On the Road in Bach Country with Michael Barone

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

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

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

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

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

Leipzig

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

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

Thomaskirche

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

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

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

Nikolaikirche

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

Rötha

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

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

Gottfried Silbermann

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

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

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

Eisleben and Halle

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

Altenburg, Störmthal and Pomßen

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

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

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

Naumburg

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

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

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

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

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

Freiberg and Frauenstein

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

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

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

Dresden

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"In the Steps of Bach and Luther"

Francine Maté is the organist/choirmaster and the director of the Bach Festival at Grace Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. She is also a music copyright examiner in the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library of Congress. Dr. Maté received both her M.M. and D.M.A. in organ performance from The University of Michigan as a student of Marilyn Mason.

On July 10, 2003, I began one of the most interesting trips of my life, The University of Michigan's 49th Historic Tour led by Marilyn Mason. This was my first trip to Germany, and was less than two days after my Bach organ recital which concluded the Grace Church, Georgetown, Bach Festival. Bach's music in my heart and fingers, off I went to play, examine and hear some of the organs on which Johann Sebastian Bach played and performed.

The trip across the Atlantic was my fourth, the first being in 1982, and the last in 1996. Technology and terrorism made for differences in this trip from the other three trips. On the technology side, computer/television monitors located throughout the aircraft mapped our progress across the Atlantic. An on-time arrival in Frankfurt on Friday morning allowed me to team up with others coming from other cities, including Marilyn Mason, and we had a chance to catch up before departing on an Airbus to Berlin.

I was able to see the Berlin skyline on this clear and beautiful day. We gathered our bags, and shortly our trip tour guide, Franz, and our bus driver, Rheinhart, met us and ferried us off to the bus which would be our transport for our two weeks in Germany. Our hotel in Berlin was located only about two blocks from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. This church was heavily bombed in World War II, and, like Coventry Cathedral in England, has been rebuilt on the adjacent ground with a modern church. The bombed out older church was left basically as it was after the bombing.

Naumburg

We left Berlin on Saturday morning to proceed to Naumburg for five nights. En route, we spent the morning and afternoon in Wittenburg. Although we did not play or hear the organ at the Schlosskirche in Wittenburg, we learned much of Luther's history from a devoted tour guide. Even though Bach would have probably been a highly acclaimed composer and musician if he were only to be a court musician, the Lutheran Reformation most certainly set the stage for Bach's career.

The Zacharias Hildebrandt organ in the Wenzelskirche in Naumburg has one of the most beautiful organ cases that we saw on the trip as well as a remarkable sound. One of Bach's sons-in-law was the organist here, and in 1746 Bach traveled from Leipzig to Naumburg to examine the final installation of the instrument. We were fortunate not only to play this beautiful three-manual instrument, but also hear three organ recitals and attend a lecture about the organ given by Mr. Verner from the Eule Organ Company. Mr. Verner had recently completed the restoration of the instrument to its original state, and is currently restoring the organ in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig.

Marilyn Mason performed one organ recital, and Irene Greulich, the organist at the Wenzelskirche, performed two additional recitals. Dr. Mason's recital included pieces from every period in Bach's life and ended with the Toccata in C, BWV 564.

This beautiful tracker instrument was changed to electro-pneumatic action in 1933. The restoration by Mr. Verner and the Eule Organ Company included returning the organ to its original mechanical action. There was some damage from bombs in 1944 during World War II, and therefore, some pipes had to be replaced. Many of the older pipes were taken to metallurgy laboratories for chemical analysis to match the new metal to the original metal. There were seven bellows on the original Naumburg instrument, and all could be worked by one person. The person pumping the bellows read the musical score of the work being played in order to know how much wind was needed.

The Hildebrandt organ, as all the organs we played in Germany, is pitched up one step. Pedalboards and keyboards on each of the organs we played were each unique. Unlike the American AGO pedalboard, there is no uniformity in these German Baroque pedalboards except for the fact that they are all flat. The pedalboard of the organ at the Wenzelskirche for example is quite large, and middle C on the manuals did not line up with the pedals as I'm used to. I was so excited to play my first Bach organ, but these adjustments combined with hearing the music up one step threw me for a loop! I had a concern before the trip that the benches would be too high for me, since I'm 5¢1≤ tall. They were all workable for me, thank goodness.

Eisenach

On Bastille Day, July 14, we headed off to Eisenach, Bach's birthplace and a city Martin Luther lived in as a young child. We visited the Georgenkirche where Bach was baptized. The same baptismal font used to baptize Bach is still in the front of the church. Marilyn Mason pointed out to us that we would see three baptismal fonts on this trip: Bach's, Handel's and Luther's. Although Bach had his first organ lessons here, the organ in the Georgenkirche is not the same one Bach played.

Our next stop was Wartburg Castle which is high up on a mountain in Eisenach. Our bus took us most of the way up, but we hiked the remainder on this cool and sunny day. The views from the top of the mountain and Wartburg Castle were spectacular. The German countryside was beautiful. Living close to Northern Virginia, I found the part of Germany where we traveled, as well as the view from Wartburg Castle into the valley below, to be very similar to Virginia. There were many farms, green everywhere and rolling hills. There were also many unusual windmills that we could see here as well as all over the countryside. Franz told us that the blades sometimes simply take off and whirl until they hit something! The inside of Wartburg Castle is extremely ornate, and seeing the room where Martin Luther lived and translated the New Testament of the Bible was breathtaking.

Waltershausen

On July 15 we started our day out in the city of Waltershausen at the Stadtkirche which has a newly restored three-manual Trost organ. The sound of the organ is magnificent and powerful, and the organ case is extremely ornate and beautiful. The organist, Theophil Heinke, met us there and assisted with stop pulling as we played, in addition to giving us a demonstration. This instrument is the largest Baroque organ in Thuringia. The keys were somewhat difficult to play, but the pedalboard was user friendly.

Arnstadt

We then proceeded to the Bachkirche in Arnstadt. The organ is not the instrument Bach played, but the organ loft is the one in which Bach and Maria Barbara were supposedly caught kissing before they were married! There are seven historic stops from Bach's time on this instrument. The town square just outside the church has a modern statue of the young Bach.

Altenburg

Our next stop was the city of Altenburg. We visited the Altenburg castle and the chapel on the castle grounds. There is a Trost organ in the chapel and it is virtually in the same condition as it was when Bach played a recital there in 1739. The two-manual organ was one of my favorites on our trip. The sound is glorious, and the fact that Bach played this same instrument as it now is made the event memorable. And, last but not least, the keydesk and pedalboard felt like the organ at my church at home built by A. David Moore! Some of the metal pipes were removed in World War II, but later the organ was restored to its original state. In addition to playing this wonderful organ, we saw a fascinating group of statues above the altar in front of the chapel portraying Roman soldiers viewing the risen Christ.

On July 17, we departed Naumburg, and the entire staff at the hotel were on hand to wave goodbye to our bus. We proceeded to Eisleben where Martin Luther was born and where he died. Luther preached four sermons at St. Andrew's Church in Eisleben just before he died. There were two funeral services for him, one at this church and then another in Wittenburg where he was buried under the pulpit in the Schlosskirche.

Halle

In Halle we visited the Handel House and the Marktkirche. Samuel Scheidt was organist at the Marktkirche from 1628 to 1630, and Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow from 1684 to 1713. In the Marktkirche we saw the baptismal font of Handel, yet another touching sight. We know that Handel studied organ with Zachow and played the instrument here. The Handel House in Halle has a quite extensive collection of scores, instruments and paintings. Bach was offered a position at the Marktkirche, but he declined because the salary was not sufficient.

Leipzig

After visiting Halle, we made our way to Leipzig, Bach's home from 1723 until his death in 1750. One of our first excursions was to visit the Thomaskirche where Bach was organist and cantor. We placed flowers on his grave in the Thomaskirche.

Attending the 9:30 service on July 20 at the Thomaskirche was a most touching experience. Although the organs are not the ones Bach played, we do know that Bach's organ music sounded in this very space. Bach is buried in the front of the church, and there are always flowers on his grave. The flowers that our group placed on his grave on Friday were very lovingly placed in a vase by the time we returned for church on Sunday morning. The Bachchor of Stuttgart was the choir for the day, and Ullrich Böhme was the organist. The choir sang many movements of Bach motets, and the postlude was the Fugue in g minor, BWV 578. Each hymn was introduced by a chorale prelude just as would have been done by Bach. Everyone sat and listened to the postlude and then left in silence.

Rötha

Next, we found ourselves in the tiny little town of Rötha which is just outside of Leipzig. There are two wonderful Silbermann organs in Rötha: a stunning two-manual in St. George's Church, and a splendid little one-manual in St. Mary's Church. The Marilyn Mason Organ at The University of Michigan, built by Fisk, is very similar to the Silbermann at St. George's, and Charles Fisk did extensive study of the Silbermann organs in Germany before building that organ. Having now played them both, I can affirm that both instruments are works of art.

I was surprised that after a lifetime of thinking the only wonderful organs were those having four or five manuals, I absolutely loved the one-manual Silbermann in St. Mary's Church! Bill Gudger did a wonderful job of stop pulling for me as I played the "St. Anne" Prelude. Susan Broughton, the organist at the two churches in Rötha, was very helpful to us during our stay in that lovely town.

Störmthal

We left Rötha, and traveled to the village of Störmthal which is very close to both Rötha and Leipzig. The organ in the Dorfkirche in Störmthal is another delightful one-manual, and is the only Hildebrandt that is still in its original condition. The organ was probably designed by Gottfried Silbermann. The façade pipes were removed during World War I and were replaced by tin façade pipes during a renovation in 1934. The organ was installed in 1723, and Bach examined and accepted the organ. He performed the dedication recital on November 2, 1723, in which he directed his Cantata No. 194.

Pomssen

We heard and played the oldest organ in Saxony in the Wehrkirche, located in the little town of Pomssen. We were treated to a short recital by Professor Burger from Leipzig which included a piece by the Spanish Baroque composer Francisco Correa. The Wehrkirche was first a Romanesque church. The late Renaissance and early Baroque saw Italian influences, and one painting in the church comes from Italy. The first organ was built in the early 17th century, but the builder is not known. Bach came here and conducted his Cantata No. 157 which was commissioned by this church. The lovely one-manual organ has 15 stops. The Wehrkirche was one of the few churches we visited that had pew boxes. I did not play this instrument because Professor Burger told us that there are bats living in the organ loft!

Berlin

Our final organ to visit was the Amalia organ in Berlin. Beate Kruppke is the organist there. She was so very gracious on this warm, dry day to have bottled water and juices for us to drink on our arrival in the afternoon. She played a short program for us which included a set of variations by Georg Böhm. C.P.E. Bach wrote his six keyboard sonatas for this very organ.

One of our many side trips was a bus/walking tour of Berlin. I had not realized before how large the city is. Many tour books suggest that even avid walkers often resort to taking the bus or hailing a cab. Some "cabs" were bicycles with seats in the back for their riders! Berlin has many museums, and one could spend days just going to museums. The former Berlin Wall was breathtaking and the Brandenburg Gate spectacular. Napoleon "took" the statue on the top of the Brandenburg Gate, but it is now back to its original state. There are now modern statues across the street of cannons protecting the Brandenburg Gate.

We had a wonderful farewell dinner on our last night together in Berlin. Marilyn Mason had told us earlier in the trip that she wanted us each on that last night to tell something significant about what the trip meant to us. Each person had such insightful thoughts, and I enjoyed all of my discussions and experiences with all the people on the trip. My thanks to Marilyn Mason for making this superb trip possible! The German people were so wonderful to us all, and thanks to Franz and Rheinhart for their care of us.

Photos are by the author unless indicated otherwise.Francine Maté

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

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

Day 8

Altenburg

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

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

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

Saxony

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

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

Meissen

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

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

Coswig

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

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

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

Loschwitz

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

Dresden

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

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

Kreuzkirche

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

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

Day 9

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

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

St. Nicholas, Langhennersdorf

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

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

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

St. Petrikirche, Freiberg

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

St. Mary's Cathedral

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

Grosshartmannsdorf and Zethau

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

Parish Church, Nassau

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

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

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

Day 10

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

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

Lohmen

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

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

Reinhardtsgrimma

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

Frauenstein

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

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

When a feisty old lady from
Kassel

Tried the organ at Altenburg
Castle,

It is sad to relate

A pipe fell from the Great,

And her fingers are no longer
facile.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day 11

Prague

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

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

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

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

Basilica of St. James/St. Jacob

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

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

Strahov Monastery

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

Tyne Church

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

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

Postlude

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

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

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

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

<www.pipedreams.org&gt;.

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

Through ancient cathedrals so
pietal,

With organs of endless varietal,

With Baronial splendor,

Apt words he did tender.

Heartfelt praises and thanks to
our Michael!  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

three principals, namely:

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

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

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

4. Mixtur 3 ranks

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

6. Fleute douce 4' and finally a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

                  7.              Ibid.

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

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

                  10.           Ibid. p. 3

                  11.           Ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pipedreams Organ Tour, April 21-May 3, 2002, Part 1

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

"Travel back in time. Open that church door and peer inside. Hear the incredible, vital voice of instruments you have only read about . . . climb the winding stairs to view the organ up close. If you wish, lay your hands on its keyboards and let its time-honored voice sing just for you. Prepare to be enchanted . . ." Who could possibly resist such an enticing invitation? Certainly not I, nor--apparently--the forty-three others who lost no time in signing up for this extraordinary travel opportunity sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio and hosted by Pipedreams' own J. Michael Barone.

For this septuagenarian, who had never before ventured across the "Big Pond," this was, indeed, a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Our itinerary was an ambitious one. We would be visiting at least forty organs in eleven days--an interesting mix of old and new instruments in a variety of venues including castles, palaces, museums, cathedrals and village churches.

It was my intention to keep some kind of travel diary and to write an article about the trip when I returned. As luck would have it, my life took some unexpected turns about that time, and many months passed before I was able to turn my attention to this self-appointed task. More than a year would have passed by the time the article reached the hands of readers. I thought long and hard about it. Perhaps I should abandon the project. In the end, I couldn't. It was a trip that deserves to be documented and shared. By now, many details, once vivid, have faded, and I apologize for the errors and omissions that are bound to occur. This is not intended to be a scholarly report in any sense. It is not about facts and figures and stop lists. The memory of this remarkable journey has been simmering away on the back burners of my mind, and I want to try to capture its essence and share some impressions with you. Here, then, is the Pipedreams Organ Tour, 2002, in retrospect.

Day 1

Early Monday morning, as we arrived from various points of embarkation, our group began to assemble in the boarding area of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Weary and jet-lagged, we were a motley crew indeed. Our ever-genial host, Michael Barone, greeted each of us warmly and presented us with a thirty-page booklet that he had prepared. In addition to a detailed itinerary, it contained a fine introductory essay, photographs, maps, stop lists, website links and other pertinent and helpful information. It would become our vade-mecum for the next eleven days. In a matter of mere minutes, a group of strangers were rapidly becoming "family," and the final leg of our journey to Berlin was about to begin.

The flight from Amsterdam to Berlin is a relatively short one, and before long, we found ourselves deplaning. Tegel airport--as one might expect--is large, bustling and modern. Had our ears not been surrounded by myriad voices all speaking in German, it might have been the airport of any great city. We were warmly welcomed by our German tour guide, Sonja Ritter, and our bus driver, Manuela Huwe. Eventually, our luggage was duly accounted for and stowed, and we climbed aboard our large and comfortable modern tour bus. The adventure had begun!

Our itinerary promised a brief "panoramic tour" of the city, and it did not disappoint. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day--the first sunshine Berlin had seen in this month of April! As we drove through the city, flowering trees were everywhere. Everyone in Berlin seemed to be outside enjoying the sunshine. Crowded sidewalk cafes and mounted policemen on horseback were reminiscent of the isle of Manhattan on a warm day in spring.

Our only stop in Berlin that first day was at the Breitscheidplatz for a brief lunch break. The plaza, a popular tourist attraction, is dominated by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which was built at the end of the nineteenth century. Bombed by the British in 1943, the ruined church tower is all that remains. It has been preserved as a memorial, and a new, modern church of blue-stained glass now stands beside it. Some in our group chose to explore the church. Others wandered off in search of lunch and souvenirs, and some seized the opportunity to acquire some euros at a nearby bank. Too sleep-deprived and exhausted to move, I chose to sit on a bench in the warm sun and reflect on my first impressions of this great city. Berlin exudes an almost overwhelming aura of energy, vitality and transformation--a modern-day phoenix rising from the ashes. It is a city of starkly dramatic contrasts between old and new--building for the future, while preserving and learning from its past.

Once again aboard our bus, we headed for Potsdam, some eighteen miles to the south and west. If Berlin was colorful and bright, Potsdam seemed gray and somber. Older, smaller, less urban and "touristy," we were now in what had once been East Germany before the reunification in 1990. Potsdam was bombed by the British in 1945, and even today--more than a half-century later--the signs are still visible. Large, ugly, institutional-looking apartment buildings bear witness to the recent Communist occupation. But Potsdam, like Berlin, is also a city of contrasts. Palaces, formal gardens and landscaped parks speak eloquently of the wealth and splendor of the past.

Sanssouci Park

Our first stop was Sanssouci Park, the home of Frederick the Great's eighteenth-century summer palace. Neither words, nor even photographs, can begin to do justice to this incredible monument to royal self-indulgence. Wilhelm Frederick II, the philosopher king, had a passion for things French, and spoke only that language. An accomplished pupil of Quantz, he was famous for his daily chamber music concerts and midnight suppers, at which he surrounded himself with an elite circle of intellectuals and artists, among them such luminaries as Voltaire. It was for Frederick that Bach wrote The Musical Offering after visiting the king in Potsdam in 1747. The lavish, single-story palace, with its yellow, rococo façade, sits high atop what had once been only a desolate hill. The palace is not open on Monday, but we were able to walk about and take in the panoramic view of the park below. Walking across the vast plaza and past the fountains, we made the long descent down the broad and elegant staircase, past six tiers of terraced vineyards with their glassed-in alcoves designed to protect the orange and fig trees. Having reached the great fountain at the bottom, one is able to turn and look back up the hill toward the palace. It is a truly extraordinary sight, now etched indelibly in my memory.

From there, a leisurely stroll took us through more of the park with its beautifully landscaped gardens, temples, statues, pavilions and grottos. Approaching the edge of the park, we arrived at the lovely Friedenskirche (Peace Church), a picturesque Italianate structure modeled after an early Christian basilica and complete with campanile. Built by Frederick IV, the nineteenth-century, "romantic" Prussian king, the church was completed in 1848, the same year that the organ was dedicated.

The original 18-stop instrument, built by Gottlieb Heise, employed casework designed to encircle the rose window. Over the years, additions and alterations were made by various builders. A major rebuilding and dramatic enlargement by Sauer, in 1909, resulted in a new façade which covered the rose window. During the twentieth century, the revisions continued, resulting in the replacement of many Romantic registers by Baroque stops. Plans are now underway, and funds being raised, for a major rebuilding project which will return the organ to something like its original nineteenth-century state. The acoustics are fine, and in spite of its checkered past, the organ gave a decent accounting of itself under the capable hands of Director of Church Music, Matthias Jacob, who welcomed us warmly and played a mini-recital of Bach, Reger and Franck.

Schuke Orgelbau

Back on the bus once more, we headed for the Schuke Orgelbau, the last stop of the day before checking into our hotel. The Schuke organ factory is located in the heart of the old Dutch Quarter. It was here, after the Thirty Years' War, that Frederick I, the "Soldier King," commissioned the building of 134 red brick, gabled houses in the Dutch style, meant to attract workers from Holland to help with Potsdam's building boom at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Schuke company was founded in 1820 by Gottlieb Heise, builder of the original Friedens-kirche organ. Since 1894, it has been under the Schuke name and has survived two world wars as well as the enforced nationalization which took place between 1972 and 1990. Not a small shop by any means, Schuke employs twenty-eight craftsmen, including a physicist and a design engineer. With an international clientele, the company designs, builds, restores, reconstructs and maintains organs of every size in every venue.

East Germans seem to be early risers. A working day at the Schuke company begins at 6:30 and ends at 2:30. By the time we arrived, most of the workers had already left or were leaving for the day. The quaint, picturesque setting imbued the whole enterprise with an ambience of charm and informality. Our tour guide was a young physicist from the University of Potsdam. We wandered up and down and through many small rooms which occupied several adjoining buildings, all accessible through a small, cobblestone courtyard. For some in our group, it was their first visit to an organ shop, and there were many questions, some of which were difficult for our guide to field because of the language barrier. Fortunately, our group included the American organ builder, Roland Rutz, who was able to greatly facilitate the communication problem.

A church, a palace, a royal chapel, and an organ factory--not bad for an afternoon's work! By now, we were beyond exhaustion and more than ready to head for our small hotel, which was located in a quiet, residential Potsdam neighborhood. We would be on our own for the remainder of the evening. It was still early, and a few of the more adventurous in the group headed back to Berlin via public transportation. After being reunited with our luggage, and having stretched our legs a bit, most of us were quite content to settle on a leisurely meal right there in our hotel.

Day 2

The restorative powers of a good night's sleep had worked their wonders, and after an early breakfast, we gathered in the lobby eager to board our bus for what promised to be a very full day in Berlin. The fact that the day had dawned cold and rainy had not dampened our spirits. Our driver, Manuela, drove us back to Berlin by a different route, more residential than that by which we had come before. Lakes, streams and lovely forested areas abounded. Green was the color of the day, and signs of spring were everywhere. Berliners evidently love their gardens, yet their lawns seem to fend for themselves and lack the "manicured" look one expects to find in similar neighborhoods back in the States. I found the effect charming and thought again of Berlin as a city of contrasts--in this case, the rather dramatic juxtaposition of urban and rural.

Church of the Holy Cross

Our destination on this rather dark and gloomy Tuesday morning was the Kreuzberg district of Berlin and the Church of the Holy Cross. The bus let us out on the Blücherplatz, and we made our way on foot to the church. The Church of the Holy Cross is one of the largest and most prominent in Berlin. Built between 1885 and 1888, it suffered severe damage in WW II, and the interior was completely destroyed. Although a rather limited reconstruction in the 1960s had made the church habitable again, many problems still remained, and it had become a financial liability to the community, rather than an asset. As a result of many years of creative and foresightful cooperative planning in the 1980s, the church has undergone a major reconstruction and revitalization. After several years, the project was finally completed, and the building was inaugurated in 1995. Recognized as an historic monument, its exterior remains virtually unchanged. Inside is another story altogether. While preserving the integrity of the main room (the worship space), this very large interior has been miraculously transformed into an ecologically sound, multi-use facility, which serves the entire community. Side galleries, open stairways, windows and skylights, stone, glass and steel: all of these elements have been combined into a harmonious blend of old and new. Michael Barone has referred to it as "creative contemporary recycling at every level." Wherever one happens to be in this vast space, the effect is visually thrilling.

But enough about the building. We had come to see, hear and play the organ--an organ no less extraordinary than the building it occupies. The organ is E. & G. G. Hook, Opus 553, II/39, built in 1870 for the First Unitarian Church of Woburn, Massachusetts. In 1991, the organ was threatened with destruction when the congregation ceased to function there, and the building was designated for other uses. The Organ Clearing House came to the rescue and removed the instrument, but a local buyer could not be found at that time. Fortunately, the organ specialist, Uwe Pape, was able to arrange the purchase of the instrument by the Kreuzberg chapter of the Evangelical Church. This was followed by a period of uncertainty while the organ waited in storage. Finally, the Church of the Holy Cross was designated as its new home, and after careful planning, the installation and revoicing was accomplished in 2000-01 by the Eule company. The organ was in good condition and, except for some releathering and the repairing of some cracks in the windchests, it remains unaltered. In its original Woburn incarnation, the organ had been buried in a narrow chamber and forced to speak into an acoustically dead room. Here, a beautiful, new, free-standing organ case has been designed by two of the architects who were involved in the recent renovation. The organ is now visually "at home" in its new surroundings and speaks, for the first time, into a good acoustic. Perhaps even more importantly, Berlin now possesses a fine example of nineteenth-century organ building. Kantor Gunter Kennel greeted us warmly, introduced us to the organ, answered questions and played for us. Afterwards there was ample opportunity for those who wished to try the instrument themselves.

Charlottenburg Palace

Back on the bus again, our next stop was Charlottenburg Palace, the largest palace in Berlin. Located on the Spree River and once approachable by boat, it was built between 1695 and 1699 as a rural summer home for Sophie-Charlotte, wife of the future King Frederick I of Prussia. Over the years, it was added to in stages and finally completed by Frederick the Great with the addition of an east wing in 1746. Severely damaged by Allied bombing in 1943, the palace has been meticulously restored and is now a major tourist attraction.

We took the guided tour and enjoyed viewing the many priceless paintings, tapestries and furnishings, including the famous porcelain collection of Frederick I. But the major attraction for us on this gloomy Tuesday was the royal chapel and its organ. Having completed the formal tour, we were escorted into the small chapel. Once free of the museum-like context of viewing roped-off treasures, we seemed to have quietly slipped into another dimension where we found ourselves at once immersed in sumptuous, eighteenth-century splendor. To actually experience this architectural detail at close range and in three dimensions was both wonderful, and at the same time, a bit overwhelming.

The original instrument had been a 1706 Schnitger of two manuals, twenty-six ranks. Even though the organ had been removed and stored for safekeeping in the cellar in 1943, it was totally destroyed by fire bombs the following year. Fortunately, Alexander and Karl Schuke had been planning a thorough restoration and had carefully documented and photographed the instrument in its every detail. The restoration by Karl Schuke was completed in 1970. In the center of one of the long sidewalls, high above the floor of the chapel, Haupt-werk and Pedal divisions and console are housed within a chamber, which sits behind the arched opening into the room. The Rückpositiv, in an elaborately carved and ornamented frame, projects into the room. In spite of this rather "quirky" physical design, the organ has a pleasant sound and a clear presence that fills the room nicely. Professor Klaus Eichhorn was on hand to greet us and play works by Sweelinck, Scheidemann and Weckman. Although time was short, several in our group seized the opportunity to try the instrument. The organ loft is very small and able to accommodate only a few people at a time. I was content to remain below, absorbing the sights and sounds of another age in this royal chapel where kings had worshipped. I must say that exiting the palace and finding ourselves abruptly back in the twenty-first century was a bit of a jolt.

Berlin Konzerthaus

Back on the bus once more, we headed for the Gendarmenmarkt, the largest plaza in Berlin, and thought by many to be the most beautiful square in all of Europe. "Take-out" sandwiches sufficed for our lunch break and helped to keep us on schedule, as we were expected shortly at the Konzerthaus for an organ demonstration.

Dominating the large plaza, the Berlin Konzerthaus is an imposing structure. Flanked by the German cathedral (the Berlin Dom) on one side and the French cathedral on the other, it stands today as an outstanding example of European concert hall reconstruction. Originally designed in 1801 as the State Theater, it has survived many disasters and reconstructions over the past two hundred years. Severely damaged in WW II, it was first made structurally safe, and then, starting in 1979, systematically restored to its original design. In 1984 it reopened as the Berlin Konzerthaus, now home to the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra.

The organ, IV/74, built by the Jehmlich firm of Dresden, is of modern, eclectic design. Mounted high on the wall above the orchestra, the case has been beautifully integrated into the overall architectural scheme, which reflects the classical elements and lavish details of an earlier age. In addition to the attached, mechanical-action console, there is a second, movable console with electric key action, which sits on the concert stage. Organist Joachim Dalitz greeted us and gave us a brief demonstration and mini-recital while we were free to wander about if we wished. Somehow, for me, the visual aspect of the instrument in this grand concert venue seemed to promise far more in terms of sound than it actually delivered. There was absolutely nothing one could point to that was "wrong" or unpleasant in any way. But to my ears, something ineffable was missing. But there was no time now for further reflection, and we would be back again that evening for an orchestra concert. In the meantime, it was out on to the plaza again, and time to make our way across to the Berlin Dom.

Berlin Dom

This magnificent domed building, inspired by the Italian Renaissance, was built by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1905, replacing the original eighteenth-century cathedral which he had demolished in spite of the sharp criticism of some of his contemporaries. The Berlin Dom is home to what was once the largest organ in all of Germany and the largest instrument ever built by Wilhelm Sauer. The organ, IV/113, was inaugurated at the same time as the Cathedral church itself in 1905. Sauer (1831-1916) established his own organbuilding shop in 1855. Having traveled widely, and having absorbed the ideas of such distinguished builders as E.F. Walcker and Cavaillé-Coll, he became one of the most famous builders in all of Europe. Most of the nineteenth-century instruments in Berlin were built by him, and the Berlin Dom instrument is considered by many to be his crowning achievement. Over the course of the century, many changes were made, reflecting the current trends in organ design as well as the devastation of two world wars. In 1917, the tin façade pipes were donated to the "war effort" and later replaced in 1927. In 1932, at the instigation of cathedral organist Fritz Heitmann, several neo-baroque changes were made in the Positiv. In 1942, a plan was proposed by the Rudolf von Beckerath firm for an extensive, neo-baroque rebuild which, because of the war, was never seriously considered. When the Cathedral dome was de-stroyed in a 1944 bombing raid, the organ miraculously survived unscathed, only to be subsequently damaged by theft and vandalism and exposure to the elements, as the dome remained open and was not repaired until 1953. Since then, some twenty years later a serious and thorough restoration of both cathedral and organ was undertaken and finally completed in 1996. The earlier neo-baroque tonal modifications have been removed, and once again the instrument speaks in the warm, romantic orchestral sounds intended by its builder.

The Dom is a major tourist attraction, and on the day that we were there, it was crowded with people. We were ushered up to one of the side galleries where we heard a short, regularly scheduled recital played by the young organist, Thomas Sauer. Unfortunately, I think we were in a very poor location for hearing the organ. Although we did not have programs, I recall the selections as being surprisingly eclectic for such a Romantic instrument. The program certainly demonstrated the organ's versatility in handling a great diversity of styles--perhaps not always with authenticity--but the musicianship was never in doubt. Due in part, perhaps, to my mounting fatigue and our less-than-satisfactory seats, I found my attention wandering a bit during the recital. A rather strange phenomenon seemed to be occurring. The sound of the organ and the lavish, visual grandeur with which we were surrounded were being upstaged by this extraordinarily magnificent space. In spite of the cold, drizzly day, the vast interior seemed to be bathed in sunlight, and I felt em-braced by the atmosphere in a magical, timeless, and almost tangible, way. With the familiar and rousing strains of the "Finale" from the Vierne First Symphony, the spell was broken, and we were once again on our way.

"Good Tidings" Church

We would return later to the Gendarmenmarkt for dinner and a concert, but for now our destination was the Karlshorst District of Berlin and the Evangelical Church, "Good Tidings," where we would hear and play a 1755 Migendt organ, II/22. This well-traveled little instrument has a quite remarkable history. The organ was originally commissioned by Princess Anna Amalia, sister of King Frederick the Great. It was for this instrument that C.P.E. Bach wrote his Six Sonatas and dedicated them to the princess. After Anna's death in 1787, the organ was moved to a church in the Berlin suburb of Wendisch-Buch where it remained undiscovered until 1934. Plans were made for it to become a second organ at the Nikolai Church, and in 1936 it was disassembled. During the ensuing confusion of WW II, it was moved about again and miraculously preserved from harm. In 1960 it was restored by Schuke and installed in the "Good Tidings" church. This modest and charming neighborhood church provided a welcome contrast after our earlier exposure to the grandeur of palaces, concert halls and cathedrals. We learned that Roland Münch, the man who had been curator of this historic instrument since 1969, had only recently died. In his absence, we were greeted warmly by Herr Knappe and his wife, who seemed to be members of the parish. His knowledge of the instrument and the pride and joy he took in demonstrating it more than compensated for any lack of virtuosity on his part. In spite of some language difficulty, we felt welcomed and at home. No vastness here to be sure, but instead, a warm, vibrant sound that seemed to permeate every nook and cranny of the small sanctuary in a vital, but not in the least aggressive way. After the demonstration, our three most serious players each took a turn along with Michael, and for the first time--but not the last--there was some hearty hymn singing.

Back at the Gendarmenmarkt, there was time for a leisurely stroll before heading to the Opernpalais restaurant for a dinner. We were divided into small groups at several tables for a pleasant and relaxing meal in quiet and elegant surroundings. Concert tickets were distributed and, having got our "second wind," we made our way back to the Konzerthaus for a symphonic concert of Schubert, Schumann and Mozart.

It was hard to believe that this was the same venue we had visited only hours earlier. The very presence of this large and enthusiastic crowd of serious music lovers seemed to breathe warmth and life into what had seemed to me earlier to be a rather cold and austere building. And indeed, why not? It was for this that the building was intended. Magic was afoot here. The musical "chemistry" generated by conductor, performers and audience had, at least for me, succeeded in invoking the spirit of "Music Past." This was indeed where Mozart had come to attend the premiere of Weber's Freischütz overture and where Wagner had conducted The Flying Dutchman. No longer just a group of American organ buffs, for one magical evening, we were Berliners, intensely proud of our musical heritage and of our concert house, which had literally risen like a glorious phoenix from its ashes. There was an intensity about this musical evening which I will not soon forget.

In spite of the lateness of the hour, our coach had not turned into a pumpkin, and we headed back to Potsdam for one last night, mulling over the days events and welcoming the opportunity to get a glimpse of Berlin at night.

Day Three

Wednesday began with a very early wake-up call. We had to have not only ourselves, but also our luggage collected, be breakfasted and at the entrance for a 7:30 departure. It was a tall order indeed. Even though the day was dark and drizzly and chillier than the day before, everyone seemed eager for the next leg of the journey.

It felt good to leave the city behind us, and it was interesting to see something of the rural countryside. We passed by vineyards and fields of white asparagus, the Hartz Mountains always visible in the background. Sonja's commentary enhanced our enjoyment of the ride, and she also took advantage of the travel time to provide us with some interesting historical background about our first stop of the day. As Sonja would succinctly put it in her very precise English, "Destination: Wittenberg."

Wittenberg

The small medieval city of Wittenberg was founded on the northern bank of the Elbe River in the twelth century. We were headed for the Schlosskirche (Castle Church). Both castle and church were built during the reign of Frederick the Wise between 1490 and 1511, and we were about to step through yet another window into the past. We began with a walking tour of the castle. Five hundred years embraces a lot of history as well as a lot of destruction and painstaking restoration. Of the original castle, only the exterior remains. History can be read about, and architectural details can be photographed and described. But one is never quite prepared for the experience of being there in that space and imagining what it might have been like to live within these walls so long ago.

From there we proceeded into the church. It was on the original doors of this church that Luther had posted his 95 Theses in 1517. But we had come to hear the Ladegast organ. Friederich Ladegast (1818-1905) was an important nineteenth-century builder whose shop produced more than 200 organs. Influenced by the ideas of both Andreas Silbermann and Cavaillé-Coll, he developed a sound that was a unique blend of the Baroque and the Romantic.

The original Castle Church instrument was an 1864 Ladegast of three manuals and 39 stops. In 1935 it was rebuilt by Sauer. The alterations (typical of the time) were substantial and included electrifying the action and adding a Schwellwerk. Then, in 1994, the Eule firm took on the enormous task of returning it to its original mechanical and tonal condition, although it was decided to retain the 1930s Swell. Today the organ boasts four divisions and fifty-seven stops. It was demonstrated for us on this day by organist/cantor Anne-Dore Baumgarten, who is also professor of church music at the Wittenberg seminary. Afterwards, all who wished were invited to climb the gallery stairs and play. All too soon it was time to move on, but we could not leave this historic cradle of Lutheranism without at least one rousing stanza of "A Mighty Fortress."

Out on the ancient cobbled streets, we made our way to St. Mary's, the Stadtkirche (City Church) of Wittenberg. It was here that Martin Luther preached, and here that he was married and buried. Although it is the oldest church in Wittenberg (begun in the thirteenth century), its organ, completed in 1983, is a contemporary mechanical-action instrument by Sauer of three manuals and fifty-three stops. Herr Lamberti was on hand to greet us and to demonstrate the instrument with works by Bach and Mendelssohn.

With a full day still ahead of us, we scrambled back aboard the bus and continued on our way as we consumed the "Bach's lunches" with which we had been provided. This time our destination was the historic town of Halle.

Halle

Located on the River Saale, an important tributary of the Elbe, Halle was first mentioned in the tenth century, although it is located on what appears to be the site of ancient Bronze Age and Ice Age settlements. During the Middle Ages, the river provided fish, drinking water and transport for the town's most important resource, salt. Today, Halle is a major industrial center as well as the largest city in the District of Saxony-Anhalt with a population of more than a quarter of a million people. We were headed for the famous Marktplatz at city center with its Handel Monument and the famous "Five Towers" which dominate the landscape. Our first stop would be the historic Marktkirche where Handel had been baptized and received his first communion. Here he had his first organ lessons with his teacher Zachow and played his first services as Zachow's substitute .

The church originally possessed a sixteenth-century instrument by Esauas and David Beck, which was praised by Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum. The Beck orgorgan no longer exists and in 1984, the Schuke company built a modern instrument of three manuals and fifty-six stops. Of special interest to us was the small Reichel organ of one manual and six stops. Played from the back of its beautifully carved case, it had been added to the cathedral in 1664 in order to expand the musical possibilities. Over the years, the organ has unfortunately been "tampered with," and in 1972, the Schuke firm restored it to the original mean-tone temperament and brought it back to its original specification. Students of Konrad Brandt demonstrated both instruments for us briefly, and then it was on to the Halle Cathedral for a demonstration by Konrad Brandt of the 1851 instrument by Wäldner. It was here at the Cathedral that Handel had been appointed probationary organist for one year before he resigned and left for Hamburg. Following that, we took a guided tour of the Handel museum before boarding our bus once more. Destination: Merseburg Cathedral.

Merseburg Cathedral

The history of Merseburg can be traced back as far as the ninth century. The cornerstone of the Cathedral was laid in the year 1015 and since then, the edifice has been rebuilt several times. The history of the Cathedral is a complicated one, even for this time and place. But of particular interest to us was the 1855 Ladegast, IV/80, which sits high in the rear gallery of this immense and ancient building. It was for the inauguration of this instrument that Liszt composed his largest organ work, the Fantasia and Fugue on "Ad nos." Unfortunately, the work was not finished in time, and so the cathedral organist, a pupil of Liszt, played instead the Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H. In 1961, the organ was "baroqued," a fate which befell so many fine examples of nineteenth-century German organ building. After the pendulum had swung back, a provisional restoration was completed in 1995. Now a more thorough and complete restoration is in progress to be completed by 2003.

At the moment, the only playable instrument in the Cathedral was a small Ladegast organ of one manual and ten stops which is being used as a substitute until the restoration project is complete. It sits quite unpretentiously down on the main floor to the side of one of the transepts. Built in 1850, it is the oldest extant Ladegast instrument. It was demonstrated for us by the organist, Michael Schönheit, who played a short program of amazing variety: Bach, Mendelssohn, Rheinberger and Brahms. Herr Schönheit's busy schedule did not permit him to linger, but since this was our last scheduled stop for the day, arrangements were made for us to stay and try the little organ. It had been a very long day--a castle, a museum and five organs. By now we were all, without exception, hungry, exhausted and chilled to the bone.

And then something quite extraordinary happened. I no longer recall who was the first to play as we gathered around the organ, but I can only describe it as a kind of magical, musical chain reaction. We were somehow enchanted by the musical sounds emanating into that huge space from this tiny organ. People came forward to play who, up until now, had only watched and listened. It was surely the most awkward console we had encountered to date--hardly "user friendly" for those of us accustomed to AGO standards. Shyness and self-consciousness were abandoned with much encouragement all around. Some only played a hymn. Some did not read music, and played by ear. Of all the things we had seen and heard on that eventful day, one moment is etched most vividly in my memory. It was nearly time to leave, and the very last to play was the eldest gentleman of our little group. There we stood, huddled together for warmth in the corner of that dark and vast space, united by the sound of this remarkable little instrument, raising our voices in a chorus of "Church in the Wildwood."

And then it was back to the warmth of our bus and on to Leipzig which would be our home for the next two nights. The light was fading and our mood was rather subdued as we rode past rural farms and open fields, reflecting on the day's events and looking forward to a warm meal and a good night's sleep. Although it was nearly dark by the time we arrived in Leipzig, our driver, Manuela, took us past St. Thomas-kirche. Just enough light remained to afford us a glimpse of this famous church where Bach had spent the last twenty-seven years of his life--an enticing foretaste of what lay in store for us tomorrow.

This article will be continued.