Frans Casper Snitger

Frans Casper Snitger (born November 12, 1724 in Alkmaar , † November 12, 1799 in Groningen ) was a Dutch organ builder and, together with Heinrich Hermann Freytag, continued the Schnitger tradition in the Netherlands.

Life

Frans Casper Snitger was born as the grandson of Arp Schnitger and the son of Franz Caspar Schnitger , with whom he is occasionally confused, and Anna Margaretha Debberts (1693–1761). On November 15, 1724 he was baptized in Alkmaar. According to Dutch conventions, he no longer wrote himself “Schnitger”. Albertus Antonius Hinsz married the widow of Franz Caspar Schnitger in Groningen on December 28, 1732 and became Snitger's stepfather. As Hinsz's health deteriorated, Snitger increasingly took on maintenance work (from 1770). From 1780 he did a lot of vocal work and received the appropriate remuneration. However, he never signed the contracts for new buildings or conversions that his father-in-law had made. In its last new building in Uithuizermeeden (1780–1785), which Hinsz was unable to complete, he entrusted the completion of the project to his master craftsman Matthijs Hansen Hardorff (1747–1802) and not Snitger. After the death of Hinsz in 1785, Frans Casper Snitger, who was now over 60 years old and remained single, did not continue the Groningen workshop alone. He entered into a cooperative partnership with Heinrich Hermann Freytag, with whom he had worked for several years in the Hinsz workshop, under the name “Snitger & Freytag”. From 1788 onwards, Snitger appeared almost exclusively with voice work and as a recipient of maintenance costs. When he died in 1799, Freytag took over the sole management of the organ building workshop and led organ building to a new boom in the northern Netherlands. The older new buildings from Snitger & Freytag are still shaped by Arp Schnitger in terms of sound and appearance. In contrast, the external shape of the later instruments is increasingly influenced by classicism .

Like his parents and grandparents, Snitger was raised in the Lutheran faith and attended the Lutheran Church in Groningen, where he had owned a crypt since 1784. Every year he rented a seat in the church for two guilders and ten students , as did Hinsz, whose place cost three guilders a year. It is significant that it was not Snitger but Freytag who took over the organ workshop as the new owner in 1785, one month after Hinsz's death. Until his death, Snitger lived in the Harderingestraat in Groningen, right next to the Lutheran Church and Hinsz's workshop. His apartment belonged to the Lutheran Church. There he was buried in his crypt on November 18, 1799. The organ in Bellingwolde is the last instrument of a member of the organ building family S (ch) nitger.

List of works

The following work by Snitger & Freytag has largely been preserved. In the fifth column, a capital "P" indicates an independent pedal, and a lower-case "p" indicates an attached pedal.

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1785	Groningen	Doopsgezindekerk		I / p	8th	Replaced in 1816 by a new building by Johann Wilhelm Timpe
1785-1786	Godlinze	Hervormde Kerk		I / p	12	Conversion of the organ by Arp Schnitger (1704, II / p? / 16) into a one-manual work (I / p / 12); Housing, prospectus and most of the registers preserved
1786	Kampen	Buitenkerk		II / P	20th	Repair of the organ by AA Hinsz (1754)
1786	Zwolle	Evangelical Lutherse Kerk		I / p	10	Repair of the organ by Franz Caspar and Johann Jürgen (Georg) Schnitger, which was transferred to Duurswoude in 1917; received there (photo)
1787	Zwolle	Sint-Michaëlskerk		III / P	64	Repair of the organ by Arp Schnitger (1721)
1788	Meeden	Benedictuskerk		I / p	8th	Repair of the organ by Jost Sieburg / AA Hinsz
1788-1790	Kampen	Bovenkerk		III / P	46	Extension of the organ (1741–1743) by a free pedal and a breastwork (today IV / P / 56) → Organs of the Bovenkerk (Kampen)
1790-1792	't Zandt	Mariakerk		II / p	12	Reconstruction of the organ (1662) on a new gallery with new wind chests , actions and keyboards ; 11 registers and a large part of the case were taken over; Expansion with 4 additional notes in the bass and 2 in the treble in all registers; 3 registers from 1792 preserved
1792	Bierum	Hervormde Kerk		I / p	10	New building; the first organ in the province of Groningen with a console at the side; well preserved
1792	Kampen	Waalse Kerk				Repair; not received
1792-1793	Zuidhorn	Hervormde Kerk		I / p	12	New building to replace an older organ; 1924 expanded and extensively rebuilt; 2012 restoration and reconstruction; Half of the registers preserved
1793	Ezinge	Hervormde Kerk		I / p	10	Realization of the organ by an unknown organ builder (around 1750, Johannes Jacobus Moreau?); largely preserved
1793	Groningen	Martinikerk		III / P	47	Repairs to the organ of the Martinikerk , which today has 52 stops; Snitger renewed the feet on some 32-foot pedal whistles
1793	Clearing	Hervormde Kerk		II / p	17th	Repair of the organ by AA Hinsz (1777–80)
1794	Leens	Petruskerk		II / P	27	Repair of the organ by AA Hinsz (1733–34); Changes in the 19th and 20th centuries
1793-1795	Zuidbroek	Petruskirche		II / P	28	New building in the Louis-Seize style to replace the old organ by Andreas de Mare (1578); In 1853 and 1884, minor changes were made by Petrus van Oeckelen , otherwise largely preserved in the original
1796	Uithuizermeeden	Hervormde Kerk		II / P	28	Repair of the organ by AA Hinsz; later various changes by other organ builders
around 1796	Built in Groningen, today in Weener	Organeum		I.	5	Bureau organ built into a secretary; receive
1796-1798	Bellingwolde	Magnuskerk		II / p	17th	New building; Originally preserved except for two reconstructed registers

literature

• Richard Kassel: The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Ed .: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel. Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 , pp. 254-255 ( online ).
• Gustav Fock : Arp Schnitger and his school. A contribution to the history of organ building in the North and Baltic Sea coast areas . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1974, ISBN 3-7618-0261-7 .
• Koos Tiggelaar, Albert Valstar: Freytag & Snitger in compagnie: een introductie tot het Werk van Heinrich Hermann Freytag en diens compagnon Frans Caspar Schnitger junior, "afsluiters" van de 18de new Gronings-Hamburgse orgelmakersschool . Kerkvoogdij Hervormde Gemeente Oostwold, Oostwold 1990.
• LB Smit: Frans Casper Snitger & Heinrich Hermann Freijtag en de (Noord-) Nederlandse markt voor kerkorgels rond 1800 . RuG, Groningen 2003.

Web links

• Various dispositions by Schnitger, Hinsz and Freytag (PDF file; 501 kB)
• Organ in Bellingwolde (with information about Schnitger / Hinsz / Freytag)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gustav Fock : Arp Schnitger and his school. A contribution to the history of organ building in the North and Baltic Sea coast areas . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1974, ISBN 3-7618-0261-7 , p. 247 .
2. ^ Richard Kassel: The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Ed .: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel. Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 , pp. 254-255 ( online ).
3. ↑ ^{a b} Organ in Bellingwolde , as seen on June 15, 2011.
4. ↑ Gustav Fock : Arp Schnitger and his school. A contribution to the history of organ building in the North and Baltic Sea coast areas . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1974, ISBN 3-7618-0261-7 , p. 224 .