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In the footsteps of Gottfried Silbermann

Aldo J. Baggia

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.

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Our guide book on Saxony in Germany indicated that no. 2 in Kleinbobritzsch was the house where the celebrated organ builder, Gottfried Silbermann, was born. I thought it was interesting that the town was so small that this address was sufficient to find the house, and indeed it is. Kleinbobritzsch, in effect, has one street and is in a line of small villages a few kilometers from Frauenstein where his family moved two years after his birth in 1683. One goes through Niederbobritzsch and Oberbobritzsch and therefore we have a "Lower," "Upper," and "Small" Bobritzsch but no town of Bobritzsch itself. Silbermann left Saxony for a short time to study the trade of organ building with his brother Andreas in Strasbourg and after a few years in France he returned to Saxony in 1710 and built his first organ for the Stadtkirche in Frauenstein in 1711. That organ was destroyed in a city fire in 1728.

It is amazing that, with such little experience, he was given the contract to build the large 3-manual organ for the Cathedral in Freiberg in 1711. He relocated to a house at the current Schloßplatz in Freiberg, which is only twenty kilometers from Frauenstein, and this became his living quarters and workshop until his death in 1753. He remained dedicated to Saxony during his entire life and was quoted at the time of building his first organ for the church in Frauenstein that he was doing it for his "country, the honor of God and the love of the church."

Silbermann was high on my list of interests in planning a trip to Saxony  this past summer. People are acquainted with his organ in the Cathedral of Freiberg (III/45), at least by reputation, but few have had the opportunity to see and hear a number of his other organs in the old province. Political considerations made trips to the former German Democratic Republic difficult, and it has only been in recent years that road conditions have been sufficiently upgraded in order to make travel in the former East Germany bearable. Four years ago I spent two months in Germany as part of a sabbatical year and drove through parts of the provinces of  Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen and found the roads to be in a deplorable state. That is no longer the case.

Werner Müller in his book Auf den Spuren von Gottfried Silbermann points out that Silbermann made forty-eight organs and that the last one attributed to him, the large 3-manual in the Katholische Hofkirche in Dresden (the Cathedral), was finished by his associates, one of whom was Zacharias Hildebrandt, who subsequently became quite well known for the organ in the Wenzelkirche in Naumburg (Thüringen).   The Dresdner Hofkirche organ was stored for safe keeping in 1944 and therefore survived the bombing of  the city  in February, 1945.   At the time the case was destroyed, and the present one is a copy of the original. The organ was restored by the Jehmlich Brothers of Dresden and re-dedicated in 1971.

Other Silbermann organs have also been  destroyed by fires, either in the Second World War or in other wars such as the Seven Years War in the eighteenth century. The famous organ in the Frauenkirche in Dresden (III/45) was destroyed in the bombing of 1945 as was the organ of the Sophienkirche (II/31). The large organ of the Johanniskirche in Zittau (III/44) was destroyed in the Seven Years War in 1757

Silbermann had the lofty title of  "Königlich-polnischer und kurfürstlich-sächsischer Hof- und Landorgelbauer," which translates as "Organ builder to the Courts of the King of Poland and the Elector of the State of Saxony." Saxony was his homeland and all of his organs with the exception of those in Burgk, Greiz, Lebusa and Großmehlen,  were built for churches there. Even those four towns were on Saxony's borders. Saxony is primarily Lutheran country and with the exception of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Dresden, the churches with his organs are generally the Stadtkirche (the city church) or the Dorfkirche (the village church), both of which would be the local Lutheran church of a particular town.   The architecture of all of these churches tends to be similar and the differences that exist in their layout are primarily those of size. There would be a central tower of considerable mass in the larger ones such as the churches in Sayda, Großhartmannsdorf and Oederan and a narrower one as at St. Petri in Rochlitz and all would be topped with some variation of an onion bulb under a cross. The massive Cathedral in Freiberg is basically a gothic construction that has two imposing towers that are squared and shaved at the top. The original Lady Chapel is pure gothic and the nave with its high arches is typical of other churches in Saxony. The south chancel portal is the elaborately sculptured "Goldene Pforte" which is now protected from the elements by a wooden foyer which completely encloses it.  A life-size replica of it can be seen at the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard University. It was moved from the western side of the Cathedral in 1487 and covered during the renovation work of 1827-36. The Annenkirche in Annaberg-Buchholz, St. Aegidien in Oschatz, the Cathedral in Zwickau and the Marienkirche in Pirna have similar interiors insofar as the nave and aisles are concerned. These four churches are among the largest in Saxony and are architectural gems that survived the Second World War, but while they deserve a visit, they were never associated with Silbermann.

Freiberg itself is a treasure chest for anyone interested in Silbermann's organs since four of those extant are located there. Besides the two in the Dom, there are the (II/32) of 1735 in St. Petri and the (II/20) of 1716 in the Jakobikirche, the latter having been transferred to the current church which was built in 1892. In both examples the cases are the original ones and the case of the Jakobikirche carries the State of Arms of Saxony at the top because it was built by the municipal carpenter of Freiberg, Elias Lindner, in 1718. The Petrikirche organ, which also carries the Arms of Saxony, is considered important because it points the way to Silbermann's later ideas on organ building while the Dom organ of 1711, which was his second organ, was the fruit of  his earlier ideas. The Petrikirche organ was built between 1733 and 1735 and achieves a majestic sound that fulfils the desires of the later baroque era. It was his first organ with a 16¢ Principal in the Hauptwerk and is particularly important from that point of view because the organs in the Frauenkirche in Dresden and the Johanniskirche in Zittau, which were both larger and  more developed, have not survived.

Most of Silbermann's organs were one- or two-manual instruments of 12 to 20 stops, and the one-manual organ of 14 stops from St. Johannis in Freiberg was moved to the north chancel of the Dom in 1939 and very recently restored. It was featured in the five concerts that I attended this summer in Freiberg and was a very good example of what one expects from a Silbermann organ, i.e., a clarity of sound, particularly in the flutes, and a variety of color that is very appropriate for expressive music. It also has a power that one would not expect from a one-manual organ. Obviously the superb acoustics of the Dom have a lot to do with the sound that is produced. The west tower organ has a brilliance and clarity that really stand out. The case of the large organ is magnificent by any standards and when Dr. Felix Friedrich from the Altenburger Schloßkirche launched into Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D Minor in the concert of August 13th, the sound of the instrument, the beauty of the church, and the piece itself made it a truly magical experience.

I was interested in hearing the organ in more modern music to see what its range would be and how it would sound when compared to much larger symphonic instruments such as those of E.M. Skinner or Henry Willis III.  Some nineteenth- and twentieth-century pieces were programmed and there was no difficulty in producing the necessary sound mass that one would associate with such music. Kent Tritle from St. Ignatius in New York City played George Crumb's Pastoral Drone, Ned Rorem's Views from the Oldest House and Mendelssohn's Sonata in C Minor, op. 65. Dr. Friedrich from Altenburg played Eberhard Böttcher's Choralvorspiel und Fuge über Veni creator spiritus and Friedrich Metzler's 3 Choralvorspiele aus dem Choralkreis. Stephan Leuthold from Dresden, who was the winner of the Gottfried-Silbermann competition in 1997, finished up his concert with Gustav Merkel's Sonata in D, op. 118. In general the other works played by all of these organists were by Bach or his contemporaries.

It so happened that the organ (II/19) in the Dorfkirche in Nassau celebrated its 250th anniversary on August 2nd and there were a number of activities associated with its re-dedication during the course of the ensuing week. The Jehmlich Company of Dresden was hired to do the restoration and Stephan Leuthold was the organist for the final concert of the week on August 9th. He closed his program with Schumann's Fuge Nr. 1 über BACH, op. 60 and Rheinberger's Sonata in A, op. 98. These are pieces that require a flexibility of  registrations and a certain amount of power, and there was no difficulty in the organ's ability to sustain the sounds required. The serious drawback was the lack of good acoustics in the building which had practically no reverberation at all. It is a very small church with a low ceiling and the sound is deadened even though the interior is entirely made of wood. As such, the amplitude and majesty that one hears in the Dom or in the Petrikirche in Freiberg were completely absent. The restoration of this organ was financed by a retired teacher and organ aficionado, Hubert Hofer, who supported the restoration of the Silbermann organs in Frankenstein, Großmehlen, Glauchau and Zöblitz. He was quoted in an article in the Freiberg edition of the Freie Presse as saying: "I have spent my lifetime in a simple and frugal way and have developed my great love for the organ. Gottfried Silbermann's organs are close to my heart because they are, as I would say, unequalled in their sound and manner of construction."

The one two-manual that really stood out in my mind was the organ at Oederan, which is a small town about 14 kilometers west of Freiberg and on the road to Chemnitz. The Stadtkirche is very large and the (II/25) instrument has a very impressive sound of clarity and grandeur. The contract was written in 1724 and the dedication took place on May 25th, 1727. The organ was kept in its original state until the middle of the 19th century by Silbermann's successors. When the church was renovated in 1890-92, a neo-gothic case was built to go with the changes in the interior. At the same time the Jehmlich Company of Dresden did some re-building of the instrument and further work was done in 1968 by the Eule Orgelbau Firma of Bautzen. The Eule Company did a complete restoration of the organ in 1992-93 with the intention of putting it in its original condition, i.e., meeting the technical and acoustical levels that Silbermann had achieved. Although Silbermann's organs are generally associated with Bach, one should note that Silbermann had never followed the customs of other German builders with respect to his stoplist and tuning and his organs represent a combination of German and French principles. Unless the tuning were changed, one would, in theory, play Bach's music "imperfectly" on a Silbermann organ, even though Bach had a great interest in the French school of organ building.

In his book, Organ, Arthur Wills stresses the point that Silbermann's organ at Fraureuth represents a good example of the blending of the German and French elements in organ building.    On the Ars Vivendi label there is a fine recording of Bach's Toccata, Adagio und Fuge C-dur BWV 564 by Johannes-Ernst Köhler on the Fraureuth organ (11/20), which was built between 1739 and 1742. There is a great variety of color, and the tone is absolutely beautiful.

I attended a recital in Oederan on Thursday, July 23rd, and the only disappointment was that there were only four people in the church, including my wife and me.   The organist played some variations by Johann Gottfried Walther and the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach and the results were most impressive. The acoustics of the church are outstanding and the depths of expression that one heard were remarkable.     This is an organ that would easily stand side by side with larger instruments for its capacity to inspire, and its sound is truly unique.

About thirty of Silbermann's organs are still extant, and it is extraordinary to consider that these organs are more than 250 years old, even with the understanding that some rebuilding has been done on all of them. Silbermann's influence on other organ builders has continued to the present time, particularly with respect to the manufacturing of the pipes. Friedrich Ladegast had remarked when building the large organ for the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg in 1858 that the pipes should be fashioned "nach Silbermann'schen Methoden," the meaning of which is quite evident.

This was a wonderful discovery and one that is waiting for other friends of the organ.

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The University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour 50

Carl Parks

Carl Parks, a freelance writer, is organist-choirmaster of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Holmes Beach, Florida, and a past dean of the Sarasota-Manatee Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Photographs are by the author.

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Saxony’s Organs and Bachfest Leipzig 2004: A study tour of Bach, Luther & Silbermann

Every organist dreams of playing the Saxony region’s baroque organs that were designed, performed on, and approved by Johann Sebastian Bach. That, combined with the annual Bachfest Leipzig 2004, proved irresistible.

The annual Bach Festival in Leipzig, Germany--with day trips to hear and play over a dozen historic organs, many known to J. S. Bach--provided 27 of us an unforgettable study tour May 12 to 26. The tour included 16 festival concerts, lectures by Bach scholar Dr. Christoph Wolff of Harvard University, guided tours of the cities visited, and the opportunity for masterclasses with Thomaskirche organist Ulrich Böhme. It was Historic Organ Tour 50 led by the University of Michigan’s University Organist Dr. Marilyn Mason.

After a bus tour and night in Berlin, we proceeded on May 14 to Wittenberg. Our walking tour took us through the Luther House, which is the world’s largest museum of Reformation history, and the Schloßkirche, where Martin Luther presented his 95 theses and is now buried. After lunch next door in the Schloßkeller we arrived in Leipzig on time for the festival’s opening concert at the Thomaskirche, where Bach was Kantor for 27 years. Three settings of Psalm 98, by Bach (BWV 225 and 190) and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (Opus 91) were given a world-class performance by the church’s boys’ choir, soloists, and the Gewandhaus orchestra conducted by Georg Christoph Biller. The Sinfonia in D from the Easter Oratorio (BWV 249) opened the concert.

Leipzig

Our walking tour of Leipzig the next morning showed a city coming to life again since the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and the reunification of Germany. Construction is everywhere. Historic buildings are being cleaned and restored, while the big, vacant housing projects and other Stalinist architecture are about to be torn down. One grim building about to be razed sits on the site of the University Church, which the Communists dynamited. The church will be rebuilt with an organ designed but never built by Gottfried Silbermann, the great master of organ building during the baroque era. Unfortunately, unemployment in Leipzig is around 20 percent, while in other eastern cities of the former DDR it is as high as 28 percent.

Leipzig is a city of music. Excellent street musicians play the classics everywhere within the ancient confines of this once-walled burg. Walks to the Bach Museum, Mendelssohn House, Musical Instrument Museum or a concert are always a treat. We often paused to hear a flautist, a xylophonist, even a full brass choir playing Henry Purcell’s Trumpet Tune in D.

Thomaskirche

The first of Saturday’s three festival concerts opened with Ulrich Böhme playing Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue on the Bach Organ in the north gallery of Thomaskirche. This 4-manual, 60-stop organ was built by Woehl in 2000 and replaces an earlier 3-manual instrument built in 1966 by Schuke. It duplicates the organ that Bach knew as a boy in Eisenach. While its location is certainly not what Bach would specify, the large-scale principals and overall tonal design provide the “gravitas” he found so necessary. And the organ sounds well throughout the church despite its location on the side. Jürgen Wolf playing all 30 Goldberg Variations on harpsichord at Nikolaikirche followed. The evening concert in the Gewandhaus featured fortepianos and orchestra in performances of Bach and Mendelssohn works.

Sunday’s services at Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche are like those in Bach’s day and always include the performance of a Bach cantata at the liturgy of the word. The afternoon festival concert, again on the Thomaskirche Bach Organ, was a reconstruction of Mendelssohn’s organ recital of August 6, 1840, performed by Michael Schönheit. His improvisation on the Passion Chorale in the style of Mendelssohn was similar in structure to the Sixth Sonata and brought a standing ovation, a much less common occurrence in Europe than the United States.

Among the many excellent concerts, Matthias Eisenberg’s Ascension Day performance of  Max Reger’s Fantasie and Fugue on B-A-C-H stands out in particular. The entire sell-out crowd remained through a long, standing ovation until he improvised an equally stunning encore on Thomaskirche’s west gallery organ. That instrument was built by Wilhelm Sauer in 1899, who then extended it to 88 stops in 1907. A fund to restore this big tubular pneumatic has so far raised 100,000 of the 300,000 euros being sought.

Nikolaikirche

A similar romantic organ is almost restored in the west gallery of Nikolaikirche, but was not ready for this year’s Bachfest. It was built by Friedrich Ladegast in 1862 and expanded to 84 stops by Sauer from 1902 to 1903. Near the apse, the church also has a 17-stop organ that was built by Eule in 2002 in the style of Italian organs of the baroque era. As Kantor of Thomaskirche, J. S. Bach was also was the city’s civic director of music, giving him duties at Nikolaikirche. Thus, it was here that many of his cantatas and other works were performed for the first time.

Rötha

A bus trip on May 17 took us to Rötha, a city with two Silbermann organs. Dedicated in 1721 by Johann Kuhnau, the Silbermann in St. George church was the model for the Marilyn Mason Organ built by Fisk for the University of Michigan. A smaller Silbermann at St. Mary’s church was dedicated in 1722. Some of our group joined a masterclass with Ulrich Böhme, while others went on to Weimar. The pedalboards on these old Silbermann organs take some getting used. Not only are they flat, but the spacing is different from modern pedalboards. They also lack a low C-sharp and other notes at the top end. As Marilyn Mason explained, heel and toe pedaling worked out for pieces learned on a modern pedalboard must be changed to a technique using mostly the toes.

European acoustics demand slower tempi and proper phrasing to a greater extent then the dry acoustics of most American churches. For speech reinforcement, Germans take an approach that differs from our boom-box public address systems. Stässer loudspeakers, measuring approximately 18 x 21/2 x 21/2 inches, are mounted on each of a church’s columns, with electronic reinforcement delayed to match the time sound takes to travel. This permits clarity of the spoken word without compromising the divine ambiance for which the music was composed.

Gottfried Silbermann

Gottfried Silbermann was born in 1683, the son of a craftsman-woodworker. From 1702 to 1707 he studied organ-building with his elder brother Andreas in Strasbourg and Thiery in Paris. A condition was that Gottfried would not work in his brother’s territory. So in 1710 Gottfried returned to his native Saxony and set up shop centrally in Freiberg. His first commission was for a small, one-manual and pedal, 15-stop organ for his hometown of Frauenstein. So well-received was this first instrument, completed in 1711, that in the same year Freiberg’s Dom St. Marien (Cathedral of St. Mary) invited the young builder, then only 28 years old, to construct a new organ of three manuals and pedal with 44 stops. This was completed in 1714. Thereafter Silbermann built some 45 instruments, 31 of which are still extant. All are located within or very close to the Saxon borders. 

Gottfried Silbermann was given the official title of Court Organbuilder by Frederick I, at that time King of Poland and Duke of Saxony. Similarly, J. S. Bach had the title of Court Composer. The two were great friends, and often discussed the techniques and acoustics of organ building. Silbermann was Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s godfather and a regular visitor to the Bach home in Leipzig. The two even worked together on the escapement mechanism for the world’s first fortepianos.

Silbermann believed that an organ should look as beautiful as it sounds, and his organ cases are truly beautiful. Also, in a play on words of his name, this “silver man” was known for the silver sound of his pipes. His organs typically have a Hauptwerk that is scaled for gravitas, a Brustwerk scaled to be delicate, an Oberwerk to be penetrating, and a Pedal scaled for a grandness of sound that produces foundation without necessarily using a lot of pipes. Compared to Arp Schnitger, the organs of Silbermann are more spacious with the pipes less densely arranged. 

Eisleben and Halle

Another bus trip took us to Eisleben. Here we visited the houses where Martin Luther was born and died, and the church where he was baptized. Further on in Halle, we stopped to play two organs in the Marktkirche, where Georg Friedrich Händel was baptized and learned to play the organ. That organ is a one-manual instrument of six stops built in 1664 by Reichel. It has all of its original pipes as well as meantone tuning. At the other end is a much larger organ in a baroque case. It is a three-manual, 40-stop instrument built by Schuke in 1984. Both had recently been restored, following extensive damage to the church from a broken city steam pipe. We then visited the Handel House, which has several chamber organs, and we took turns playing the newly restored organ built by Johann Gottlieb Mauer in 1770.

Altenburg, Störmthal and Pomßen

On May 21 we visited Altenburg. It is here that Heinrich Trost built an organ in the Schloßkirche from 1736 to 1739, the same year Bach played it. Eule restored it in the mid-1970s. After walking up well-worn stone steps in one of the castle’s circular stairwells, we found ourselves in the balcony opposite this magnificent instrument. Demonstrating was Dr. Felix Friedrich, a scholar of Johann Ludwig Krebs. Marilyn Mason, who was familiar with the instrument, pulled stops for those of us who played and offered suggestions. Among the more interesting stops is a viola that speaks with an attack and harmonic development nearly identical to that of a bowed string instrument, making it ideal for trio sonatas. 

Further on in the village church of Störmthal is the only Hildebrandt organ still in its original condition. Zacharias Hildebrandt was a student of Gottfried Silbermann. He built the two-manual instrument that was inspected and approved by his friend J. S. Bach in 1723. Kantor Thomas Orlovski demonstrated the instrument and registered it for those of us who played. 

The afternoon took us to Pomßen’s 750-year-old Wehrkirche. Originally built as a fortress, this Romanesque church is home to the oldest organ in Saxony. The instrument has one manual and pedals that play 12 stops, plus a Cimbelstern and Vogelgesang. Built in 1570, the organ was purchased second-hand to save money, and it was installed in 1690. It has been well maintained since its restoration in 1934 and was a thrill to play. 

Naumburg

Several of us had expressed an interest in playing the newly restored organ in Wenzelkirche, Naumburg, which was not on our tour. It is the largest instrument built by Zacharias Hildebrandt from 1743 to 1746, comprising 53 stops on three manuals and pedals. His old teacher Gottfried Silbermann examined the instrument and approved it, finding it to be as beautiful as his own but much larger. J. S. Bach had assisted with its design; and, when he played it, he found all the qualities he liked: thundering basses, strong mixtures, and beautiful solo stops. We convinced enough in our group to charter a bus and rent the organ the morning of May 22. 

Words can describe neither the baroque splendor nor the divine ambience of the vast St. Wenzel interior. There, Kantor Irene Greulich demonstrated the organ. Frau Greulich is a fine organist who has performed and given masterclasses at the University of Michigan. She and Marilyn Mason have a friendship that began before Germany’s reunification, when the organ had been playable from an electro-pneumatic console of the 1930s in the balcony below. They registered the organ for those of us who played, thus ensuring that nobody touched the original pen and ink inscriptions in the drawknobs.

A walk to the Dom SS. Peter and Paul revealed a handsome new organ under construction in a fenced-in area in the nave. No information was available, but among the pipes to be installed were wooden resonators, presumably for a Posaune. The building is late Romanesque and Gothic from the 13th century.

That evening we attended a very fine concert of The Creation by Joseph Haydn at the Hochschüle for Music and Theater. It was sung by soloists and choir from the school and the Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Roland Borger conducting. We heard it as Die Schöpfung, Haydn’s own translation from English for German audiences.

The last day of Bachfest included breathtaking performances of the St. Matthew Passion, the Mass in B Minor, and pieces written for organ, four hands, played by Ulrich Böhme and his wife Martina at Thomaskirche. The Matthäus-Passion performance was a reconstruction of that given by Mendelssohn on April 4, 1841. Thus, orchestration made use of instruments that had replaced those of Bach’s time. A continuo organ was played with the orchestra. The chorales, however, made use of the Gewandhaus’ 89-stop instrument built in 1981 by the Schuke-Orgelbau of Potsdam. The festival closing concert of the B-minor Mass was in Thomaskirche, with 85-year-old Eric Ericson conducting.

Freiberg and Frauenstein

After we checked out of our hotel, our bus took us southeast to Freiberg. There, in the Freiberg Dom we played two fine Silbermann organs. The larger was built from 1711 to 1714 and has a particularly remarkable case with ornamentation by Johann Adam Georgi. It has 44 stops across three manuals and pedal. The small organ of 1719 has 14 stops on one manual and pedal. 

We continued to the Silbermann Museum in Frauenstein, located in a medieval castle, and the only organ museum devoted to just one builder. There, Dr. Marilyn Mason played a short recital on the museum’s replica of a Silbermann organ. It is a copy by Wegscheider Organ Builders, Dresden, of an instrument Silbermann built in 1732 for Etzdorf, and is a working model demonstrating the basic principles of Baroque organ construction.

Part of the attraction of a Marilyn Mason tour is her ability to unlock the doors to organ lofts. She was the first woman to have played in Westminster Abbey, Egypt, and many other places around the world. She is also a very helpful coach in unlocking the secrets of performance for a broad array of organ literature. Dr. Mason offered our group many pointers on the performance of baroque music, and personally advised me on ways to practice the difficult passages and tricky rhythms of Jehan Alain’s Trois Danses, which she had worked out for her own brilliant performances.

Dresden

In Dresden, our excellent tour leader, Franz Mittermayr of Matterhorn Travel, treated us with a surprise visit to the Hofkirche (Roman Catholic cathedral). There we played the magnificent three-manual, 47-stop Silbermann of 1755 that had been hidden in the countryside during World War II. This cathedral was destroyed in the allied firebombing, but the organ was back among us in a newly restored building. For that we gave grateful thanks. Unfortunately, another fine Silbermann in the Frauenkirche was destroyed. A 3-million euro restoration of that church is nearing completion using original, numbered stones wherever possible. A new organ will replicate the destroyed Silbermann. 

It has been said that Germany has too many churches. This is because, like elsewhere, church attendance is down. In Germany approximately nine percent of the population is Protestant, while two percent is Roman Catholic. In the former DDR of Eastern Germany under the Communists, religion was discouraged, so attendance fell even further. Maintaining and restoring these ancient churches is beyond the reach of most congregations, so they survive through tourism and entrance fees. Many are considered museums and are given government funding. In Naumburg, for example, the city paid for the restoration of the Hildebrandt organ. On average, a group pays an entrance fee of 150 euros or about $185 U.S. for each church visited. In Leipzig, the group paid entrance fees on top of concert ticket prices. This was all included in the cost of our tour. An organist traveling alone to play benefit recitals will pay rental fees of similar amounts. 

For a first visit to the Saxony region, this tour provided the best way to play these instruments and learn about them. While our personal playing times were seldom more than five minutes each, the cost was spread over the entire group. An organ tour also makes all the preliminary arrangements to open doors that are otherwise locked. The University of Michigan is known for its excellent tours, and this one proved why. Matterhorn Travel provided us with a guide who had extensive knowledge of the area, numerous contacts, and the ability to run things so smoothly that we never encountered delays.

University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour XXXVIII

by Marian Archibald
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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

On the Road in Bach Country with Michael Barone

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

Mary Ann Dodd

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

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Day 8

Altenburg

Monday morning dawned much sooner than some of us might have
wished. But here we were in Altenburg, seeing it for the first time by daylight.
Located on the Pleisse River in the northeastern corner of Thuringia, Altenburg
is a small, industrial city noted for its production of sewing machines and
playing cards and also for the fact that it fortuitously managed to escape the
Allied bombing in WW II. Its neighbors were not so lucky. But our destination
on this gray and chilly morning was the castle church and its famous
"Bach" organ. The castle dates back to the twelfth century and has
survived at least three fires and at least as many restorations. Today only the
tower and the chapel are open to the public. The original organ, built at the
end of the fifteenth century, had already undergone several renovations when
Gottfried Silbermann's advice was sought in the year 1733. A proposal for a new
instrument by the local Thuringian builder, Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost,
was accepted at that time. Trost, whose organ at Waltershausen we had visited
only a few days before, was a colleague and a good friend of Bach's, and we can
well imagine that Bach might have taken a lively interest in this instrument,
whose disposition does indeed seem to reflect many of Bach's ideas and
preferences regarding organ design. It is interesting to speculate on the fact
that somewhere along the way, two additions were made to the original
specification--a 32' posaune and a glockenspiel! Due to financial and technical
difficulties, the organ was not actually completed until 1739, at which time
Bach performed on the instrument and declared it an unqualified success. Also
of interest is the fact that Johann Ludwig Krebs, perhaps Bach's most famous
pupil, was court organist at Altenburg for a quarter of a century (1756-1780),
and it was for this instrument that his organ works were written. Helmut Werner
of the Eule firm was responsible for the recent restoration (1974-76) of this
important instrument.

The interior of the chapel, with its high, vaulted ceiling,
is breathtaking. The organ (II/39) sits high on the north wall, its shallow
case magnificently ornate with gilt and elaborate carving. The scene is
altogether one of quintessential "Baroquial" splendor. But by now we
had become somewhat inured to the sight of gorgeous castle interiors, and it is
the indescribable sound of this instrument that draws us in and wraps itself
around us. It is penetrating, yet gentle; bold, yet never brash. The plenum has
presence, but is never overpowering. There is gravitas aplenty, and the tierce
rank in the mixtures gives the full organ a reedy flavor. There is a
preponderance of 8' flue stops, and the strings really sound orchestral.
Organist Felix Friederich was on hand to greet us and to demonstrate the
instrument. There was open console time for those who wished to play.

I found myself reluctant to leave. Not only were we leaving Altenburg,
but also Thuringia. For the past three days, though we had traveled to several
cities and visited many organs, we had remained always within a rather
circumscribed area at the heart of Bach country. For me, musically, it had been
a landmark experience. The sights and sounds of Thuringia had altered forever
my perceptions and my understanding of Bach, the man, and his musical legacy.

Saxony

But now it was on to Saxony. Destination: Dresden. We had a
relatively long drive ahead of us--nearly two hours--and with his infallible
sense of timing, Michael seized this opportunity to let us get better
acquainted with our fellow passengers. Our bus was equipped with a good
portable microphone, which Michael and Sonja had been putting to excellent use
along the way. Now each of us was invited, as the spirit moved us, to take over
the microphone and share briefly something about ourselves and what had led us
to this time and place.

Everyone, indeed, had a story, the telling of which space
does not permit. But let me attempt a brief summary. There were perhaps only
six among us who had professional ties to the organ. There were, as one might
expect, a number of retired people. Some were seasoned travelers; others were
neophytes. Professions represented were many and various: organ builder,
physician, librarian, pastor, farmer, securities analyst, commodities trader,
tour guide, lawyer, restaurateur, academic administrator, engineer, computer
experts, and teachers. One among us had a famous name, being none other than
the son of Alexander Schreiner of Mormon Tabernacle renown. We hailed from
every corner of the country, from Alaska to California, to Florida, to Rhode
Island, and everywhere in between. Almost without exception, all were loyal
fans of Michael Barone and Pipedreams. Once begun, this "oral
history" project took on a life of its own and would continue, as
traveling time allowed, for the remainder of our trip.

Meissen

Our first stop along the way was the ancient city of Meissen
where we were scheduled to tour the famous porcelain factory and see and hear
the Meissen/Jehmlich organ, I/4, with pipes of porcelain. Meissen is a
picturesque city on the banks of the Elbe River, whose mix of medieval and
Gothic architecture attests to its more than one thousand years of history.
Since the thirteenth century, porcelain had been produced only in China. But in
1710, as a result of the research instigated by Augustus II, King of Poland and
elector of Saxony, the manufacture of white, European, hard porcelain was begun
in Albrechtsburg Castle, high atop a hill overlooking the town below. Later on,
in the nineteenth century, the operation was moved from the castle to the
Meissen factory, which we would be visiting today. A tour of the facility takes
perhaps an hour and a half, affording the visitor the opportunity to actually
observe the complex process of porcelain making at each step of the way from
the creation of the design to the finished product. The pièce de
résistance is a walk through the many showrooms of priceless pieces on
display. The Meissen factory has been, from the very beginning, a state-owned
business, drawing thousands of visitors annually from all over the world.

In 1730, and again in 1920, unsuccessful attempts had been
made to produce sounding organ pipes of porcelain. Since a porcelain pipe is
not adjustable, the technological problem is to find a way to position the lips
of the pipe accurately so as to enable the wind to set up an appropriate
vibrating air column. In the year 2000, success was finally achieved through
collaboration between Horst Jehmlich of the Jehmlich Orgelbau of Dresden and
Ludwig Zepner, porcelain designer and artistic director of the Meissen factory.
The instrument is undeniably a work of art. The case of the little Positiv is of
pearwood with porcelain door wings designed by the Meissen artist Christoph
Ciesielski. The twenty-two façade pipes are porcelain flutes at 2'pitch.
The organ is opus 1140 of the Jehmlich firm, one of the oldest organbuilding
firms in Germany. All involved in this project are justifiably proud of this
unique connection between porcelain and music.

Coswig

We had one more stop to make before we reached Dresden, and
that was the Alte Kirche in the town of Coswig. The church, whose newly
restored organ may well be the oldest in Saxony, celebrated its 500th
anniversary in 1997. The builder of the organ is not known, and the earliest
documentation is from 1735, the year it came to Coswig. It is thought to be
quite old, probably dating back to the seventeenth century. The organ, of one
manual and ten stops, had become quite dysfunctional by the end of the
nineteenth century. Since there were no funds to replace it with a new
instrument, the church made do with a harmonium. A slowly evolving restoration
project in the '30s was interrupted by the war, at which time all of the metal
pipes were taken. In 1989, at the time of the reunification, Christian
Wegscheider approached the authorities about the possibility of a restoration,
and the work was begun in 1992. Almost all of the pipes are new, and a
zimbelstern has been added. The keyboard has a short octave, and the hand
bellows date from 1531. The pipe shades and their decoration are from the
eighteenth century, and the instrument has been tuned in an early Baroque meantone.
The organ was back in its case in time for the 500th anniversary jubilee in
1997, and has been playable since 1998. It was demonstrated for us on this day
by the music director Volkmar Werner, who played a Pachelbel toccata followed
by sets of variations by Pachelbel and Sweelinck. Herr Werner thoughtfully
provided us with the organ specification as well as the registrations he used
to show off the rather amazing variety of delightful sounds. But I'm getting
ahead of myself.

From the outside, this late-Gothic structure, with its
rather massive tower and gated stone walls, seemed to me more suggestive of a
fortress than a house of worship. It is not a graceful structure, but rather
staunch, and stolid, and firmly rooted, as if serving notice that it has every
intention of standing unaltered for at least another five hundred years. When
one enters the church, it is indeed to step back in time. There is an aura of
decay, and the air itself seems to come from ages past. The walls are full of
cracks and peeling plaster. The ancient stone floor, dark, sturdy wooden pews,
and large multi-paned Gothic windows are neither warm nor welcoming, and are a
far cry from the golden splendor to which we had recently become accustomed.
The room is not large and seats perhaps 100 people. The ceiling is flat and
surprisingly low, and there is a small gallery running along the north and west
side which houses the organ. What seem to light the room from within and bring
it aglow with life and warmth are the extraordinary Gothic-style paintings on
the wooden panels of the ceiling and on the fronts of the gallery rails. They
are painted directly onto the wood and date from 1611. It was a space unlike
anything in my experience--a place of sanctity, diffuse with an eerie loveliness.
That this ancient organ with its mysterious origins should reside here seemed
most apt.

It was something of a jolt to leave this otherworldly place
and find ourselves once again in the real world. As we gathered to re-board our
bus, I was touched to take note of a World War I memorial, which had been
erected on the church grounds. It listed on five separate plaques the names of
the dead for each year from 1914 through 1918. Whether members of this church
or of the entire community, it was not clear, but I was surprised to see that
there were so very many of them.

Loschwitz

Back on the bus, we were rapidly approaching the city of
Dresden. But first we had one more stop to make in the suburb of Loschwitz,
where Michael had arranged for us to visit the Evangelical Church and its new
II/20 organ by Christian Wegscheider, whose restoration of the anonymous
Renaissance organ we had just visited in Coswig. The original organ and the
original church both dated back to the eighteenth century. The organ had been expanded
and altered in typical fashion over the years. And then, in 1945, both church
and organ were destroyed by a firebomb. The reconstruction of the church was
completed in 1994, and a new instrument has been built according to
eighteenth-century practice. Christian Wegscheider has incorporated design
elements, which reflect the work of Silbermann, Hildebrandt and Leibner, the
builder of the original organ. Parking turned out to be a bit problematical,
and we ended up leaving our bus on a residential side street across from a row
of neat and rather uniform houses. The houses were smallish, as were the lots,
and all were impeccably kept. Colorful gardens reflected loving care. This was
working-class suburbia, and one presumed that the owners were likely off in
Dresden earning their livelihood. And we too were on our way to Dresden and our
next adventure.

Dresden

We would spend the next two nights in Dresden, and during
that time we would see quite a bit of the city--some of it on foot, and much of
it by bus as we moved between various locations. Dresden is a manufacturing
city and a cultural center of more than half a million people, comparable
perhaps to Leipzig, though not quite so large. Like Leipzig, it too has a
history of many wars and occupations over the centuries. Long regarded by many
as one of the world's most beautiful cities, it has been an architectural
showplace, much of it the creation of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, who
ruled in the eighteenth century. It is a city of museums and palaces. Among the
most famous buildings are the Semper Oper and the Zwinger Palace, which houses
a priceless collection of paintings. As hard as it is for us to imagine, nearly
all of this was destroyed in 1945 during one awful night of firebombing during
which as many as 35,000 people were killed. Fortunately, the paintings had been
removed and stored for safekeeping somewhere outside the city. Now, more than
half a century later, the city is still in the process of rebuilding, stone by
stone.

Dresden is also an important inland port on the Elbe River.
Four graceful bridges cross the Elbe, and beautiful old homes line the banks of
this long, narrow river valley with the occasional hilltop palace and/or castle
sitting high above the river on the other side. There is the usual commercial
river traffic, and there are pleasure boats and paddlewheel steamers as well,
filled with tourists and visitors on holiday. Lilacs and rhododendrons were in
bloom, and there were vineyards along the river valley and lovely old half-timbered
houses, which were by now becoming a familiar sight. Always with us were the
contrasts of old and new, as in the occasional sighting of an encroaching
shopping mall or the ubiquitous "Golden Arches." We could not know
that only a few months hence, this beautiful river would be over its banks and
on the rampage, leaving a path of destruction in its wake and the recently
restored historic buildings of the old city partly submerged. Three thousand
people were evacuated. Miraculously, the more than 4,000 paintings were
salvaged by heroic efforts, and the Semper opera's production of Carmen was
staged last fall in the Volkswagen factory. "No more fire--the flood next
time!" This is indeed a remarkably resilient city whose citizens treasure
their cultural heritage and are determined to preserve it.

Kreuzkirche

That evening some of us elected
to attend an organ concert at the Kreuzkirche. This eighteenth-century church
was seriously damaged in World War II and is still rebuilding after 57 years.
There are colorful medieval paintings, and there is a curious mix of old and
new stone work. The church is home to the famous Dresden Kreuzchor and was a
meeting place for freedom demonstrators in the eighties, as was the
Nikolaikirche in Leipzig. The organ is a 1963 Jehmlich (IV/76) with mechanical
action and an enclosed Swell. The specification is typical neo-Baroque
eclectic. The performer was Christian Collum from Cologne, and the performance
was in memory of his father, Herbert Collum, who had been organist at this
church for 47 years (1935-1982). It was the twentieth anniversary of his death,
and the second half of the program was devoted entirely to his compositions.
The program was well attended, and the audience was attentive and enthusiastic.
I enjoyed the evening thoroughly and felt very much at home in my non-tourist
guise.

And then it was back to our
hotel to settle in for the night and to ponder the multitudinous events of an
unbelievably full day.

Day 9

A new day. Tuesday morning, so
it must be Dresden. Dresden is, of course, the capital of Saxony, and Saxony is
Silbermann country. All of my professional life, I had heard about Silbermann
organs and tried to imagine their "silvery" sound. And now, here we
were, about to spend an entire day seeing, hearing, and playing the instruments
of Gottfried Silbermann.

Gottfried Silbermann (1683-1753)
was a friend and colleague of Bach's. He had learned the art of woodworking
from his father, and then he had apprenticed as an organ builder with his older
brother Andreas, during which time he had spent two years in France, where he
came under the influence of both French and Italian sounds and ideas. In 1710
he returned to his native Saxony where he set up his shop in Freiberg and built
his very first instrument for his hometown of Frauenstein. He built 45
instruments in all, and 31 organs remain extant today. By 1723, such was his
reputation that he requested and was granted the title "Honorary Court and
State Organ Builder to the King of Poland and Duke of Saxony."

St. Nicholas, Langhennersdorf

On this particular day we were
scheduled to visit at least five Silbermann organs--all in the general vicinity
of Dresden. But first on our schedule was a stop in the village of Langhennersdorf
to visit a 1722 Hildebrandt (II/21) in the parish church of St. Nicholas. Some
of the non-organists in our group had elected to stay behind and do some
sightseeing on their own, so we were a somewhat smaller group than usual. What
a pleasure it was to get off the main highways and escape the ever-encroaching
roadside emblems of modernity in the form of automotive centers and shopping
malls. Instead, winding, narrow roads took us past storybook villages and small
rural farms with only an occasional graceful church spire punctuating the
horizon.

The church of St. Nicholas has
an ancient medieval tower, dating from 1350, which was part of the original
fortification around the town. The more recent adjoining chapel dates from
1530. The present organ was, so to speak, the "graduation project" of
Zacharias Hildebrand at the end of his apprenticeship to Gottfried Silbermann.
The instrument is earlier and much smaller than the Hildebrandt we had heard in
Naumburg on Friday. It was regrettably, but predictably, altered in the early
twentieth century. In 1989, after the reunification, the restoration was begun
by Christian Wegscheider and completed in 1996. The casework is lovely with
gilded pipeshades, and the contrasting panels--behind the case and on either
side of the key desk--are in that same lovely shade of blue we had seen earlier
at Naumburg. Andreas Hain, the parish organist, demonstrated for us with music
of Sweelinck, Scheidt, Bruhns and, predictably, the Bach D-minor Toccata and
Fugue. Perusing the stoplist, one can see that this early instrument is
smaller, more conservative, and lacking in some of the innovative color stops
and the gravitas of the larger, later Hildebrandt. But the glorious sound of
this little organ blows us away, leaving absolutely nothing to be desired. It
is a sound that is, quite literally, incomparable and sufficient unto itself.
How does one describe such a sound? Let me try: rich, intense,vibrant, but
never overbearing. It visibly lifted our spirits--a real ear-opener in every
way. What a way to start our day!

Perhaps this might be a good
place to comment on the relationship between the organs and those among us who
were playing them. For several days now, I had become aware of a subtle yet
unmistakable transformation that was taking place with each individual player.
It was fascinating to observe the mysterious and complex interplay that was
occurring as mind, body and instrument responded to each other, becoming more
and more as one. Many times I had to remind myself that these complex
conglomerations of wood and metal, to which we have given the name organ, are,
nevertheless, inanimate objects. All evidence to the contrary, they do not have
hearts and minds and wills of their own.

St. Petrikirche, Freiberg

And then it was back on the road
and on to Freiberg where we would see, hear and play no less than three
Silbermanns. Freiberg is an old city whose wealth came from its iron and silver
mines. Our first stop was the St. Petrikirche. Situated high on a hilltop, it is
perhaps the oldest and most important of the Freiberg churches, dating back to
the year 1210. It has been altered, damaged and reconstructed many times over
the centuries, and the original organ no longer exists. The present instrument
(II/32) was completed by Silbermann in 1735. It is the largest of Silbermann's
two-manual instruments. Nineteenth-century additions and alterations were
removed in the 1959 restoration. Much to our surprise, our demonstrator turned
out to be none other than Andreas Hain, who had just played for us at
Langhennersdorf. Herr Hain is the cantor at St. Peter's, and in an apparently
not-all-that-unusual arrangement, his services are divided among three
congregations. On this occasion, we heard works by Mendelssohn and Petr Eben.

St. Mary's Cathedral

Next on our agenda was St.
Mary's Cathedral, which houses two Silbermanns--a 1714 (III/44) and a 1719
(I/14). Both instruments were restored by Jehmlich in 1983. Gottfried
Silbermann built only four three-manual organs in his lifetime, and this was
his first. It was demonstrated for us by Jacob Wagler. It was interesting to
note that though the St. Peter's instrument was built twenty years later than
that of St. Mary's, the stoplists were basically identical, and the
sounds--including those of the one-manual organ--were unmistakably Silbermann.
Silbermann was greatly admired and respected in his time, and continues to be
today. His craftsmanship was solid, and he found his own distinctive voice
early on--powerful, colorful and brilliant. I would not have described it as
"silvery." Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the two-manual 1718
Silbermann in the Jacobiekirche because of structural work being done on the
building.

Grosshartmannsdorf and Zethau

And so we left Freiberg and
continued on to Grosshartmannsdorf to see a typical two-manual Silbermann from
1741. And then it was on to the village of Zethau and the recently restored
1788 Oehme organ (II/20) in the Elisabethkirche. This lovely old Baroque
church, built between 1728 and 1736, stands atop a rather steep hill. One must
park below and climb the path leading up to the old tower and gatehouse. The
old gated cemetery is here and--as we have come to expect--is beautifully
landscaped and tended. The interior of the church, with its vaulted ceiling and
double galleries, is at once simple and elegant. The building has been lovingly
restored between the years 1982 to 1983. Adam Gottfried Oehme (1719-1789)
apprenticed under Silbermann and was perhaps his most important student. The
restoration by Christian Wegscheider was completed in 2001.

Parish Church, Nassau

One more Silbermann to go, and
that would be in the parish church at Nassau. In 1745 the congregation decided
to replace their organ from which pipes had been stolen, leaving it in a very
sad state of disrepair. On the basis of his reputation for quality materials
and workmanship, a contract was signed with Gottfried Silbermann for a
"standard" village organ of two manuals and nineteen stops. Not only
were there problems in coming up with the necessary cash, but the Silesian War
was raging, and Prussia had invaded Saxony. Two thousand cavalry troops were
quartered in Nassau during the winter of 1745, and the village suffered all
manner of hardships and deprivation. The details are not precisely clear, but
apparently some financial assistance was forthcoming through the offices of
authorities in Dresden and/or Freiburg. In 1748, the organ was finally
delivered. After the reunification in 1990, the church itself was restored, and
in 1998, the Jehmlich firm of Dresden undertook a complete restoration of the
organ in time for its 250th anniversary in 1998. 

Another beautiful, park-like
setting with lovely tall shade trees. The graveyard and the surrounding grounds
enchant us. The church is impressive both outside and in. A tall tower graces
the steep, slate-tiled roof. Inside, narrow, arched floor-to-ceiling windows
illuminate the interior and its two-tiered galleries. The acoustics are
wonderful--live and very intimate. Before we take our turns at the organ, Herr
Katschke demonstrates for us with works by Zachau, Pachelbel and Krieger.

What a day it has been. We take
our leave reluctantly, our ears filled with Silbermann sounds, and our hearts
filled with the beauty and the peace of these lovely old churches and the
surrounding countryside. It is late afternoon as we settle in for our drive
back to Dresden. Time to reflect on what we have seen and heard as we pass
through evergreen forests punctuated by birch and accompanied by ever-meandering
streams. Far off to our right, in the distance, we could see the Czech Republic
across the border. It was dinner on our own this last night in Dresden, and
some of the hardier souls in our group had made plans. Three of us joined
forces and made our way to an outside table at what appeared to be a popular
restaurant/bar up above the street level. Relaxing over a beer and a simple
meal, my companions and I pretended that, for at least a little while, we were
simply "Dresdenites"--old friends out to enjoy the early evening.

Day 10

Up early. Ah, yes, I
particularly remember the birds of Dresden--no silent spring here! My hotel
room was high and overlooked a commercial, not-all-that-attractive back street
with relatively few trees. I slept with my window open and had wakened each
morning to the cheerful song of birds soaring over and above the traffic noise
below. The birds of Dresden seem to be as resilient and indomitable as their
human counterparts.

Last minute packing. Luggage in
the hall to be collected. Only two more days remain. We would be leaving
Germany today, and tonight we would sleep in Prague. But, as usual, we had some
interesting stops to make along the way.

Lohmen

Destination: Lohmen. We traveled
again along the Elbe to reach this beautiful, rural area of woodland and
meadow, settled by German farmers as early as the thirteenth century. An
earlier church no longer exists. The church that stands today is thought by
many to be the most beautiful in Saxony, and it is not hard to see why. Planning
for this remarkable structure began as early as 1781, and the first stone was
laid in 1786. It is constructed of massive squares of sandstone. With its
sturdy clock tower dominating the landscape, it presents an almost
fortress-like appearance. The overall structure of the building is that of a
symmetrical octagon with two longer opposing sides and three shorter sides on
each end. The interior is breathtaking--all in white and gold, including the
organ, which sits high above the altar. There are three (!) tiers of galleries,
and the multi-paned windows, which rise all the way from floor to ceiling, seem
to bathe this magnificent space with ethereal light. The church seats more than
eight hundred people, and the pews on the first level--also in white--sit on
the original stone floor. They are in three banks, facing the organ and altar
(east) as well as north and south, giving at least a partial effect of
"church-in-the-round."

The organ (II/18) was built in
1789 by Johann Christian Kayser (1750-1813), another student of Silbermann.
Just as we saw in the case of Hildebrandt, the organ looks and sounds very like
the work of the teacher. No surprises here:  lovely, exquisite, individual colors, all of which blend well
together, and big but gentle principals. There are no manual reeds, but the 16'
posaune in the pedal supplies ample gravitas. The acoustics are wonderful--a
felicitous conjunction of surface and space that could not be improved upon. I
can only describe it as "surround-sound," eighteenth-century style.
With eyes closed, my ears hadn't a clue as to where the organ was located.
There was no one to officially greet or play for us (perhaps because it was a
regional holiday), and so we were free to explore the instrument on our own. It
was hard to leave, and one wished for time to explore the old, walled
churchyard with its ancient stones and inscriptions.

Reinhardtsgrimma

But today we did indeed have
many miles to go before we slept, and so it was back on the bus and on to
Reinhardtsgrimma, another small village with a very special organ in the
Evangelical Lutheran Church. The organ, a Silbermann (II/20), was purchased for
the church in 1731 by a wealthy widow of high position. In its white and gold
case, it sits high in a rear balcony. It was recently restored by Christian
Wegscheider. Again, there were no surprises, visually or tonally, and the now
familiar, bright Silbermann sound did not disappoint. Herr Katzschke, whom we
remembered from the parish church in Nassau on the previous day, played Tunder,
Pachelbel and Mendelssohn for us.

Frauenstein

We had one last stop to make
before heading for the Czech border. Destination: Frauenstein, where we would
have time for lunch before visiting the Silbermann Museum. Frauenstein is the hometown
of Gottfried Silbermann, and it was to this place that he returned after his
apprenticeship to establish his own business in 1711. The museum, founded by
the Silbermann scholar Werner Muller, is located in a sixteenth-century castle,
which sits on a hill high above the town. It opened in 1983, just in time to
celebrate the 300th anniversary of Silbermann's birth. The exhibits have been
thoughtfully and attractively arranged, and there is a plethora of material to
be seen in the form of photographs and documents. One of the most popular
exhibits is a "hands on" working model provided by the Jehmlich
company, which demonstrates the inner workings of an organ from bellows, to
stops, to keys, to pipes. The pièce de résistance is the small
1993 organ (I/8) by Wegscheider--an exact replica of the1732 Silbermann, which
now resides in the Cathedral in Bremen. Ordinarily, I enjoy museums, but after
two days of such intense exposure to the real thing, the museum seemed
anti-climactic.

Back on the bus once more, we
settled in for the relatively long drive to Prague. By now, nearly all of us
who wished had taken a turn at the microphone. Another pastime, in which we had
been engaging, also deserves mention here. I'm not quite sure exactly how it
all began, but for several days now, several of us had been indulging in
limerick writing, along with some other equally silly word play. These
contributions were deposited with Michael, who proceeded to serve them up at
what he deemed to be appropriate times. Here, for example, is one of my humble
contributions:              

When a feisty old lady from
Kassel

Tried the organ at Altenburg
Castle,

It is sad to relate

A pipe fell from the Great,

And her fingers are no longer
facile.

A word of caution is due here:
limerick writing is known to be habit forming and may become seriously
addictive.

It was a pleasant bus ride
marked only by what seemed to be an unwarranted and nerve-wracking delay at the
border crossing. The Czech countryside offered a welcome contrast to the
landscape to which we had become accustomed. There was a lot of climbing
through forested, mountainous country, marked occasionally by some rather
spectacular panoramic vistas. When we reached Prague, we would be checking into
two separate hotels because of space limitations, and then we would gather for
a meal that had been arranged at a local restaurant. So we had a good
introduction to Prague from the bus during the rather lengthy process of
dropping people off at two different locations and then picking them up again to
transport them to dinner. Tomorrow--our last day--would e a whole new
adventure, albeit a short one. Since tomorrow belongs to Prague, this seems to
be the time and place to tie up a few loose ends and to give some overall
consideration to the Bach-country experience.

First, the loose ends. I
believe, but am not sure, that the incident which I'm about to describe
happened en route from Freiberg to Grosshartmannsdorf. Sonja Ritter's parents
live in the little village of Brand-Erbisdorf and had been told by Sonja that
our bus would be passing right by their house. There was no time to stop, but
Manuela slowed the bus down just enough to allow time for big smiles and
enthusiastic waving all around. Forever engraved in my memory is the sight of
this merry couple leaning out of their second story window, beaming and waving,
looking for all the world like storybook characters out of a nineteenth-century
children's tale. And speaking of tales, mention needs to be made here of the
storybook charm of the countryside through which we had been traveling the past
few days. The small "storybook" farms are right in the villages, or
perhaps I should say that the villages are really clusters of small farms with
one or two small shops near by. A typical front yard might have flowers, a
vegetable garden, a cow and/or a goat, pig or sheep, and perhaps a few geese,
ducks and chickens. Outside one of the old, stone churches to which we had
climbed, we were greeted by a tethered sheep grazing contentedly on the grass.
One has the impression that nothing has changed all that much over the
centuries. There is a timelessness and an authenticity about these places
unlike anything I have ever experienced. The churches we visited were typically
on hilltops, and when Manuela would park our bus at the side of the road below,
it sometimes caused quite a stir--this anachronistic behemoth driven by a
woman, no less!

At one of these small
churches--and I forget which one--we were warmly received by a gentleman who
proceeded to give us a fascinating and detailed history of the organ, told with
great pride and enthusiasm. We all assumed that he was the local organist.
Imagine our astonishment when he turned out to be the pastor! No longer
subsidized by the state, and with attendance and membership down, times have
been difficult for these small churches since the reunification. The amazing
thing is the pride that the people take in these wonderful old churches and
their organs. Their tenaciousness and their strong sense of stewardship in
preserving and restoring them is to be marveled at. Many of these churches have
concert series and festivals and are a real source of pride to the entire
community.

And lastly, but not at all in
the least, the organs we had seen, and heard, and played. Peter Williams' book,
The European Organ: 1450-1850, begins
with a quote from D. A. Flentrop: "It is not easy to write about organs;
they need to be played or listened to." And to that, I would add the word,
seen. The vivid intensity of each individual experience was indeed
indescribable. So very many instruments in such a few short days! Our senses
were at times overwhelmed. The larger, sometimes newer, instruments in the
cities were magnificent to be sure, but in retrospect, I find that what I
treasure most are the memories of the smaller instruments in the smaller
parishes off the beaten path. In this case, the whole was indeed greater than
the sum of the individual parts, and now, in memory, these kaleidoscopic images
seem to have merged into a kind of visual and sonic template: the incredible
sweetness and vibrancy of the sounds combined with that translucent,
transforming light which flooded the rooms with an almost palpable energy. Most
important of all--and a real gift, since I hadn't expected it--is the recent discovery
that my approach to the music of Bach has been forever changed in some
fundamental, yet mysterious way. This is not a conscious change, and I am not
speaking of things musicological. I can neither describe nor explain it. It
remains my own priceless souvenir.

And having said all of that, I
must in all honesty admit that Prague, with all of its magnificence and
splendor, would be, for me, an anti-climax.

Day 11

Prague

Thursday, May 2. It is blessedly
warm, and the sun is shining! It is the last day of our tour, and our one and
only day in Prague. It is, of course, impossible to do more than barely scratch
the surface. Prague is the first really large city we have visited since we
started out in Berlin. Berlin, in many aspects, resembles any modern western
city. Prague, by comparison, seems strange and exotic. Though the Germans have
a certain formality about them, they are, by and large, a warm and friendly
people. The Czechs seem more distant and remote. Since we were not due at the
Basilica of St. James/St. Jacob until ten o'clock, we began our day with a
walking tour accompanied by our new guide. Sonja was still with us, but our
arrangements through the travel agency specified that here, in the Czech
Republic, we should use a Czech guide.

Architecturally, Prague is
undeniably stunning--a city of golden domes, graceful spires, and red-tiled
roofs. Back in the fourteenth century, Emperor Charles IV set out to create the
most splendid city in all of Europe, and it would seem that he succeeded. It is
a colorful city whose buildings and streets span a period of more than a
thousand years. Castles, palaces, cathedrals, libraries, museums, theaters and
concert halls attest to a marvelously rich cultural heritage. Charles
University, one of the oldest and largest in all of Europe, dates back to 1348.
This is the city of King Wenceslaus, Kafka, Kepler, Smetana and Dvorák,
to name but a few. Music is everywhere, and Prague is home to many of Europe's
finest orchestras and chamber music groups.

Prague is a port city with an
important inland harbor. The Vltava River (the Moldau to us Westerners) divides
the city in half with two ancient castles standing sentinel on the right and
left banks of the river respectively. It is a city of bridges--fifteen in
all--the most famous being the Charles, with its splendid Gothic arches dating
back to the fourteenth century. Pleasure boats ply the river along with the
usual commercial river traffic. None of us could know that only a few months
hence the newspapers at home would be filled with photographs and accounts of
the devastating flooding of the Vltava into the old sections of Prague.
Thousands would be evacuated from their homes and much property destroyed.

I had been told by friends at
home that this was an excellent time to visit Prague because we would be there
before the height of the tourist season. I cannot, nor do I want to, even
imagine what that must be like. As it was, we were surrounded by a great number
of tourists--many in groups like ours. I found this phenomenon to be a major
distraction to say the least--dominating the scene and tending to obliterate
those very sights and sounds that had drawn us here. It was pedestrian gridlock
of the worst kind, and it was all we could do to stay connected with our own
group and not end up in another! Not only that, but there was a plethora of
little tourist shops which seemed to have sprung up in every nook and cranny,
seriously--in my opinion--detracting from the authenticity of the old parts of
the city. Perhaps I was a bit travel weary at this point and wasn't really
ready for Prague. But the truth is that I had left my heart back in Bach
country.

Basilica of St. James/St. Jacob

Our first musical stop was at
the Basilica of St. James/St. Jacob. The organ had its beginnings in 1705 as a
two-manual instrument of twenty-six stops by the builder, Abraham Stark.
Although it has been expanded, the original case remains today along with a few
of the original Stark registers. Over the years, it has been extensively
altered and expanded, most recently by the Rieger-Kloss firm in 1982. It now
has four manuals and 91 stops, and it may very well be the largest organ in the
Czech Republic. On this day, the organ was impressively demonstrated for us by
Irene Chribkova.

By now it was nearly noon, and
so we were able to join the droves of tourists in the Old Town Square as we
waited in front of the Old Town Hall for the striking of the fifteenth-century
astronomical clock. At noon, twelve elaborately carved apostles appear, while a
bell-ringing skeleton dances off to the side.

Strahov Monastery

Then it was on--or perhaps I
should say up--to the ancient monastery at Strahov, which was built on the
highest point on the approach to Prague Castle.  Now the Museum of National Literature, the library houses
many thousands of books and works of art, the oldest dating back to the tenth
century. We had come to see and hear the small cabinet organ of six registers
in the chapel upon which Mozart once improvised.

Tyne Church

Our last organ--and the last
organ on our tour--was an instrument by Hans Heinrich Mundt built in 1673 for
the Tyne Church. A two-manual instrument of twenty-nine stops, it was restored
in the year 2000 by the Klais firm. The organ has survived largely intact and
offers an interesting blend of Austrian-Moravian and Netherlands-North German
building styles.

A farewell dinner had been
arranged for us at a restaurant overlooking the river at the foot of the
Charles Bridge. There was much camaraderie as well as some spontaneous toasts
and impromptu entertainments. Some in our group departed early in order to
attend various performances in the city that evening. The more adventurous
among us concluded the evening by walking across the famous Charles Bridge. And
then it was back to our bus and on to our hotels for the night. Some had very
early departures in the morning, a few would remain in Prague for more
sightseeing, and the rest of us would be bussed to the airport where we would
begin to go our separate ways. Our extraordinary journey had come to an end.

Postlude

Though we have come to the end
of this narrative, the astute reader will have noticed that little mention has
been made of our genial tour host, Michael Barone. That is simply because it is
Michael's style to keep a low profile. As his Pipedreams fans have come to
expect, the focus is always on the organs and the music. Throughout the entire
trip, he seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Talk about
multi-tasking! In his quiet, efficient way, he somehow managed to keep us
always on schedule. Up in the organ loft, he was our great "enabler,"
ever ready to lend a hand or an ear as needed to register, pull stops and turn
pages. He encouraged those who needed encouragement and made sure that no one
took more than his/her fair share of time at the organ. Often, but not always,
he also played. If everything was under control at the console, he was off to
sample the sounds of the organ from as many different locations in the room as
possible. In addition, he held doors, distributed sandwiches or concert tickets
as the occasion demanded, and otherwise kept himself in constant circulation in
order to ascertain that all was well with each of us. In regard to the hosts
and performers at our many and various venues, he was ever the gracious
ambassador, sowing seeds of goodwill and laying the groundwork for future
exchanges. Yet the casual observer might easily have been unaware that he was,
indeed, our leader. A Pipedreams organ tour is not unlike the weekly radio
broadcast. The difference--and it is a big one--is that in this case, we have
become much more than mere armchair travelers. Michael's challenge to each of
us, as it is each week, is to open our ears and our minds--and in this case,
our eyes--and make our own discoveries.

It was our good fortune on this
particular tour to be the direct beneficiaries of Michael's having led an
almost identical tour two years before. Not only were we able to profit from
this experience, but we also inherited the other two members of this great leadership
team--our bus driver, Manuela Huwe, and our German tour guide, Sonja Ritter.
Manuela was wonderful, always keeping us safely on track, getting us there on
time, and taking our bus into places it was never designed to go! Sonja's
excellent English and her engaging and informed commentary enriched our whole
experience immeasurably. Our one day in Prague without Sonja as our guide only
made us appreciate her all the more.

Another important aspect of this
tour, in my opinion, was the makeup of our group. We were as unlikely a
collection of people as one could possibly imagine, coming from an amazing
variety of backgrounds, experiences and expectations. How marvelous to think
that this unique and ancient instrument we call the organ had brought us all together
in a joint adventure of discovery and enlightenment. In the light of the
uncertain and disturbing political climate in which we find ourselves today,
tours such as this afford a wonderful opportunity to build bridges between
countries and cultures and people.

I hope you enjoyed reading about
my Pipedreams adventure. If, in the future, the opportunity to take a
Pipedreams tour presents itself, I urge you to take it. Much will be promised,
and you will find few, if any, disappointments, and a great many unexpected
delights. In the meantime, I encourage you to take the "virtual"
Pipedreams tour each week and to support your local public radio station. To
learn more and whet your appetite even further, you can explore Pipedreams
online at

<www.pipedreams.org&gt;.

Ending on a lighter note, this
is my limerick for Michael, which I wrote somewhere along the way:

Through ancient cathedrals so
pietal,

With organs of endless varietal,

With Baronial splendor,

Apt words he did tender.

Heartfelt praises and thanks to
our Michael!  

Kristian Wegscheider: Master Restorer and Organbuilder

Joel H. Kuznik

Joel Kuznik has served as a college organist and professor, a church musician, a pastor, and as a business executive on Fifth Avenue, Wall Street, and at MetLife. After several years of retirement from business, he revived writing for professional journals, something he had done since his college days. After attending the Bachfest 2003 in Leipzig, he again began writing articles and reviews. With over 60 pieces in print ranging from reviews of concerts and festivals, travelogues, books on church music, concert hall organs, CDs and DVDs, he was recognized and named to the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) in May 2005. He is also a member of the American Bach Society and serves on the board of the Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity in New York City, where he has lived for 32 years. His organ teachers were Austin C. Lovelace, Frederick Swann, Ronald Arnatt, David Craighead, Jean Langlais, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier, and Anton Heiller. As a member of the AGO, he has served as dean of the Ft. Wayne chapter, on the executive board of the New York City chapter, and on the national financial board. He holds a BA summa cum laude from Concordia Sr. College (formerly at Ft. Wayne), a Min.Div and STM from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and an MM from the Eastman School of Music.

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Mention Saxony to most organists, and they immediately think of the 18th century, Gottfried Silbermann and his catalogue of 31 extraordinary instruments, which are still being played.1 An amazing testimony! But today one hears more and more of Kristian Wegscheider, widely admired for his dynamic restorations of Silbermann organs as well as those of Hildebrandt, Schnitger and Ladegast—and whose reputation as a builder is so respected that he was considered for the new organs at St. Thomas, Leipzig and the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
Steven Dieck, president of C. B. Fisk, Inc., credits Wegscheider with being “very helpful in discovering the ‘secrets’ of Gottfried Silbermann and continues to be, not only for us, but also for any other organbuilder. There is no disputing that Kristian and his shop are the experts on the work of Gottfried Silbermann.”
Stefan Engels of Leipzig’s University of Music & Theatre notes that “Kristian Wegscheider is one of the leading organ builders of our time when it comes to the restoration of historic instruments from the 17th and 18th centuries. His knowledge of style, his talent for research, and his ability to relate to the distinct sounds of old organs is unique. It is a joy to experience this artist and his superb work.”
And, as Steve Dieck points out, Wegscheider has an international involvement and impact. “Once East Germany opened itself to the rest of the world, Kristian’s company became a member of the International Society of Organbuilders. Shortly after that, he helped to organize one of the ISO’s biennial congresses held in Dresden. He is currently second vice president of the ISO and again helped to organize the congress in September 2008, which began in Gdansk, Poland and worked its way by train and boat to Stralsund, Germany, where members of ISO visited significant organs.”2
“He continues to share his vast knowledge of the works of Gottfried Silbermann with his many organbuilding colleagues around the world. He has visited the U.S. many times, and was invited to collaborate with Fritz Noack in making a ‘Hildebrandt’ style organ for Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas.”
And those who have been fortunate to hear Wegscheider’s restorations or new instruments would add, “This is a builder about whom Americans need to know more.”

Background
Kristian Wegscheider was born in 1954 in Ahrenshoop, a small resort town on the Baltic Coast of Northern Germany. After stints in the army and a year with a furniture-maker, he began his apprenticeship with the esteemed Jehmlich Dresden organbuilding firm, which dates back to 1808 and is associated with the restorations of the magnificent Silbermann cathedral organs in Dresden and Freiberg.
Kristian immediately took an immense interest in historic organs and worked on restorations in Berlin and Leipzig. He became head of Jehmlich’s restoration department and supervised restorations of the 1714 Silbermann in Freiberg’s Cathedral and the 1868 Lütkemüller organ at the Güstrower Cathedral.

Orgelwerkstatt Wegscheider Dresden
As Wegscheider writes for his firm’s website,3 the creation of his organ workshop in Dresden in 1989 coincided with the fall of the Wall and became possible with the parallel vehement political and social changes. These were indeed complicated times in the GDR, and the emergence of a new private company was no simple venture.
At the time it was not unusual in the GDR for restorations and even the repair of organs to be delayed up to 20 years. In 1987, that gave Wegscheider an idea, often treated perfunctorily and bureaucratically, to create his own workshop specializing in restorations and repair. He overcame numerous hurdles—among other things, getting a trade license and acquiring the space for engaging in a trade, and one couldn’t get one without the other.
In order to bridge the gap, Wegscheider worked for almost a year in the restoration workshop of the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Leipzig. With the assistance of friends and with some luck, however, the initial problems were overcome. That was all quickly forgotten, once work began in the spring of 1989 with the reconditioning of an old carpenter’s shop in Dresden’s Neustadt (“new city”).4 His first two coworkers were the organ builder and pipemaker Hartmut Schütz, who had also trained with Jehmlich, and his long-time friend and a carpenter, Matthias Weisbach. Requirements were completed in December of 1990, and Wegscheider was able to receive his certification as a master craftsman (“Meisterbrief”).
The workshop officially began operating June 1, 1989, and in September there was a big celebration with friends and colleagues. For this historic event, a narrow-gauge steam train was rented, and the area in front of the shop was transformed into an open-air theatre. When the borders opened that fall, a group of five made a week-long “discovery journey” into the “West” finally to hear and investigate for themselves organs they had often read and heard about, an adventure that just weeks before had seemed impossible.
During this week, the team was able to examine the old instruments of East Frisia (Ostfriesland, a costal region along the North Sea bordering the Netherlands to the west),5 which for them was like an “organbuilder’s paradise.” There they also inspected the shop of the famous Jürgen Ahrend, contacted the North German Organ Academy, and had discussions with organ experts, musicologists and organists. This all became invaluable in forming their own firm and served as the basis for artistic work. Additional “educational journeys” became a regular experience and took them to South Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. How exhilarating this must have been—the new freedom to explore and discover!

Wegscheider: first projects
The first project was a new instrument for the Allstedt Castle Chapel in Mansfeld. The small organ was to complement the Baroque room and conform to old established models of classical organbuilding. The shop was to do something that had never been done in East Germany before—to make an instrument completely from wood, tin, lead, leather and brass without using plywood, aluminum, nitrate lacquer, plastic and prefabricated mechanisms.
Also, this instrument would reflect Wegscheider’s long-held interest in providing two temperaments that can be played interchangeably: meantone for Renaissance music and well-tempered for Baroque. The idea originated in Charles Fisk’s dual-temperament organ at California’s Stanford University (1984),6 but this was to be the first such instrument in Europe, with Wegscheider working to improve the result both technically and musically.7
This new organ for Allstedt was followed by a number of restorations in the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Thuringia, while at the same there developed partnership work in Saxony. Much of the work, now with seven co-workers, involved restoring damaged organs, some long unplayable due to water damage or wood worms. Other builders had refused to work on them or recommended replacements, but to Wegscheider these instruments were too valuable to be discarded. Congregations, in turn, were grateful for the efforts of their municipalities to preserve these organs.
Expansion
By 1993 it was clear that the company needed new, larger facilities. The company had expanded to ten employees, with only 400 square meters of workspace and with insufficient height to assemble instruments. Finally a carpenter’s workshop was found in Dresden–Hellerau in the old village center of Rähnitz. During the move, the firm continued to work on a restoration of the Silbermann for the Bremen Cathedral (I/8, 1734)8 and an identical copy of it for the Silbermann Museum in Frauenstein, so that the dedication of the new workshop in July 1994 could take place in a concert using both organs with the Dresden Baroque Orchestra.
After all this excitement, work continued routinely, but always with interesting projects. One was the extensive renovation of the Schulze organ, with the reconstruction of a 32′ Posaune in Markneukirchen, a town in Saxony known as a center for making musical instruments as well as its Museum of Musical Instruments. Another instance was building a new 20-rank organ inside an historic case in Steinwedel near Hannover, which demonstrated what a builder like Wegscheider with experience in historical models could do.

Langhennersdorf, Nikolaikirche
But the high point of this period was completing the renovation of the organ at St. Nicholas Church in Langhennersdorf, a beautiful village near Freiberg. This Opus 1 by Silbermann’s apprentice Zacharias Hildebrandt (1722) as his Meisterstück (masterpiece) was built to certify him as an organbuilder. It is a revelation to hear—exciting, vibrant, present, colorful, and commanding.
But all this came after some blood, sweat and tears. Begun in 1989–90 during the turbulent reunification of Germany, this was Wegscheider’s first big contract and was threatened by obstacles beyond his control. However, he remained determined and continued working piece by piece as the church, which was committed to the challenge, raised funds. What exuberance there must have been at rededication on Reformation Day, 1996!

Langhennersdorf Nikolaikirche9
1722 Zacharias Hildebrandt (II+P/21)
1989–1996 Kristian Wegscheider

Hauptwerk
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Quintadena
4′ Praestant
4′ Spitzflöte
3′ Quinta
2′ Octava
III Mixtur
II Cymbeln
III Cornett (from c1)

Oberwerk
8′ Gedackt
4′ Rohrflöte
3′ Nasat
2′ Principal
2′ Waldflöte
1′ Sifflöte
11⁄3′ Quinte
II Cymbeln

Pedal
16′ Sub-Baß
16′ Posanenbaß
8′ Trompete

Tremulant
Shove coupler II/I
Pedal coupler I/P
Manual compass C, D–c3
Pedal compass C, D–c1

Choir pitch: a = 468 Hz
Modified meantone

Dresden-Loschwitz church
The lessons learned in Langhennersdorf would prove helpful in designing the 1997 organ for a church in the outlying regions of Dresden-Loschwitz. The organ was conceived as a large one-manual and pedal instrument that would combine the typical stops of Silbermann with other 18th-century Saxon builders in one division, but some stops are also playable on a second manual. The building, virtually destroyed in the 1945 Blitz by an errant bomb, has been restored with spectacular but simple beauty. The church—with its historic altar rescued and restored from the Sophienkirche, where Bach played two recitals (1825 and 1731), and where his son Wilhelm Friedemann was organist (1733–1746)—has its organ sitting center stage in the second gallery.
The impact of this small instrument is remarkable and a joy to hear. Just a day after playing and listening to the impressive Silbermann-Hildebrandt (III/47, 1755) at Dresden’s Hofkirche and the imposing new Kern at the Frauenkirche (IV/67, 2006), the sound of this little organ in the suburb of Dresden-Loschwitz moved 45 American organists last September to spontaneous smiles of delight and satisfaction. The stunning immediacy of the sound combined with the brilliance of the ensemble and the colors of individual stops was a joy to hear.
And then listening to Wegscheider himself—on how Silbermann swept into this part of Germany with the fresh bold sounds of France and dominated organbuilding, on the speech and design of his pipework, and clarifying differences of temperament in the area—was an informative revelation. The man has a large presence, an expansive expression of speech, and in his eyes the gleam of an inspired creator, all reflected in his restorations and new designs.

Dresden-Loschwitz:
Loschwitz Church10
1997 Wegscheider II+P/20

Manual I
16′ Bordun
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackt
8′ Flauto traverso
8′ Viola di Gamba
4′ Octave
4′ Rohrflöte
4′ Flauto amabile
3′ Nasat
2′ Octave
2′ Flöte
13⁄5′ Tertia
1′ Flageolet
III Cornett (from g)
III Mixtur

Manual II (stops from I)
16′ Bordun
8′ Gedackt
8′ Flauto traverso
8′ Viola di Gamba
4′ Rohrflöte
4′ Flauto amabile
3′ Nasat
2′ Flöte
13⁄5′ Tertia

Pedal
16′ Bordun
8′ Octavbaß
8′ Violonbaß
4′ Octavbaß
16′ Posaune

Tremulant
Manual shove coupler
Pedal couplers I/P, II/P

Manual compass C–e3
Pedal compass C–e
Pitch: a = 440 Hz
Tuning: modified Valotti
Wind pressure: 70 mm

Houston, Christ the King Lutheran Church
Wegscheider has been involved in several “Bach organs.” The first was in collaboration with the Noack Organ Company at Christ Lutheran Church in Houston, where he served as co-designer.

Christ the King Lutheran Church, Houston
Builder: Noack Organ Company, 1995
Co-designer: Kristian Wegscheider II+P/30

Hauptwerk
16′ Bordun
8′ Principal
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Rohrflöte
4′ Octava
4′ Spitzflöte
22⁄3′ Quinta
2′ Octava
III Mixtur
II Cimbel
IIII Cornet
8′ Trompete
8′ Vox Humana

Oberwerk
8′ Gedackt
8′ Quintadena
4′ Principal
4′ Rohrflöte
22⁄3′ Nasat
2′ Octava
2′ Waldflöte
13⁄5′ Terz
11⁄3′ Quinta
1′ Sifflet
8′ Krummhorn

Pedal
16′ Principal Bass
16′ Subbass
8′ Octaven Bass
4′ Octava
16′ Posaunen
8′ Trompete

The organ at Christ the King Church follows the example of Hildebrandt, thus adding a Bach organ of a new dimension on the North American continent.
Fritz Noack and the Noack Organ Company were selected to design and build the organ. Noack is an American builder born and trained in Germany and uniquely situated to bridge the Saxon past and the Texan present. Kristian Wegscheider of Dresden, restorer of important Silbermann organs, accepted appointment as a design consultant; Reinhard Schaebitz of Dresden, voicer in the restorations, assisted in the voicing; and most of the metal pipes were built near Dresden in the workshop of Günter Lau. The result is a wonderful instrument which not surprisingly, but quite remarkably, evokes the look, feel, and sound of an 18th-century Saxon organ. One can imagine Bach’s walking in, sitting down without missing a beat and, as was his custom, pulling all of the stops to see whether or not the instrument has “good lungs.”
This Bach Organ possesses attributes commonly found in organs built today in historical style—tracker action; mechanical stop action; keys suspended below the pipe chests; a flexible wind supply provided by bellows; flat rather than radiating pedalboard; narrower, shorter manual keys; no pistons or combinations; and tuning in a historic temperament. The Saxon style imposes a series of additional design characteristics. The entire organ is housed in one case, rather than in compartments for each division according to the Werkprinzip; the case design and beautifully executed carvings employ 18th-century Saxon conventions; and the case is built of pine and painted (blue-green, red, and gold leaf). The Oberwerk to Hauptwerk coupler is activated by shoving the Oberwerk manual forward, and the Oberwerk does not couple to the Pedal. The pipe scalings are taken from Hildebrandt’s, and the principal pipes have a high tin content rather than lead.11

Stuttgart, Musikhochschule
Another “Bach organ” was built by Wegscheider for the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, which has a large collection of historic prototypes. One can see an overview at <http://www.mh-stuttgart.de/studium/orgel/ueberblick/&gt;.

Stuttgart: State University of Music and Performing Arts
2006 Wegscheider
II+P/21

Hauptwerk
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Viola di Gamba
8′ Quintadena
4′ Octave
3′ Quinte
2′ Octave
2′ Terz (from 2′) [listed as 2′ but actually 13⁄5′]
III Mixtur
8′ Trompete

Positiv
8′ Gedackt
4′ Spitzflöte
4′ Flauto dolce
2′ Gemshorn
II Cymbal
8′ Vox Humana

Pedal
16′ Subbass
8′ Principalbass
4′ Octave
16′ Posaunebass
8′ Trompettenbass
Manual compass: C, D–d3
Pedal compass: C, D–f
Pitch: a1 = 466 Hz
Tuning: Modified Pythagorean

In the winter 2005–06 issue of Spektrum, Prof. Jürgen Essl writes:

In the fall of 2006 organ music of Bach will ring out. Then the long-anticipated “Bach organ” will supplement the university’s instrument collection. The Dresden organ builder, Kristian Wegscheider, received the commission to build an organ of 21 stops on two manuals and pedal according to 18th-century Thuringian and Saxon models. It is intended to be the ideal instrument for presenting Bach’s organ music with its choice of stops, its style of construction, its keyboard range, its speech and intonation.
Kristian Wegscheider is an undisputed expert in this area, and it would be hard to find a more first-class organ. Naturally there is no absolute “Bach Organ.” Johann Sebastian Bach, as is well known, played on many organs and was frequently active as consultant and examiner. The composition of the organ is therefore also no copy of an existing historical instrument, but an approximation of the Bach sound world in a variety of ways. The new organ is based on Bach’s expert opinion of existing instruments of similar 18th-century size, e.g., (Gottfried) Silbermann and Trost, on the compositional characteristics of his organ music, the restoration experience of the organbuilder and last but not least on the size of the room.12

Essl added in an e-mail to the author, “Indeed there were a large number of special problems for which Kristian had a good solution and fought hard to get the right results.”

Freiberg, Petrikirche
Another recent collaboration, this time with Jehmlich, was the restoration of Silbermann’s largest two-manual organ, at the Petrikirche in Freiberg, completed and rededicated in July 2007.13 It is an instrument with pizazz, brilliance, and clarity, while individual stops retain character and color. It also happens that the best CD that effectively reflects Wegscheider’s work is a recent release of a recording at the Petrikirche on the Syrius label, Johann Sebastian Bach, Vol. 4, with works from the early Weimar period played with verve, imagination, and excitement by Helga Schauerte (Syrius 141433, €22.00; <[email protected]>; the Organ Historical Society carries other recordings by Schauerte).

Freiberg: Petrikirche
1735 Silbermann
1959, 1993/94 Jehmlich Brothers
2006–07 Wegscheider, together with Jehmlich Orgelbau
II+P/32

Hauptwerk
16′ Principal
8′ Octav Principal
8′ Viol di Gamba
8′ Rohr-Flöte
4′ Octava
4′ Spitz-Flöte
3′ Qvinta
2′ Octava
2′ Tertia (from 2′) [listed as 2′ but actually 13⁄5′]
IV Cornet (from c1)
IV Mixtur
III Cymbel
8′ Trompette
16′ Fachott

Oberwerk
16′ Qvinta dena
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackts
8′ Qvinta dena
4′ Octava
4′ Rohr-Flöte
3′ Nassat
2′ Octava
11⁄3′ Qvinta
1′ Sufflöt
Sechst Qvint Altra (4⁄5′, 13⁄5′ from c1)
III Mixtur
8′ Vox humana

Pedal
32′ Groß-Untersatz
16′ Principal Bass
8′ Octaven Bass
16′ Posaune
8′ Trompete
Tremulant
Manual compass: C, D–c3
Pedal compass: C, D–c1
Manual coupler II/I
Pedal coupler P/I
Tuning: 462.5 Hz
Temperament: Neidhardt II
(for a small city), 1732

In summary, restorations include organs by:
Gottfried Silbermann
Niederschöna, 1715/1993, I/14
Bremen Cathedral, 1734/1994, I/8
Jacobikirche, Freiberg, 1717/1995/2006, II/20
Reinhardtsgrimma, 1731/1997, II/20
Tiefenau, 1725/1997, I/9
Dresden Cathedral, 1755/2002, III/47, jointly with Jehmlich Orgelbau
Petrikirche, Freiberg, 1735/2007, II/32, jointly with Jehmlich Orgelbau

Zacharias Hildebrandt
Langhennersdorf, 1722/1996, II/21

Friedrich Ladegast
Biederitz, 1868/1997, II/12
Hohenmölsen, 1851/1998, II/24
Merseburg Cathedral, 1855/1866/2003, IV, 84, joint with Eule/Bautzen and Scheffler, Frankfurt/Oder
Pomssen Wehrkirche, 1671/2000/2007, 1/13

Wegscheider’s firm has built to date thirty new organs including:
Silbermann Museum, Frauenstein, copy of Bremen positive, 1994, I/8
Güstrow Cathedral, 1996, I/15 registers with bass drums, bells, cymbelstern, 2 cuckoos, drum, nightingale
Dresden–Loschwitz, 1996, II/20
Bremen Cathedral, 2002, I/8
Cologne–Michaelshoven, 2003, II/ 28 (in the style of Silbermann/Hildebrandt)
Stuttgart, Musikhochschule, 2006/2007, II/21, Bach Organ
Sacrow-Potsdam, Heilandskirche, 2008/ 2009, II/17 registers
Current work includes:
Fritzsche-Treutmann-Organ in Harbke (restoration in cooperation with Dutschke-Orgelbau), completed 12/07 and dedicated 5/08
Altarpositiv, Kreuzkirche in Dresden, dedicated 5/08
Stellwagen Organ in Stralsund St. Marien (1659).

 

Monumental organs in monumental churches:

The Brick Gothic Phenomenon in Northern Germany

by Aldo J. Baggia
Default

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

 

 

In the footsteps of the young Johann Sebastian Bach

by Aldo J. Baggia
Default

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.

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