Johann Georg Stein

Johann Georg Stein (baptized July 18, 1712 in Berlstedt ; † November 16, 1785 in Lüneburg ), known as the elder , was a German organ builder .

life and work

Johann Georg Stein (not to be confused with the Augsburg instrument maker of the same name) was the son of the carpenter Daniel Stein and his wife Anna Elisabeth, née. Schröder. In his place of birth, Berlstedt , the craft of organ building was cultivated as early as the early 18th century. The then most influential organ builders in the area around Erfurt , Johann Georg Schröter and Franciscus Volckland , came from the same place. Schröter was also the uncle of Johann Georg Stein. That Stein was a pupil of Schröter can be proven by the great similarity of his organ works with those of Schröter.

So far nothing is known about Stein's own works in Thuringia and his time as a journeyman, all that is known about himself is that he completed his apprenticeship in Erfurt ( “errant Erfurth in Thuringia” ). It can be assumed that after completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter with his father , Stein began his apprenticeship at Schröter in Erfurt around 1730 and then worked for Schröter until his workshop was closed. The strong activity of the competitor Volckland and the lack of orders for a new organ builder could have been reasons for his leaving the area.

His name appears for the first time in Uelzen around 1745 . Stein set up his own organ workshop here and built his first well-known work with 32 registers in St. Mary's Church. This new building was praised so much that Stein managed to gain a foothold in the Uelzen area. In 1758 he took the opportunity to take over the workshop of the deceased organ builder Johann Matthias Hagelstein in Lüneburg and moved his residence there. In the following years he looked after the organs of the four main churches of Lüneburg and also built some new buildings. He kept in close contact with the organist of the St. Johannis Church , Johann Christoph Schmügel , who also composed.

Two of Stein's sons (Johann Georg Stein the Younger and Johann Rudolph Anton Stein) were also organ builders. After the father's death, the former took over the workshop as heir and completed the father's last assignment in Boizenburg . The young Stein was unable to complete the large new building in Schwerin Cathedral in 1790 due to a serious mental illness.

meaning

The importance of Stein's music history lies in the fact that he exported Thuringia's organ building style to northern Germany and linked it there with local building traditions. Its organ structures are technically and sonically in line with the Thuringian tradition of the 18th century. Particularly noteworthy is the rich cast with coloring basic voices. Of his instruments, only the organs in Warlitz and Trebel have survived . In the meantime they have both been restored.

Works (new buildings)

In the fifth column of the table, the Roman number indicates the number of manuals and the Arabic number in the sixth column indicates the number of sounding registers . A capital "P" stands for an independent, a small "p" for an attached pedal . Italics indicate that the organ is no longer or only the prospectus has been preserved.

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1752-1754	Uelzen	St. Mary			32	Housing received
1756-1757	Celle	Neuenhauser Church				Housing in Steinhorst preserved
1764	Dahlenburg					Housing received
1765	Hamburg-Finkenwerder
1770	Warlitz	St. Trinity		I / p	9	Housing and movement preserved
1770	Schwarmstedt	St. Lawrence Church				Housing received
1772	Bad Bevensen
1776	Wustrow	St. Laurence
1777	Trebel	Feldsteinkirche Trebel		II / P	19th	Housing and movement preserved
1780-1785	Luneburg	St. Nikolai
1785–?	Boizenburg / Elbe	Marienkirche				Contract 1785, executed by JG Stein the Younger

swell

• Axel Fischer: The Johann-Georg-Stein-Organ (1777) in the ev.-luth. Church to Trebel . Festschrift for the rededication of the restored organ. Trebel 2001.
• Förderverein Barockkirche Warlitz eV (Hrsg.): The Johann-Georg-Stein-Organ in the St. Trinitatis Church in Warlitz near Hagenow . Festschrift for the rededication of the restored organ. Warlitz 2004.

Web links

• Baroque church Warlitz
• Organ in Trebel

Individual evidence

1. ↑ NOMINE eV: Organ in Trebel , seen April 28, 2012.