Bach Church Arnstadt

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Bach Church in Arnstadt

The Johann Sebastian Bach Church is a Protestant church in the city of Arnstadt in Thuringia .

history

The “New Church” was built in 1676–1683 on the remains of the foundations of the St. Boniface Church, which burned down in 1581, as a baroque hall with a three-storey gallery all around.

From 1703 to 1707 Johann Sebastian Bach held his first position as organist here , followed by his cousin Johann Ernst Bach until 1728.

In 1935 the "New Church" was renamed "Johann Sebastian Bach Church" on the 250th birthday of the famous musician.

Organs

Galleries, with Wendler organ (above) and Steinmeyer organ on the two lower galleries

The Bach Church has two important organs : the Wender organ from 1703 and the Steinmeyer organ of 1913. On the initiative of KMD Gottfried Preller, from 1981 to 2013 organist of the Bach church were both instruments from 1997 to the end of 1999 by the organ workshop Otto Hoffmann from Ostheim / Rhön has been restored (Steinmeyer organ) or reconstructed (Wender organ) under the direction of master organ builder Horst and Günter Hoffmann and rededicated on January 16, 2000 on the occasion of the opening of the Bach year. In the Wender organ, 320 original pipes of a total of 1252 = 25.6% have been reused. Both organs are "a testimony to the old and new organ building masters, of great commitment for their continued existence and for the rich organ tradition of Central Germany."

Wender organ

1699–1703 Johann Friedrich Wender built an organ with two manuals and 21 stops on the third gallery . In June 1703, the 18-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach checked and approved the organ. He made such an impression that he was immediately hired as organist. According to the contract of 1699, the instrument had the following disposition (the number of original pipes is given in brackets):

I breast positive CD – c 3
1. Silent stuff 8th' 0 (44)
2. Principal 4 ′ (1)
3. Pointed flute 4 ′
4th Night horn 4 ′ (27)
5. Quinta 3 ′ (1)
6th Sesquialtera II 0 (2)
7th Mixture III 1' (18)
II major work CD – c 3
8th. Principal 8th' (1)
9. Viola di gamba 8th' (42)
10. Quinta dena 8th' (26)
11. Coarse 8th' (46)
12. Gemshorn 8th' (39)
13. Open quinta 6 ′ (1)
14th Octava 4 ′ (46)
15th Mixture IV 2 ′ (18)
16. Cymbel II 0 1' 0 (8th)
17th Trumpet 8th'
Cymbelstern (C major)
Cymbelstern (G major)
Pedals CD – c 1 d 1
18th Sub bass 16 ′
19th Principal bass 08th'
20th Trombones bass 0 16 ′
21st Cornet bass 02 ′
  • Coupling : I / II (sliding coupler), II / P
  • Playing aids : tremulant (whole organ)
  • Tuning: pitch 465 Hz, well tempered

The wind is supplied via 4 wedge bellows with pedal levers, which are housed in a so-called "bellows house" above the organ. Although the importance of this organ as a monument has never been forgotten, it has not been spared from various modifications.

A replica of the organ was installed in the church in Pontaumur , Auvergne in 2004 , which is also used for the Bach Festival in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Steinmeyer organ

In 1913 Orgelbau Steinmeyer from Oettingen built a new work on the second gallery (Opus 1185) with 55 registers on three manual works and a pedal . The instrument had pneumatic playing and stopping actions . Six registers of the Wender organ were retained and their lengths in the bass were extended. In 1938 the organ was moved from the second to the first gallery. The front of the Wender organ was largely preserved.

In 1998/1999, the instrument was fundamentally restored in the Hoffmann organ building workshop in Ostheim, and changes made in the meantime were largely returned to the state of 1913. The entire pipework was revised; the Wender registers, which were returned to the Bach organ, have been reconstructed. All reeds (with the exception of trumpet 16 ') have been renewed. In addition, the wind chests were thoroughly revised, the leathering of the pocket valves and the register bellows renewed, all relays revised, the magazine bellows re-leathered and the wind tunnels equipped with bumpers. The swell was equipped with a tremulant.

The installation of the new 3rd gallery for the Wender organ required the work to be repositioned between the 1st and 3rd western gallery. The underside of the 3rd gallery was clad with sound reflection panels in order to achieve optimal sound radiation into the room. The front of the prospectus took over the gallery structure and was equipped with fabric-covered grid panels. The electric gaming table was located directly behind the gallery parapet. Due to the changed structural situation on the gallery, an electrical connection had to be built up to the 1st relay station of the works. The action action from the relays to the windchests remained pneumatic. The pipework was tuned equally at 440 Hz. The romantic palette of sounds ranges from the most delicate pianissimo to the room-filling forte.

I main work C – a 3
01. Drone 16 ′
02. Principal 08th'
03. Viola di gamba 0 08th'
04th Gemshorn 08th'
05. Swiss flute 08th'
06th Drone 08th'
07th Reed flute 08th'
08th. Hollow flute 08th'
09. Fifth flute 05 13
10. octave 04 ′
11. Fugara 04 ′
12. Reed flute 04 ′
13. Fifth 02 23
14th octave 02 ′
15th Cornett V 08th'
16. Mixture V 02 ′
17th Cymbel III 01'
18th Trumpet 08th'
II Manual C – a 3
19th Quintatön 16 ′
20th Principal 08th'
21st Pointed flute 08th'
22nd Quintatön 08th'
23. Viola d'amour 08th'
24. Dumped 08th'
25th Flauto traverso 08th'
26th octave 04 ′
27. Pointed flute 04 ′
28. viola 04 ′
29 Intoxicating fifth II 0 02 23
30th Mixture V 02 ′
31. clarinet 08th'
III Swell C – a 3
32. Lovely Gedackt 16 ′
33. Violin principal 08th'
34. Lovely Gedackt 08th'
35. Flauto piano 08th'
36. Hessiana 08th'
37. Salicional 08th'
38. Vox coelestis 08th'
39. Violin principal 04 ′
40. Night horn 04 ′
41. Flauto dolce 04 ′
42. Violin principal 02 ′
43. Sesquialter II 02 23
44. Progressive harmonic. III-VI0 02 ′
45. oboe 08th'
Tremulant
Pedal C – f 1
46. Principal 16 ′
47. Violon 16 ′
48. Sub-bass 16 ′
49. Fifth bass 10 23
50. Principal 08th'
51. violoncello 0 08th'
52. Dumped 08th'
53. octave 04 ′
54. trombone 16 ′
55. Trumpet 08th'
  • Coupling : II / I, III / I, III / II, I / P, II / P, III / P
  • Playing aids : 4,000 typesetting combinations

literature

  • Christoph Wolff, Markus Zepf: The organs of JS Bach - A manual . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-374-02407-0 .
  • Horst Hoffmann: Two Bach organs . Freiburg Music Forum, June 1999, ISSN  1433-6464 .

Individual evidence

  1. More information on the organs of the Bach Church
  2. Felix Friedrich Eberhard and Kneipel: Organs in Thuringia - a travel guide . Kamprad, Altenburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-930550-67-8 .
  3. J. Georg Zahn: The Joh. Sebastian Bach Monument. In: Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau, Vol. 2, Leipzig, 1882, pp. 117–118 and pp. 129–130

Web links

Commons : Bachkirche (Arnstadt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 50 ′ 3.1 ″  N , 10 ° 56 ′ 46.1 ″  E