Organ landscape Oldenburg

Kayser organ in Blexen (1685)

The organ landscape Oldenburg describes the organs with historically determined regional - here in the region of the former Duchy of Oldenburg - peculiarities. To the west it borders on the organ landscape of East Friesland and to the east on the organ landscape between the Elbe and Weser . Around 50 historical organs from before 1900 have been preserved here in full or in part since the end of the 16th century, making Oldenburg an important organ landscape . In addition to numerous restorations, the Alfred Führer organ workshop built far more than 100 new organs between 1950 and 2000 and decisively shaped the Oldenburg organ landscape.

History of organ building

Organ in Berne

Until the 17th century

The oldest surviving organ parts in the Oldenburger Land are in Berne , St. Aegidius . Here the Brabant organ builder Reinhard van Lampeler, who is also known to have built a new organ in Münster , completed an organ from an unknown organ builder with nine registers in 1596. Hermann Kröger added a Rückpositiv and the pedal towers to the instrument . Further changes in the disposition followed over the centuries . Nevertheless, around half of the old registers have been preserved. Jost Sieburg created a new organ in Sengwarden in 1644, of which the prospectus has still been preserved. In Langwarden Kröger probably built a new building with his journeyman Berendt Hus around 1650, which was expanded a few years later with pedal towers. Arp Schnitger built 1704-05 to the organ by the mixtures and reeds renewed. While Schnitger's registers were all replaced later, the work of Kröger and Hus has largely been preserved. Six stops can still be heard from the ten-stop organ built by an unknown master in Tossens around 1660 . Joachim Kayser was able to maintain an independent position alongside Schnitger thanks to his organ building privilege for the Land of Jever (1699). Two works by Kayser have survived , namely the organ in Schortens (1686) and in Hohenkirchen (Wangerland) (1694/99). In Blexen (1684–85), Westerstede (1685–87) and Waddewarden (1697) only the brochures can be admired. His organ in Fedderwarden (1702-04) was later replaced. Kayser's single-manual organs were later all expanded to two manuals.

Arp Schnitger

Schnitger organ in Accum (1705)

Of particular importance for the Oldenburg organ landscape are the four surviving organs by Arp Schnitger, the leading organ builder in Northern Germany in the Baroque era . A total of 17 of his new buildings and larger organ conversions have been recorded in Oldenburg. Since Schnitger himself came from Oldenburg, he felt a lifelong connection to his homeland and even delivered the Golzwarder organ in his baptistery at cost price. In Dedesdorf (1697-98), ten in Ganderkesee obtained (1699) nine registers in Accum (1705) and Golzwarden (1697-98), only the historical prospectus. From Schnitger organs in Strückhausen (1697–98) and Abbehausen (1710–13) the cases and two registers each have been preserved.

Schnitger school in the 18th century

Father organ in Wiefelstede (1731)

The organ culture in Oldenburg was largely dominated by the Schnitger school in the 18th century. Schnitger's pupils carried out numerous modifications and considerable new organs in the Oldenburg area. The Schnitger student Christian Vater built high-quality new organs in Bockhorn (1722) and Wiefelstede (1731), half of which have been preserved and the other half have been exemplary reconstructed by the Führer company . The prospectus of the Vater organ in Wildeshausen (1710–11) has been in Fedderwarden since 1978. Half of the number of registers in Wardenburg (1737) and in Jade (1737–39) has been preserved by Johann Dietrich Busch . His organ in Altenhuntorf was later replaced . Johann Hinrich Klapmeyer built new organs in Oldenbrok (1754), Rodenkirchen (1758) and Kirchhammelwarden (1766). In Ganderkesee, he expanded Schnitger's organ with an independent pedal. Georg Wilhelm Wilhelmy , who was also in the Schnitger tradition, rebuilt the organ in Berne in 1793 and left an organ in Altenesch (1795). His organ in Cappel (1800–1801) burned as early as 1810, so that his son Johann Georg Wilhelm Wilhelmy moved the Schnitger organ, bought from the Hamburg Dominican Monastery of St. Johannis, to Cappel in 1816. In Wüppels there is a new organ behind the prospectus by Hinrich Just Müller (1795). Independently of Schnitger, Johann Adam Berner (1752–57) built a largely preserved work in Sillenstede , which was later expanded. The organ in Tettens , the prospectus of which has been preserved, comes from Eilert Köhler's workshop .

19th to 21st century

Führer organ in Oldenburg, St. Lamberti (1972)

The previous high level of organ building could no longer be maintained in the 19th century. Gerhard Janssen Schmid (also called Johann Gerhard Schmid) was the founder of the Oldenburg line of an extensive family of organ builders who had been involved in organ building for several generations. Because Gerhard Janssen Schmid was granted the privilege of organ builder in the state of Oldenburg in 1810, the family enjoyed a monopoly in the 19th century. There are only a few organs in the 19th century that were not built by the Schmid family, such as the organ in Wulfenau (1855) by the Haupt brothers ( Ostercappeln ) or in the town church of Brake (1865) by Philipp Furtwängler . Only the prospectus remains of Furtwängler's organ in Varel . Gerhard Janssen Schmid ran a workshop in Oldenburg, but otherwise worked mainly in East Frisia . Instruments from him in Wiarden (1808), Elsfleth (1836) and Minsen (1840) have survived, in Zwischenahn only the prospectus remains. After his death, Johann Claussen Schmid took over the workshop (1845–81), of which around ten organs are wholly or partially preserved. The Oldenburg company went out in 1922 with the death of the grandson Johann Martin Schmid , who replaced numerous historical instruments with new ones or made major alterations to the historical substance.

The 20th century was shaped by the Alfred Führer organ workshop, which restored and partially rebuilt almost all historical instruments in the organ landscape, but also stood out for the numerous new organs. Three-manual new organs were built in Delmenhorst (city church, 1957), Wilhelmshaven ( garrison church , 1961), Jever (city church, 1966) and Oldenburg ( Lambertikirche , 1972). In the second half of the 20th century, the Führer company built well over 100 new organs. While the instruments of the early phase - according to the state of knowledge at the time - were still strongly Neo-Baroque in design, the historical material was dealt with more carefully in later years. The reorientation was driven forward mainly by the new management under Fritz Schild and widely recognized restorations were carried out. Schild's extensive publications help to tap into this important organ landscape.

literature

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 .

Walter Kaufmann : The organs of the old Duchy of Oldenburg . Stalling, Oldenburg 1962, ISBN 3-87537-175-5 .

Fritz Schild: Monument organs. Documentation of the restoration by Organ Builders Guide 1974–1991 . Florian Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2005, ISBN 3-7959-0862-0 (2 parts: Backmoor-Groothusen, Hage-Wiesens).

Fritz Schild: Organ atlas of the historical and modern organs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Oldenburg . Florian Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2008, ISBN 978-3-7959-0894-2 .

Günter Seggermann, Wolfgang Weidenbach: Monument organs between the Weser and Ems . Merseburger, Kassel 1980.

Harald Vogel , Günter Lade, Nicola Borger-Keweloh: Organs in Lower Saxony . Hauschild, Bremen 1997, ISBN 3-931785-50-5 .

Discography

Organ landscapes: A musical journey to 15 organs in the region: Northern Oldenburger Land . 2011, NOMINE eV, LC 08973 (organs in Altenesch, Berne, Blexen, Brake, Eckwaren, Fedderwarden, Ganderkesee, Hohenkirchen, Jade, Langwarden, Oldenburg-Bloherfelde, Oldenburg / Lamberi, Pakens, Sillenstede, Varel / Schlosskirche)
Arp Schnitger in Lower Saxony. 2nd edition 2014. Music production Dabringhaus and Grimm, 1831-2. 2 CDs. (All twelve Schnitger organs in Lower Saxony, presented by an international team of young organists under the artistic direction of Harald Vogel).
Discography of the Schnitger organs striving for completeness .

Web links

NOMINE - North German organ music culture in Lower Saxony and Europe eV (as of December 1st, 2009).

Individual evidence

↑ Maarten A. Vente: The Brabant Organ. On the history of organ art in Belgium and Holland in the Gothic and Renaissance ages . HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1963, p. 98 .
↑ The great organ. (No longer available online.) Evangelical Church District Wesermarsch, archived from the original on July 29, 2012 ; Retrieved October 6, 2009 .
↑ 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. 131.

[1] Maarten A. Vente: The Brabant Organ. On the history of organ art in Belgium and Holland in the Gothic and Renaissance ages . HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1963, p. 98 .

[2] The great organ. (No longer available online.) Evangelical Church District Wesermarsch, archived from the original on July 29, 2012 ; Retrieved October 6, 2009 .

[3] 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. 131.