European Organs--Old and New

The Brick Gothic Phenomenon in Northern Germany

by Aldo J. Baggia

What strikes one immediately in the north of Germany is the uniformity of the style of architecture of the major churches. Throughout Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern the cathedral-size edifices have certain things in common. They are all massively-built gothic churches with high arching naves, some of which are well over a hundred feet in height, and they are made of brick. This last element creates a significant difference in feeling from the churches of the south of Germany or from the great French cathedrals whose soaring features have a more delicate nature about them. The use of bricks makes for a monumental effect that is striking from within and without. The Nikolaikirche in Wismar has a vaulting of 37 meters, which is the second highest in Germany after that of the Marienkirche in Lübeck, which rises to 40 meters. The steeples of the Marienkirche in Lübeck reach the height of 125 meters and are the center-pieces of the Lübeck skyline which emphasizes a row of seven church towers in the island core that is the city center. The Marienkirche of Stralsund in Ostvorpommern is 96 meters long with a vaulting of 32 meters, and the Baroque organ of 1659 is the last work of one of Lübeck's most famous organ builders, Friedrich Stellwagen. Not only is it his last work, but it is one of his largest organs (III/51) in a case that is absolutely spectacular, which rivals that of St. Bavo's in Haarlem, Holland. One cannot help but be inspired without even having heard a note from the instrument. This feeling is reproduced in the other brick gothic churches, where the combination of a formidable organ case blends so well with the aesthetic value of the architecture.

 

A common quote from a variety of sources is: "A Lutheran church must have a Bach organ." The implication would be that it must be a Baroque instrument with certain specifications and yet when one listens to Bach on a variety of organs, it would be difficult to make a definitive case for specifications, given the organs that are found in the typical North German Lutheran church, most of which are a far cry from what is labeled as a typical Baroque organ. I recall a recording by Nicholas Danby doing favorite works by Bach on the 1970 Marcussen organ (III/47) in the Cathedral of Lübeck. In the liner notes he wrote that he considered that particular instrument to be ideal for Bach's music because "of all the organs of our time, I find no other that matches its majesty and subtlety."1

One could add that the Cathedral's interior itself is quite majestic and subtle. I heard Peter Stenglein from Coburg play Bach's Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C, BWV 564, on that organ and was impressed with the colors produced, but the instrument was just as scintillating in the final movement of Vierne's First Symphony, a piece which requires brilliance and power. Conversely a small instrument can produce marvelous effects in Bach, depending on the virtuosity and articulation of the organist. I think of Simon Preston's recording on DGG of some of Bach's major works, including the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, on the Kreuzbergkirche organ (II/24) in Bonn. There is a strength that easily matches the sound produced by much larger organs, but the style is a winning one.

It is clear that Bach appreciated larger instruments, including those that had features not normally associated with a Baroque organ. In the Oxford Composer Companions book on Bach (edited by Malcolm Boyd), it is stated that "The 18th century Thuringian organ is characterized by an increasingly generous number of 8' flue stops, including string stops of delicate but incisive timbre, with a slight purr or sizzle, and with a characteristic initial speech suggesting the bowstroke of a string instrument. The 8' flue stops, together with an ample number of 16' and 32' stops, provide gravity of tone."2 There tended to be relatively few reeds, but Silbermann was known for having powerful reeds, which he adopted after having studied with his brother, Andreas, in Strasbourg. His implementation of reed stops of power and brilliance had a considerable influence on organ building throughout Germany for generations.

Two instruments directly provide significant information on the question of a Bach organ because of the fact that Bach played and appreciated both of them. In the Schlosskirche in Altenburg, Thuringia, the Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost organ (II/36) was praised by Bach for its workmanship and the character of its individual stops. One can play his most ambitious works on it. Zacharias Hildebrandt built the organ of the Wenzelskirche (III/53) in Naumburg between 1743 and 1746. Both Bach and Silbermann examined the instrument and found it successful. This organ has many 8' stops, but also has a full array of 16' stops and mixtures. There is a full complement of high-pitch stops and even by today's standards would be considered a relatively large organ. The case is elaborately decorated and quite spectacular. The Totentanz organ (IV/56) in the Marienkirche in Lübeck is noted as a Bach organ and Ernst-Erich Stender, the church organist since 1972, has played the entire gamut of Bach's works on this organ with great success. If one examines this instrument, which was built by the Führer Orgelbau of Wilhelmshaven in 1985, one finds a broad base whose divisions have a diversity of stops, including a total of 13 reed stops which give the organ a shine and power that one usually associates with very large instruments. It does not have any 32' stops, but is abundant in 8' and 16' stops. This organ is capable of playing romantic and modern compositions with success, but is usually limited to Bach, Buxtehude and their contemporaries in concerts.

Romantic and modern compositions are usually played on the V/101 Kemper & Sohn organ that was installed in 1968. Interestingly enough, Ernst-Erich Stender played major pieces of practically all of the well-known composers for the organ in the summer of 1999 and this represented a considerable feat of virtuosity. Featured at different times were the works of Liszt, including Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, the Prelude and Fugue on BACH, Ad nos, ad salutarem undam, Reubke's 94th Psalm, Franck's Pièce héroïque, and Choral No. 3 in A-minor, plus works by Vierne, Widor, Langlais, Alain, Reger, Jongen and Messiaen. This is a daunting show of virtuosity on the part of the organist, and the instrument produces a sound that is significant in size, color and brilliance. The organ sits so high in the West Tower that one can barely make out the organist when he takes a bow after a concert. This has to be the highest loft in the world and just thinking of the 40 meter vaulting in the nave puts one in awe.

In pursuing the work of the three Friedrichs--Ladegast, Friese and Stellwagen--it is noteworthy to see how their organs dove-tail with the style and architecture of the churches for which they were built. The Ladegast organ in the Schweriner Dom was basically untouched by the Second World War and was restored in the late 80s by Schuke VEB of Potsdam. This organ, IV/84, has essentially the same specifications as the organs in the Cathedral of Merseburg and the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig and represents Ladegast at the height of his powers. We know that Franz Liszt's major pieces and Reubke's 94th Psalm were first performed on the Ladegast organ in Merseburg Cathedral, and this is interesting because the installation was early in his career. There is a similarity with Silbermann's experience in Saxony in that he was given the contract for the large organ of the Freiberger Dom after having had very little experience. A recent recording by Christoph Schoener on the Mitra label of Liszt's Ad nos, ad salutarem undam and Reubke's 94th Psalm on the organ in Schwerin gives ample testimony to the fact that it matches or surpasses the Merseburg organ in color, brilliance and power. And in comparing these performances with all the other recordings that I know of the pieces, I would say that they hold their own comfortably with the competition. In a concert in July 1999, Andreas Liebig, an organist from Oslo, played Liszt's Prelude and Fugue on BACH, and the organ responded brilliantly. The acoustics of the cathedral are very good,  and one senses a warmth as well as a monumental quality to the sound. The organ was dedicated in 1871, some sixteen years after the dedication of the Merseburg instrument, which brought Ladegast instant fame.

That organ was built with 81 stops on four manuals and pedal and with its 5686 pipes was the largest in Germany at the time. The Hauptwerk had 20 stops, the Oberwerk 16, the Brustwerk 14, the Rückpositiv 11 and the Pedal 20. Liszt was so impressed with reports of the organ that he immediately sought to hear it. The Leipzig music critic, Dr. Franz Brendel, a champion of the North German school, wrote on August 31st, 1855, in the "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik," of which he was the editor, "that this instrument opened a new phase in organ-building, in which things have been achieved here that had never been attained on any other organ."3 In his review of the dedication he wrote "it was the unanimous feeling that this is a musical instrument that establishes the organ-builder as an outstanding master. The character of this work is different from any other organ. Insofar as power and fullness (body and depth, using all the stops) it is clearly the best; however it is also unique in the softer and peaceful stops. There is a euphony and mellowness to it that we have not yet heard from other organs. The sound is, to describe the main point in a couple of words, poetic nature."4

The large organ has retained the Baroque case of 1716, but was rebuilt by Schuke of Potsdam in 1984. Most of the restoration work in the former East Germany has been done by two companies in the north, Schuke of Potsdam or Wilhelm Sauer Orgelbau of Frankfurt/Oder and two in the south, Eule Orgelbau of Bautzen and the Gebrüder Jehmlich Orgelbau of Dresden. Obviously there are other companies, but it is interesting to note how many times these four firms have been mentioned since the time of the Second World War with respect to building new organs or restoring historic ones.

Following Merseburg, Ladegast moved from strength to strength and in the large organs he showed what he had learned from other sources, having particularly profited from studies with Cavaillé-Coll in France. Clearly additions were made to his art in the construction of the Nikolaikirche organ in Leipzig (IV/84) in 1862. Here he introduced the Barker lever and divided the wind chests of three manuals into two compartments, which made the playing easier and made a difference in the wind pressures as well as bettering the air intake. Johann Gottlob Töpfer's book of 1855, Theorie und Praxis des Orgelbaus, laid down principles for the specifications of pipes, wind chests, bellows and wind trunks, and Walter Ladegast writes that this organ was the first large organ that put Töpfer's principles into practice.5 This organ has had rebuilds and additions by the Wilhelm Sauer Company of Frankfurt/Oder and now has 94 stops.

   The other major organs that Ladegast built and which still exist include

1. The Marienkirche in Weissenfels (III/41) in 1863. This is where he had his workshop.

2. The Schlosskirche in Wittenberg (III/39) in 1864. The organ was rebuilt and enlarged to IV/56 in 1993-1994 by Eule Orgelbau of Bautzen. Knobs in different colors indicate the origin of the stops--red for the original ones, light red for the rebuilt ones, two Sauer stops are brown and the new Schwellwerk is in black. As such, one can play the organ with only the original specifications if one wishes.

3. Stadt-und Kathedralkirche St. Jakob in Köthen (III/47) in 1872. This organ was restored in 1993-1994 by Christian Scheffler.

4. Kreuzkirche in Posen, now Posnan, Poland (III/43) in 1876. This organ has not been altered.

5. Stadtkirche St. Marien in Ronne-burg (III/32) in 1879. The organ was restored in 1992-1993 by Rösel & Hercher Orgelbau of Saalfeld.

6.  St. Johann's in Wernigerode (III/33) in 1885. This organ was an example of his using cone chests as opposed to the slider chests that he had used in his earlier organs. There was a full restoration by Schuke of Potsdam in 1989/1991 with a view to putting the organ back into its original condition.

7. The Kirche "Zu unserer lieben Frauen" in Mittweida (III/42) in 1888. In a rebuild in 1931 by the Jehmlich Brothers of Dresden, the case and pipes were used.

I did not mention the organ of the Grosser Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (III/52) in Vienna, which was installed in 1872, because it was replaced by a Rieger (IV/71) in 1907, which was replaced by an even larger organ (IV/100) in 1968 by Walcker of Ludwigsburg.

  We have to look at the organ of the Schweriner Dom to see what would have to be considered his magnum opus because it is now the largest of those that are in as close to an original state as possible. This instrument of 5197 or 5235 pipes, depending on the source, has 84 stops divided over four manuals and pedal and sits high in the West Tower of the Cathedral. It is an impressive sight and the sound surrounds one in the nave and is characterized by brilliance in the reeds and tremendous power in the 32-foot pedal stops. The key action uses the Barker lever, and  a combination action allows crescendo/

decrescendo. The pipes are 97.8% original (according to the report that the Schuke Company had written at the time of the restoration) and the tin pipes were "built according to Silbermann's principles."6 This last quote has been mentioned in a number of sources and stresses the point that Ladegast used Silbermann as his model with respect to the fashioning of the pipes. This instrument is capable of playing the entire literature and is equally as effective in Bach as it is in the moderns. A number of recent recordings give ample testimony to this point.

Schwerin is the home base of Friedrich Friese, who is little known outside of the region. Friese built primarily smaller instruments, and the II/31 organ of the Paulskirche in Schwerin, whose restoration was completed by Kristian Wegscheider at the end of June, 1999, is a good example of a medium-sized organ which produces airy sound that has heft and which is comfortable in romantic as well as baroque music. The celebrations in the summer of 1999 included a series of six concerts in which one of the Mendelssohn sonatas was played as part of the program. There is brightness at the top and the strings sing. The Paulskirche is a large brick church whose acoustics rival those of the Cathedral.  A number of other churches in Mecklenburg have Friese organs and they tend to be two-manual instruments with 20 + stops. In Schwerin itself, there is also the organ (II/33) of the Nikolaikirche, better known as the Schelfkirche because of the section of the city in which it is located, which was restored within the last few years and which typifies the clear sound of a Friese organ.

Another notable one is in the Georgenkirche in the city of Parchim, which is not too far from Schwerin. Here we have an organ (II/25) that is in a case which is quite similar to that of the Paulskirche in Schwerin. The church is not as large as some of the others, but still has an air of power because of the brick element.

Lastly we come to Friedrich Stellwagen, who is known in North Germany for two organs in particular. The small organ (III/31) in the Jakobikirche in Lübeck, which dates from 1636-1637, was a renovation project that included a new Brustwerk and Rückpositiv. Fortunately this church was not destroyed during the Second World War, and the organ survives with restoration work done in 1978 by the brothers Hillebrand. His last and largest work (III/51) was installed between 1653-1659 in the Marienkirche in Stralsund. This instrument has been maintained by different sources over the years and underwent a restoration in 1959 by the firm of Alexander Schuke of Potsdam in order to reclaim the original scalings of 1659. Further work has been done on the organ since then, and currently the church is undertaking a major fund drive to do a definitive restoration of the organ. Martin Rost, the organist at the Marienkirche, expects this project to be a very costly one and indicates that world-wide help would be appreciated. The account for the project at the Deutsche Bank in Stralsund is: 5440144-01 (Stellwagen-Orgel Stralsund).

Needless to say, this is one of the great organs in the world, one whose sound matches the incredible decoration of the case. If majesty were an adjective that one would apply to an instrument, it would certainly fit here. The first track of a recording that is available at the church tells the whole story.7 Martin Rost plays Nicolaus Bruhns' Prelude in e minor and one is struck immediately by the extraordinary sound that emanates from the organ.

Stellwagen came from Halle and moved to North Germany in 1630 and was considered the best student of Gottfried Fritzsche. Gustav Fock thought that he was the most significant conduit to Arp Schnitger, who is generally considered the most famous German organ-builder of the seventeenth century.8 Stellwagen added new stops to those introduced in the north and, in particular, was known for his Trichterregal (a type of horn or trumpet) in the Rückpositiv. Fock mentions that it was a "Schalmey construction, with a longer, slightly conical resonator and wide conical top."9  This stop is also found in the Jakobikirche organ in Lübeck.

One could easily continue with descriptions of other organs of importance in the area such as those in Güstrow (the Cathedral and the Stadtkirche), Greifswald (the Cathedral) or in the Nikolaikirche in Wismar, whose Mende organ (II/30) has a striking case and stands out because of the extraordinary mass of the interior of the church.

In Stralsund there is also the Nikolaikirche which has an historic Buchholz organ (III/55) of 1841 as well as a new Baroque-style organ (II/22) of 1986 by Schuke of Potsdam. This church has the dimensions of  the Marienkirche and the organs stand out impressively. In Rostock the Marienkirche was one of the few buildings in the heart of the city that escaped the bombing of the Second World War, and the elaborate case of the Paul Schmidt organ (IV/62) of 1766-1770 still stands. The organ was rebuilt and enlarged to 85 stops in 1983 by the Sauer Orgelbau of Frankfurt/Oder. The architecture of the church is in keeping with that of most of the large churches of North Germany and mirrors the same visual effects.

Not so far from Lübeck is the island city of Ratzeburg, which features the fortress-like Cathedral that contains an organ (IV/76) that has been widely recorded. The original organ was built by Rieger in 1978 and was subsequently enlarged and revoiced in 1993-94 by Glatter-Götz Orgelbau of Owingen. The Cathedral contains two smaller organs of recent vintage--the Choir organ (II/20) by Rieger (1972) and Michael Becker (1996), and the Becker Paradies organ (II/15) of 1985.

Suffice it to say that North Germany is a region that contains organs that would interest any aficionado and which make a visit worth while.10              n

 

Notes

                  1.              CBS Masterworks recording, CD MDK 45807, Bach Organ Favorites by Nicholas Danby.

                  2.              Oxford Composers Companions, J. S. Bach (Malcolm Boyd, Editor), Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 339ff.

                  3.              Friedrich Ladegast-Der Orgelbauer von Weissenfels, by Walter Ladegast, Weiding Verlag, Stockach am Bodensee, 1998, p. 54.

                  4.              Ibid.

                  5.              Ibid, p. 64

                  6.              cf. Notes from Mitra Schallplatten,  CD16245, Christoph Schoener an der Ladegast Orgel im Dom zu Schwerin.

                  7.              Die Stellwagen-Orgel von 1659 in St. Marien zu Stralsund, Discus STW 95906, Martin Rost spielt norddeutsche Orgelmusik, 1995.

                  8.              cf. Gustav Fock, Hamburg's role in Northern European Organ Building (Translated and edited by Lynn Edwards and Edward C. Pepe), Westfield Center, Easthampton, Massachusetts 1997.

                  9.              Ibid, p. 71.

                  10.           Other sources of information. All translations with the exception of the Fock were done by the author.

Die Orgelbauten der Residenzstadt Schwerin, Julius Massmann, Wismar, 1875. Commentary and additions by Hermann J. Busch and Reinhard Jaehn, Merseburger, 1988.

Wiedereinweihung der Ladegast-Orgel im Dom zu Schwerin, Evangelischer Presserverband für Mecklenburg, e. V., 1995

Die Schweriner St. Paulskirche und Ihre Orgel, im Auftrag der St. Paulsgemeinde Schwerin (Christian Skobowsky), 1999.

Einweihung der rekonstruierten Friese-Orgel in der Schelfkirche zu Schwerin, Kirchgemeinderat der St. Nikolai (Schelf), 1994.

Die Stellwagen-Orgel von 1659 zu St. Marien, Stralsund, Gemeindekirchenrat St. Marien, Stralsund, Rügen-Druck, Putbus, 1995.

Die Orgel der St. Marien-Kirche zu Rostock, Stiftung St.-Marien-Kirche zu Rostock, e. V.

Die Restaurierung der Mende-Orgel von 1845, Kirchgemeinde St. Nikolai Wismar, 1995.

Ratzeburger Dommusiken 1999, Ratzeburger Domchor (KMD Dr. Neithard Bethke), 1999.

CD, Orgelkonzert im Schweriner Dom, Jan Ernst spielt an der Ladegast-Orgel von 1871, Domkantorei Schwerin, 1997.

CD, Orgelmusik in St. Nikolai zu Stralsund, Evangelischer Kirchengemeinde St. Nikolai, Stralsund, 1998.

CD, Ornament 11445, Johann Sebastian Bach, Grosse Orgelwerke, Ernst-Erich Stender an der Totentanzorgel in St. Marien zu Lübeck, 1991.

 

Aldo J. Baggia is Chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Instructor in French, Spanish, German, and Italian at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Iona College and the MA from Middlebury College, and has completed graduate work at Laval University and Duke University. He has pursued postgraduate studies in France, Germany, Austria, and Spain, and travelled extensively in Europe. He has written reviews for Quarterly Opera Review, Opera, Opera News, Orpheus, Monsalvat, and The Diapason.

 

St. Marien, Stralsund

HAUPTWERK

                  16'          Prinzipal

                  16'          Bordun

                  8'             Oktave

                  8'             Spitzflöte

                  51/3'     Hohlquinte

                  4'             Superoktave

                  4'             Hohlflöte

                  2'             Flachflöte

                                    Rauschpfeife II-IV

                                    Mixtur VI-X

                                    Scharff IV-VI

                  16'          Trompete

OBERPOSITIV

                  8'             Prinzipal

                  8'             Hohlflöte

                  4'             Oktave

                  4'             Blockflöte

                  4'             Kl. Quintadena

                  22/3'     Nasard

                  2'             Gemshorn

                                    Scharff IV-VII

RÜCKPOSITIV

                  16'          Gr. Quintadena

                  8'             Prinzipal

                  8'             Gedackt

                  8'             Quintadena

                  4'             Oktave

                  4'             Dulzflöte

                  2'             Feldpfeife

                  11/2'     Sifflöte

                                    Sesquialtera II

                                    Scharff VI-VIII

                                    Zimbel III

                  16'          Dulzian

                  8'             Trichterregal

                  4'             Regal

PEDAL

                  24'          Gr. Prinzipal

                  16'          Prinzipal

                  16'          Gedacktuntersatz

                  8'             Oktave

                  8'             Spitzflöte

                  4'             Superoktave

                  4'             Nachthorn

                  2'             Feldpfeife

                                    Mixtur IV

                  16'          Posaune

                  8'             Trompete

                  8'             Dulzian

                  4'             Schalmei

                  2'             Cornett

 

 

Jeffrey K. Chase

Jeffrey K. Chase is a practicing attorney in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with a concentration in the area of estate planning. He is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to becoming an attorney, he earned a bachelor’s degree in music literature and a master’s degree in musicology. He has been a published feature writer and music critic for The Michigan Daily and The Detroit Free Press and has also written for High Fidelity magazine. Currently he also reviews classical music compact discs for All Music Guide, an online music reference source.

What a special trip the Marilyn Mason University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour 54 this past July 9–22 was, tracing the cities and churches limning the lives and careers of J. S. Bach and Buxtehude and, among others, the organ builders Silbermann, Schnitger, Trost and Marcussen! Entitled “In the Footsteps of Bach and Buxtehude,” it included visits to historic organs in Mühlhausen, Weimar, Eisenach, Arnstadt, Altenburg, Frauenstein, Freiberg, Dresden, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Hamburg, Lübeck, Århus, Odense and Copenhagen. Much was learned and experienced by its fortunate participants.
After arriving in Frankfurt at approximately 7:30 a.m. and after having collected all of the participants flying in from various locations, we boarded a beautiful, very modern bus to commence our journey of exploration.

Mühlhausen, Weimar, Eisenach, and Arnstadt
Our first stop was at St. Blasiuskirche in Mühlhausen, where Bach had worked from 1707–1708 (this year being the 300th anniversary of Bach’s arrival there from Arnstadt). While there, Bach submitted plans for rebuilding the organ.This organ, however, was replaced in the 19th century with a new instrument. But turnabout is fair play, and from 1956–1958 the 19th-century organ was removed; the Alexander Schuke company built a new organ based upon Bach’s plans, but with the addition of five new registers to support the performance of modern organ literature. The casework of this Schuke organ exemplifies the industrial style of the former East German regime and its banal aesthetic.
Then on to Weimar where Bach spent ten years as a musician to the Grand Duke; where Bach was imprisoned in 1716 for requesting to resign from his position to take another; and where, in 1717, Bach was first mentioned in print, being called “the famous Weimar organist.” After checking into the outstanding Elephant Hotel, next door to the building in which Bach lived from 1708–1717 and where his sons Wilhelm Friedemann and Carl Philip Emmanuel were born, we took a short stroll in the rain to visit the Parish Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, where, beginning in 1707, Bach’s relative and colleague Johann Gottfried Walther was organist.
Early the next morning we boarded the bus and departed for Eisenach, where J. S. Bach was born on March 21, 1685. He was baptized at St. George’s Church, where Luther had sung in the choir and had also preached. That baptismal font, which has a pedestal carved like a wooden basket, is still in use today. At that church, located on the Market Square (that day it was market day), we were treated to an organ recital (well attended by the public) performed by the young Denny Philipp Wilke, an organist from Nürnberg, who studied with Latry and van Oosten. Wilke performed Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in D, the Scherzo from Vierne’s Organ Symphony No. 2 and the Franck A-minor Choral on the 1982 Schuke of Potsdam organ. This fall Wilke was scheduled to record a recently discovered transcription by Dupré of Liszt’s Ad nos, ad salutarem undam.
After lunch we visited the Bach Museum (Bach’s birth house), where we heard a talk describing and demonstrating two small period organs, a spinet, a clavicembalo and a clavichord, and in which a crystal drinking cup, the only item remaining from the Bach household, is displayed. One of the rooms is set up as Bach’s composition room in Leipzig presumed to have looked.
Then back in the air-conditioned bus for a drive to Arnstadt to visit St. Boniface Church, containing a 1703 Wender organ (reconstructed by Hoffmann in 1999) on the fourth level. It was to test this organ that Bach came to Arnstadt in 1703. He was so appreciated that he was hired as organist and remained employed here until 1707, when he took his 200-mile walk to Lübeck to hear and learn from Buxtehude, a trip that resulted in his dismissal and move to Mühlhausen. Marilyn Mason’s friend Gottfried Praller demonstrated this Wender/Hoffmann instrument with performances of Buxtehude’s Ciaconne in d and Bach’s Fugue in d. On the third level of this church, now referred to as the Bachkirche, is a 1913 Steinmeyer organ, also reconstructed by Hoffmann in 1999.
Our last stop in Arnstadt was the nearby New Bach Museum containing, inter alia, the console Bach played upon in St. Boniface and some historic holographic music manuscripts.

Altenburg, Frauenstein, and Dresden
The next day, after breakfast, we departed for Dresden, but with two intermediary stops. The first was in Altenburg to view and play the 1735–1739 Tobias Heinrich Trost (1673–1759) organ in the castle church (“One of the great organs of the world,” says Marilyn Mason). Bach played this organ in September 1738 or 1739 and again in October 1739, when Bach’s pupil Krebs was the organist, as he was for the last 25 years of his life. This fine organ was also played by Weber, Liszt, Agricola and Schütz. Today Felix Friedrich, who has edited and published several volumes of Krebs’s work, is the organist. Altenburg is known as the playing card capital of the world, because playing cards are made here, and the castle museum contains an interesting collection of both old and new cards.
The second stop was in Frauenstein, the birth city of the revered organ builder Gottfried Silbermann (1683–1753) and the site where Werner Mueller established the Gottfried Silbermann Museum, which contains, among other things, a reproduction of a one-manual, no-pedal organ in Bremen, and upon which we each shared playing a theme and variations by Pachelbel on Was Gott thut, das ist wohlgetan. While there, we learned that the property has recently been sold to developers, so most likely the museum will be removed to another building.
Now in Dresden, we visited the Dom or Hofkirche (the Dom was the main church in a town) containing a 1755 Silbermann organ, his largest and last, with three manuals and 47 registers, and which was last restored by Jehmlich in 1971. Then we walked past the porcelain mural of the kings of Saxony on the street leading to the Frauenkirche, which, however, we could not visit due to the late time of day. So on to a fine dinner at one of the outside restaurants.

Freiberg, Leipzig, Rötha, and Stürmthal
The next day we traveled to Leipzig via Freiberg to visit Silbermann’s Opus 2 (1714) with three manuals and 44 registers and last restored by Jehmlich in 1983. We also visited the Jakobikirche, just outside the old city wall, where we played a two-manual Silbermann. This church is an old, very plain building but with an active congregation. The priest, rather than an organist, let us in and explained that the congregation can’t afford an organist. Can you imagine: a church with an historic Silbermann organ and no organist! Any volunteers?
In Leipzig we lunched on the Nikolaistraße before entering the Nikolaikirche, whose congregation was a leader in the democratic movement before the fall of the Berlin Wall. This church has a very ornate interior decorated with sharp pointed simulated foliage. We played an 1862 five-manual Ladegast organ reworked over the years by Sauer and by Eule. Currently part of its electronic stop action is by Porsche, whose name is prominently displayed on the beautiful wood of its art deco-like console. From the Nikolaikirche it was a short walk to the legendary Thomaskirche, originally part of a 13th-century monastery and the other main city church, and the one at which J. S. Bach was cantor from 1723 until his death in 1750 and with which he is most closely associated. Because this church is such a tourist attraction, all we could do was look around; the organ here is not a relic of the days of Bach’s tenure, but an 1889 Wilhelm Sauer instrument last restored in 1993. It is here that Bach is buried.
No University of Michigan organ tour to this area would be complete without a stop in Rötha to view the 1721 G. Silbermann organ in the Georgenkirche, because this instrument was chosen by Charles Fisk and Marilyn Mason as the model for what is now known as the “Marilyn Mason Organ” in the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance—Fisk and Mason thought it, of all known G. Silbermann organs, best suited to the U-M space.
Next, an unscheduled visit to Stürmthal to tour a country church, where a funeral was in progress. Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688–1757), a protégé of G. Silbermann, built this organ, a one-manual with pedal, but got into trouble with Silbermann because of Silbermann’s perceived competition. Hildebrandt invited Bach to play this bright, high-pitched instrument and Bach wrote Cantata 194 for Hildebrandt.

Wittenberg, Lüneburg, Hamburg, and Neuenfelde
The next day, Saturday, began with a long drive to Hamburg with a first stop along the way in Wittenberg, birthplace of the Lutheran Reformation, to visit the revered Martin Luther sites. We did not play the organ in the castle church, another major tourist attraction and which now has Luther’s 95 statements immortalized in bronze on its doors (the doors upon which Luther nailed his 95 Theses on 31 October 1517 have long since been replaced).
The second stop on the Hamburg journey was in Lüneburg to visit the Michaeliskirche, where Bach had matriculated in the choir school. This triple-naved, Gothic, red-brick hall church with drastically leaning pillars contains an organ with a typical North German case and with pipes from many eras. This was originally the church for a Benedictine monastery, and thus the private church and sepulchral vaults for the reigning families of the Billungs and Guelphs. Tobias Gravenhorst is the current choirmaster. The organ here consists of an old case with new contents last reworked in 1999–2000 by Sauer, which used to be a large firm but now is only a small company. One might speculate whether Bach, as a young boy in the choir school gazing up at the organ case, got the idea of putting “Soli Deo Gloria” at the end of his compositions from the “Soli Deo Gloria” inscription at the top of the organ case. Sunday mornings are, of course, the time when churches are fulfilling their main function as houses of worship for their congregations, so for us Sunday morning is free time.
Sunday afternoon we visited the famous Jakobikirche in Hamburg, where we were hosted by a friendly female organist who knows English well. Reinken was on the city committee in 1693 when the organ was built by Arp Schnitger. Reinken didn’t want this church’s organ to have a 32′ stop because he wanted his church to be the only one in town to have a 32′ stop, but Schnitger foiled him by building two 32′s—a Principal and a Posaune. Bach applied for the organ post here in 1720, but he would have had to pay a fee to get the job. Instead a wealthy man with the money to pay (bribe!) was hired.
This was the organ whose pipes were removed to safe storage during WWII, thus saving this organ when the church and loft were subsequently destroyed. This Schnitger organ, which used to hang higher on the wall, was eventually restored by Jürgen Ahrend in 1950 and again in 1993. It was Schnitger’s habit to reuse pipes, so pipes from the 1500s were incorporated by Schnitger. (This in contrast to Silbermann, who used only new material.) Its temperament is between meantone and Werckmeister III (modified meantone). The faces of its donors are immortalized on the original stopknobs of the original console, which is displayed on a balcony but is not part of the currently functioning instrument. Albert Schweitzer has played this organ, and Marilyn Mason has proclaimed it one of the great organs of the world.
We also visited the Michaeliskirche in Hamburg, the main city church, a rococo room with curved balconies. The gallery organ was built from 1909–1912 by E. F. Walcker of Ludwigsburg. With its five manuals and 163 stops, for a time it was the largest organ in the world. We played music including French pieces that work well on it. The restored organ in the side gallery we did not play, nor did we play a small organ in the choir space. There were many visitors coming and going in this church.
St. Pankratius, a small church with a rural setting in Neuenfelde, is the burial place of Arp Schnitger (1648–1719) and was his home church for a number of years. He built this high baroque-style, two-manual, 34-stop organ for this church in 1688 and the bulletin board invites people to worship on Sunday to the accompaniment of the Schnitger organ.

Lübeck
On Monday, our last day in Germany, we journeyed to Lübeck, the first German city bombed in World War II (in response to the Germans’ bombing of Coventry, England), where we visited four important churches. The first was the Marienkirche, where Ernst-Erich Stender, organist, was our host. This is the church where Buxtehude had worked from 1668 to 1707. Its historic Schnitger organ and the Totentanz organ (named after a painting in the church) were destroyed by bombs in 1942.
The Domkirche, founded by Henry the Lion in 1173, today makes modern use of space. Its Romanesque towers survived the war, but its Gothic portions fell. Its contemporary (1960) stained glass window in the west end is especially beautiful. The 1699 Schnitger organ, originally built here but burned during the war, had been played by Handel, Mendelssohn and Mattheson. A 1970 Marcussen instrument now sits on the north wall. There are raised auditorium seats on the west end where the organ used to be and a small positiv organ is in the choir space. Here also is a charming Baggio di Rosa 1777 Italian one-manual portative organ with pull-down pedals and a bird stop, which has been restored by Ahrend in the Netherlands.
The design of the 13th-century Aegidiankirche is unusual because its pews face the preacher and not the altar. It has a choir screen from the Renaissance with eight panels depicting the life of Christ. Its original organ dated from 1629 and was built by Scherer of Hamburg. The case, not in baroque style, but with small, refined details suggestive of earlier times, was created by a famous Lübecker carver. This is one of the few organs built during the Thirty Years War, in which the independent northern German cities were not obliged to fight. Now, the old cabinetry with its intricate light and dark inlaid wood figures is more interesting than the 1992 Klais instrument it contains.
The Jakobikirche is where Hugo Distler—who had a good sense of history and resisted romantic modifications to the great organ, built by Joachim Richborn in 1673 and last restored by Schuke/Berlin in 1984—was the organist from 1931 to 1937. This organ contains pipes from a Blockwerk from the 1400s; Schuke added a Swell as part of his restoration in 1984. This organ is approximately 20% original and includes an 18th-century pedal division. Interestingly, there are two matching organ cases, north and west, both in swallow’s nest design. The main case is in Renaissance style and the Positiv case is in Baroque style.
The Jacobikirche three-manual, 31-register smaller organ by Stellwagen, built in 1637 and based upon an anonymous builder in 1515, was last restored by Brothers Hillebrand in 1978. With this organ being 70% original, today one hears what would have been the sounds of 1637 and of 1515. The Werckmeister temperament is tuned one step above A=440. Distler had this organ in mind when he composed Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.

Ulkebøl, Sønderborg, and Aabendraa
The Ulkebøl Lutheran Church was our first stop in Denmark. Although this church has housed an organ continuously since the beginning of the 16th century, its current organ is a Marcussen & Søn dated 1888 set in a Jürgen Hinrichsen angel façade dated 1790. From 1864 to 1920 this part of Denmark had been part of Germany, and during World War II this church’s bells were removed to Hamburg to be melted down for munitions manufacture, but were fortunately rescued just at the end of the war before being melted. Danish churches have ships suspended from the ceiling to as a symbol recalling that human life is sustained by God; the nave is called the church ship. The patron of this church was the Duke of Augustinborg.
From there we bussed to the Sønderborg Castle; however, when we arrived the streets were blocked. We soon learned that this was for the security of the visiting Queen Margrethe, who had arrived in her royal yacht to visit this coastal castle. However she left promptly at 2 pm, and we were granted entrance to hear a recital on this reconstructed Renaissance organ by its organist. Originally there was a 1570 Rottenstein-Pock instrument, which was enlarged to two manuals with nine and five stops, respectively, in 1626; each manual has a slightly different compass. The present instrument is a 1996 Mads Kjersgaard reconstruction set in the original 1570 façade; D-sharp and E-flat are separate pitches because of the (probably) meantone tuning.
From there we were treated to a Marcussen factory tour. Founded in 1806, this firm celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. Still in the ownership of Marcussen’s descendants, it has been in this location in Aabendraa since 1829. Our tour was conducted by a Marcussen relative. We concluded this day in Århus.

Århus, Odense, and Copenhagen
The first stop the next morning was at the Århus Domkirke, the largest church in Denmark. Originally containing a Schnitger organ, the current instrument is a 1928 Frobenius, which has been placed behind the 1730 Kastens console and is the organ on which Gillian Weir recorded the complete works of Franck, Messiaen and Duruflé. Its 8′ Voix humaine is modeled after that in Ste. Clotilde in Paris (César Franck’s church).
After lunch we left for Odense, the birth city of Hans Christian Andersen, and visited St. Canute’s Cathedral, located next to a beautiful city park. This cathedral contains three organs: the smallest and oldest is the Jens Gregersen instrument built c. 1843; the second oldest is the main organ built by Marcussen & Søn in 1965 and using the façade of its 1756 predecessor; and the newest, in the east end of the cathedral, was built by Carsten Lund in 1999. Then on to Copenhagen for a visit to the Church of the Holy Ghost with its 1986 Marcussen & Søn organ; the opulent Jesuskirken, built by the Carlsberg brewing family and containing in front one of the last Cavaillé-Coll organs (dated 1890) built and, in the rear, a 1993–1994 Jensen & Thomsen instrument; and a city tour.

Roskilde
On the penultimate day we visited the impressive Roskilde Cathedral containing a 1991 Marcussen & Søn three-manual, 33-rank organ. We were granted special access to the upper gallery from which to view this magnificent edifice, which is the burial place of many Danish kings and queens and with its wonderful trompe l’oeil paintings of heroic exploits on various side chapel walls.
From there we visited the environmentally friendly chapel organ, an 1882 A. H. Busch & Sønner rebuild at Ledreborg Castle. The resident organist (from Tennessee!) gave a demonstration of this unusual single-manual instrument to which the pedal is always coupled, which has not been electrified and requires an assistant to work the bellows. We returned to Copenhagen to give a public recital at St. Andreas Church.
On Saturday, our last day together, many spent the day shopping and enjoying the city, while others visited the Trinity Church with its three-manual, 53-rank, 1956 Marcussen & Søn organ rebuilt by P. G. Andersen in 1977 and the Garnisonkirche. Our communal dinner, at an historic local restaurant, was a bittersweet gathering, knowing that the camaraderie created by this tour’s participants was a unique organism and never to be duplicated.
Unlike any other instrument, no two organs are the same and, to be fully understood and appreciated, should be personally touched and experienced. Thus, one of the primary values of these tours is to acquaint oneself with the famous historic organs of the world to experience what it is about each that makes it so revered. And on this two-week, multi-city tour of northern and eastern Germany and Denmark, the participants “experienced” approximately 43 organs dating from the 16th through the 20th centuries. But it’s not just about the organs. It’s about the camaraderie with organ aficionados, too.■

 

by Marian Archibald

The 38th Historic Organ Tour, sponsored by the University of Michigan and led by Marilyn Mason, took place August 3-20, 1998, entitled "In the Steps of Bach."

For two weeks we journeyed from west to east across the "waistline" of Germany, visiting most of the places where Bach lived, plus Dresden, Gera, and Berlin. Among the organs played by the group were at least three (two Hildebrandts and a Trost) that Bach had proven, and one that Handel had played; 10 organs of Gottfried Silbermann, plus the copy which is in the Silbermann Museum.  In total, we visited 41 organs, playing 30 of them.

Day 1. We arrived in Frankfurt, a group of 35 which included 21 organists.  A long bus ride into what used to be called "East" Germany took the group to Eisenach, where we first visited the Georgenkirche. In a special moment, Marilyn Mason gathered us around the font where Bach was baptized--still in use today. We played the modern baroque-style 3/35 Schuke on the west wall, visited the Bachhaus, and then travelled to Weimar.

Day 2. Walking tour of Weimar and  visit to the city Church of Sts. Peter & Paul where J. G. Walther worked; dark Lucas Cranach altar paintings. Immense live sunflowers on the altar glow in sunlight streaming directly onto them.

Bus to Arnstadt. Lunch at Goldene Sonne with Herr Schockinger, our gracious chef. We played the 1964 2/15 Schuke organ at the Liebfraukirche and visited the Bach Museum. The "Bach Church" where Bach worked 1703-1707 is being renovated.

Short ride to tiny village of Dornheim:  small, lovely white interior of the church where Bach married his first wife, his cousin Maria Barbara Bach.  We played the Scheinfeld 2/16 organ.

Bach worked for the Duke of Weimar from 1708-1717. The palace and chapel where he played have not survived.  Friedemann and C.P.E. were born in a house, the site of which is now occupied by part of our Hotel Elephant.

Day 3. Bus to Muehlhausen, attend Lutheran worship at St. Blasius Church, where Bach worked 1707-8. After the service, pastor greeted us and eloquently explained history of the church in English. Later we played two organs in Gotha.

Day 4. Naumburg, to play at Wenzels-kirche (Church of St. Wenceslaus) the large Hildebrandt organ, originally 3 manuals/54 stops, 75 ranks, that was proved by Bach and Silbermann in 1746 and pronounced good.  Altnikol, Bach's son-in-law, worked there. Irene Greulich, who has played there since 1971, told us that in 1933 the action was electrified; now it is being restored to its original action.  The Rueckpositiv pipes (13 stops, 18 ranks) were the only ranks present;  we played them--what a wonderful sound. The other 3/4 of the remaining facade is empty. Herman Eule of Bautzen is doing the restoration.

Day 5. We visited tiny Rötha, south of Leipzig, and enjoyed the luxury of 11/2 hours each in two churches, each with a Silbermann organ placed, as usual, high on the west wall. Our first Silbermanns--and two of them! We met Maria Schödel, a long-time friend of Marilyn Mason, who for 30 years has been fortunate to have  these two Silbermanns at her disposal.

The Silbermann two-octave pedalboard is placed far to the right compared to American standards. We played pedal pieces at our own risk. Our learning on this trip came not simply from playing, but also from watching, occasionally pulling stops for others, walking around the church to hear the organ from different locations, or just sitting and reveling in the beauty of the sound and the interior of the church. The Marienkirche has a 1722 1/11/12 Silbermann; the St. Georgen-Kirche a 2/23/30 (2 manuals, 23 stops, 30 ranks) from 1721; the latter is the inspiration for the Marilyn Mason Organ at the University of Michigan which was built by Charles Fisk in 1985. As tour group members played, Dr. Mason pulled stops and gave us mini-lessons on site.

Leipzig. We visited the Thomaskirche, where Bach was music director from 1723 until his death in l750. (No organ that Bach played survives here.) We gathered at his grave, placed flowers and sang a hymn together. Bach was no longer simply a name on paper. The fact that he was a human being--who was born, baptized, married, buried one wife, buried some children and raised many others, worked hard and died--seemed new and vivid, the acoustical joys more real, the human griefs more sad, now that we had been in these places.

Days 6, 7. In Dresden to visit Silbermann's last and largest organ (3/47/70) in the Dresden Hofkirche; the next day we played his earliest extant instrument, the only other surviving three-manual, 3/45/68, in the very ornate Freiberg Cathedral. (Freiberg in Saxony, near Dresden.) Bach did not live in Dresden, but he could visit its opera and other wonders from Leipzig.

Day 8. We visited the tiny village of Grosshartsmannsdorf which has a superb 2/21/25+ Silbermann "scraping the ceiling,"  with soft flutes to die for. That evening five of us (Marguerite Thal, Margarete Thomsen, Steven Hoffman, Marian Archibald, Kurt Heyer) played the Kindermann Magnificat and four of us sang the chant in recital in the town of Klettbach. The village church has a lovely 1725 Schroeter 2/16/18+. Some of these tiny churches with lovely old organs are unable to find an organist. Life in the old "East" Germany is quite difficult.  I am tempted to offer to be an interim for a few months!

Day 9. To Altenburg to play the Trost organ that Marilyn Mason will play in recital this evening. The castle church is long and narrow, with the Trost, 2/36/53, filling one long side wall. The organ even includes a Glockenspiel.  Bach played the Trost organ at least twice, around 1739.  Before we tried the sounds, Dr. Felix Friedrich gave us a fine demonstration of the entire instrument. The 16' Quintadena and bowed-sounding Viola da Gamba on the Hauptwerk are amazing. In the afternoon we drove to the small town of Ponitz, where the Silbermann organ is in the front balcony. Silbermann lived in the town for six months in 1736-37 while installing the organ. At the Altenburg Schloss Marilyn Mason's exciting recital displayed the glories of the Trost organ in music by Dandrieu, Couperin, Bach, Calvin Taylor, and Guilmant.

Day 10. We  exchanged greetings at the Silbermann Museum in Frauenstein with the scholar, Werner Mueller, who founded the Museum and has written about Silbermann. We played the lovely 1/7 copy of an organ, the original of which is in Bremen.  Special items: useful model of how a tracker works; map of where Silbermanns are, were played, or were destroyed (several were destroyed in World War II; the masterpiece in the Dresden Hofkirche had been removed and was thus saved); copies and originals of contracts for organs.

Day 11. To  Halle, Wittenberg and Berlin.  In Halle we played both organs in the large church: a small, but powerful, 7-rank which Handel played on the east wall; a large 3/40 opposite it,more recent. We visited the house where Handel was born, now a museum,where there are three small organs. In Wittenberg, we visited the castle church, on which door Luther nailed the 95 theses in 1517.

Day 12. We toured Berlin.

Day 13. Visit to the Kirche zur Frohen Botschaft (Good News Church) in a Berlin suburb, Karlshorst. Organist Roland Muench spoke briefly and demonstrated the wonderful "Princess Amalie" organ, built in 1755 by Peter Migend and played by C.P.E. Bach. The organ has had many homes, but then found rest in this resonant 1905 building, which was used as a stable in the war. This was our last church. We had a fine tour of the Schuke organ shop in the southern suburbs of Berlin.

Day 14. We flew home with many wonderful memories.

Two tours take place in 1999:  U. of M. Historic Tour XXXIX: Italy: Music and Mosaics May 3-13. U. of M. Historic Tour XL: Northern Germany & Schnitger August 3-13. Information from Marilyn Mason 734/764-2500; e-mail  [email protected]

--Marian Archibald

Pipedreams Organ Tour, April 21-May 3, 2002, Part 2

Mary Ann Dodd

Mary Ann Dodd is Colgate University Organist Emerita. Her lectures and performances have often featured the music of contemporaryAmerican composers. She is presently at work on a book about the life and timesof organist Leonard Raver.

Day Four

Morning arrived all too quickly--cloudy and chilly--but by
now we were getting used to that. We were to spend the entire day in
Leipzig--no packing, no luggage to wrestle--and we would sleep in our same beds
again tonight. I was more than ready for a relatively "low-key" day
and looking forward to it. What I would soon learn is that there is absolutely
nothing "low-key" about the city of Leipzig!

Early in the Middle Ages, before the end of the ninth
century, Leipzig was settled by Slavs, who named it Lipsk (City of Limes).
Located at the crossroads of ancient trade routes and at the confluence of
three important rivers--Pleisse, White Elster and Parthe--Leipzig has been,
from the very beginning, an important center for commerce, publishing,
learning, technology and the arts. It has survived the devastation of many wars
and hostile occupations. Over the centuries, it has continued to preserve,
restore, and reconstruct, never losing sight of its identity. Today, the city
exudes an atmosphere of energy and vitality as it forges ahead on the cutting
edge of the future. From the very beginning, it has prospered and--rather like
the Energizer bunny--it just keeps going, and going, and going! And so it came
as no surprise to learn that Leipzig's motto is "Leipzig kommt!"

Leipzig Gewandhaus

There is so much here to see and to explore that one could
spend weeks and barely scratch the surface. The possibilities are dizzying. But
our time was short, and we were here to pay homage to J. S. Bach and some of
the other great musicians associated with Leipzig. What better place to start
our tour than at the famous Gewandhaus?! Located on the south side of the
Augustusplatz and opposite the Leipzig Opera House, which can be seen reflected
in its large glass windows, this is the third home of the Gewandhaus Orchestra,
the oldest civic orchestra in Germany, founded in 1743. The new building, built
in close cooperation with conductor Kurt Masur, was dedicated in 1981. It is
well worth the visit even if one never ventures beyond the breathtaking,
spacious lobby whose open tiers and stairways are dominated by a large and
dramatically colorful ceiling mural, said by some to be the largest in all of
Europe.

We were headed for the Great Hall and a demonstration of its
four-manual, 92-rank Schuke organ. The hall itself is a large, multi-sided
amphitheater seating 1900 people. The organ is visually stunning, mounted high
on the wall above and behind the gallery seating area, which faces the rear of
the stage. The action is mechanical, and--just as we saw at the Berlin
Konzerthaus--there is a second, electric-action console for onstage use. We were
greeted by the Gewandhaus organist, who turned out to be none other than
Michael Schönheit, who had so graciously demonstrated the little Ladegast
in Merseburg Cathedral only the day before. On this occasion we were treated to
the entire Widor Fifth Symphony--a good choice to put the organ through its
paces and an opportunity, for those who wished, to move around and hear the
instrument from every possible vantage point.

St. Nicholas Church

From there we made our way to the church of St. Nicholas,
easily identified by its triple towers. Nikolai Church is the city's oldest
church, dating from c.1165 when it sat at the crossroads of two important trade
routes. St. Nicholas is the medieval patron saint of merchants and travelers,
and even today the church sits at the center of the city among banks and office
buildings, open to visitors from all over the world. Both exterior and interior
have been altered over the years, reflecting the trends and tastes of the
times. At present, both church and organ are undergoing restoration, so an
organ demonstration was not possible. The lavishly decorated interior is indeed
splendid and more than one could possibly assimilate in one brief visit. For
me, the enormous galleries on three sides of the nave seemed to invoke those masterpieces
of Bach, the music of which had once filled this very space.

The organ started out as a large, four-manual Ladegast of
eighty-four stops with an open 32' in the case. Built between 1858 and 1862, it
was rebuilt by Sauer in 1902/03. Now, one hundred years later, it is being
restored as closely as possible to its original state by the Eule firm.

We cannot leave this sacred spot without taking a moment to
remember the events of October 9, 1989--events which forever altered the course
of history. It was here, on this very spot, led by Kurt Masur, among others,
that the more than 2000 people who had filled St. Nicholas for the Peace Prayer
Service were joined in the streets outside by more than ten thousand
demonstrators, all holding lighted candles. After forty years of oppression
under the GDR, this non-violent, bloodless revolution turned the tide and paved
the way for the reunification of Germany. I treasure the memory of the brief
time I was able to spend in the Church of St. Nicholas, and I find hope and
comfort in the knowledge that the prayers for peace continue in this very
special place.

Out on the sidewalk again and back to the present, we had
the luxury of some time on our own. We had been offered a guided tour of the
University of Leipzig's Musical Instrument Museum, which we had the option of
taking either before or after lunch. This important collection features 5000
exhibits spanning five centuries. For some of us it felt good to stretch our
legs and shed our tourist guises. After an alfresco coffee break and a little
more walking around, we encountered others from our group on their way to
lunch. We decided to join them, and that is why I cannot tell you about the
Musical Instrument Museum, because I never got there.

Just in front of The Old Stock Exchange is the famous statue
of Goethe, whose gaze is eternally fixed on the entrance to the Mädler
Passage, Leipzig's most magnificent arcade and the only one to have survived
the centuries intact. Just inside the entrance, marked by two unusual
sculptures, is the ancient stairway leading down to one of Leipzig's most
famous and historic restaurants--Auerbach's Keller, the barrel cellar
immortalized by Goethe in a famous scene from Faust. We were seated in a rear
corner at a table in front of a long banquette. Surrounded as we were by dark
wood paneling and soft lighting, the ambiance was deliciously warm. The large
room seemed to be filled nearly to capacity, and our table kept expanding as
others from our group joined us. My recollection of the meal is hazy, but I do
recall a delicious stein of beer and a hearty, hot soup. There may have been a
dozen of us at the table. It was a wonderful opportunity to get better
acquainted with some of our fellow travelers and to simply relax and soak up the
atmosphere of this timeless place. I remember thinking to myself: so this is
Gemütlichkeit! Service was slow and somewhat hampered by the size of our
group and our marginal--to say the least--German. By the time we had settled
our checks and were once more out on the street again, it was too late to join
the museum tour. Nourished and refreshed, we went our separate ways. We would
gather later on at the Thomaskirche for a demonstration of the organs by Ulrich
Böhme.

Thomaskirche

St. Thomaskirche is easily identified by its extremely
steep-pitched tower and the much-photographed statue of Bach in the small
square just to the south. The church occupies the site of an earlier church for
the Augustinian Monastery founded in 1212 by Margrave Dietrich with--as legend
would have it--a choir of twelve boys. At the time of Bach's 27-year tenure
(1723-1750), there were fifty-four boys, and today the choir consists of one
hundred boys and young men who give weekly performances of the cantatas, motets
and oratorios of Bach. Originally buried at St. John's Church, which was
destroyed in World War II, Bach's remains have since been removed and were
reburied here in 1950. His final resting place is in the choir room directly
under the chancel. Needless to say, the church has become a very popular
tourist attraction, generating an atmosphere more akin to a museum than to a
house of worship.

Although the basic architecture of the church has remained
unchanged since the end of the fifteenth century, many alterations and additions
have occurred over the years, reflecting current styles and tastes. After the
reunification of Germany in 1990, and after nearly one hundred years of
neglect, a total restoration of the church was undertaken and completed just in
time for the Bach anniversary in July of 2000. Included in the project was the
installation of a brand-new "Bach" organ built by Gerald Woehl.
Public funding for this 5.5 million dollar undertaking was provided by the
European Union, the German Federal Government, the State of Saxony and the City
of Leipzig. There were private donations as well. A four-manual instrument of
61 stops, the organ was designed in accordance with the principles of
eighteenth-century, middle-German organ building. The casework was inspired by
that of the Scheibe organ in the Pauliner (University) Church in Leipzig, which
Bach had examined in 1717. The specification is based on that of the
Georgenkirche in Eisenach (Bach's hometown), an instrument that the young Bach
would have known well, as it was designed by his uncle, Johann Christoph Bach.
The new Woehl organ sits in the center of the north balcony across from the
Bach window.

In addition to the new instrument, St. Thomaskirche has a
second, older, three-manual organ of 88 stops built by Sauer in 1889 (considerably
enlarged in 1908). Midway through the twentieth century it succumbed to the
"Baroque" craze, but in 1988 it was returned to its original state.
It sits in the rear (west) gallery. It has a rich, warm, romantic sound, and it
is this instrument that would have been played by Straube and Ramin, among
others. Ulrich Böhme, who demonstrated the organs for us, has been the
organist of St. Thomaskirche since 1985. He played the Bach Pièce
d'Orgue on the Woehl, and on the Sauer,
some Mendelssohn.

There was a little more free time at our disposal before we
gathered for an early dinner. Our day in Leipzig ended as it had begun--at the
Gewandhaus where we heard the famous orchestra, under the direction of Roger
Norrington, perform Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fifth Symphony
style='font-style:normal'> and Brahms' First. Filled with people, the huge
amphitheater bore little resemblance to the nearly empty space we had occupied
only a few hours before. The atmosphere was one of eager expectancy. Our group
was dispersed to various locations throughout the Great Hall so that it was
easy to imagine that we were simply Leipzigers out for an evening of fine
music. Often, in my lectures, I have spoken of the synergistic triumvirate of
composer, performer and listener. But never have I experienced it as I did on
this particular occasion. The audience seemed to be every bit as focused on the
music as were the musicians themselves. Listening in the Great Hall of the
Gewandhaus is clearly not a passive activity. Our collective ears were on the
edges of our seats. Music was happening here, and all of us were involved in
the process. It was an evening to remember. And then it was back to our hotel
to pack, to sleep and to prepare for an early departure the next morning.

Day Five

It was hard to leave Leipzig behind knowing how many of its
treasures--landmarks, architecture, monuments, museums and libraries--still
remained to be explored. Back on the bus once more, we headed out of the city
and toward the open countryside. Our final destination on this Friday would be
Eisenach, Bach's birthplace. But first we had some very interesting stops to
make along the way.

Rötha

First stop on our agenda was Rötha, a picturesque small
town of very narrow streets. It offered a pleasant contrast after the lively
hustle and bustle of Leipzig. We were about to see and hear our first
Silbermann organ. Photographs and recordings--wonderful as they are--cannot
begin to capture the actual visual and aural experience. St. Georgenkirche
dates back to the twelfth century. The architecture is eclectic, and it has
been rebuilt many times. The twin-towered edifice dominates the surrounding
landscape and is at once sturdy and elegant. When I stepped inside the church,
I felt as though I had entered another dimension. Although it was another dark
and gloomy day, the interior was bright, filled with a diffusion of soft,
golden light and a subtle, not unpleasant smell that seemed to invoke things
ancient and holy. One tended to speak in hushed tones. The space is not vast by
any means. The gothic-style windows are tall and narrow and of plain glass. The
impression is of elegance and simplicity with lots of dark wood and white
plaster. The nave opens into a rather spacious choir, and the eye is
compellingly drawn to a sumptuous altarpiece with frescos of the Crucifixion
and the Last Supper.

The organ, of two manuals and 23 stops, was built between
1718 and 1721 by Gottfried Silbermann. Dedicated in 1721 by Kuhnau, Bach's
predecessor at St. Thomaskirche, it is in meantone tuning and has reeds only in
the pedal. Although I would not have described the sound as
"silvery," it was indeed bright and, at the same time, very rich.
These small instruments are noteworthy for their economy and yet amazing
variety of sounds. A former cantor, Mrs. Schoedel, played the Bach A Major for
us, and then we were on our own. Those who wished to play needed no urging and
started queuing up immediately. It is perhaps interesting to note that this
particular instrument served as the model for the Marilyn Mason Organ at the
University of Michigan built by Fisk. Yet another Silbermann can be found in
Rötha at the Marienkirche--a one-manual instrument of eleven stops.

St. Wenzelskirche, Naumburg

Back on our bus once more, we headed for St. Wenzelskirche
in Naumburg. It was pleasant to ride through the peaceful, rural landscape. The
country here is quite flat, and we passed small farms, grazing cattle,
carefully tended gardens and fields of winter wheat, occasionally punctuated by
large automotive centers off in the distance.

Naumburg was founded in 1028. The medieval gates and
fortification walls still stand around the old city with its narrow, cobbled
streets. The City Church of St. Wenzel has been in existence since 1426. The
organ we have come to see and hear is a 1746 Hildebrandt of three manuals and
fifty-three stops. The instrument was drastically altered during the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Miraculously spared in the WW II Allied bombing
of Naumburg, it suffered from years of neglect during the subsequent Communist
regime. By the time of the Reunification in 1990, the organ had deteriorated so
badly that it was barely playable. In 1992 the City of Naumburg and the Friends
of the Hildebrandt Organ convened an international symposium which recommended
the restoration of the organ to its 1746 condition. The cost of the project,
which was entrusted to the Eule firm, was estimated at 2.5 million dollars. The
Rückpositiv was tackled first and completed in 1996 in time for the 250th
anniversary of the organ, and the entire restoration was completed in the year
2000. It was re-dedicated on the first Sunday in Advent with a solemn worship
service and a dedicatory recital played by Ulrich Böhme, organist of St.
Thomaskirche.

What is it about this historic instrument that has generated
so much international excitement and attention? And why has this particular
instrument come to be regarded by many as the ideal "Bach" organ?

In 1723, shortly after coming to St. Thomas, Bach took his
choir to the nearby village of Störmtal to perform a cantata he had
written for the dedication of a new organ in the village church. It was on this
occasion that Bach first met the builder, Zacharias Hildebrandt, who had apprenticed
for five years under Gottfried Silbermann. The Störmtal organ, still
extant today, was examined by Bach and pronounced to be "an excellent and
durable instrument, very worthy of praise." The two men soon became
lifelong friends, and in 1735, Hildebrandt moved his workshop to Leipzig.

In 1743, Bach's advice, among others, was sought by the city
council of Naumburg in regard to the Wenzelskirche organ--a Thayssner
instrument built in 1700. Although two other builders had been consulted, the
contract for a new instrument went to Hildebrandt. When the organ was completed
in 1746, Bach played it, examined it, and wrote glowingly about it. Moreover,
there is good reason to believe that Bach himself collaborated with Hildebrandt
on the design of the instrument.

What are some of the characteristics that set this
instrument apart from other more typical middle-German instruments of the first
half of the eighteenth century? Consider the following: multiple color stops at
low pitches and a steady, copious wind supply; a spacious chest layout
affording easy and convenient access to all of the pipes; a complete and
well-developed pedal division; 16' stops in the manual divisions and two 32's
in the pedal; well-tempered tuning; a large and complete Rückpositiv; divisions
that achieve their distinction not by placement or Werkprinzip, but by the
individual scaling of each of the principal choruses--all of this espoused by
Bach and well documented.

As we gathered expectantly at the entrance to the church,
Michael said: "Take several deep breaths, because when you go into the
church, your breath will be taken away." He was right. Nothing could have
prepared us for the sight of the interior of this splendid gothic building with
its lavish baroque decoration, and then to let our eyes travel upward past the
first two galleries and then to the uppermost gallery and that sumptuous organ
case. The organ case, with its gorgeous decorations by the woodcarver Johann
Goericke, has been retained from the Thayssner. The keyboards and stops are
also original. Inside the white cabinet doors, the "interior" of the
console is painted a rich "bluer-than-blue" color.

The organist, Irene Greulich, played for us--Bach, of
course--and the sound was magnificent. The plenum was rich and brilliant with
plenty of that gravitas of which Bach was so fond.

This instrument stands, among many other things, as a model
of historically informed restoration. Archival documents and photographs
provided much important information. The preservation and restoration of this
very special instrument is surely no small miracle. To stand in this place
which has stood for more than half a millennium, to see, hear, touch, and
actually play this historic instrument is a spiritual experience to be
treasured and long remembered.

Our time at St. Wenzelskirche passed quickly, and all too
soon it was time to come back down to earth again. It was already early
afternoon, and after a quick lunch, we were back on the bus headed for
Eisenach, the birthplace of Bach. But first, our itinerary called for a visit
to Buchenwald.

Buchenwald

Buchenwald Concentration Camp is located just north of the
city of Weimar atop Ettersberg Hill. Buchenwald means beech tree wood, and at
one time this must have been a lovely spot. Legend has it that Goethe spent
many pleasant contemplative hours here beneath his favorite tree. Today, only
the stump remains of "Goethe's Oak," which was damaged by bombs in
1944 and later cut down. Buchenwald was not originally planned as a place of
genocide. Nevertheless, more than 250,000 people were held captive here, of
whom more than 50,000 died. Near the end, as many as 1500 prisoners a day were
sent to the crematorium. At the time of the liberation and the arrival of the
US Army on April 11, 1945, around 21,000 prisoners including 900 children and
young people remained in the camp.

Our tour, with Sonja as our guide, began at the top of the
hill at the entrance to the gate building, which is flanked on either side by
the arrest houses. Two of the twenty-two watchtowers remain, and the
crematorium is near by. Many artifacts remain in the buildings and about the
grounds, offering mute testimony to the atrocities committed here. The more
than fifty camp barracks that lined the hillside below in neat rows are no
longer standing, but the location of each is marked by a stone which displays
the block number, and the outlines of each building are shown by layers of
broken stone. As I stood at the top of the hill, taking in the stark scene
spread out below me, I was reminded that only four days ago I had stood in a
place of similar topography--Sansoucci Palace. Sansoucci had been all warmth
and color and light. Here at Buchenwald, all was cold and gray and dark. I'm
sure that on occasion the sun does indeed shine on Buchenwald. But at that
moment it seemed to me that sunshine--in this awful place of despair and
death--might easily be regarded as profane. Our usually lively and congenial
group was subdued and silent as we made the long descent to the Storehouse at
the bottom of the hill where the prisoners had been relieved of their clothing
and all personal effects. Today it is a museum with a permanent exhibition of
documents and relics depicting the grim history of Buchenwald and commemorating
the lives of the thousands who perished here. Our tour lasted nearly two hours.
There was much to see and to try to understand. How does one comprehend the
incomprehensible? The atmosphere of such a place is indescribable. As we left
the museum, a cold, steady, drenching rain had begun to fall. Finally, it was
time to make the long ascent back to the top of Ettersberg Hill, where warmth
and transportation and normalcy awaited us.

Bach House

And so we continued on to Eisenach, a bit weary and
bedraggled. After settling into our hotel where we were given dinner, we ended
our day with an evening arranged just for us at the Bach House. The house in
which Bach was actually born no longer exists, but today this house is
officially recognized as the Bach family home. There is much of interest to see
here, and the house is furnished as authentically as possible, and many
instruments of the period are on display. Having explored the museum a bit, we
were invited to make ourselves comfortable. Our amiable hosts, dressed in
authentic attire, treated us to a private concert using several of the period
instruments in the collection. It was an informal and relaxed occasion, and the
music was lovely. One could easily imagine that we had been transported back in
time to a musical evening at the Bach's. It was an extraordinary end to an
extraordinary day.

Day Six

Saturday morning came all too quickly, but what a delight to
wake up in the city of Bach's birth. Here we were in the heart of Bach country
with four organs and a castle awaiting our pleasure. By the time we had climbed
aboard our bus, we were primed and ready for our next adventure.

Wartburg Castle

Destination: Wartburg Castle. Dating back to 1067, this
medieval castle sits high atop a 1230 foot cliff overlooking the city of
Eisenach below. Complete with drawbridge, half-timbered ramparts, and dungeons
in the southern tower, Wartburg is one of the best preserved castles in
Germany. Although largely Romanesque and Gothic, some original sections from
the feudal period still remain. Legend has it that the Great Hall, which dates
back to 1160, provided the setting for the famous minstrels' competition
immortalized by Wagner in Tannhäuser. It has also been suggested that
perhaps Martin Luther had this magnificent structure in mind when he wrote
"A Mighty Fortress."

It was here, in 1521, that Martin Luther, excommunicated and
condemned as a heretic, took refuge for three hundred days under the protection
of William the Wise. Transformed from a pious monk to a bearded "Knight
George," Luther wore cloak and dagger and hunted the woods. It was during
these solitary days of voluntary captivity that he translated the New Testament
from Greek to German. Up until that time there had been no uniform written
language, and it was Luther's synthesis of the many dialects with which he was
familiar that came to define the German language as it is known today. The
rooms, in which Martin Luther lived and worked, have been preserved. For more
than four hundred years, they have been the object of countless pilgrimages,
and the names of many pilgrims--dating back to the 1600s--have been carved into
the walls.

Also inside the castle are many authentically restored and
furnished rooms filled with the art and artifacts of another age--frescos,
paintings, mosaics, tapestries, pottery, stone carvings and medieval clothing.
The whole experience was very much like entering a magical time machine, and we
were reluctant to leave.

Arnstadt

But we could not afford to linger. And so it was back to the
bus and on to the town of Arnstadt with its charming market square and uneven
cobblestone streets. It was here, in 1703, that Bach took on his first regular
employment as organist of the New Church.

Arnstadt was the hometown of Bach's grandfather, and many
Bachs were born, christened and buried here. Founded in 704 and granted a city
charter in 1266, Arnstadt is the oldest town in Thuringia. Located on the edge
of the Thuringian Forest, it was, in Bach's time, a thriving trade center of
3800 inhabitants. The New Church--one of three--was built between 1676 and 1683
on the site of the ruin of St. Boniface's, a medieval edifice, which had been
destroyed by fire in 1581. It took sixteen years to raise enough money for the
organ, and the contract went to the renowned organ builder, Johann Friedrich
Wender of Mühlhausen. A modest instrument of two manuals and 21 stops, the
organ was completed in 1703. The young Bach, only eighteen years old, recently
graduated from St. Michael's in Lüneburg, and now in the employ of Duke
Johann Ernst of Weimar, was invited to Arnstadt to conduct the official organ
examination. He was also invited to perform the inaugural recital, which
perhaps served as an informal audition for the organist position, which he
would assume in August of that same year. What a feather in young Sebastian's
cap, and what a testimony to his knowledge of organbuilding and his
considerable keyboard skills. Christoph Wolff, in his biography of Bach, Johann
Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, writes: "For the first time in his
life, he [Bach] had free reign over a fine instrument with no technical
defects, a luxury most organists of the time could only dream of." Bach
remained in Arnstadt for three years--years which were extremely important to
his development as an organ virtuoso and composer. It is not without
significance that the new instrument was tuned in the "new"
well-tempered tuning system developed by Werckmeister. Bach's duties were
minimal and he had lots of time to practice on a fine new instrument and to
study all of the organ repertoire he could get his hands on. It was here that
he confused the congregation with his wild hymn improvisations, clashed with
the town authorities over his job description, and overstayed his leave when he
made his famous pilgrimage to Buxtehude in Lübeck.

Unfortunately, the organ has been the victim of many
modifications over the years, and aside from the case, very little of the
original instrument remains. However, in the year 2000, it was reconstructed by
Otto Hoffmann and returned to something close to the original design in time
for the Bach sesquicentennial. Today the church is known as the Bachkirche, and
it was indeed a thrill to stand in the nave of this historic place. The wooden
building is plain, but elegant, with double galleries on three sides. The organ
sits high in the third (west) gallery under the barrel-vaulted ceiling, with
small galleries on either side of the choir loft for instrumentalists. Since
there is no Rückpositiv, the organist at the console sits in plain view.
On a typical Sunday, Bach might have had a congregation of as many as 1500
worshipers. After the demonstration by organist Gottfried Preller, those who
wished were free to try the instrument for themselves. However, we had a
schedule to keep and could not tarry long.

Waltershausen

Back on the bus once more with our "Bach's"
lunches, our next stop was the Parish Church of Waltershausen. The church tower
dates back to the fifteenth century and has been rebuilt many times over the
centuries. Today only part of the original tower still remains. The foundation
stone for the church was laid by Frederich II in 1719, and the church was
dedicated in 1723.

Nothing about the exterior prepares the visitor for the
amazing sights and sounds which lie in store. To step inside the church is to travel
back in time and enter another dimension. I was struck, as I had been earlier
at the St. Georgenkirche in Rötha, by the otherworldly quality of the
light in the vastness of this splendid interior. I found it mesmerizing. One's
eyes are drawn upward past the eight vertical pillars to the remarkable fresco
on the ceiling, which gives the distinct impression of a rounded ceiling vault,
when indeed the ceiling is quite flat. There are double galleries like those we
had seen at Arnstadt, except that the Bachkirche has a relatively long and
narrow nave, whereas the nave here is much wider. The three boxes in the first
gallery at the rear were reserved for the duke, the judges and the residents of
Tenneberg Castle. I had the feeling that they might walk in and take their
seats at any moment. Beautiful artwork adorns the walls, and one could spend
hours taking it all in.

But we were here to see, hear and play the organ of three
manuals and 47 stops built by Heinrich Gottfried Trost between 1724 and 1730.
It was at that time that Trost left the project even though the organ remained
unfinished. It was not finally completed until 1753. By now it came as no
surprise to learn that the instrument had undergone considerable alteration and
modification during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The original
organ, as well as the church, has recently been restored. The organ sits high
above the altar and the pulpit in its elaborately carved case. Organist
Theophil Heinke demonstrated for us. Visually magnificent as the instrument is,
nothing had prepared us for the remarkable sound, which was quite unlike
anything I had ever heard. Colorful, bold and bright, the sound is never harsh
or shrill. The plenum is gutsy, with gravitas, but never overwhelming. The music
seemed to surround us with a clarity and presence ideal for the polyphony of
Bach. There is a preponderance of colorful 8' stops--wide flutes and narrow
strings--including an especially luscious doppel flute. On the other hand,
there are only two mixtures and relatively few and mild reeds. It is an
instrument far removed from the Werkprinzip and the ideals espoused by the
organ reform movement. Harald Vogel, in an article for the Westfield Center
Newsletter, has praised this very successful restoration for bringing us ever
closer in our ongoing search for the ideal Bach organ. In any case, it is
understandably the pride and joy of the people of Waltershausen. It was for me
perhaps the highpoint of the tour. It was hard to take our leave.

Erfurt

And then it was back on the bus and on to Erfurt Cathedral.
Erfurt is the largest city in Thuringia with a population today of 200,000. One
of the oldest cities in Germany, it was first mentioned by St. Boniface in the
eighth century. It was here, in the year 1501, that Martin Luther came to study
at the university and later took his monastic vows at the Augustinian
monastery. It was also here that Bach's father and mother were born. In fact,
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a whole dynasty of Bach musicians
flourished in and around the city of Erfurt.

Although archaeological evidence has been found of a
ninth-century church, construction 
on the Cathedral that stands today was not begun until the year 1153.
Over the centuries, many alterations and additions have been made, combining
both Romanesque and Gothic elements. Today the Cathedral is a treasure house of
religious art from the medieval, Romanesque and Renaissance periods. It is
arguably one of the most beautiful churches in all of Germany.

On this particular day, Saturday, April 26, we were not
certain exactly what to expect since only the day before, at the Gutenberg High
School, an expelled student had opened fire, killing eighteen people including
himself. What we found was a city in crisis--overwhelmed by shock and grief.
People had flocked to the cathedral in huge numbers, and crowds of people were
thronging the streets and the square. The entrance to the cathedral is high
atop a hill, approached by a huge, terraced flight of steps. The steps were
deeply flanked on either side by candles, flowers, messages and other mementos.
The cathedral was filled with mourners. Apparently a special mass had taken
place earlier. We were unable to climb up to the organ loft, and the organist,
Silvius von Kessel, was unable to play for us the organ demonstration he had
planned. There are two organs in the cathedral--a 1963 Schuke II/29, and a 1992
Schuke, III/63. Herr Kessel improvised for us on the larger, newer of the two
instruments, concluding with a very moving performance of the Bach O Mensch,
bewein. The improvisation was quite lovely and, by necessity, rather subdued. I
found myself pleasantly surprised by the rich principal sound and the warmth of
this modern instrument. I was seated near one of the side aisles, and the sight
of the grief-stricken, tear-stained faces of those young boys and girls as they
filed out of the church is a sight I will long remember.

By now our group was visibly drooping. It had been a very
long and full day, and our brief sojourn in the Cathedral had been emotionally
draining. But we had one more stop to make before our departure from Erfurt. A
cold and rainy walk through the congested streets brought us to the
Predigerkirche where we were to hear yet another Schuke (1978) instrument--a
rebuild of an 1899 instrument of 56 stops. The organ was demonstrated for us by
organist Matthias Dreissig. Johann Pachelbel had been organist here from
1678-90, and we were treated, among other things, to a lovely Pachelbel chorale
prelude on Vater Unser.

Back aboard our bus once more, we settled down for the drive
back to Eisenach, most of us more than ready for a quiet dinner and early bed.

Day Seven

We awakened to the pleasant prospect of a leisurely Sunday
morning. Our departure was not scheduled until late morning, and there was time
for a leisurely breakfast and a stroll around the Market Square with its
historic landmarks and picturesque half-timbered houses. Those who wished had
the option of attending the early service at the Georgenkirche where Bach was
baptized in 1685. The organ there today is a modern 1982 Schuke, III/60.

St. George Church

The parish church of St. George is an ancient structure
dating back to 1162 and rebuilt many times since. It has witnessed a lot of
history. It was here, in 1221, that Count Ludwig IV of Wartburg Castle was wed
to Elizabeth, daughter of Hungarian King Augustus II. When Count Ludwig died
six years later on his way to a crusade, the countess left the castle to
embrace a life of poverty and charity for which she was later canonized as St.
Elizabeth. As a boy, Martin Luther sang in the choir at St. George's and
studied in the Latin School, as did J. S. Bach nearly two hundred years later.
In 1521, Luther preached here twice on his way to and from the Diet of Worms.
Beginning with Johann Christoph Bach in 1665, all of the organists of St.
George's would be Bachs for the next 132 years!

Most of us know Eisenach as Bach's birthplace and St.
George's as the place he was baptized. But that was only the beginning. It was
here that the young Bach learned his trade, and learned it well from the ground
up. In 1671, Bach's father, Ambrosius, moved from Erfurt to Eisenach in order
to become the director of town music. What must it have been like for the young
Sebastian growing up in a large household surrounded by professional
musicians--family, assistants, and apprentices. The market square was the
center of all of this musical activity with regular and frequent performances
at the town hall, at the ducal court, and at the church. One can imagine the
young boy transporting, maintaining and repairing all manner of musical
instruments as he learned to perform on them as well. Collecting music and
copying scores and parts must also have been part of his duties. Bach's cousin,
Johann Christoph, organist of St. George's, was probably the most famous
musical Bach in Thuringia at that time. Renowned for his virtuosity and his
improvisational skills, he almost certainly must have given Bach his first
organ lessons. And what a role model to his young cousin Johann Christoph must
have been. The old organ had seen better days, and the young Bach must have
spent many hours inside the old organ helping with tuning and repairs as plans
for the new instrument, to be built by the local builder Stertzing, began to
take shape. By the time the actual construction of the organ was under way,
Bach was no longer living at home. But the influence of this firsthand
experience on Bach's knowledge of organbuilding and his ideas about organ
design can hardly be overestimated.

Mühlhausen

Much remained in Eisenach to explore and to reflect upon,
but we had promises to keep, and it was time to be on our way. Our first stop
would be at the Divi Blasii Church in Mühlhausen, the post for which Bach
left Arnstadt in 1707, remaining only one year before going on to Weimar. The
winding road from Eisenach to Mühlhausen took us through the lovely,
forested hills of the Thuringian countryside. We passed through small villages
nestled in green valleys with freshly tilled soil and flowering trees. The
ubiquitous half-timbered houses with their red-tiled roofs were becoming a
familiar sight. One descends down into Mühlhausen, population, 44,000--a
lively, commercial city that managed to survive WW II unscathed.

Mühlhausen was a free, imperial city, independent of
princely rule since the thirteenth century. Second only to Erfurt in size, it
too is a city of churches with at least thirteen spires gracing the skyline.
Some of the original fortifications and gates from the twelfth century still
remain and mark the boundaries of the original town. St. Blasius, with its twin
towers, is a compact, but elegant Gothic cathedral dating from the thirteenth
century. At the time of Bach's arrival it already had a distinguished tradition
of church music as well as an important music library, which must have been an
added incentive to the young Bach. It was a step up for him professionally in
every way, offering more income, more responsibility, and greater opportunities
than he had had at Arnstadt. The organ, built by Jost Pape of Göttingen,
dated from the mid-sixteenth century and had been extensively rebuilt and
enlarged (1687-1691) by Bach's old friend Friederich Wender, builder of the new
organ at Arnstadt. It was a fairly large two-manual instrument of 30 stops with
a Rückpositiv. Though it served Bach well, there were some defects--not so
surprising considering the fact that major parts of the instrument were almost
150 years old. Bach, accordingly, began to make imaginative plans for major
improvements and renovations. Bach submitted the plans for this ambitious
project when he was only six months into the job. That they were almost
immediately approved by the powers that be is a testimonial to how proud and
pleased the city and church officials were with their new organist. Bach, of
course, did not remain in Mühlhausen for the completion of the rebuilding
project, but the fact that his plans have survived has been an invaluable
source to scholars. It was a busy and successful year in every way for the
twenty-two-year-old Bach. Inspired by his visit to Buxtehude in Lübeck,
Bach took advantage of the new opportunities for vocal composition and enhanced
his rapidly growing reputation with some spectacular performances of large-scale
cantatas, at least one of which found its way into print. He and his new bride,
Maria Barbara, left Mühlhausen in 1708 very much appreciated and having
made many new friends.

The organ today is a modern instrument by Schuke of three
manuals and 40 stops built according to the original specification, which Bach
drew up for the church council back in 1708. Herr Sterchbarth was on hand to
demonstrate the instrument for us. Those who wished tried it for themselves,
and then it was back to the bus and our "Bach's" lunch, and on to our
next stop, the  "Bach"
organ in the Stadtkirche St. Marien in Bad Berka.

Bach Organ

In 1743, Heinrich Nicolaus Trebs, resident organ builder at
Weimar, built an organ for this church according to a specification created by
his good friend and colleague, Bach. Over the years the instrument has been
altered and rebuilt many times. The present instrument, which retains the
original case, was built in 1991 by Gerhard Böhm of Gotha. The intention
has been to restore the organ, in as much as possible, to its original
condition. The Gothic-style nave, though not large, has double galleries and a
tall, vaulted ceiling. The organ is a modest instrument of two manuals and 28
stops with a sound which I would describe as surprisingly sweet and gentle.
Bernd Müller played an interesting program for us designed, it would seem,
to demonstrate the organ's versatility. We heard music from many different
styles and periods--Gottfried Homilius to Gordon Balch Nevin and everything in
between, concluding with the Bach Toccata in D Minor. There was some open
console time for us, and then it was back to the bus and on to Weimar.

Weimar

Nestled in a scenic river valley, just over the hill from
Buchenwald where we had been only two days before, Weimar is a small, thriving,
industrial city of 60,000 people. Because of its rich intellectual and cultural
history, it possesses n abundance of monuments, museums and libraries and has
become a popular tourist mecca. The artistic and intellectual associations are
mind-boggling: Schütz, J. G. Walther, Cranach the Elder--and the Younger,
Goethe, Schiller, Liszt, Wagner, Nietzsche, Strauss, Brahms and--more
recently--Walter Gropius' Bauhaus movement. And so the list goes on. At one
time it was suggested that Goethe had made Weimar the literary capital of the
world.

But we had come to Weimar to pay homage to Bach. It was here
that Bach spent ten years of his life, fathered three famous sons--among other
offspring--composed thirty church cantatas, and created most of the great organ
works which we cherish. In Bach's day, Weimar had a population of around
5,000--at least a third of whom were in the employ of the ducal court. Of the
original buildings, only the tower and gate remain to remind us of earlier
times. The ducal castles have disappeared, including the chapel in which Bach
once worked. His house no longer stands, but the site--just off the market
place--has been marked by a commemorative tablet. In Weimar, it seems that Bach
has been upstaged by Goethe, whose presence continues to dominate the scene.

We were scheduled for a guided tour of the Liszt House
(every  celebrity except Bach seems
to have a "House" in Weimar). Since the Liszt house could only
accommodate half of us, there was time to stroll about a bit. The day was cold
and damp and dreary, and the city seemed strangely silent and subdued even for
a Sunday. We were not all that far from Erfurt, and perhaps that may have been
the reason. As the afternoon drew to a close, we gathered in the old market
square and split up into smaller groups to find dinner on our own. And then it
was back on the bus and on to Altenburg for the night. By the time we arrived,
it was well after dark, and most of us were more than ready to collect our
luggage and call it a day.

But Fate had other plans in store for our tired and somewhat
bedraggled little group. It would seem that somewhere in the land of
"tourdom," a communication glitch had occurred. Our small hotel had
been anxiously awaiting our arrival for nearly three hours. Extra staff had
been brought in, and an elaborate and sumptuous buffet had been prepared and
beautifully laid out for us. When our genial hosts learned that we had already
eaten in Weimar, the disappointment was quite palpable. We were all tired, and
no one could possibly have been hungry. I freshened up and returned to the
lobby to make a phone call home with absolutely no intention of having a second
supper. But by the time I had finished my call, the magic had begun, and people
were drifting back down and into the dining room. Who could resist?! A
misbegotten dinner was rapidly transforming itself into an impromptu party with
much mingling and good conversation all around. It struck me as being a bit
like the welcome "interval" at a long concert--time to relax, time to
process that which had already transpired, and time to gather a "second
wind" for the remainder of our adventure yet to come. Gemütlichkeit
prevailed, and by the end of the evening, I was already looking forward to
tomorrow.

This article will be continued.

Canadian Organ Duettists Sylvie Poirier and Philip Crozier on tour in summer 2003

Philip Crozier

Philip Crozier was born in Preston, England, and was a boy chorister in Blackburn and Carlisle Cathedral Choirs. In 1979 he graduated from Cardiff University, and was awarded the Glynne Jones Prize for Organ in two consecutive years. Between 1978 and 1980 he studied in Paris with André Marchal.

For the past several years my wife Sylvie Poirier and I have had the pleasure of traveling extensively giving concerts of organ duets. In the course of numerous concert tours we have amassed a considerable number of very happy memories, sprinkled with some less delightful tales.

It may be worthwhile at this point explaining how all this began. Sylvie and I first met in 1982 as candidates in the Chartres International Organ Competition and at the time lived on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Sylvie was born and living in Montréal, while I am from England. One thing led to another, culminating in my immigration to Canada and our marriage in 1984. The result was that we pooled together our respective collections of organ music and recordings, learning a lot from each other in the process. Our duet playing began later that decade when we decided to try out some organ duets we had bought--enough to make a complete program in two halves which then became the subject of a broadcast on Radio-Canada in May 1990--our debut concert as duettists. That one event was so well received that we were urged and encouraged by several kind folk to continue and do more, so we were stimulated to expand beyond this one concert and examine the available repertory, increase it by commissions and promulgate it by performances and recordings. In 1991 we played in Germany for the first time as duettists, our international debut as such, and it has since grown and grown. We have now commissioned and premiered seven organ duets by composers from Canada, Germany, France and Britain, and released three CDs of organ duets.

From the outset we have preferred to concentrate on original organ duets (the Mozart and Beethoven works excepting, which we consider valid as organ duets) because we are always fascinated by how and why a particular composer would have conceived an organ duet and how he handled this form of  music making, rather than someone taking an existing framework and adapting it for two players. It is also very exciting to unearth original works that have long been out of print, but there is still a lot we are looking for.

Planning a tour

It has become an annual event for us to travel to Europe during the summer when I have vacation time from St. James United Church and Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montréal. Undertaking a concert tour that lasts around forty days presents a number of challenges. A good part of the success or otherwise is a direct result of what happens in the weeks before the plane is boarded, so a significant amount of preparation is obviously necessary; there are so many diverse  eventualities to cover. Planning the actual traveling requires some time consulting train schedules and maps. Occasionally we have had to postpone concerts to subsequent years because of the impossibility of reaching a destination in time.

The choice of repertory for the individual concerts is always carefully  planned to include a good representation of standard duet works which are quite often hardly known at all, taking into account the suitability of the instrument to the music and the availability of playing aids (because we do our own registration unaided, pistons or not, with rare exceptions). Our programs are submitted well in advance, always to include Canadian content, and fulfilling requests that are asked of us, when possible. We also like to include some of our own commissioned works. Organ duettists are relatively rare, and the repertory is not enormous, so concert organizers often prefer to hear duet works that the audience and organists alike are happy to discover or rediscover.

2003 Tour: “Cancelling summer”

The planned tour for summer 2003 was all working out well when I received an e-mail in January  from  David Rogers of Doncaster, England, a long-time friend who in addition to being a fine musician, improviser and recitalist (albeit a reluctant one), is a recording specialist with a huge knowledge of repertory and recording technique. He had made the acquaintance of one individual named Nick, an organ enthusiast who does not play and is not a recording technician, but whose plan was to start a record company devoted to organ music, to be recorded and edited by David. At Nick’s request David asked if I could record the Reubke Sonata on the 94th Psalm--a piece I had never played, but have known well since childhood as a listener, initially through an old LP of the never to be forgotten magisterial reading of Brian Runnett. David had made Nick familiar with my organ playing through private recordings of concerts I had given some twenty years ago. So I eagerly began learning this wonderful work and completed the task in due course.

Sylvie and I also greatly admire the organ works of Petr Eben whom we met in Prague in 1995 and 2000, and it was also suggested we record some of his works with the upcoming 75th birthday of the composer in mind. In 1993 we had broadcast Job and Faust on Radio-Canada (performances that Petr Eben himself was delighted with), but this music remains quite unknown in Canada. Consequently we invested much time, energy and enthusiasm into this new project where we had been assured all funding was in place, greatly encouraged by this unexpected recording opportunity. The organ of Fulda Cathedral in Germany seemed entirely suitable to the repertory in our opinion, and its availability was negotiated and booked. After all the required arrangements had been made with the cathedral, the repertory approaching where we wanted it to be for the recording (it is vital not to “peak” too soon) and a crescendo of excitement building day by day, Nick suddenly sent us an e-mail five weeks before our departure, citing a family problem and ending “my business will have to be sidelined temporarily, so, as they say in the satirical press, Summer is cancelled.”

Shocked and dismayed, we respectfully requested that the recordings could still proceed in his absence with David alone (Nick had insisted on being present at all recording sessions), since these had now become mitigating circumstances and by this stage the planning and preparation for the recording was so far advanced. This was refused outright so we were in a terrible dilemma: do we cancel and possibly jeopardize everything later, or wait, hoping the issue can be resolved, or do we continue alone? The impasse with Nick was not advancing anywhere and we began doubting the sincerity and goodwill of what had been achieved thus far in the project we had embarked upon.

A swift decision had to be made--every day counted with our departure for Europe approaching rapidly. It became more and more apparent that we were going to have to go it alone if these recordings were to be realized. Those final five weeks were spent frantically trying to salvage the situation, soliciting donations from friends and organizations so we could begin the actual  recording. This took up so much of our time that hardly any organ practice was done in those five weeks--not the best situation to be in before a tour of twelve concerts and a recording project! With much regret I decided to abandon the Reubke--this after all was to have been only half of one CD, the other half being taken up with the Piano Sonata by a pianist of repute. There was precious little time remaining before our departure and this had to be principally devoted to the Eben pieces which demand so much concentrated work, in spite of the monumental distractions preying on our minds constantly.

Limburg

It was relaxing in a strange way to be on the plane flying to Europe on the evening of July 16 after the turmoil of the preceding five weeks; we had done all we could, securing enough funding to cover the production of two compact discs. Arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, it was clear that our flight connection to Frankfurt was beyond reach. Six hours later, with a good meal along the way, we were airborne again. We were met at Frankfurt by Markus Eichenlaub, organist of Limburg Cathedral where we were to play the first concert. After the hour drive to Limburg and settling in to the Priester Seminar, our home for the next three nights, we were taken to the cathedral by Mr. Eichenlaub. A pleasant fifteen-minute walk from our residence, the thirteenth-century cathedral has a commanding presence over the surroundings, perched on a hill overlooking the River Lahn.

The organ by Hans-Gerd Klais (1978) is a large four-manual with eight combinations, spread across the west gallery and will likely be restored in a year or so. Mr. Eichenlaub suggested we hear it from downstairs as he demonstrated its many colors, and it was of great value to hear it played beforehand. He is a very gifted improviser, and it felt somewhat surreal with the fatigue of the journey starting to bite hard as we wandered  around this magnificently beautiful building, with the evening sunshine streaming through the windows.

Then we were left to explore it for ourselves and begin registering the program which included Two Pieces for Organ Duet by Ronald Arnatt, a first for us. It proved to be quite a challenge to make this particular piece work on that organ; the second movement is aptly named “Octopus Music.” There was a video hook up for the concert itself (which was very well attended). We needed to change the pistons as we progressed since we had also chosen this as the venue to give the German première of our most recent commissioned duet, the 2me Suite pour orgue à quatre mains by French organist Jean-Luc Perrot. Following the concert we went to an excellent Spanish restaurant with our hosts and some of their friends.

During our time in Limburg we also enjoyed a barbeque on the lawn with the organist and his wife and son. We were the only visiting residents in the seminary, home to just a few nuns, in a spacious new building, so were alone and basically had the whole place to ourselves, with easy access to the small two-manual tracker organ in the chapel. Finally we were able to really concentrate on practice, instead of answering the telephone, meeting people to explain and discuss the aforementioned imminent recording project, and sending multiple e-mails and letters. Just being at the organ and making music was very therapeutic--how we wished life could always be like that!

Fulda (First visit)

Leaving Limburg on Sunday July 20, we took the train to Fulda and were greeted that afternoon by Domorganist Hans-Jürgen Kaiser and taken to the Priester Seminar where we had individual rooms with a shower. It was relatively spartan accommodation, home to several priests in training from all over the world, including French-speaking from Africa, but quiet and comfortable, and situated just behind the cathedral. There was also a rail timetable thoughtfully posted on the notice board. Our good friend David Pearson in Kiel had supplied us with various train times for our travels; he acts as our agent in Germany and was a key player in all the Fulda arrangements.

The cathedral was built in the new Baroque manner (1704-1712) to the design of the architect Johann Dientzenhofer and is an outstanding work of art. Inspired by the Roman Baroque style, it reuses the architectural core of the ancient Abbot Ratgar’s Basilica (9th century). In keeping with the splendor of the building in which it is housed, the organ is truly magnificent. The glorious case dates from the time of the cathedral’s construction, and today the organ consists of 72 speaking stops, including some 24 from the large Sauer organ of 1876/77 which was rebuilt and enlarged by Christoph Glatter-Götz of Rieger-Orgelbau and completed in 1996. The specification can be found on the company’s website <www.riegerorgelbau.com/db/pdf/Fulda.pdf&gt;. The four-manual console is well equipped with a multiple memory system (32x12 generals), two-way sequencer and additional electric action for some of the couplers. What a great thrill it is to play this wonderful instrument, and Mr. Kaiser was most helpful during our time in Fulda. We were allowed access to the organ in the evenings and partly during the lunch hours when we could play quietly.

David Rogers arrived the day after with his very specialized and compact recording equipment. At last the much anticipated recording project of organ works by Petr Eben was about to begin. Over several nights spread over one and a half weeks, Sylvie recorded Job (a narrator in Montréal has recorded the French text of the Biblical readings to go between the movements), and I did Faust, A Festive Voluntary and A Small Chorale Partita. There were a few unexpected interruptions--on one evening a private guided tour, and on another evening a trainee priest began practicing the organ in the chapel behind the high altar. Because it is also a monastery and a major learning place, from time to time there were some extraneous noises that had a tendency to arrive just as the last chord was dying away! Despite this, there was hardly any traffic noise because the cathedral is perfectly situated away from roads. We had been lent a set of keys, and on one evening had considerable trouble locking the cathedral door. Something was wrong with the lock and it was fixed the next day.

Rheda-Wiedenbrück

We interrupted our time in Fulda later that week and rented a car driven by David Rogers to go to Rheda-Wiedenbrück, our next port of call. As we went to collect it we noticed a German newspaper photograph with major headlines from Iraq and two familiar faces front and center. One fact about concert touring is that we tend not to follow the news, and in Fulda we had neither radio nor television. On the journey, in which we ran into some very heavy rain, we picked up news on the car radio. The hotel in Rheda-Wiedenbrück was the first time we had seen a television screen since leaving Montréal, and the demise of these two individuals was the big news of the week, along with gruesome photos.

Upon arrival we were met by a lady at the hotel who gave us the church keys; we deposited our cases and went to eat. We were ravenous and found a pizzeria close to the church and went in about 7 pm, fully expecting to be out by 8:30 pm--the organ was available all evening. In the end it took nearly forty-five minutes after placing the order before the soup was served and nearly an hour after that for the pizza, which was very ordinary. It was approaching 10 pm before we left the restaurant, irritated by the apparent indifference of the patron, and not in the mood to have a good practice. It was almost dark by this time and we fumbled around in the gloom trying to find switches and keyholes. We registered the program, grateful for the playing aids, and returned to the hotel.

The next day, Friday July 25, David Pearson arrived for a surprise visit in time for the concert at St. Clemens Kirche, where the three-manual organ is by Fischer & Krämer (1984), details of which can be found at <www.fischer-kraemer.de/rheda.htm&gt;. It was our third concert in this church where a few years ago we first met Ralf Bölting, composer of several organ duets. Our program included one work we commissioned from him in 2000, the Toccata on “Vom Himmel hoch” (the third movement of the Triptych on German Christmas Carols), but unfortunately he could not attend the concert. We have several good original Christmas duets in our repertory, but are frequently asked not to play them during the summer, so we were happy to be able to include it.

Zwillbrock

On Saturday the four of us filled the rented car and headed to Borken to stay with our good friend Kurt-Ludwig Forg, director of the music school there, a recitalist and author of numerous articles and a frequent visitor to North America. We left David Pearson in Münster so he could take the train north to Kiel because of services the next day.

On Sunday afternoon July 27, we played a concert to a capacity audience at the Barockkirche St. Franziskus in Zwillbrock, a delightful small village on the Dutch border. The website (in German) <www.zwillbrock.de/barockkirche/&gt; contains information about the historic two-manual organ and an interior photograph of this beautiful baroque building. It is possible to perform a complete concert of original organ duets on a small instrument and gain very satisfactory results, and this particular one served the repertory really well. The program included Fugue à six parties et deux sujets à 4 mains by Clément Loret and Petite Suite by Canadian organist and composer Denis Bédard, and many of our CDs were sold afterwards. We have given concerts on organs of all sizes and found repertory that is suitable in each case.  That is the challenge for the performer--to construct an interesting program on the organ that is available. We aim to exploit the resources of repertory and instrument as much as possible. It is amazing what some of these smaller instruments can do.

Fulda (Second visit)

Then it was back to Fulda to begin the second week of recording sessions, having fulfilled our concert duties for the time being, and avoiding the heavy service schedule in the cathedral over the weekend. Because we had the car we took a pleasant day off and made a pilgrimage to Eisenach which is not far away in former East Germany. The border is no longer apparent, but passing through the flowing landscapes of Thuringia familiar to Bach and entering the town of Eisenach, there is much evidence of reconstruction. We parked the car close to the Georgenkirche where Bach was baptized. It was also the scene of major protests in 1989, as documented in several photographs in the church aisles depicting all three galleries filled with the townsfolk as the Communist era was nearing its final sunset there. The Bachhaus, Bach’s birthplace, was the first museum to be dedicated to Johann Sebastian Bach and is well worth a visit. Established in 1906 through the Neue Bachgesellschaft, its collection includes archives, household items and other treasures from the time of Bach, in addition to a valuable assortment of musical instruments. The visit includes a live demonstration of these historical  instruments. In the souvenir shop we purchased several recordings, a poster of the Bach Family Tree, and a tie and umbrella of Bach’s handwriting. Meanwhile a baseball cap (which at one time I would never have imagined wearing) provided invaluable protection against the burning sun.

During that last week in Fulda we also visited the Michaelskirche adjacent to the cathedral; it is one of the most notable medieval sacred buildings in Germany--its crypt dates from Carolingian times originating between 819 and 822 as the burial chapel in the former Benedictine monks’ cemetery on the same site. Daily at 6 pm the bells peal forth from both the cathedral tower and  the Michaelskirche. What a glorious sound this is, which David Rogers captured on tape. We have decided to add it to the end of Sylvie’s CD.

For the recording sessions we stayed in the cathedral until around midnight every night, finishing the proceedings in the congenial surroundings of a neighboring hostelry where we mulled everything over before turning in for the night. Finally we accomplished what we set out to achieve, two compact discs of works by Petr Eben. One night we were treated to a spectacular thunderstorm and on another night, returning to the seminary at about 1:45 am, we could hear the organ in the cathedral and quietly went to investigate. The great instrument on the west gallery was being played, along with the one at the other extremity of the building in the chapel behind the high altar. A work for two organs--both organists were remarkably together, but we never found out who they were.

Itzehoe

On Friday August 1, we went our separate ways; David Rogers headed back to England and we travelled north to Kiel to stay with David Pearson, with whom we took the train to Itzehoe on Saturday where we found the four-manual 1905 Sauer to be quite disappointing, despite a relatively comprehensive specification, far from what the stoplist had promised by way of sound selection. The program included the very first organ duet by a Canadian composer, Duet for Organ by Frederick R.C. Clarke dating from 1954. This concert attracted the lowest audience of the tour with about twenty-five in attendance. However we played an encore on the other instrument that shares the gallery, some four stops that contain original Arp Schnitger pipes from 1716-1719.

Estonia

Our first visit to Estonia began on Monday August 4, when we took the airport bus from Kiel to Hamburg and boarded the Estonian Air flight to Tallinn where we were to give three concerts in the Tallinn XVII International Organ Festival, the first Canadian organists and duettists to be invited to perform in this prestigious festival which came into being in 1987. As such we were the grateful recipients of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts under their International Performance Assistance in Music (Pilot Project). Our programs acknowledged that support.

The meal on the plane was surprisingly good, and upon arrival we were met by Eva-Maria Asari from the Canadian embassy and Tiiu Valper, assistant to Festival Artistic Director Andres Uibo, and driven to the hotel in old Tallinn where all the performers are lodged, aptly named “Old Town Maestro’s.” This was the beginning of a lovely week which included a guided tour of the Canadian embassy with its magnificent view over a part of the city walls, and the harbor. We received an invitation for lunch a few days later with the Canadian Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Robert Andrigo, and his wife, along with other representatives from the embassy and the festival. It was of course an honor and pleasure to be guests of the ambassador and his staff and to discuss our career and performance plans. My mother arrived in Tallinn also, staying in another hotel outside the old town. This was the only time on the tour we could meet up because once again a trip to my native England was not possible this year.

The festival itself featured artists from several countries and each generally performed in three different venues, not just in Tallinn but in other towns as well, and attended each others’ concerts when possible. On the  first evening we attended an excellent organ recital by Andras Viragh from Hungary in the cathedral (Tallinna toomkirik) where there is a large three-manual Sauer (1913). This church also has one of the largest collections in all of Europe of coat-of-arms epitaphs of well-to-do families dating from the medieval era. Later in the week Andres Uibo gave a splendid concert at the Niguliste muuseum-kontserdisaal (Niguliste Museum-Concert Hall) which included a fine Fuge in D minor by Rudolf Tobias (1873-1918) whose picture appears on the 50 Krooni note alongside an organ, the only banknote in the world that has an organ on it (also available on a souvenir fridge magnet).

On August 9 we attended a most satisfying program entitled “Dance and Mass.” The dance was in the first half, the dancers being the Vilnius Camargo Troupe, and the Estonian Baroque Soloists playing Lully, Campra, Bach, Vivaldi and others from the period, all choreographed. “A Mass for Sunday Misericordia Domini” was the title of the second half consisting of Gregorian chant and North German baroque organ music. Peter van Dijk from Holland performed Scheidemann, Hasse, Praetorius, extracts from the Tablature of Martinus Leopolita (ca. 1580), Sweelinck, Karges and Buxtehude. The choral Mass sections were sung by the ensemble Vox Clamantis, which comprises a diversity of musicians, singers, composers, instrumentalists and conductors who all have a common interest in Gregorian chant, under the direction of Jaan-Eik Tulve. The musical forces were a finely balanced complement all the way through the concert.

Our first recital was on Tuesday August 5 in the impressive Pärnu Concert Hall which is less than one year old and fully equipped. Pärnu is a very popular holiday resort in Estonia, particularly favored by politicians. The organ builder Martin ter Haseborg was present when we arrived and was available should there be problems with the instrument. There remained a few pipes that still needed to be connected and some finishing touches to the instrument here and there, but this did not affect our program during which we gave the Estonian premières of three of our commissioned works: Sinfonietta by Denis Bédard; Dance Suite for Organ Duet by South-African born Canadian organist and composer Jacobus Kloppers; and the aforementioned 2me Suite pour orgue à quatre mains by Jean-Luc Perrot. The specification of the three-manual organ along with photographs can be found at <www.concert.ee/eesti/parnu/orel/index.php&gt;.

The second concert was originally scheduled to be in Viljandi on a two-manual instrument but in due course this was changed to Räpina Church on Thursday August 7. Räpina is a somewhat bare place near the Russian border not far from Lake Peipsi, the fifth largest lake in Europe. The priest welcomed us, along with the local organ maintenance technician. Before the concert the priest and his wife invited us to their home for some refreshments. The audience was spread around the church and on the gallery, and the organ was in many ways the most satisfying instrument we played in Estonia. The program included  the Sonata in G minor (op. 50) by Leberecht Baumert, a fine duet that has only recently become generally available, and the Estonian première of the Petite Suite of Denis Bédard. The concert closed with some prayers led by the priest. There was  not a great deal of time to rehearse, as in Pärnu, and we collected a poster bearing a variant of my name-- Sphilip Crozier. The return journey was beautified with a fabulous sunset,  around 11 pm in early August.

I should mention that we had a preview of Estonia three years ago when Karl Raudsepp, a Montréal-based organbuilder, gave a very captivating talk and video presentation to the Montréal Centre of the RCCO on Balticum 2000, the ISO Congress of that year that visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Karl is the only member of his family not to have been born in Estonia, and he has been preparing an inventory of Estonian organs. I am grateful to him for the following information:

The organ in Räpina Church is a fairly large two-manual instrument, built by August Terkmann in 1934. It also incorporates some stops from the 1857 organ originally built by the Tartu organbuilder, August Kessler. The new stoplist was worked out in conjunction with the well-known Estonian composer and organ teacher, August Topman. It was the last instrument built by Terkmann. Among his employees at the time were the brothers Oskar and Voldemar Gutmann as well as Otto and Alfred Gutdorf.

The stoplist is as follows:

Manual I

16’             Bourdon

8’                  Principal

8’                  Gamba

8’                  Flauto amabile

8’                  Doppelgedackt

8’                  Gemshorn

8’                  Salicional

4’                  Oktav

4’                  Hohlflöte

22/3’        Quinte

2’                  Oktav

                        Cornett III-V

                        Cymbel III-IV

                        Subkoppel II-I

                        Superkoppel II-I

                        Superkoppel I

Manual II (under expression)

16’             Gedackt

8’                  Geigenprincipal

8’                  Quintaton

8’                  Flöte

8’                  Lieblichgedackt

8’                  Viola

8’                  Vox celeste

4’                  Principal

4’                  Rohrflöte

2’                  Koppelflöte

                        Mixtur III-V

8’                  Trompete

                        Subkoppel II

                        Superkoppel II

                        Glocken

                        Tremolo

Pedal

16’             Principalbass

16’             Subbass

16’             Gedacktbass

8’                  Oktavbass

8’                  Cello

102/3’   Quinte

16’             Posaune

                        I-P

                        II-P

                        Superkoppel II-P

The Echo organ, planned for installation in the gallery behind the altar, and playable from Manual II, was never built due to the lack of funds. It would have comprised the following stops:

Echo

8’                  Fernflöte

8’                  Undamaris

4’                  Gemshorn

Karl also added in a further e-mail to me that August Terkmann is credited with introducing many new technical innovations into organ building in Estonia, including the use of electricity. His instruments are renowned for their gentle voicing and singing quality. Räpina’s organ stands out as a remarkable example of his work.

Our third concert was at the Niguliste Museum-Concert Hall on Sunday August 10. Details and photographs of this former church can be found at <www.ekm.ee/english/niguliste/&gt;. The organ was built in 1981 by the Rieger-Kloss company and has 4 manuals and pedal, 63 registers, and 4711 pipes. The  program included two movements from one of our commissioned duets, Suite de noëls by Canadian organist and composer Gilles Rioux, as well as the Bombardo-Carillon by Charles Henri Valentin Alkan for pedals alone, and ending with the Toccata Française (sur le nom de H.E.L.M.U.T.) by Ralf Bölting which is a real showcase work. The concert was attended by the ambassador and the full staff of the Office of the Canadian Embassy and broadcast live on Estonian Classical Radio. Before this concert I recorded an interview for the same program that was aired during the interval.

At the conclusion of the concert there was a fine reception hosted by the festival which is run by the State Concert Institute Eesti Kontsert and in our experience is extremely well organized. Ground transportation in the form of comfortable mini buses belonging to Eesti Kontsert was provided from the airport and back, and for the two-hour drive to Pärnu and three-hour ride to Räpina. In each of these venues outside Tallinn we received the same courtesy and warm welcome extended to us in Tallinn. The driver himself, an employee of Eesti Kontsert, was responsible for the distribution of programs in Räpina where everything ran smoothly. We had the chance to explore a bit during some of the free time that week. It was most interesting to go into a supermarket, something that always fascinates me in different countries, and it was very well stocked with all the usual household necessities. Milk products were in abundance, so they have their act together on that one. Just a visit to a supermarket can give a snapshot of the location--and if this was anything to go by, Estonia is on the right path.

Garding

The week passed very quickly in Estonia, before we returned to Kiel on Monday August 11, for the next venue a couple of days later in Garding, some two hours by train. It is a beautiful small town, and the delightful ancient St. Christianskirche was completely full for the concert which we opened with the Duet for Organ by Samuel Wesley. The organ was built in 1974 by the Schuke company of Berlin. The organ case of the Hauptwerk dates back to 1512, and as such is the oldest unchanged organ case in North Germany. The casework for the Rückpositiv was completed in 1680. The specification is below:

Hauptwerk (C-f3)

8’                  Regal

8’                  Prinzipal

8’                  Rohrflöte

4’                  Oktave

2’                  Oktave

                        Mixtur IV-V

8’                  Trompete

Rückpositiv (C-f3)

8’                  Gedackt

4’                  Rohrflöte

4’                  Prinzipal

2’                  Gemshorn

11/3’        Quinte

                        Sesquialter II (from c0)

                        Scharff III-IV

Pedal (C-f1)

16’             Subbaß

8’                  Prinzipal

4’                  Choralbaß

                        Hintersatz IV

16’             Fagott

Saarbrücken

After a couple of days rest in Kiel we headed south to Saarbrücken on Friday August 15 to play at the Basilika St. Johannis. We met our host Bernhard Leonardy, organist of the basilica, later in the evening, and visited the town in his open top sports car. This was a first for us too, exhilarating to experience the fresh midnight air like this. We had only one hour on the organ before the 11:30 am recital the next day, but fortunately the five-manual Hugo Mayer from Saarland organ has a multiple memory system. Further information about the church and a specification of the organ with photographs of the console can be found at <www.basilika-sb.de/&gt;.

Wiesbaden

After the concert we ate at a small snack bar near the station because we had our luggage with us and needed to be at the station for the train that gave us good connections to Wiesbaden. Travel from Saarbrücken to Wiesbaden was plagued with rail problems, beginning with the non-arrival of the ICE that was running one hour late, forcing us to take a taxi from Mainz to Wiesbaden. Gabriel Dessauer, organist of  St. Bonifatius, had left instructions for us to be at the church to collect various keys after the Saturday evening Mass. He was away and was only returning in time for our concert on Sunday afternoon. Over the years we have developed a technique for working rapidly on a new instrument--we prepare for the eventuality that there is often a short amount of practice time on the instrument due to circumstances beyond our control--but we do find it is invaluable to gain access to the organ the day before the concert. On this occasion we almost missed an evening on the three-manual Mayer organ which has 640 pistons allowing for instant comparison of various registration options and is “user-friendly.” Information about the church and organ and music are on the church website <www.st-bonifatius-wiesbaden.de/&gt; and there is an English section too.

Gabriel Dessauer arrived the day of the concert to greet us. Our visit coincided with an annual Fest going on in the town, with a huge selection of wines, beers and food on stands in the main town square. It was so good to be part of this great celebration but a huge downpour of rain, essential though with the heat wave going on at the time, watered it down somewhat. The church with its vibrant acoustics was akin to a sauna bath.

Heiligenhafen

Following Wiesbaden we returned north to Kiel, breaking the journey for a second visit to Borken to see Kurt-Ludwig Forg for a couple of days. Such free days are much appreciated in a concert tour. The last concert in Germany was on Thursday August 21 at the Stadtkirche in the coastal town of Heilgenhafen which boasts much tourism and fish restaurants, but lacks reasonable public transportation, not being served by a railway, and a bus service that finishes before the end of the concert. David Pearson came with us for the day trip and we were well received by the organist Dörte Czernitzski. The concert was very well attended; one special characteristic was that the organ bench was polished to perfection, enabling us to slide forward straight into the pedalboard with effortless ease. So we had to be vigilant all the time! 

Paris

The next day we had an early start for the long train journey to Frankfurt airport from where we had an evening flight to Paris. Late trains and missed connections had become quite rife on this trip (not typical of Germany, I might add), so we decided it was better to be safe than sorry. In Paris we were met by Sylvie’s brother who has lived in France for more than thirty years. On Saturday afternoon we went to rehearse at La Madeleine to find that there were two weddings so we had to return in the evening.

General Kalck, who is in charge of concert organization, proudly demonstrated the organ to us. As he was explaining the various registers and their history, I was observing and memorizing their location. One interesting fact about this organ is its shortage of 8’ diapason stops. There is a wide plethora of sound at 8’ pitch, but only one Montre 8’ on the Grand Orgue and Positif respectively, and not on the other two manuals. The absence of more principal sound at 8’ pitch is not so noticeable. A multi-memory system accelerates matters much faster in the relatively short practice time available. He left us to it, giving us precise instructions and exact telephone numbers to call when we had finished so we could be let out of the building. Reassuringly, they matched those posted on the organ console, so we enjoyed exploring the delights of this wonderful monument of French organ building, with its grandstand view down into the nave (not so easy if one is afraid of heights).

La Madeleine has had a long succession of distinguished organists including  Camille Saint-Saëns (1857-1877), Théodore Dubois (1877-1896), Gabriel Fauré (1896-1905) and Jeanne Demessieux (1962-1968). After about three hours we had done all the necessary work and then telephoned but could not obtain a free line. Half an hour later, with no joy whatsoever, it seemed we were doomed to spend the night in the Madeleine. Sylvie stayed upstairs, trying the telephone again and again, while I went hunting for exit points and other telephones. Thus I discovered just about every door in the building, various tunnels, spiral staircases and iron grills. Tourists do not usually have the freedom and privilege of such explorations; what a wonderful place it is! In the sacristy I found another telephone in the dark but  still could not get a line, then a portable one that I took back into the church so I could see better. Between us we tried everything but nothing worked. I continued walking around, sincerely hoping I would trigger an alarm somewhere, but after about forty-five long minutes a voice shouted from high up over the high altar to enquire if we had terminated for the night because the organ was no longer being played. It was a janitor and we informed him that obtaining a telephone line was impossible. After checking the telephones and finding them to be in order he let us out. It was a relief to be outside on the street. The next day General Kalck greeted us with a question “what happened last night?” Then he added “did you add a zero to the number?” That was the key to the problem.

The concert was attended by over 500 people, many of them Parisians returning to the city after their traditional month away. Jean-Luc Perrot and his wife also came to hear the performance of his 2me Suite pour orgue à quatre mains which in fact was its première in France. François-Henri Houbart, organist of La Madeleine since 1979, was away for that weekend, performing a concert elsewhere so we did not have the opportunity to meet him.

The next day we flew back to Montréal, arriving home tired but fulfilled. Before the trip we purchased some good disposable cameras so we could have a record of everything because our own camera had recently become non-functional. We took numerous photographs including all the organs and their consoles and most of the people mentioned in this article, and eagerly awaited their development. When I went to collect them they were unrecognizable! The photographs had been mixed up with another customer when they were forwarded to a central processing plant and were never traced. The photos here are by David Rogers.

List of repertory performed on this tour (all organ duets)

*Sinfonietta, Denis Bédard (1950-)

Petite Suite, Bédard

Two Pieces for Organ Duet (1989), Ronald Arnatt (1930-): “Sarabande with Variations,” “Octopus Music”

Fantasie in f-Moll, KV 608, W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

Fantasie in f-Moll, KV 594, Mozart

Fuge in g-Moll, KV 401, Mozart

*Dance Suite for Organ Duet, Jacobus Kloppers (1937-)

Fugue in D major, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847)

Adagio, WoO 33/1, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

*2me Suite pour orgue à quatre mains, Jean-Luc Perrot (1959-)

Sonate g-Moll, op. 50, Leberecht Baumert (1833-1904)

Duet for Organ, Frederick R. C. Clarke (1931-)

*Toccata on “Vom Himmel hoch,” Ralf Bölting (1953-)

Toccata Française (sur le nom de H.E.L.M.U.T.), Bölting

Duet for Organ, Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)

Vier variierte Choräle für die Orgel zu vier Händen, op. 19, Christian Gottlob Höpner (1799-1859)

Fugue à six parties et deux sujets à 4 mains, Clément Loret (1833-1909)

Sonate in d-moll, op. 30, Gustav Merkel (1827-1885)

Präludium und Fuge in B-dur, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (1736-1809)

Praeludium und Fuge in C-dur, Albrechtsberger

Introduction und Fuge in d-Moll, op. 62, Franz Lachner (1803-1890)

Fugue in e-Moll, op. posth. 152, Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

*Suite de noëls (extracts), Gilles Rioux (1965-): “L’Attente” (Venez divin Messie), “La joie” (Il est né le divin Enfant)

Bombardo-Carillon, Charles Henri Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)

* Organ duets commissioned and premièred by Sylvie Poirier and Philip Crozier

by Aldo J. Baggia

Sunday, July 30, 2000 was the 250th anniversary of the death of Johann Sebastian Bach, and throughout Thüringen there were major celebrations to honor the day.  In Arnstadt, where in 1703 a very young Bach took on the post of organist at the Neue Kirche (now known as the Bachkirche), there was a special religious service that featured the organ and Bach's choral music sung by invited choirs from other parts of Germany. Two days before, on the 28th of July, there had been a performance of the B-Minor Mass in the Bachkirche, which was the culmination of the "Orgel Sommer" festivities, a series of concerts of organ and choral music, starting at the end of June and continuing through all of July.  The "Orgel Sommer" started with a concert at the Bachkirche on June 24 and featured the restored Wender organ of 1703. Arnstadt is an interesting, old German city built around the large Marktplatz and, like many sites associated with Bach, features a statue in Bach's honor. The monument of a young, nonchalant Bach was erected in 1985 by Bernd Göbel during the time of the German Democratic Republic, and has raised controversy because of the lackadaisical nature of the pose. (See illustration.)

 

Following Bach's footsteps in the northwestern part of Thüringen proved to be an interesting experience, because it showed how attached he was to the area. The ancestors of his family lived in Wechmar, a very small village forty kilometers from Eisenach. Veit Bach, the great-great-grandfather of Johann Sebastian, established his home there in the sixteenth century after having left Hungary because of religious persecution. Along with his son, Hans, he owned a bakery and a mill; the ancestral home is a half-timbered house, now a museum, with ample cooking space suitable for a baker.  The house is in the heart of the village and is now its focal point as well.

Bach was born in Eisenach, where the large sixteenth-century house attests to the family's comfortable means. Johann Sebastian's parents died when he was ten and he was sent to study in nearby Ordruf for five years at the Latin grammar school. He lived with his brother Johann Christoph, who was his senior by fourteen years, and who was the organist at the Michaeliskirche. It was during these years that he learned to play the organ under the tutelage of his brother.

Afterwards, he was a student of music at the Michaeliskloster in Lüneburg for two years, and that is where he received the foundations of a theoretical background in music. In 1703 after the Lüneburg period, he took on the position of organist at Arnstadt for three years, an important responsibility for a young man. The position was pivotal for him in that he had three years to play the newly installed organ, of two manuals and pedal and 21 stops, built by Johann Friedrich Wender of Mühl-hausen in the Neue Kirche.

Before his appointment as organist, Bach, then eighteen years old, had been asked to evaluate the organ, which he found to his approval. This organ has been completely restored to the specifications of the time and gives a very good idea of what Bach had to deal with.  It is rich in 16', 8', and 4' stops and has the basic characteristics that are associated with a baroque organ. It had been combined with a large Steinmeyer organ in 1913, and the two formed an instrument of a completely different character.  What one sees today in the third gallery is the case of the restored Wender organ, richly decorated in white and gold. After the company of Ostheim/

Rhön had been given the contract to reconstruct the Wender organ and to restore the Steinmeyer in 1997, it was decided to add the third balcony where the Wender had been originally and to move the Steinmeyer to the first balcony. As such, we now have two separate organs, and the upper balcony has a copy of the original Wender organ, including the case, with two manuals and pedal, of which 320 of the 1252 pipes are original. With the excellent acoustics of the church, this organ has an astonishingly full and brilliant sound. 

During his career, Bach was known primarily as an organist and his innovative work was not always appreciated by the more conservative elements of the congregation. Bach had developed considerable skills as an organist and was known to improvise a great deal during a service. The parishioners did not necessarily relish what they were hearing, which contributed to his leaving Arnstadt. He left the Neue Kirche for a position at the Divi Blasii Kirche in Mühlhausen for one year in 1707. This was important because he wrote out the specifications for changes in the organ there during that year, and the repairs were done after he left. The following are the specifications that he submitted.

Disposition of the new repairs of the Organ at the Divi Blasii.

1. The lack of wind production should be resolved by putting in three good bellows so that the Oberwerk, Rückpositiv and the new Brustwerk would have a more sufficient air flow.

2. The four old bellows that exist should have stronger wind production for the new 32' Untersatz and should be adapted for the remaining bass voices.

3. The old bass wind chests should be removed and replaced with new ones that conduct the wind such that a stop can be played alone or all of the stops can be played without a drop in air pressure, which was not possible formerly, but which is very necessary.

4. Then comes the 32' Subbaß or the so-called Untersatz in wood, which will give the entire division the best gravitas. This should have its own wind chest.

5. The Posaune should have more capacity and the shallots should be differently set so that a better gravitas is provided.

6. That the new Glockenspiel, desired by the parishioners, in the pedal division have 26 chimes at 4'; these chimes should be paid for by the parishioners and the organ builder will take care of their installation.   As far as the Obermanual is concerned the Trumpet should be removed and replaced by a

7. Fagotto 16' tone, which is useful for all sorts of new inventiones (ideas) and sounds delicate in playing musical compositions. Further, instead of the Gemshorn (which should be removed) comes a

8. Viol di Gamba 8', that can mesh well with the existing Salicinal 4' of the Rückpositiv. And instead of the Quinta 3' (which should also be removed) there comes a

9. Nassat 3'. The remaining stops in the Upper Manual can stay, as well as the entire Rückpositiv, which should be re-voiced during the repairs.

10. What should be in the new Brustpositiv are the following voices:

three principals, namely:

1. Quinta 3' (from good 14-ounce tin)

2. Octava 2' (from good 14-ounce tin)

3. Schalemoy 8' (from good 14-ounce tin)

4. Mixtur 3 ranks

5. Tertia, with which one can have a beautiful Sesquialtera by pulling another stop.

6. Fleute douce 4' and finally a

7.  Stillgedacht 8', that would harmonize with the music, and that would be made from good wood, sounding much better than a metallic Gedacht.

11. Between this Brustpositiv and the Oberwerk there has to be a coupler. And finally for the complete voicing of the entire organ, the tremulant must be put into its correct rate of flutter.1

 When the Schuke company of Potsdam built a new organ for the church in 1995 they followed the specifications that Bach had given at the time of his stay there. The hand-written document that he prepared at the time, translated above, is on view in the Town Hall. This does give a very good idea of Bach's thoughts insofar as organ specifications are concerned. The primary considerations as noted were the addition of a third manual, a Sesquialtera stop, and at least one wooden 32' Untersatz if not the Posaune in the Pedal division. He mentions adding a new Brustwerk to the Oberwerk and Rückpositiv, and that would represent the third manual that he desired. Today's organ has a Hauptwerk, which would have been Bach's Oberwerk, a Rückpositiv on the second manual, and a Brustwerk on the third.  There is a Sesquialtera II on both the Hauptwerk and the Rückpositiv, and the Pedal division has a 32' Untersatz, and a 16' Posaune.  

Mühlhausen is a most elegant city that is being beautifully restored. The Marienkirche stands high in the pedestrian zone from where the gothic arches are easily seen. It is the second largest church of Thüringen, next to the Mariendom of Erfurt, and is a stunning sight as one approaches it from the Ratsstraße. At the entrance of the Divi Blasii Kirche there is a plaque which indicates that Bach was the organist for the year 1707-1708. While at Mühl-hausen he had numerous difficulties because his virtuosity was not appreciated. The pastor, who was a Pietist, downplayed the use of music in the religious services, and Bach ended up developing a friendly relationship with the pastor of the Marienkirche on the other side of town. Even though he was there for only one year, the importance of that year is underscored by  the amount of attention given to his ideas on organ building.

In 1708 Bach married his cousin, Maria Barbara Bach, at the Dorfkirche of Dornheim, four kilometers to the east of Arnstadt. It is assumed that he chose that church because the minister, Lorenz Stauber, was a friend of his. After his marriage  he went to Weimar  in the capacity of court organist, and held the post of Concert Master to the Court from 1714 to 1717. During his nine years in Weimar he composed many pieces for organ and harpsichord and over thirty cantatas. He had the advantage of knowing and working with Johann Gottfried Walther, a cousin of his and a significant composer in his own right. He spent the next six years as Hofkapellmeister in Köthen, where he served at the will of Prince Leopold von Anhalt Köthen. The fact that the Prince had been musically trained was significant in fostering his occupation. He ended his career with the longest stay of all in Leipzig, which started in 1723 and lasted until his death on July 30, 1750.   

Even including the Leipzig phase, it is clear that Bach travelled very little in comparison with his contemporary, Händel. If one adds up the distances in the area of Eisenach, Ordruf, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen, and Weimar, all of which are in Thüringen, one would find that the distances hardly total a few hundred kilometers at most. As such, he was so unlike many other great composers who travelled throughout Germany as well as in other countries. It was rare for a composer not to travel and study in Italy because of the early development of lyrical music in that country. Monteverdi's great operas go back to the beginning of the seventeenth century,  and much was learned from the lyricism of Vivaldi. Mozart is a perfect example of one who learned in this fashion.

The wealth of Bach organs in Thüringen makes this a particularly attractive area to visit. As far as the individual organs are concerned, besides the instrument at the Divi Blasii Kirche in Mühlhausen, the other important ones include:

1. The Wender organ at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, because it would represent what he had and liked at the time of his appointment. Bach had been asked to evaluate the new organ at the time of its installation in 1703.  Two new recordings which feature the resident Kantor, Gottfried Preller, give ample evidence of the quality of the instrument. The outstanding acoustics of the Bachkirche play a special role in the success of the performances of some of Bach's major pieces.

2. The Hildebrandt organ at the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg is one that Bach had inspected, along with Gott-fried Silbermann, at the time of its installation in 1746, and which he found to his liking. This is an organ of 51 stops on three manuals. Its restoration continued in the fall and a re-dedication of the organ took place in December, 2000.   A recording, that is available at the church, features the restored Rückpositiv. Irene Greulich plays a variety of pieces, but the Partita, Jesu meine Freude by Bach's cousin, Johann Gott-fried Walther (1684-1748), shows off this division to very good effect. What the recording demonstrates in particular are the excellent acoustics of the church.2

3. The Heinrich Gottfried Trost  organ of the Schlosskirche in Altenburg, which Bach knew and appreciated. This organ was installed in 1739. The Hauptwerk and Oberwerk are rich in 8' stops, and the Pedal division has six 16' stops and a 32' Posaune.

4. Another Trost organ at the Stadtkirche in Waltershausen, which was built in 1724-30 but not completed until 1755 by another builder, Johann Heinrich Ruppert, would seem to have the specifications that Bach would have ideally desired. Ewald Kooiman from Amsterdam wrote in the liner notes of his CD "Bach in Waltershausen" that this organ with its combination of gravitas and lovely tone would be the closest to the ideal organ sound that Johann Sebastian Bach was seeking, when compared to all other so-called "Bach Organs," whether from Schnitger or Silbermann.3 Of the 50 stops there are nineteen 8-foot stops in the Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, Brustwerk and Pedal, and three 16-foot stops in the Hauptwerk and four in the Pedal. Of the rest, twelve are 4-foot stops spread out throughout the divisions and these three pitches represent 38 stops of the organ. This is certainly in keeping with the concept of a baroque organ, plus it adds one 32-foot stop in the Pedal division to provide the necessary gravitas.

At Mühlhausen a 32-foot stop for the Pedal was one of the changes that Bach envisioned for the new organ.  The current organ at the Divi Blasii Kirche has 40 stops, rich in 8' and 4' stops in the Hauptwerk, Brustwerk and Rückpositiv, and has three 16' stops and one 32' Untersatz in the Pedal division. Most of the organs in all of Thüringen tend to be between 20+ to 30+ stops--only a few in the entire province are larger. In the city of Erfurt the Mariendom organ has 60 stops, and that of the Prediger-kirche has 56. Both of these organs were built by Schuke of Potsdam and represent installations that were done within the last thirty years.

5. The organ at the Stadtkirche in Bad Berka is important because it was built originally to the specifications that Bach had drawn up. Heinrich Nicolaus Trebs, court organ builder from Wei-mar, built the organ in 1742-43 with 26 stops on Hauptwerk, Oberwerk and Pedal, instead of the 28 stops that Bach had specified, and it is thought that this was done because of lack of space in the west tower. The organ had mainly 8' stops throughout the divisions, and when a new organ was installed in the original case in 1991 by the firm of Gerhard Böhm of Gotha, it pretty much retained the same specifications with the substitution of more 4' stops in the Hauptwerk. There had been alterations and rebuilds over the years for a variety of reasons, and the work in 1991 was intended to put the organ back into its original condition. It does not have a 32' pedal stop. A concert on August 9, 2000,  with the house organist, Bernd Müller, which included music from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries, showed the versatility of the organ, and a recording on the Motette label by Weiland Meinhold confirmed its qualities by including music by Bach and Töpfer. The Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C Major, BWV 564, clearly shows how ideal this organ is for Bach's music.   The pedal solos and the clarity of articulation demonstrate the strength of the specifications of the instrument.4

6. The Lukaskirche organ in Mühl-berg, II/26, was originally built and installed in 1729 by Franciscus Volckland of Erfurt. The specifications are very similar to those of the Wender organ at the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, and the organ was fully restored in 1997 by the Fa. Orgelbau Waltershausen. The case is richly decorated in white, blue and gold, and the acoustics of the church are first-rate by any standards, with a sound that is clear and full. At a concert on July 23, Dan Lönnqvist from Finland was outstanding in showing off the qualities of this organ as a Bach instrument. He played the Pièce d'Orgue, BWV 572, and the Fantasy & Fugue in G Minor, BWV 542, and both were outstanding examples of pieces played on an organ of quality in superb acoustics.  The setting could not be better in this church with its magnificent interior of white and gold, including the organ gallery high up in the west tower. A recording available at the church has Jozef Sluys playing a Bach program which features four of the Preludes and Fugues.5

Bach was primarily known as an organ virtuoso and choirmaster during his lifetime and some of his Toccatas and Fugues were written during his early years in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. There is some thought that he might not be the author of the famous Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565.  In 1971 a music scholar first raised this issue, and an article in the Thüringer Allegemeine Zeitung on July 28 quoted the organist of the Bachkirche in Arnstadt, Gottfried Preller, as saying, "I am convinced that the Toccata was not written by Bach. It is not provable by looking at the hand-written notes, but the piece is absolutely untypical of Bach." Preller's thoughts on perceived shortcomings in meter and quality bring him more to the conclusion that the Toccata was written by Bach's student, Johann Peter Kellner, a choirmaster from Gräfenroda, a town not far from Arnstadt. "That the composition comes from Bach's influence is clear. But it does not have Bachian command," he says further. Preller thinks that it would be atypical for Bach to have written a fugue of the type in this composition. The Fugue takes up two thirds of the work, and, in his opinion, is not integrally structured and, in comparison to the dramatic Toccata, is conspicuously bland.6 Preller also said: "We should accept the idea that there will always be a few problematic pieces to deal with . . . as well as the fact that we will never be able to resolve all questions with respect to Bach."7

Similar questions have been raised with respect to the authenticity of a variety of works by recognized masters. This has always been the case and therefore it is hardly surprising that such questions would be raised about some of Bach's works. Nonetheless, there is still no proof that certain works were not his, and with respect to the Toccata & Fugue in D Minor, others would argue that it has everything that one would expect from the pen of a young composer. Karl Geiringer writes that "The theme seems to be inspired by the violinistic technique of playing in quick alternation on two neighboring strings, a device Bach was often to employ in his music for keyboard instruments. The toccata's torrents of sound and dazzling fireworks create a tone poem of passionate subjectivity; yet there is a masterly craftsmanship underlying all this outpouring of emotion. . . . In its intensity and exuberance this is clearly a product of Bach's youth, but there is no groping and uncertainty in it."8

Clearly, if the Toccata & Fugue does not come from the Arnstadt years, it cannot be far removed. There is enough to show that the late works have a consistency about them that really demonstrates the development in the artistic ability of the composer. The contradictory arguments dealing with his works are similar to the ones surrounding his ideas on the organ: it is known that Bach favored having a 32' pedal stop, and yet the specifications that he left for an organ in Bad Berka did not include a 32' stop. When he arrived in Arnstadt,  the newly installed Wender organ did not include a 32' stop, and even when the Steinmeyer was added to the Wender in 1913, the result was a relatively large organ which was rich in 8' and 16' stops but did not include a 32' pedal stop. This is like trying to define exactly what a baroque organ or baroque organ sound should be. A compromise would seem to indicate that the baroque organ should be a three-manual organ of some 30+ stops with a Pedal division that has a 32' Untersatz. The majority of the stops in the Hauptwerk and Oberwerk should be based on 8' and 16' pipes. Without dismissing the need for reed stops, it is clear that they are not prominent. However, one might ask if this is simply for lack of knowledge about them or for a conscious dislike of the reed sound. Did the liturgical needs of the instrument take the lead and therefore obviate the desire for reed stops? Peter Williams picks up this issue in an article in The IAO Millennium Book, which was recently published in England.9 He asserts that there is no concept of "Bach's ideal organ" and that it is incorrect to point to organs that had a direct connection with the composer to address the question.10 He writes "not only would no single organ have shown all of this music at its best but any great composer is likely to work to a platonic ideal that could never exist. In any case, there are problems with giving priority to any of these organs. The first is that Bach never presided over any of the great organs of the day, as his Obituary already reports him as frequently remarking. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how there could be one single ideal instrument, because the repertory itself, from the early chorales and praeludia to the late Leipzig works, spans almost half a century. Not only is this the very period when the organ underwent considerable development and changed as far as it could before nineteenth-century technologies laid out other paths for it, but no great composer is likely to keep the same ideals of sound for half a century."11 In effect Williams is saying that the more we know about the organs of Bach's time, the more questions we have rather than answers as to what the "ideal Bach organ" might be.

We should always remember that Bach's main tasks at Leipzig were to direct the Thomaner Choir School, teach at the school, including Latin, serve as Music Director of the Lutheran churches in Leipzig and to compose and conduct liturgical music on a weekly basis. This represented his job during the last twenty-seven years of his life. Most of the music he wrote was performed during the Sunday services at the Thomaskirche. It is generally assumed that he had the position of organist at the Thomaskirche, but this is simply not true. He was not the organist of either the Thomaskirche or the Nikolaikirche, the other large church in Leipzig, which today contains a restored Ladegast organ of over 90 stops, and he did not have a position specifically related to either one of those churches.

The trip to Thüringen last summer was rich in its discoveries of much of Bach's early surroundings, and underscores once again the quality of genius that one associates with German composers and organ builders over the centuries.

 

Notes

                  1.              A basically literal translation of the liner notes which gave Bach's original specifications in German from the CD Violet LC8900, Vol. 13, Orgellandschaft Thüringen, Die Schuke-Orgel in der Kirche Divi Blasii zu Mühlhausen, Felix Friedrich.  A slightly differently worded translation is given in The New Bach Reader - A life of Johann Sebastian Bach in letters and documents, ed. by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel and revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company, 1998, pp. 55 and 56.

                  2,              cf.  CD, LC8418 Tonträger Produktion,  Orgelpunkt Zwölf, Irene Greulich am Rückpositiv der Hildebrandt-Orgel zu St. Wenzel in Naumburg. 

                  3.              cf.  liner notes in the CD "Bach in Waltershausen" as mentioned in a flyer of the Stadtkirche, 3 Lutherstraße, 99880 Waltershausen.

                  4.              CD 11851 Motette, Weimarer Orgelmusik,  Wieland Meinhold an der Böhm-Orgel der Stadtkirche zu Bad Berka.

                  5.              cf. CD 87 148 René Gailly, Johann Sebastian Bach auf den Orgeln seiner Heimat (vol. 4), Jozef Sluys, Domorganist Brüssel spielt die Volckland-Hesse Orgel zu Mühlberg.

                  6.              cf. article by Frauke Adrians in the Thüringer Allgemeine Zeitung of July 28th, 2000, p. 3.

                  7.              Ibid.

                  8.              Karl Geiringer, Johann Sebastian Bach, The Culmination of an Era, Oxford University Press, New York, 1966, p. 218.

                  9.              Article by Peter Williams in The IAO Millennium Book, ed. by Paul Hale, Incorporated Associated Organists 2000, pp. 1-14.

                  10.           Ibid. p. 3

                  11.           Ibid.

Other sources of information.  All translations from the German were done by the author.

1.              Bachstätten--Ein Reiseführer zu Johann Sebastian Bach by Martin Petzoldt, Insel Verlag, Frankfurt-am-Main, 2000.

2.              Johann Sebastian Bach, the Learned Musician, by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company, New York and London, 2000.

3.              The New Bach Reader - a life of Johann Sebastian Bach in letters and documents, ed. by Hans T. David and Arthur Mendel and revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff, W. W. Norton and Company,  New York and London, 1998.

4.              Oxford Composer Companions, J. S. Bach, ed. by Malcolm Boyd, Oxford University Press, 1999.

5.              Bach by Malcolm Boyd, in the Master Musicians Series, ed. by Stanley Sadie, Schirmer Books, New York 1997.

6.              The IAO Millennium Book, ed. by Paul Hale, Incorporated Association of Organists 2000.

7.              Festchrift zur Wiedereinweihung, Johann-Sebastian-Bach-Kirche zu Arnstadt, Herausgegeben zum Einweihungstag am 16. Januar 2000 vom Kuratorium Bachkirche Arnstadt 2000 und der Evang.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde Arnstadt.

8.              CD, Bach in Arnstadt, 4/2000 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirchgemeinde Arnstadt, Gottfried Preller spielt an der Wender Orgel (1703) der J.-S.-Bach-Kirche.

9.              CD, Johann Sebastian Bach in Arnstadt,  2000 Orgelbau-Hoffman, Ostheim/Rhön, Gottfried Preller spielt an der Wender-Hoffman-Orgel Werke von Johann Sebastian Bach.

 

Aldo J. Baggia is Chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Instructor in French, Spanish, German and Italian at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire. He holds a bachelor's degree from Iona College and the MA from Middlebury College, and has completed graduate work at Laval University and Duke University. He has pursued postgraduate studies in France, Germany, Austria and Spain, and has travelled extensively in Europe. He has written numerous opera reviews for Quarterly Opera Review, Opera, Opera News, Orpheus and Monsalvat. He has written articles and reviews for The Diapason.