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A History of the Organ in Latvia

Alexander Fiseisky

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugale (Ugahlen)
Cornelius Rhaneus, 1697–1701

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Alexander Fiseisky

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

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

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

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

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

Tremolo
Koppel

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

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

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

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

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

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

Calcant
Sperrventil Pedal
Pedal Coupler

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

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

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

* Borrowed stops
** Thus in the source

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

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

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

* Borrowed stops

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

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

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

Piano Pedal
Mezzoforte Pedal
Forte Pedal

Stops Off
Reeds Off
Pedal Couplers Off
Crescendo Off

Pneumatic Action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

II. Manual in Swell Box

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

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

Notes

BWV 1128: A recently discovered Bach organ work

Joel H. Kuznik

During his career 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 resumed 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 a MM from Eastman School of Music.

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Latest Bach manuscript discovery:
Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält, BWV 1128
The discovery of a Bach manuscript always raises curiosity and excites expectant interest. This latest work, an organ chorale fantasia just discovered in March, is a reminder that new revelations can come at any time from any source.
Bach’s copy of the Calov Bible was found in an attic in Frankenmuth, Michigan in 1934, but forgotten until after WWII, in 1962. More recently in 1999, after a 20-year detective hunt worthy of a spy mystery and with a tip from an East German librarian, Christian Wolff tracked down C.P.E. Bach’s estate, with 5,100 musical manuscripts, to Kiev. Originally in the Berlin State Library, the Russian army absconded with this treasure trove of manuscripts after the war. Included were works by Johann Sebastian, among which were his last work, a motet he apparently prepared for his own funeral.
In 2004 an aria by Bach was found in Weimar in a box of birthday cards among holdings of the Anna Amalia Library, just months before it was destroyed by fire. Two years later in 2006 from the same Weimar library, researchers also found Bach’s oldest manuscripts in his own hand: organ works by Buxtehude and Reinken he copied at the age of fifteen. Most recently in March of 2008, a newly discovered organ work was found in an estate sale in Leipzig, in a sense, right under the nose of the musicians at St. Thomas!
This is a double review. The first discusses the organ score and reveals a fascinating history of teacher-student transmission, estate sales, alert and not-so-alert librarians, savvy editors, guesswork and unanswered questions. Much like studies in genealogy, one can trace documented history back only so far and, in this case, only to the mid-nineteenth century, 100 years after Bach. The second review on the CD, featuring both the organ fantasia and the cantata based on the same chorale, was released on June 13, 2008 at the opening concert of the Leipzig Bachfest and shares Ullrich Böhme’s experience of studying and preparing a first performance of a Bach work. How many have had that opportunity!
Obviously this is not the end of the story. No doubt surprises and discoveries still await detection by sharp-sighted scholars and through pure serendipity.

Bach, Johann Sebastian, Choralfantasie für Orgel [2 Manuale und Pedal] über “Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält,” BWV 1128, First Edition, edited by Stephan Blaut and Michael Pacholke with a foreword by Hans-Joachim Schulze. 2008, Ortus Musikverlag, Kassel, 24 pp., €13.50; <www.ortus-musikverlag.de/&gt;.

Contents
Prologue by Schulze, musicologist and former director of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Critical report on Source A (Halle, Martin Luther University, University-State Library of Sachsen-Anhalt, with signature) and Source B (Leipzig, Bach-Archiv, no signature) with score variants noted. Chorale melody from Wittenberg (1533, perhaps 1529) and eight-verse text by Justus Jonas (1493–1555) based on Psalm 124. Facsimiles of cover page and first page of musical score. Critical edition, based on Source A: 85 bars, pp. 1–9.

History
How is it that an organ work by Bach was just discovered and authenticated March 15, 2008 after it had passed through so many hands, including collectors, musicians, editors and auction houses?
According to Schulze’s foreword, this is what is known to date. The first public record of this chorale fantasia is 1845, almost 100 years after Bach’s death, listed among organ pieces by “Sebastian Bach” in the estate auction for Johann Nicolaus Julius Kötschau (1788–1845), once organist at St. Mary’s in Halle/Salle. According to public record, he acquired the pieces in an 1814 auction along with the “Clavier-Büchlein of Wilhelm Friedemann” (1720), Bach’s son and once an organist in Halle, who had passed the scores on to his distant relative and student Johann Christian (1743–1814), known as the “Clavier-Bach.” Kötschau, who apparently was reluctant to share his prize collection, eventually relented, first loaning it to Mendelssohn (1840) and then Leipzig publishers C. F. Peters (1843). However, there is no evidence that anyone recognized the significance of what they saw.
In the 1845 auction of Kötschau’s estate, the manuscript, along with other Bach works, was acquired by Friedrich August Gotthold (1778–1858), a former member of the Sing-Akademie Berlin and then director of the Collegium in Königsberg, East Prussia. In 1852, in order to preserve his collection, he donated it to the Königsberg Library, but it only drew attention 25 years later when Joseph Müller, in spite of opposition from superiors, prepared a catalogue, which on p. 93 lists “24 books of organ compositions by J. S. Bach,” of which fascicle No. 5 lists “Fantasia Sopra il Corale ‘Wo Gott der Herr nicht bey uns hält’ pro Organo à 2 Clav. e Pedale.”
This got the attention of Wilhelm Rust (1822–1892), who had it sent on a library loan to Berlin, where he copied it. This transcription of September 8, 1877 has become “Source A” of this edition, and it is unknown whether Rust, as editor of 26 volumes of the 46-volume Bach-Gesamtausgabe, intended to include it. He resigned over conflicts, particularly with Philipp Spitta, but got even in 1878, in a sense, by sharing the composition with Spitta’s rival Carl Hermann Bittner, whose Vol. IV of his second edition of
“J. S. Bach” (Dresden 1880 / Berlin 1881) includes “141. Wo Gott der Herr nicht bey uns hält. Fantasia sopra il Chorale G-moll. (Königsberger Bibliothek.)” For whatever reason the chorale fantasia was not included in the Gesamtausgabe, so Wolfgang Schmieder in his Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Leipzig 1950) put a fragment of it in an appendix (BWV Anh. II 71).
After Rust’s death in 1892, a large part of his collection went to his student, Erich Prieger (1849–1913), who wrote an extensive essay in 1885 on “Wilhelm Rust and His Bach Edition.” Prieger’s collection in turn was put up for auction after WW I in three sections, one of which went in 1924 to the Cologne book dealer M. Lempertz and refers to many copies of “Bachiana” from the 18th and 19th centuries, including in Lot No. 157 with Rust’s collection of manuscripts.
In summary, the transmission was from Wilhelm Friedemann to Johann Christian to Kötschau, and then from Gotthold to the Königsberg Library to Rust to Prieger, and ultimately from Cologne to . . . .

Discovery
When on March 15, 2008 the Leipzig auction firm of Johannes Wend offered Lot No. 153 with “manuscripts from the estate of Wilhelm Rust. Mostly compositions of his own or arrangements of works by Bach . . . ,” no one could have anticipated that this included parts of Prieger’s collection and the chorale fantasia BWV Anh. II 71. The Rust items were acquired by the University-State Museum of Halle/Salle, and finally due to the fastidious work of two editors, Stephan Blaut and Michael Pacholke of Halle University, the chorale fantasia was authenticated and has become BWV 1128!
This edition is based on two 19th-century manuscripts: “Source A” by Rust and “Source B,” a copy made by Ernst Naumann sometime after 1890 in the collection of the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. Researchers, according to Schulze, are still hopeful that Kötschau’s copy survived WW II and is still to be found, perhaps in a Russian library.
On June 13, 2008, Ullrich Böhme, organist, St. Thomas, played the first Leipzig performance of BWV 1128 at the opening concert of the Bachfest, which included Bach’s Cantata 178 on the same chorale, sung by the St. Thomas Choir. The same day a CD by Rondeau Production with both compositions and works by Rust was released. The score by Ortus was published on June 10, showing how rapidly new works can be distributed worldwide.
The chorale still exists in German hymnals, but apparently has not survived in American Lutheran usage. The work, a large-scale fantasia believed to date from 1705–1710, is of moderate difficulty in four contrapuntal voices scored for Rückpositiv, Oberwerk and Pedal. After an introductory section, the ornamented chorale appears in the R.H. beginning with bar 12, proceeding verse by verse with interludes, chromaticism and echo sections. It concludes with a coda in a flurry typical of stylus phantasticus, all of which should make this “new work” very exciting indeed for Bach fans.

Bach, Johann Sebastian, Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält. The Newly Discovered Organ Work: Choralefantasia BWV 1128. Organ and choral works by Ammerbach, J. S. Bach, Rust, and Schein. Ullrich Böhme, organist, on the Bach Organ at Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church. St. Thomas Choir with the Gewandhaus Orchestra; Georg Christoph Biller, cantor and conductor. 2008, Rondeau Production ROP6023, 50 minutes, €15.95; brochure 39 pp.; <http://www.rondeau.de/&gt;.
Imagine being the organist of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, picking up the newspaper on March 16, 2008 and reading the headline, “Undiscovered Organ Work by Johann Sebastian Bach Found in Halle.” So Ullrich Böhme begins his very personal essay, “From Mühlhausen to St. Thomas in Leipzig” (brochure, pp. 6–7). He was further intrigued when he learned the work had been found among scores belonging to a predecessor at St. Thomas, Wilhelm Rust (organist, then cantor 1878–1892), and purchased for 2,500 euros by two scholars from nearby University of Halle. The paper claimed they “snatched away a true sensation from Leipzig,” when in fact the chorale had a close connection to Halle. The melody of the chorale had been written by Justus Jonas, a friend of Luther and the reformer of Halle serving as pastor of St. Mary’s.
The Bach-Archiv did not have a copy of the piece, but by April 28 Böhme received the score from the publisher, Ortus. He spent the next day at home studying and practicing, and then on evening of April 30 he played the work on the Bach Organ at St. Thomas, experimenting with tempos and registrations. It is probable that Bach played this piece himself, but he also may have given it to one of his sons or students to play on July 30, 1724 as a prelude to the Cantata BWV 178 on the same chorale for the eighth Sunday after Trinity. Böhme believes this is confirmed because in Bach’s time the choir and orchestra performed in the lower “Kammerton,” whereas the organs at St. Thomas were tuned a step higher in “Chorton,” so the pitches g- and a-minor match.
The work, a chorale fantasia, reflects influence of the North German composers Buxtehude, Reinken, and Bruhns. Three other examples of this genre by Bach are heard on the CD: the familiar Ein feste Burg (BWV 720), Christ lag in Todesbanden (BWV 718), and Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 739).
There is only one organ that Bach played (including those in Lübeck and Hanover) for which BWV 1128 could have been written because of the requirements for a Rückpositiv, Oberwerk, Pedal and the extent of the manual ranges. That is the Wender organ at St. Blasius in Mühlhausen, where Bach served between 1707 and 1708. The original organ has not survived, but a copy with the same specification was built in the late 1950s.
Additional compositions on the chorale, all by former St. Thomas organists or cantors, are a Tabulatur by Ammerbach (organist, 1550–1597); duet by St. Thomas Choir Boys from Opella nova by Johann Schein (cantor, 1616–1630); and Cantata BWV 178 by J. S. Bach (cantor, 1723–1750). Also included are two pieces by Wilhelm Rust (organist, 1878–80 and cantor, 1880–1892): Motet for Two Four-Voiced Choirs, op. 40, on “Aus der Tiefe ruf ich, Herr, zu dir” and an organ fantasia, op. 40/3 on “Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend.”
The handsome brochure is replete with photos and information in addition to Böhme’s personal account: fascinating program notes by Martin Petzoldt (Head of the Neue Bachgesellschaft and Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Leipzig); cantata text for BWV 178; biographies for Böhme, Biller, Susanne Krumbiegel (alto), Martin Petzold (tenor), and Mathias Weichert (bass); background on the St. Thomas Choir and Gewandhaus Orchestra; and finally the specification and history of the 2000 Bach Organ by Gerald Woehl.
What is eminently apparent in these compositions and performances is a devotional consciousness of the text and the earnest intent to reflect its meaning. The performers are all steeped in the Bach milieu and tradition, performing Bach week after week, year after year in worship and concert. Böhme’s playing is equally elegant and eloquent, ever confident, yet always sensitive to the chorale text, realizing the Lutheran approach, which is never performance for its own sake, but music as a servant of theology and worship. While this CD largely features organ music and Böhme’s extraordinary playing, the other performers—St. Thomas Choir and Gewandhaus Orchestra under Cantor Georg Christoph Biller—are, as expected, exceptional. This CD and its brochure should certainly pique the interest, as Bach would say, of both “Kenner und Liebhaber” (professionals and music lovers).

Thanks to Ullrich Böhme, Organist, St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, who provided invaluable information, including contacts for getting the score and the CD within ten days of its first performance in Leipzig on June 13 and providing the specification of the Wender organ in Mühlhausen.

Musical examples used with permission from the publisher ortus musikverlag.

The University of Michigan Historic Organ Tour 54

Jeffrey K. Chase

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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).

 

The University of Michigan 43rd International Conference on Organ Music

A report by W. Michael Brittenback and Gordon Atkinson

W. Michael Brittenback is currently minister of music at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Plymouth, Michigan. He serves as Chair of Region V of the Association of Anglican Musicians, and as a member of the Executive Board of the Ann Arbor AGO Chapter. Gordon Atkinson is a past president of the RCCO (1976–1978) and currently serves as organist and choirmaster of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

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The 43rd International Conference on Organ Music, Marilyn Mason, director, sponsored by the University of Michigan, was held October 5–8, 2003, in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. The offerings this year represented Germany, Holland, France, Russia and the United States, and the organ music ranged from the beginnings of the North German-Dutch School through the twentieth century. The two cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, separated by only a street, boast three thriving university organ programs, and the conference showcased all three schools.

The festivities began with a traditional Lutheran hymn festival on Sunday evening at Concordia University Chapel with the choirs of Concordia University and St. Lorenz Lutheran Church, Frankenmuth, Michigan, conducted by Paul Altvogt, with Michele Johns and Scott Hyslop playing the large Schlicker organ.

On Monday morning the conference began at the University of Michigan School of Music with a lecture by William Gudger on the editing and performance of Handel’s organ concertos. On Tuesday he gave a recital of music by British composers (including Handel) at Eastern Michigan University. Dr. Gudger is currently on the faculty of the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, and is co-editor of the critical edition of the Opus 4 Organ Concertos of Handel.

The lecture was followed by a splendid recital of music of Sweelinck, Scheidt and Scheidemann given by Gail Archer, director of the music program at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City, on the Marilyn Mason Organ built by Fisk. On Tuesday, Dr. Archer gave an animated lecture on performance practices of Sweelinck and his contemporaries as well as insights into the organs of the period.

Monday afternoon’s events were held at First Congregational Church of Ann Arbor, featuring the large three-manual Wilhelm organ. Marilyn Mason and Robert Luther gave an exciting recital of organ music for four hands and feet. For the last selection Dr. Mason was joined by pianist Seth Nelson playing the Classic Concerto for Organ and Piano by Leo Sowerby, one of the highlights of the day.

This was followed by a fine lecture on Russian organ music and organs in Russia by Iain Quinn, a Welsh organist and scholar. His lecture made everyone look forward to his recital on Tuesday on the fine Aeolian-Skinner organ at Pease Auditorium on the campus of Eastern Michigan. A recital by Matthew Bogart, Erin MacGorman, Seth Nelson, and Abigail Woods—students of the University of Michigan organ department—closed the afternoon’s events.

The day culminated with a splendid recital by Petr Plany, professor of organ at the University of Olomouc, Czech Republic, on the Létourneau organ at St. Francis Catholic Church in Ann Arbor. The evening began with one of the best performances of the Gothic Symphony in recent memory, and ended with music by the Czech composer Euben Reuchsel. On Wednesday Professor Plany gave an insightful lecture on the organ music and organs of the Czech Republic.

On Tuesday all events were held at Eastern Michigan and began with an exciting recital on the recently restored Aeolian-Skinner organ given by Donald Williams, professor of organ and university organist at Concordia University; Scott Elsholz, visiting instructor of organ at Eastern Michigan University; and James Wagner, adjunct faculty at Marygrove College. The program featured organ music of the 20th century. This was immediately followed with a recital given by Shin Ae Chun, Greg Hand, and David Saunders, graduate students of the organ department of the University of Michigan.

The afternoon events moved into the organ studio at Eastern Michigan where a fine three-manual Kney resides. After Dr. Archer’s lecture and Dr. Gudger’s recital, a discussion was led by Michele Johns, adjunct professor of church music at the University of Michigan, on “Recruitment and Positive People Skills for Church Musicians.” Dr. Johns was assisted by two students: Luke Davis and Kirsten Hellman.

The evening recital was given by Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, professor of organ and university organist at Eastern Michigan, on the Aeolian-Skinner in Pease Auditorium. The program featured music by Demessieux, Boulanger, Olsson, Lindberg, and Bovet.

The final day was held at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor, showcasing their new Schoenstein organ. The first event was a recital by students from the organ department of the University of Michigan and included Luke Davis, Michael Frisch, Kirsten Hellman, Andrew Herbruck, and Susan DeKam. This was followed by a masterclass in improvisation given by Justin Bischof, on the theory faculty of Manhattan School of Music and organist/choir director of Westchester Reform Temple. His teaching skill made the art of improvisation seem accessible to any musician. Next followed an improvised recital on hymn tunes suggested by the audience. Dr. Bischof performed convincing improvisations in the style of Max Reger, John Adams, and Messiaen, and then played a thirty-minute improvisation in his own style of a complete four-movement symphony for organ.

Following Petr Plany’s lecture on organ music of the Czech Republic, Joseph Daniel performed the final recital of the conference featuring music by Widor, Franck, and Duruflé.

The conference closed with a wonderful patio reception at the home of Marilyn Mason. The extraordinarily high caliber of all of the presenters and the variety of the material presented truly gave something for everyone who attended to learn and enjoy.

—W. Michael Brittenback

 

The University of Michigan’s 43rd Conference on Organ Music, “The European Connection,” was held October 5–8, 2003, and highlighted music from England, France, Germany, Holland, Russia and the United States. Three full days of organ music and lectures were preceded by the opening program at Holy Trinity Chapel, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, entitled “Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices—Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Songs for the Church Year.” The unique triangular shaped building with its stunning stained glass, reminiscent of that at Chartres (the artist Charles Loire’s studio is in Chartres) was an appropriate venue, particularly as the sun set. With important events in the church year outlined by the narrator, Rev. Stephen P. Starke, music was presented with opportunity for congregational participation. The choirs of Concordia University and St. Lorenz Lutheran Church, Frankenmuth, Michigan, with organ, brass quintet and handbells, provided strong leadership, and sang anthems by Alfred Fedak, Scott Hyslop, Martin How and K. Lee Scott. As a result of careful planning, there was great variety in the arrangements of hymns, with some verses sung by choir alone, solo verses, congregation alone, and instrumental solos, the latter affording the congregation time to reflect on the words. Conducted by Brian Altevogt, Andrew Schultz prepared the brass players, and Scott Hyslop was the organist. The 1963 Schlicker provided powerful accompaniment for the 300 people present.

Monday morning’s session, held in the Blanche Anderson Moore Hall at the University of Michigan, commenced with William Gudger’s lecture, “Editing and Performing Handel’s Organ Concertos.” He pointed out that the early concertos were intended for performance with the early oratorios. No. 4 with its “Alleluya” chorus was performed with Athalia, the chorus part founded on the material of the final fugue. This concerto, which is not a reworking of earlier compositions, can be called the first keyboard concerto by any composer. Concerning registration, the single-manual instruments contained two diapasons, one metal, one wood, with metal principals at 4’, 22/3’, 2’ and 13/5’; 4’ flutes were sometimes available. “Swiss cheese registrations” (8’ and 2’, 8’ and 22/3’) have no validity historically. In 1738 John Walsh published a transcription of the Six Concertos for the Harpsichord or Organ, making them available as solos for a single player. Of note, this edition was available by successors to Walsh and others until the late 1890s, when it was supplanted by romantic style editions with flamboyant cadenzas. An excellent handout was provided.

Gail Archer played music by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck and two of his many students, Samuel Scheidt and Heinrich Scheidemann, with great style and authentic registration. The Fisk Opus 87, which most closely resembles the Silbermann instrument in Rotha, Germany, was wholly appropriate for this recital.

At First Congregational Church, Marilyn Mason and Robert Luther played a program of duets, the commissioned Celebration of Two Hymn Tunes by Alice Jordan; Martyrs, op. 7 of Kenneth Leighton (“not for the faint-hearted, players or listeners”); and Concert Variations on Auld Lang Syne by Eugene Thayer. Dr. Mason, joined by Seth Nelson, played Leo Sowerby’s Classic Concerto with grace and style, the strings arranged for piano by the composer in 1948, in order “that there be more performances.” (I recall hearing Dr. Mason play this with strings conducted by Dr. Sowerby at Westminster Abbey for the International Congress of Organists in 1957.) The Karl Wilhelm instrument is always a joy to hear.

Two recitals and lectures featured music from countries of which many musicians know little, the first by Iain Quinn in his lecture, “The Tsar of Instruments.” He gave an overview of the history of the organ in Russia from Byzantine times to J. S. Bach and beyond. Organs from Holland and England were owned by the nobility, as organs had no place in the Orthodox liturgical world and were denounced by church authorities. During the time of Peter the Great, the mid-18th century, an interest in the culture of Europe developed, and more organs were imported, including those of Arp Schnitger. European artists made tours. Johann Wilhelm Hassler (1747–1822) influenced the musical life of Moscow and introduced the music of J. S. Bach to Russia. The 19th century saw the importation of organs by Walcker, Sauer, Steinmeyer and Ladegast from Germany; from England those by Brindley and Foster; and the Cavaillé-Coll from France for the Moscow Conservatory. Liszt, Widor, Tournemire and Bossi made tours, Widor playing five of his symphonies in one concert. Newly established organ departments of the conservatories of St. Petersburg and Moscow had “non-ecclesiastical” organ studies. A helpful handout of publications listing compositions by Glasunov (“arguably the most important Russian organ composer”), Gretchaninov, Glière, Glinka, Rachmaninov (an Andante for harmonium from Trio elegiaque, written in memory of Tchaikovsky) and Shostakovich shows the extent of organ compositions in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

 

A daily addition to the conference featured recitals by students in the organ department from the studios of Marilyn Mason, Robert Glasgow and James Kibbie. Matthew Bogart, Abigail Woods, Stephanie Muller, Seth Nelson and Erin MacGorman concluded the afternoon sessions.

That night at St. Francis Catholic Church (Létourneau organ), Petr Plany of the University of Olomouc, Czech Republic, played a program which opened with Widor’s Gothic Symphony. The last movement with its numerous tempi changes was stunningly performed, the player, organ and the building’s sympathetic acoustics a fine match. Chorale preludes and a Prelude and Fugue in f by B. A. Wiedermann (1883–1951) and Promenades en Provence by Eulen Reuchsel (1900–1988) completed the evening.

Tuesday’s events were held at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti. At Pease Auditorium with its 1960 Aeolian-Skinner recently restored by Schoenstein, Donald Williams opened the first program with Vincent Persichetti’s chorale prelude Give peace in our time, O Lord, the melody introduced by Sally Carpenter, alto. James Wagner played Messiaen’s Consecration and Apparition de l’Eglise eternelle. Calvin Hampton’s Five Dances were played by Scott Elsholz. In the second recital by students of the School of Music, David Saunders, Gregory Hand and Shin-Ae-Chun were heard. In Iain Quinn’s recital he played much of the music he had discussed the previous day. Of particular interest were the Prelude and Fugue in D, op. 93, and Prelude and Fugue in d, op. 98, of Glasunov.

In the organ studio of the Alexander Building with its 1982 Gabriel Kney instrument, Gail Archer shared her enthusiasm for Sweelinck and his disciples in her lecture, “The Foundation of the North German School,” stressing the tuning of instruments and the fingering used. An invaluable handout included the stoplists of the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, where Sweelinck as civic organist played daily recitals, and St. Moritz’s Church, Halle, where Scheidt was organist; his instructions for playing chorale-based pieces were also included. “Rules for the Organist in the City of Leiden” (1607) directed that recitals start and end on “ . . . the Principal and in between [he] will use and play all the stops . . . ” Slides were shown of churches in Germany where this music can be performed authentically.

Dr. Gudger’s recital featured English music from the 18th to the 20th centuries, with works by William Walond, Handel (Concerto No. 4), Samuel Wesley, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Charles Villiers Stanford, and Herbert Howells. Again a handout provided much pertinent information.

For the last part of the afternoon, Michele Johns introduced “Recruitment and Positive People Skills for Church Musicians,” presented by Luke Davis and Kirsten Hellman. In the short time available the audience was divided into small groups in which situations both positive and negative were discussed, some of which were reported at the end of the session. From their research, the presenters defined problems and positive ways in which they could be met.

The evening program at Pease Auditorium, played by Pamela Ruiter-Feenstra, professor and university organist at EMU, featured French music by Jeanne Demessieux and Nadia Boulanger, and Swedish music by Otto Olsson and Oskar Lindberg. The 1935 Prelude and Fugue in d# (!) of Olsson was exciting in its intensity, and Guy Bovet’s well-known Salamanca concluded a delightful evening.

Wednesday, October 8, at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor (with its 2002 Schoenstein organ), commenced with the third program by organ students of the School of Music: Luke Davis, Ben La Prairie, Kirsten Hellman, Michael Frisch, Susan de Kam and Andrew Herbruck. For the second time in the conference a composition for organ and piano was featured, Dupré’s Ballade for Piano and Organ dedicated to his daughter, Marguerite, played by de Kam and Herbruck. In his lecture on improvisation, Justin Bischof said that technique in this art form must be developed, by practicing regularly and striving for excellence. He suggested using as a basis I-IV-V-I, keeping the forward movement in strict time. As one progresses one could move to I-I6-IV-IV6-V-V7-I. In playing a hymn, solo the treble line, then put the melody in the pedal, followed by the melody with a different pedal line from that written (using part of the printed chord), and finally adding other chords. Two people volunteered (or were conscripted) to illustrate his suggestions. Dr. Bischof requested hymn tunes from the audience on which he improvised short pieces. His improvisation in the style of Reger demonstrated his familiarity with the composer’s style. The final piece, in which were quotations from several sources, was a brilliant tour de force.

Petr Plany’s noteworthy lecture included many recorded examples. Composers who wrote prolifically for the organ included J. F. N. Seger (1716–1782), B. A. Wiedermann (1883–1951), and major contributions from present-day Jiri Ropek and Petr Eben. Dvorák and Janácek, probably the best known Czech composers, wrote little for the instrument, the former various preludes and fugues, of which the one in D was heard, and the latter some short adagios, apart from the monumental Postlude of his Glagolitic Mass. An extensive handout provided much information concerning composers from the 17th century to the present day, as well as stoplists, manual compasses and the names of organ builders.

In the final recital, Joseph Daniel performed movements from Widor’s Symphony No. 4, Franck’s Choral in a, and the Choral Variations on Veni Creator Spiritus of Duruflé, the alternatim sung by David Hoffman. The conference concluded with a reception at the home of Marilyn Mason and her husband, Dr. William Steinhoff.

As always, The University of Michigan presented a fine conference with time allowed for relaxation. There was much compelling playing by the students with thanks due their teachers, Marilyn Mason, Robert Glasgow and James Kibbie. Conferees from 12 states appreciated the organizational skills of Dr. Mason and Dr. Johns. It was a time for listening, learning, discussion, meeting old friends and making new ones. After being closed for almost two years for restoration and improvement it will be a delight to be at Hill Auditorium for the 44th Conference in October 2004.

—Gordon Atkinson

August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885)

La Wanda Blakeney

La Wanda Blakeney is Professor of Music at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. She holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from The University of Texas at Austin, where her major professor was Dr. Hanns-Bertold Dietz. A former student of Gilbert Pirovano and William C. Teague, Dr. Blakeney also serves as assistant organist at First United Methodist Church in Shreveport.

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Introduction

While the nineteenth-century masters of the Romantic avant garde and even many composers of what Robert Schumann called the juste milieu have been dealt with significantly in musicological treatises, the more conservative composers still remain widely ignored. An example of the latter is August Gott-fried Ritter (1811-1885), an artist who was well known and highly revered in his lifetime not only as a performer and teacher but also as a composer and author of many reviews, musicological articles, and books. Today, however, Ritter is scarcely mentioned. Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (1963) provides only a brief sketch of his life and a partial listing of his works, and the composer does not appear at all in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001).

The reason for Ritter's almost total obscurity is not that he lacked recognized accomplishments but rather that the focus of his activities, namely Protestant church music, appears to offer little attraction to present-day scholars. In their disinterest in Protestant church music of the nineteenth century, modern scholars actually reflect an aesthetic attitude inherited from the Enlightenment. The late eighteenth century was marked by a declining interest in the church itself, and music within the worship service was relegated to a less important role. Many church choirs were disbanded, and the concert hall gradually replaced the church as the leading musico-cultural force in the community. How much the organist and cantor suffered in artistic and social prestige is indicated by the Prussian Code of 1794, which lists both professions as "lower church employees . . . on a level with custodians."1 It is therefore not surprising that during the nineteenth century most of the talented musicians sought careers outside the conservative environment of the church and none of the major composers made church music the center of their compositional interest, even those who played and wrote for the organ.2

Generally speaking, by the time of Ritter's birth in 1811, church music had reached a nadir in comparison with achievements of earlier days. This does not mean, though, that traditions were totally abandoned and that no efforts were made by some dedicated few to stem the tide and to uphold excellence in church music. As Georg Feder points out, "the practice of sacred music in Saxony and Thuringia never really deteriorated."3 For example, in Erfurt, Ritter's birthplace, the church remained a major outlet for artistic expression even during the early nineteenth century. Nevertheless, one must add that it certainly no longer held center stage.

Ritter was quite aware of the changing compositional trends, and he wrote works in the current secular musical genres, such as orchestral overtures, symphonies, piano sonatas, and character pieces. However, Ritter soon began to direct his attention toward music for the organ. An early indication of this interest was his decision in 1834 to attend the Royal Institute for Church Music in Berlin. Nine years later, Ritter again showed a preference for church music, when he accepted the Domorganist position in Merseburg instead of a much more lucrative choral directorship in Berlin.4 At a time when interest in church music was waning and many professional musicians had already abandoned the church for employment in secular areas, Ritter thus elected to stay within the church and to do his utmost to improve the level of organ performance and organ composition.

Since Ritter's life is not well known, the following is a biographical account, including information about the composer's family, friends, teachers, and the different stages of his official career as church organist and music director.

Early Years in Erfurt

According to the Augustinerkirche baptismal register in Erfurt, August Gottfried Ritter was born on August25, 1811, at five o'clock in the morning and baptized at the church eight days later. He was the son of Johann Heinrich Ritter and Maria née Kegel (or Kögel).5

The infant Ritter and his parents resided on Gotthard Street near the monastery that Martin Luther (1483-1546) had entered in 1501, and not far from the neighborhood where Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), the eminent poet and novelist, had once lived.6 Late nineteenth-century biographers have disagreed on the family's financial status. Robert Frenzel, in his article "Ein bekannter und doch wenig gekannter Orgelmeister" (1894), states that Ritter's father was well-to-do,7 while the Encyklopädie der evängelischen Kirchenmusik (1894), edited by Salomon Kümmerle, describes the family's living conditions as modest.8 Ritter's father, a commoner, was a flour merchant, a profession that must have run in the family, since church records and address catalogs back to the beginning of the eighteenth century indicate that there were a number of Erfurt residents by the name of Ritter, all of them millers or members of similar middle-class positions.9

The years surrounding Ritter's birth were marked by political instability, with most of Europe embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars. The town of Erfurt, which had become part of Prussia in 1802, came under French domination in 1806, and two years later was the site of Napoleon's meeting with Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the Kings of Bavaria, Saxony, Westphalia, and Württemberg. In 1813 the town was reconquered by the Prussians, who, with the help of their allies, defeated Napoleon Bonaparte during the famous "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig on October 16-19 of the same year.10 It was not quite a month later that Ritter's father died of "nerves and foul fever," as the Augustinerkirche records indicate, on November 13, 1813, at the age of twenty-seven.11

After his father's death, August Gott-fried was reared by an uncle. This fact, first mentioned in the Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften (1842), which contains the earliest article on Ritter,12 was reiterated and embellished upon in later biographical dictionaries, among them the Neues Universal-Lexikon der Tonkunst (1851), which states that Ritter was "brought up by an uncle with love and care."13

The only personal reference to his parents and childhood is a letter, dated June 20, 1836, in which Ritter states that shortly after the death of his father, his mother married Johannes Christian Samuel Ritter, another flour merchant. However, the composer fails to mention whether or not his stepfather was also his father's brother.14  Nothing is known about when his mother died.

Ritter received his earliest and most profound musical inspiration and education through the institution of the church. Such an experience was not unusual, since the dominant cultural force in the community had traditionally been the church. For example, Martin Luther had obtained part of his well-rounded musical education at the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt, where in 1524 two Enchiridia, among the first Protestant hymnals, had been published.15

Young August Gottfried attended the Augustiner-Parochial-Schule, and his family worshipped at the Augustinerkirche. When Andreas Ketschau (1798-1869), the organist at that church, learned of the young boy's interest in music, he began to instruct him in piano, organ, and harmony. The exact dates for these lessons are not known, but Ritter must have begun at an early age and progressed very rapidly, for he publicly performed a Mozart piano concerto at the age of eleven.16

Andreas Ketschau was a significant figure in the musical life of Erfurt, and the importance that accompanied his position as organist and teacher was not at all unusual. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, church musicians, especially organist-composers, had determined the direction of Erfurt's musical development. Members of J. S. Bach's family had taught at church schools and occupied almost all church organist positions of the town.17 Hieronymus Praetorius (1560-1629), Michael Altenburg (1584-1640), the prestigious Predigerkirche organist Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), Johann Gottfried Walther (1684-1748), and Jakob Adlung (1699-1762) had also numbered among Erfurt's most notable church musicians.18 During the late eighteenth century it was Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809), author of the influential Der angehende praktische Organist (in three parts, 1801, 1803, 1808;3d ed. in 1831), who upheld the tradition of excellence in Erfurt's church music. Deeply revered as the last pupil of J. S. Bach, Kittel was an organ virtuoso whose concerts attracted such prominent individuals as Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from nearby Weimar.19 Although cultural entertainment in Erfurt expanded in the late eighteenth century to include operettas, theatrical productions, and a choral society, the tradition of church music, particularly organ music, remained strong.20 It can thus be readily assumed that Ketschau instilled in the young August Gottfried Ritter a deep sense of reverence for early music.

Erfurt's general cultural life declined from 1806 through 1813, the years of French occupation. The local choral society was disbanded, and there were no concerts by touring German artists. Entertainment instead featured Parisian ballets and visiting actors of the French theatre, but these events were under French auspices and not intended for the average Erfurt citizen.21 Even the participants in the grand music festival in 1811, held in honor of Napoleon's birthday, were mostly musicians from other towns in Germany and not Erfurt residents.22 In fact, the scarcity of concerts prompted one critic to complain in the winter of 1812 that Erfurt public concerts were at a "standstill."23 Only church music continued to be cultivated much as it had been in the past.

Ritter's childhood was marked by a revival of general musical activities in Erfurt. In February of 1815, two years after the ouster of the French troops, a touring violin virtuoso named Ochernal presented two concerts.24 Vocal lessons were given at the newly-founded Erfurt Teachers Seminary,25 and in 1816, Prussian soldiers stationed in a garrison near the town are reported to have received instruction in part-singing.26 In 1819 the local choral society was re-established, this time as the Soller'sche Verein, and on August3, 1821, the Society, assisted by amateurs and musicians from neighboring villages, successfully performed in public for the first time. This concert, held in honor of the birthday of Frederick William III, King of Prussia, marked the beginning of an Erfurt tradition that became known as the King's Birthday Festival, an event that later expanded into an annual series of concerts for which Erfurt became famous, and in which Ritter became an active participant.27 In 1826 a second choral group, the Erfurt Musikverein, was founded, with Ketschau, Ritter's music teacher, as its artistic director. This choral group consisted of206 dilettantes and musicians (eighty-four singers, fifty-two instrumentalists, the remainder non-performers), all of whom paid monthly dues to support a full orchestra, a string quartet, a Liedertafel, and a singing school by 1835.28

The repertoire of both choral societies, and particularly the pronounced purpose of the Erfurt Music Society, are worth mentioning, for they reveal attitudes typical for the musical climate of Erfurt at that time. At the first King's Birthday Festival, the Soller'sche Society performed Johann Christian Friedrich Schneider's (1786-1837) oratorio Weltgericht in the Predigerkirche,29 and for the second Festival, members of the Teachers Seminary combined forces with the Soller'sche Society to perform Haydn's oratorio The Seasons.30 Although these were not the kinds of pieces that would appeal to a public infatuated with the more modern, fashionable genres, the constituent members of the Erfurt Music Society, like those of the Soller'sche Society, had resolved to perform music that is "not subject to fashionable taste of the time, and for that reason, variable."31 In 1835 an anonymous reviewer could state that the Erfurt Music Society's "praiseworthy" goal had been achieved.32 Continuing its tradition, this Music Society four years later successfully performed Mendelssohn's St. Paul, and once again an anonymous reviewer enthusiastically approved the Society's choice of repertoire.

. . . ist es doch sehr erfreulich zu wissen, dass ungeachtet des durch eine burleske und frivole Muse nur zu sehr verflachten Zeitgeschmacks die ernste heilige Musik auch hier der Verehrer nicht wenige zählt. Des sollen Dankes dieser kann sich der Musik-Verein unter allen Umständen versichert halten.33

[. . . it is, however, very gratifying to know that in spite of contemporary taste, which has become very shallow through a burlesque and frivolous muse, devoted admirers of serious religious music number not a few here. In any case, the Music Society should be assured of thanks.]

Education in Erfurt and Weimar

As an impressionable young child, Ritter was deeply affected by the conservative cultural climate that prevailed in Erfurt--respect for tradition, disregard for the taste of the masses, and a preference for serious religious music, even when not in vogue. All of these attitudes became Ritter's own and determined the ultimate direction of his life. Ritter attended the Gymnasium, where he continued his music lessons, and shortly before Easter of 1828, he passed the entrance examination to the Erfurt Teachers Seminary. Among his instructors there were the theologian Friedrich Ritschl, a philologist named Pabst,34 and Johann Immanuel Müller (1774-1839).35 Müller probably taught singing and conducting, since he had been credited in 1821 with the "blossoming of an excellent school for vocal song" and had served as music director of the first two King's Birthday Festivals.36

It was as a student at the Teachers Seminary that Ritter "dedicated himself with earnestness in the direction of organ playing."37 His organ teacher there was Michael Gotthard Fischer (1773-1829), a former pupil of Kittel and, at that time, the most prestigious organist in Erfurt. Fischer became seriously ill during Ritter's year of study with him and died in January of 1829; nevertheless, he must have exerted a decisive influence upon the young artist. When Ritter left the Seminary, he was given a superior rating,38 and many years later, in a letter to someone named Heindl, Ritter mentioned Fischer as one of his most influential teachers.39

One might assume that Ritter completed his education at the Teachers Seminary in 1829, since the composer himself said that he became the Andreaskirche organist in the fall of that particular year.40 His statement, however, is contradicted by the fact that this Erfurt church was closed for repairs from 1827 until 1830. Church records also indicate that Ritter was named teacher at the Andreasschule on October 1, 1830, but did not officially become church organist until January 1, 1831.41

Another imprecise statement made by Ritter concerns his studies with Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). While discussing his education after leaving the Seminary, Ritter mentions that he received piano lessons from Hummel in Weimar and attended the Royal Institute for Church Music in Berlin "during a lengthy absence" from Erfurt.

während lingerer Abwesenheit von Erfurt dazwischen Schüler von Hummel in Weimar, Ludwig Berger in Berlin, von C. v. Winterfeld protegiert . . .42

[During a lengthy absence from Erfurt, in the meantime a student of Hummel in Weimar, Ludwig Berger in Berlin, protégé of C. v. Winterfeld . . . .]

Ritter's reference to the "lengthy absence" must obviously apply only to his stay in Berlin. Since Weimar is not more than thirteen miles from Erfurt, it stands to reason that Ritter, while employed at the Andreaskirche, traveled each week from Erfurt to Weimar for lessons with Hummel, as two of Ritter's biographers indicate.43

Ritter's studies with Hummel proved invaluable. Hummel, a former child prodigy and student of Mozart, was considered one of Europe's foremost pianists, both as a performer and as a teacher.44 By 1830 Hummel had already instructed a number of well-known pianists, including the young Mendelssohn, Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885), probably Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871), who later competed intensely with Franz Liszt,45 and Adolf Henselt (1814-1889). Under Hummel's guidance, Ritter developed "a proper, clean handling of the piano" and learned "how to charm through clever and tasteful interpretation." More importantly, Hummel also imparted to his young student the art of improvisation, a skill in which Hummel excelled and one that would later bring renown to Ritter.46

While studying in Weimar, Ritter became exposed to the town's rich and culturally varied milieu. Diverse types of music--opera, chamber music, concerto, symphony--were already well-established there before the arrival of Hummel as grand-ducal Kapellmeister in 1818.47 As one of Hummel's students, Ritter could very well have met important friends of his teacher, such as Carl Eberwein (1786-1868), the Weimar opera director, and the eminent organist and city cantor Johann Gottlob Töpfer (1791-1870). Ritter later published several of Töpfer's organ pieces in his keyboard editions.48

If the lessons in Weimar took place before 1832, Hummel may have also introduced Ritter to the venerable Goethe, who lived in Weimar,49 and to Goethe's close friend, Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832), a frequent visitor from Berlin and founder of the Royal Institute for Church Music.50 It would not have taken long for Zelter to discover Ritter's penchant for old music, and it could have been Zelter who first advised Ritter to come to Berlin for further studies. As director of the Institute, Zelter may have also arranged for Ritter to meet Johann Albrecht Friedrich von Eichhorn, the Prussian Minister of Schools who provided Ritter with a government grant to attend the Institute in 1834.51

After Ritter received word of his governmental assistance, he informed the council of the Andreaskirche that he wished to "improve myself in music" and had made plans to attend the Royal Institute for Church Music in Berlin.52 He was given a leave of absence, and Eduard Bochmann was appointed Ritter's substitute at the Andreaskirche. Bochmann, himself an excellent organist, stated that he was "full of honor" to serve in Ritter's place.53

Berlin

When Ritter arrived in Berlin during September of 1834, he entered a musical environment in which the music of J. S. Bach was revered and cultivated by a small group of intellectuals. Even during the middle of the eighteenth century, when changing musical styles had dictated a reaction against the older contrapuntal style, Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721-1783), Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (1718-1795), Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774), and Princess Amalia, sister of Frederick the Great, had collected and preserved Bach manuscripts.54

During the 1770s Kirnberger had summarized the essence of Bach's theoretical teachings in Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in der Musik, and in 1782 he wrote a short pamphlet, Gedenken über die verschiedenen Lehrarten in der Komposition, unconditionally praising Bach's approach.55 Nine years later Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736-1800) formed the Berlin Singakademie, whose purpose was to revive sacred vocal music of the past. As one of the earliest institutions to organize historical concerts, the Singakademie performed Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV299 and other motets during a period in which Bach's music was not widely known.56 In 1801 Das wohltemperierte Klavier was made available to the public almost simultaneously by three different publishing firms,57 and in the following year Johann Nikolaus Forkel's (1749-1818) significant biography, Über Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst, und Kunstwerke, appeared.58 Later on, admiration for Bach was further expressed by the Sing-akademie's now-famous 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion, conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. This concert was therefore not an isolated phenomenon but simply a step in a series of events which reflected the increasing enthusiasm for Bach's music, eventually culminating in the establishment of the Bach Gesellschaft in 1850 and a complete critical edition of all of Bach's compositions.59

In Berlin the appreciation of music from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was not limited solely to Bach. Carl Heinrich Graun's (1703-1759) Der Tod Jesu was regularly performed during Passion Week, and Handel oratorios, including Messiah, which premiered in Berlin in 1786, were also frequently performed.60 Johann Friedrich Reichardt's (1752-1814) Berlin Concert Spirituel often featured works by Handel and his contemporaries.61 As founder-editor of the Musikalisches Kunstmagazin, Reichardt also wrote articles about other early masters and included numerous examples of their music.62 Interest in "ancient" music continued to proliferate during the early nineteenth century, and music scholars began to produce practical performance editions of older music.

Two years before Ritter arrived in Berlin, Zelter had died, but his legacy was still felt and perpetuated by his students and assistants who instructed Ritter at the Royal Institute for Church Music. Ritter's organ teacher at the Institute was August Wilhelm Bach (1796-1859), to whom Ritter remained deeply "indebted for his art of registration and accompaniment."63 A. W. Bach, too, was a former teacher of Mendelssohn, and after Zelter's death, he was named the new director of the Royal Institute for Church Music.64 Ritter and A. W. Bach developed a warm admiration for each other and remained close friends long after Ritter's departure from Berlin. It was on Bach's request that Ritter presented an organ concert at the Marienkirche in Berlin on April 18, 1843,65 and eighteen years later Bach attended Ritter's dedicatory recital on the new Domorgel in Magdeburg.66

Ritter's composition teacher at the Institute was Karl Friedrich Rungenhagen (1778-1851), a primarily self-taught musician who had firmly established himself as a composer and conductor in Berlin's musical life. The high esteem in which he was held is evident from the fact that Zelter offered Rungenhagen the position of assistant director of the Singakademie in 1815. Upon Zelter's death in 1832, Rungenhagen was elected his successor to the Singakademie, although Eduard Grell (1800-1886) and Mendelssohn, both former students of Zelter and prominent Berlin musicians, had also been candidates for the position. Rungenhagen continued his predecessors' devotion to tradition, and under his leadership the Singakademie performed Bach's St. John Passion, as well as an abbreviated version of the Mass in B Minor in 1835.67

During his sojourn in Berlin, Ritter also studied piano with Ludwig Berger (1777-1839),68 a concert virtuoso who had taught the young Mendelssohn.69 However, it was not Ritter's teachers in Berlin but two scholars that he met there, Georg Pölchau (1773-1836), and Carl Georg Vivigens von Winterfeld (1784-1852), who significantly altered the direction of Ritter's life. Both men owned large music libraries--Pölchau had purchased many items from the estate of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788),70 and Winterfeld had collected and copied numerous music manuscripts during his travels throughout Italy in 1812 and 1813--and it is evident that they shared their library holdings with Ritter and encouraged him to pursue his interests in music history.71 Without a doubt, Pölchau and Winterfeld can be credited with showing Ritter "new ways in the history of music, particularly organ music."72 In Winterfeld, Ritter discovered an especially kindred spirit who shared his enthusiasm for music history and for church music. Years later, Ritter fondly remembered his Berlin mentor by dedicating the sixth volume of Der Orgelfreund to him,73 and in his autobiographical letter of 1857, Ritter specifically mentions Winterfeld as having been of significant influence on him while in Berlin.74

Later Years in Erfurt

In April of 1835 Ritter left Berlin to return to his former post as organist at the Andreaskirche in Erfurt, but he did not resume his previous teaching posts at the Andreasschule (since 1830) and at the Augustinerschule (since 1831).75 Ritter instead accepted a new teaching position at the Barfüsser-und-Thomas-Mädchen Mittelschule, and three years later he became headmaster of a Knabenoberschule.76

J. I. Müller, Ritter's former music teacher at the Erfurt Teachers Seminary and organist at the Kaufmännerkirche, died in April of 1839, and Ritter was appointed his successor on July 1 of that year.77 The organist position at the Kaufmännerkirche was traditionally reserved for prominent virtuosos. Centuries earlier such renowned organists as Heinrich Buttstett (1666-1727), who had received the title Ratsorganist in 1693, and Johann Bernhard Bach (1676-1749), a distant cousin of J. S. Bach and organ teacher of Walther, had served as organist at the Kaufmännerkirche.78 Before Ritter, the post had been filled by Kittel, G. H. Kluge (1789-1835), and, of course, his teacher Müller. Both the minister and congregation enthusiastically supported church music, and Müller had regularly presented concerts that were reviewed in the Erfurt newspaper.79 Records indicate that Ritter had performed in concert only two times before this appointment--in Weimar in 1834, probably jointly with the Leipzig organist-composer Carl Ferdinand Becker (1804-1877),80 and in August of 1838 during the fourth Songfest in Jena.81 However, Ritter must have concertized on other occasions as well. It was thus indeed quite an honor for Ritter, who was not yet twenty-eight years of age, to be selected to this prestigious post.

The Kaufmännerkirche organist position was coupled with teaching duties at the Stadtschule. According to a personnel evaluation form for the academic year 1840-1841, Ritter demonstrated "skill in teaching, which with increasing experience will still undoubtedly grow."82 The anonymous critic also noted that Ritter was eager to quit his teaching duties, since "for him . . . music [is] closer to the heart."83 In fact, Ritter later complained to the pastor that he did not enjoy the double position as organist/teacher, for it "demands too much of my health."84 In 1839 the music reviewer Gustav Keferstein, who appreciated Ritter's talents and understood his dilemma, had already expressed his hope that Ritter would receive another government grant, since he was "too busy teaching and earning a living . . . to be able to develop and improve his musical talent completely."85

There is no mention of the subjects Ritter was responsible for at any of his Erfurt academic positions. However, he must have given music lessons, either officially or privately, since his pedagogical techniques in piano and composition were discussed briefly in two separate reviews. Keferstein, in an 1839 article on musical activities in Erfurt, observed that Ritter followed the Logier method of group instruction and harmony lessons for keyboard students.86 Ritter must have learned of this approach while in Berlin, where Johann Bernhard Logier (1777-1846) had lived from 1821 until 1826.87 A second comment about Ritter's teaching appeared in another review by Keferstein in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. In 1842 he noted that Ritter's students composed commendable fugues and that Ritter himself followed the principles of Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), the author of two instructional manuals for the musically untrained.88

Ritter married sometime during his stay in Erfurt, probably during his years of service at the Kaufmännerkirche. His wife, a native of Erfurt and daughter of a blacksmith, had lived on Gotthard Street, where Ritter had his home as a young boy.89 Robert Eitner, in his biographical article on Ritter, reports, without specifying a date, that Ritter's wife received a "considerable inheritance" from her father.90 The money from the inheritance must have been welcome, since the salary from Ritter's prestigious teacher/organist position was small, and they always needed some additional income.91

During his Erfurt years Ritter conducted and performed at the King's Birthday Festival, and he organized a series of local concerts in which he participated both as a piano soloist and as a member of an ensemble. He also taught piano, composed music, contributed articles to the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, and began to edit keyboard works for Gotthilf Wilhelm Körner (1809-1865), who had established a music publishing firm in the town in 1838. During the 1840s Ritter and Körner, with whom he formed an enduring friendship, co-edited a number of keyboard collections, some of which contained works of the older masters that Ritter himself had copied earlier from manuscripts.92

Merseburg

The year 1843 was a crucial turning point in Ritter's life. Von Eichhorn, the Prussian Minister of Schools who had earlier secured a grant for Ritter's studies in Berlin, offered Ritter a position as second director of the Berlin Domchor.93 This invitation is particularly significant, since Von Eichhorn was not always helpful to young musicians. Just a few years later he thwarted several attempts by Mendelssohn to establish a conservatory for the arts in Berlin. Such a move led Mendelssohn's older sister Fanny to indignantly remark that "this person, Eichhorn, really seems to have sworn death to any free intellectual activity . . . ."94 However, as "a political representative of the Protestant Church"95 and one who was interested in church music, Von Eichhorn must have sensed a special camaraderie in Ritter. Around the same time as Von Eichhorn's offer, Wilhelm Schneider (1783-1843), cathedral organist in Merseburg, had died, and Ritter was asked whether he would take over the vacant position. Not surprisingly, Ritter followed "his inner call" and accepted the organist position in Merseburg, even though the salary of the Berlin directorship was four times greater.96 Church music was declining in importance, but Ritter's sense of values, undoubtedly originating from his firm religious convictions and from a devotion to the improvement of the level of organ performance, remained steadfast.

Ritter's departure for Merseburg presumably occurred in late 1843 or early 1844. Wilhelm Schneider had died on October9, 1843, and François-Joseph Fétis, in his biographical article on Ritter, named 1843 as the year when Ritter left Erfurt.97 On the other hand, Ritter himself lists 1844 as the year of his departure,98 and a brief announcement concerning his acceptance of the Merseburg position appeared in August of 1844.99

Like the Erfurt organist posts, the position as cathedral organist and music director in Merseburg was accompanied by teaching duties. Ritter served as instructor of singing and of geography at the local Gymnasium.100 He also continued to be involved in various musical activities. He founded a Liedertafel,101 a male singing society, and it is quite likely that his song, Immer 'rein in den Bund! for men's chorus dates from this era. In general, Ritter's activities as a performer, conductor, and composer slowed down considerably during his stay in Merseburg from 1843 to 1847. He no longer concertized on the piano at all, and he gave only two public organ recitals--one jointly with Becker, on October 16, 1844, in Halle,102 and another on November 10, 1845, in Merseburg.103 Ritter also conducted only once. During the Lenten season of 1846, he directed a performance of Pergolesi's (1710-1736) Stabat Mater in the Merseburg Cathedral.104 Ritter instead channeled his energies more and more toward the publication of his own works and his editions of other composers' music. During the Merseburg years, Ritter's first organ sonata, his three-volume Die Kunst des Orgelspiels, and several volumes of Der Orgelfreund appeared in print. In 1844 Ritter and his friend Körner also founded a new journal for organists, the Urania, and Ritter began to turn his attention toward historical research about the organ and organ music.

Magdeburg

Sometime during 1844, Ritter was asked to assume a position in Halle, but he declined. However, three years later, when Johann Friedrich Möller, General Superintendent of Saxony and Cathedral Minister of Magdeburg, offered Ritter the position of organist at the Cathedral, he accepted.105

As the new Magdeburg Domorganist and successor of Heinrich Leberecht August Mühling (1788-1847), Ritter finally occupied not only a highly prestigious position but also a well-paying one. Unlike his previous appointments, the Magdeburg position was not accompanied by teaching duties, and Ritter had the leisure to absorb himself completely in rewarding musical activities. One of his first accomplishments was to establish a series of public concerts. When Ritter had arrived in Magdeburg in 1847, the only public musical performances were garden concerts in the summer and the Magdeburg Cathedral choir programs, which were presented twice a month during the "regular" season. There were two music societies, but their performances were open only to members and their guests and relatives.106 Ritter quickly founded a chamber group, consisting of Mühling (probably Julius, the son of August Mühling) on the violin, someone named Meyer as cellist, and Ritter himself as pianist. By the end of 1848, Ritter was inviting "all those who like good music" to attend the trio's concerts, which were held at his residence. According to an anonymous reviewer, who described these programs as "opportunities to hear good Hausmusik," Ritter was attempting to educate an audience "that belongs to all walks of life." The reviewer also predicted that "the indirect effect of all this will certainly be felt and produce results."107 The musical situation in Magdeburg did indeed improve, for which Ritter should receive some credit.108

Ritter continued to compose during the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s, and it is quite likely that his Das Hausorchester, op.39, for piano and strings, was written for the Magdeburg chamber ensemble. Ritter concertized twice after moving to Magdeburg. In 1855 he could experience his "greatest triumph" when he was judged the best performer during a concert at the Marienkirche in Lübeck.109 His last performance was the dedicatory concert for the new Domorgel in Magdeburg in 1861.110 By the early 1860s, though, Ritter had cultivated interests in other aspects of music, and he virtually ceased composing and concertizing.

During the 1850s Ritter assisted with the renovation of organs in Magdeburg, and under his leadership all the large organs in town were newly built or restored.111 Ritter held a particularly high opinion of the organ builder Christian Adolf Reubke (1805-1875), who, although primarily self-trained, had quickly established a reputation as one of the best in Germany. Reubke moved to Magdeburg and, with Ritter's support, was awarded the contract to build new organs for the Cathedral (1858) and St. Jacobi in Magdeburg.112

Ritter's admiration for Reubke must have been mutual, for Ritter became the first music teacher of Reubke's youngest son, Carl Ludwig Gebhardt Otto (1842-1913), who later studied with Hans von Bülow (1830-1894) at the Berlin Conservatory and spent most of his professional career at the University of Halle.113 Among Ritter's other students were G. August Brandt, composer-organist, the composers Karl Martin Reinthaler (1822-1896)114 and Hermann Schroeder (1843-1909),115 and Rudolph Palme (1834-1909), who later became the Royal Music Director and organist at the Heilige Geistkirche in Magdeburg.

Ritter's life in Magdeburg was especially propitious for research, since this was the first time he had both the financial freedom and the leisure to purchase and examine numerous manuscripts. When Robert Eitner founded the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung in 1869, Ritter became one of its first members, and within a few years he contributed three scholarly essays to the society's journal, Monatshefte für Musik-Geschichte.116 Ritter also authored four monographs on early organ composers, all of which were published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung and later incorporated into his treatise Zur Geschichte des Orgelspiels.117

Ritter's last years were filled with sorrow and misfortune. During the 1873 economic crisis in Prussia, brought on in part by Bismarck's policies of protectionism and tax increases,118 Ritter lost all of his private financial holdings.119 About the same time Ritter's "musically highly talented" son passed away, an event that "robbed him [Ritter] to a large degree of life's happiness."120 The son must have shared his father's love for organ music and developed a certain proficiency on the instrument, possibly with the prospects of a brilliant career ahead of him. Following a concert at the Magdeburg Domkirche in 1869, an anonymous reviewer reported that the "son of the composer," who performed Ritter's second organ sonata, played with "welcome clarity, even in the most intricate and difficult passages."121 The son's untimely death was compounded not much later by the death of Ritter's "faithful, beloved" wife.122

During these years of personal suffering, it must have required all of Ritter's faith and strength to continue working on his Zur Geschichte. Although he maintained his position as organist at the Domkirche, Ritter withdrew from the "noisy, external world," which seemed to him increasingly remote.123

Ritter "never aimed for medals or decorations; yet he had no lack of them."124 In 1845 he was awarded the title, Royal Music Director,125 and on August24 of the following year Ritter, along with Grell and Friedrich Karl Kühmstedt (1809-1858), was named corresponding member of the Niederländischen Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der Tonkunst.126 In 1872 Ritter received the Red Eagle Award Fourth Class.127 Seven years later he was designated "Professor,"128 and in 1880 Ritter was decorated with the "Crown Order Third Class."129 In 1881, fifty-one organist-composers, including such contemporaries as Gustav Merkel (1827-1885) and Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901), contributed compositions in honor of Ritter's fifty years of service as church organist. More than200 individuals and institutions from throughout Europe and even the United States subscribed to this collection of pieces, which was edited by Palme and entitled the Ritter Album für die Orgel.130

A. G. Ritter died on Wednesday, August 26, 1885, at the age of seventy-four. The preceding Sunday he had, as always, played for the morning worship service, during which he is said to have improvised a "touching" prelude to the chorale Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille. On Sunday afternoon, while preparing for the evening service, he suffered a severe heart attack and, without regaining consciousness, passed away three days later.131 Although in his last years Ritter had led such a secluded existence that hardly anyone in Magdeburg knew him any longer, a large gathering of friends attended his funeral on Saturday, August29, 1885.132  n

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