present discussion is Catherine Morris Cox, The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses, which mentions musical prodigies and musicians as a group. In the preface Terman observes: "We are justified in believing that geniuses, so called, are not only characterized in childhood by a superior IQ, but also by traits of interest, energy, will, and character that foreshadow later performance" (ix).

Articles include:

R. A. Henson, "Neurological Aspects of Musical Experience," in Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music, ed. Macdonald Critchley and R. A. Henson (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 3-21.

Tedd Judd, "The Varieties of Musical Talent," in The Exceptional Brain, ed. Loraine K. Obler and Deborah Fein (New York: The Guilford Press, 1988), 127-155. The technical discussion covers the psychology and neuropsychology of musical abilities, relation to other skills, musical memory, and relationships among musical skills.

Donald Scott and Adrienne Moffett, "The Development of Early Musical Talent in Famous Composers: a Biographical Review," in Music and the Brain: Studies in the Neurology of Music, ed. Macdonald Critchley and R. A. Henson (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 174-201. The focus is on Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, and Bach, along with several other prodigies studied by Daines Barrington, reported in 1781: Charles and Samuel Wesley, William Crotch, and Lord Mornington.

The following summary draws upon some of these sources.

                  3.              For example, Catherine Morris Cox, The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses, vol. 3 of Genetic Studies of Genius, estimated the childhood/young manhood IQs of several eminent composers: Bach, 140/165; Handel, 160/170 Mozart, 160/165, and others.

 

James B. Hartman specialized in philosophy, psychology, and the aesthetics of music in his doctoral studies at Northwestern University. He is Associate Professor, Continuing Education Division, The University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, where he is Senior Academic Editor for publications of the Distance Education Program. He is a frequent contributor of book reviews to The Diapason.