Organ landscape Saxony

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Prospectus of the " Sun Organ " of St. Peter's Church in Görlitz by Eugenio Casparini (1703) with 17 suns

The organ landscape of Saxony comprises the organ inventory that has grown over time in the cultural landscape of Saxony . Its origins go back to the late Gothic period. But it wasn't until the 17th century that an independent Saxon organ landscape emerged . The cultural area has been subject to changing influences from neighboring organ landscapes throughout history, which was favored by the fact that the territorial boundaries changed several times over the centuries. Of the total of around 2500 organs in the Saxon cultural region, more than 130 historical instruments from the 17th to 19th centuries have been completely or largely preserved. The region is shaped by the work of Gottfried Silbermann and his school. In the modern age, the organ landscape is characterized by numerous restorations and reconstructions of historical instruments, which are supplemented by some nationally important new buildings in different styles.

The article deals with the history of organ building and the preserved organs in Saxony. Further information on individual instruments can be found in the list of organs in Saxony .

Gothic and Renaissance

Important organ builders and their works

Lange organ (1598) in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, watercolor by Carl Benjamin Schwarz, 1785
The Frietzsch organ of the Dresden Palace Chapel (1614) is to be reconstructed.
Oldest surviving organ in Saxony: Richter organ in Pomßen (1671)

The oldest organ in Saxony can be traced back to 1298 in the Görlitzer Peterskirche . In Meissen Cathedral in 1362, in is Bautzen Dom St. Petri 1372 in Zwickau St. Mary's Church in 1383 and in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1384 an organ for the first time occupied. The Gothic age was dominated by internationally active organ builders, which led to a fairly uniform architectural style across Europe. Bautzen Cathedral received a new organ in 1502 from the organ builder Burkhard Dinstlinger from South Tyrol , who conveyed southern German-Austrian influences on the Saxon electorate . His student Blasius Lehmann opened a workshop in Bautzen and created instruments for the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig and the Dresden Kreuzkirche . He was also the court organist of the Brandenburg Elector Joachim I and stayed at his court from 1516 to 1519. Lehmann's sphere of activity extended to Danzig . In the pre-Reformation period, the large city churches in Meißen (1372), Dresden (1389), Zwickau (1445), Leipzig (1489) and Görlitz (1507) already had two organs, a large main organ on the west gallery or in the south transept and a small one Instrument near the altar in the choir .

In Upper Lusatia , which belonged to the Kingdom of Bohemia until 1635, there was a strong influence of Bohemian organ builders. Albrecht Rudner from Budweis repaired the organ of the Zittau St. John's Church in 1570 and expanded its disposition . In 1577 he performed similar work on the Görlitz organ by Dinstlinger (1503–1505). In the Albertine Saxony, Johann Lange in Kamenz was considered a leading organ builder in the second half of the 16th century. The presumed student of Hans Scherer the Elder (Hamburg) used the sliding drawer and introduced numerous innovations. Just like the Dutchman Hermann Raphael Rodensteen , who was working at the same time and who settled in Zwickau in 1559, Lange brought the highly developed Brabant organ building art to Saxony. No organs have survived from the time before the Thirty Years' War . The Joachimsthal organ builder Jacob Schedlich built numerous organs in Bohemia and the Ore Mountains in the 17th century, at the same time as the German-Bohemian organ builder Matthias Tretzscher .

One of the most innovative German organ builders of the early 17th century was Gottfried Fritzsche (Frietzsch). He was born in Meißen in 1578 and worked there until 1612. Around 1614 he became an electoral Saxon court organ builder in Dresden, where he ran a workshop until 1619. He further developed the Brabantian organ building. Examples of his numerous innovations were new reed registers , unusual foot pitches (pitches) and new secondary and effect registers . His famous organ for the Dresden Palace Chapel (1610–1614) was created in collaboration with Hans Leo Hassler . It had 33 registers, including two in one-foot position (in the breastwork and pedal ) and two double cymbals as well as three tremulants , Zimbelstern , "Vogelsang" and "Heer Trummel". The castle organ, like the two Frietzsch organs in Meißen, has not been preserved, but is to be reconstructed true to the original. The disposition is handed down in the Organographia by Michael Praetorius (1619).

The oldest surviving Saxon organs date from the 17th century. They have a manual and a small but independent pedal unit. The organ in the old church of Coswig , which was built in 1615 or 1624, comes from Frietzsch or from the Saxon court organ builder Tobias Weller . In the 1620s, an unknown organ builder built a small instrument in the fortified church in Lauterbach , which was almost completely rebuilt in 1957, incorporating the remaining parts. The oldest parts of the organ in the Rossau village church were made around 1660. The oldest largely preserved organ in Saxony is in the fortified church in Pomßen . The work by Gottfried Richter (1670–1671) has a historicizing case in the late Renaissance style with double doors in grisaille and three embossed pipes in the prospectus with twisted feet. The organ from an unknown builder in Lippersdorf (possibly also from Richter) dates from around 1670 .

Features and functions

In the Gothic Age, organ building was largely standardized across Europe. It was not until the 17th century that regionally different organ landscapes emerged. The Gothic organs were block works whose registers could only be played in full, but not individually. With the help of locking valve shutters , individual parts of the work could be used separately, for example around 1500 for the organs at Altenburg Castle and in the Paulinerkirche in Leipzig . Only the invention of the sliding drawer and the spring drawer made it possible to operate individual rows of pipes separately, which multiplied the sound possibilities. This technique prevailed in Saxony during the 15th century. However, nothing is known about details of the organs before 1500. From around 1500, the shelf register was used as the first reed voice . The 16th century brought technical and sonic improvements. Numerous new registers were invented on the basis of the slider drawer design during the Renaissance.

The organ served liturgical purposes until the middle of the 17th century, but was not used to accompany congregational singing. As part of the alternative practice , she took over individual parts of the mass and the church times of the day in alternation with the choir, the community or individual singers . The organs of the Renaissance were strongly oriented towards the contemporary consort style, in which flutes, trumpets, string instruments and various woodwind instruments were imitated and in this way the organ represented the entire orchestra of the time. Accordingly, the mixed votes were designed to be comparatively mild. The organ was used as a soloist (for compositions, improvisations and intabulations ) and used for ensemble play, either as a continuo instrument or for it to imitate the various instruments itself.

Baroque

Important organ builders and their works

Organ in Störmthal (1723) by Hildebrandt, student and competitor of Silbermann
The organ of the Schönfels Castle Chapel (around 1730) only uses wooden pipes.
Baroque organ prospectus by Johann Gottlieb Tamitius in Oybin (1754)

The political-economic and cultural-ecclesiastical heyday of Saxony in the age of the Renaissance and the Baroque produced nationally important organ builders. The prospectus of the so-called sun organ in the Görlitz St. Peter's Church by Eugenio Casparini is unique. Casparini emigrated to Italy at the age of 17 and returned to his homeland in 1697 at the age of 74. Together with his son Adam Horatio, after six years of construction, he completed the organ in 1703 and incorporated his wealth of experience. The Görlitz sculptor Johann Conrad Buchau occupied the 14.4 meter high and 10.30 meter wide prospectus with 17 wreaths of pipes that emanate like rays from the gilded faces of the sun. Twelve of these suns each have twelve sounding pipes and belong to a twelve-fold pedal mix. Apart from the Unda maris , no further register by Casparini has survived.

Christoph Donat was the progenitor of a widespread family of organ builders that can be traced back to between 1625 and 1842 with workshops in Leipzig , Zwickau , Altenburg and Glauchau . Some works by the Donatis have survived, such as those in Brandis (1705) and Schlunzig (1724), which are among the oldest baroque organs in Saxony, as well as in Schirgiswalde (1724, attribution), Beierfeld (1728), Weltewitz (1772), Wettelswalde ( 1793) and Böhlen (1794), most of which are only single-manual. Three sons of Tobias Dressel , organ builder in Falkenstein / Vogtl in the Ore Mountains. and Buchholz also learned their fatherly profession. Zacharias Hildebrandt was next to Silbermann the most important central German organ builder of the Baroque. From the 1720s onwards, Silbermann's student competed with his teacher and developed a great deal of independence. A reconciliation was reached in 1746 at the latest, when Silbermann checked and approved the Hildebrandt organ in the Naumburg town church St. Wenzel (today Saxony-Anhalt) together with Johann Sebastian Bach . The work is "one of the most important creations in the field of late baroque organ building". His masterpiece is in Langhennersdorf . During his examination of the Hildebrandt organ in Störmthal (1722–1723), Johann Sebastian Bach, according to the report, “recognized and praised for being able and constant”. The version of the prospectus from the year 1726 in Lengefeld , made by a "painter Fritzsche" from Dresden, is considered to be of particularly high quality . In 1728 he created another work for St. Jacobi in Sangerhausen . From the late work in Goldbach (around 1756) only a few registers have survived.

A special feature is the two-manual organ positive (around 1730) by an unknown master in the chapel of Schönfels Castle , for which only wooden pipes were used. The wooden prospect pipes are silver-plated. 288 pipes in six registers with different numbers of foot notes (8 ', 4', 3 ', 2', 1½ ', 1') result in a particularly warm sound. Andreas Tamitius , “Elector of Saxon Court Organ Maker” in Dresden since 1665, founded a family business that built organs in Bohemia, Lusatia and Silesia for three generations. He conveyed Italian influences on Saxon organ building. The organ in Waltersdorf (1766), the only one that has been preserved in Saxony, was made by his son Johann Gottlieb Tamitius . Johann Ernst Hähnel was brother-in-law and employee of Johann Gottlieb Tamitius and, from Meißen, created around 50 new organs by 1765, which reveal an independent style besides Silbermann. In addition, he built pianos and in 1736/1737 the interior work of a porcelain carillon by Johann Joachim Kändler . He built an organ in Mittelaida from 1723 to 1724 , another in Steinbach around 1724 and one in the town church of Bärenstein from 1741–1743 . The high-quality organ in the castle church, which replaced the previous instrument from Rodensteen (1572), was made by the largely unknown Georg Renkewitz (1687–1758), organist, organ builder and clockmaker in Schellenberg ( Augustusburg ). Renkewitz, who was commissioned with a new building in 1714, began with a new building around 1740, which was only completed in 1784 by his nephew Carl Gottfried Bellmann . The heart-shaped central tower is flanked by curly pointed towers with blind wings. Peculiar is a frieze-like lanyard on the game table with 175 small pipes of Kornettregisters , of which 75 are blind. Like his father, Johann Daniel Ranft had probably learned organ building from Johann Ernst Hähnel. In addition to his works in Geising (1755–1757), Burkhardswalde (1764) and in the village church Struppen (1785), he received a number of commissions in Bohemia.

Jacob Oertel built a two-manual work in Sadisdorf from 1749–1750 and an organ with 35 stops for the town church in Zschopau from 1753–1755 . and in 1760 an organ in Borna . The organ builder Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost was the most important organ builder in Thuringia . His organ in Altenburg Castle (since 1920 in Thuringia), which was built between 1736 and 1739, was tested and praised by Silbermann and Bach and is one of the most representative German organs. The Thuringian character is evident from the numerous eight-foot registers in an equivalent position and can be recognized by unusual timbres and a gentle plenum .

Gottfried Silbermann

Overview of all Gottfried Silbermann organs
The great Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral (1714) laid the foundation for its fame.
Sound sample of the Gottfried Silbermann organ Rötha (1722)

With Gottfried Silbermann, the finisher of the Central German baroque organ, organ building in Saxony reached its peak. Of his 50 new organs, 31 have been preserved, 17 of which are almost unchanged or largely original. He only used the best materials and worked at the highest technical and artistic level. As far as we know today, there was no evidence of defects in the instrument or reworks requested during a single organ inspection. Some parishes apparently trusted Silbermann so much that they did without external experts. Thanks to his organizational talent and a division of labor in the workshop similar to that of a manufacturer, Silbermann worked effectively and economically. Johann Friedrich Agricola admired “the excellent cleanliness, quality and durability of the materials as well as the work; the great simplicity of the internal structure; the extremely magnificent and full intonation; and the extremely easy and comfortable to play pianos ”.

Silbermann set up his own workshop in Freiberg in 1711 and lived there until the end of his life. The large organ in Freiberg Cathedral (1710–1714) was Silbermann's first major work in Saxony. It established its fame and has been preserved almost unchanged. Further instruments in Freiberg were made for the Jakobikirche (1716–1717), for the cathedral (small organ, 1718–1719) and for St. Petri (1734–1735). Two sister instruments were made in Rötha , in the town church of St. Georg (1718–1721) and in the Marienkirche (1721–1722), both of which remained almost unchanged. Other almost completely preserved Silbermann organs are located in Ringethal (around 1725), Ponitz (1737), Großhartmannsdorf (1741), Fraureuth (1742), Burgk Castle (1743) and Nassau (1748). The organ in Dittersbach (1726) is the only unpainted Silbermann organ. The three-manual organ of the Catholic Court Church in Dresden was built largely by employees from 1750 to 1755 and was completed after Silbermann's death. While the case and prospectus were destroyed in 1944, the outsourced pipework was preserved except for one register; later changes were largely reversed during the most recent restorations.

His organs followed five standardized types with standardized lengths and casings, simple mechanics and a more conventional disposition. The usually five-axis prospectus is structured by three flat, round pipe towers. The connecting flat fields or the central tower can be two-story. Thanks to the unusually wide labiation of the organ pipes, Silbermann achieved a powerful sound and a quick and reliable tone response. The master limited himself strictly to a radius of 35 kilometers in Saxony and secured a monopoly there through privileges as a royal “farm and country organ builder” .

Hardly any other organ landscape has been so strongly shaped by a single person as Saxony by Gottfried Silbermann. His model continued well into the 19th century. The Gottfried Silbermann Society is particularly committed to preserving its musical heritage. Most Silbermann instruments now sound in their original condition. Subsequent interventions in the disposition were reversed in the past decades and lost registers were reconstructed.

Features and functions

The Baroque is considered to be the heyday of Saxon organ building. Due to the destruction in the Thirty Years War and the new functions of the organ, numerous new buildings were built. With an increasing delay in tempo and the quality of the parish singing, the organ was first used to accompany the parish in the second half of the 17th century. Even if organ accompaniment was the rule in Protestant churches at the beginning of the 18th century, at the end of the 18th century there were only small organ positives in many village churches or there was only a cappella singing. This led to a change in sound aesthetics. The new liturgical tasks in the chorale required a stronger organ sound with sustaining basses and bright crowns. With the strengthening of the bourgeoisie in the 18th century, the organ also served to support figural music , ensemble music for worship services with singers and instrumentalists with the participation of the council and town musicians. Compared to the north German organ building, the rejection of a Rückpositiv and the extensive renunciation of pedal registers in the high register are characteristic of the Saxon organ landscape . In comparison with the more imaginative and chamber music-like dispositions of Thuringian organs, the Saxon organ building was more conventional, but at the same time more representative with the grave plenary echoes.

Rococo and Classicism

Important organ builders and their works

Ornate Rococo organ by Schramm in Hubertusburg Palace (1749)
The Trampeli organ in Zitzschen (1795) follows the Silbermann tradition.

Silbermann's lasting influence continued in Rococo and Classicism . Johann Georg Schön, who took over Silbermann's workshop, left an organ in the Herzogswalde church (1763). Adam Gottfried Oehme was the last student of Gottfried Silbermann. Preserved works by Oehmes are in Weigmannsdorf (1768–1771), Brand-Erbisdorf (1770–1774), Kleinwaltersdorf (1774 or 1776), Cämmerswalde (1776), Tuttendorf (1778–1782) and Zethau (1784–1788). Various organ builders based themselves on Silbermann's construction method without having been his pupil. The Dresden city and court organ builder Tobias Schramm (1701–1771), for example, based the design of the organ in the Hubertusburg Palace Chapel on Silbermann's late works in Fraureuth and Zöblitz (1742). In 1749 the small organ was donated by Electress Maria Josepha for the imperial chapel in Dresden-Neustadt and moved to Hubertusburg at an unknown time. The rich decorations in the Rococo style probably go back to Johann Benjamin Thomae .

Johann Christian Kayser created works in Silbermann's style behind a classicist prospect in Lohmen (1789), Olbernhau (1790), Glashütte (1794–1797), Lichtenberg / Erzgebirge (1799–1800) and Dorfchemnitz (1801–1803). The Trampeli family of organ builders also adopted Silbermann's construction principles in terms of planning, intonation, brochure design and the technical system. In 1759, his father Johann Paul Trampel Italianized his surname into the more melodious Trampeli. 50 restorations and new buildings go back to him. The works in Oberlosa (1784–1788), Unterwürschnitz (1791–1792), Gerichshain (1802–1803), Straßberg (1798–1804), Markersbach (1803–1806), Sornzig come from his respected sons Johann Gottlob and Christian Wilhelm Trampeli (1808–1810), Neustädtel (1810–1812), Schönau (Wildenfels) / Rochuskirche (1822–1823), from the grandson Friedrich Wilhelm Trampeli in Windischleuba (1819–1822) and Landwüst (1822). In the case of the Vox humana of the Trampeli organ in Zitzschen (1793–1795), the following is expressly noted: “according to Silbermann's scale”. Johann Jacob Schramm (1724-1808) also leaned on the Silbermann design, but used closer scales . He built organs in Wechselburg (1774–1781) and Stangengrün (1766–1769). Silbermann was also the great role model for the first two generations of the Jehmlich organ building family . The family business, which was founded in 1808 in the Erzgebirge of Cämmerswalde , moved to Dresden in 1826 and developed into one of the leading organ building companies in Saxony. Gotthelf Friedrich Jehmlich built the oldest Saxon Jehmlich organ in Lauenstein in 1818. It was destroyed by fire in 2003 and reconstructed true to the original in 2005 based on old drawings. The brother Carl Gottlieb Jehmlich set up another workshop in Zwickau in 1839. His instrument in Auerbach from 1840 is based on Silbermann's late style. Karl Traugott Stöckel learned organ building from his brother Johann Gotthold Jehmlich .

Individual organ builders were able to maintain their independence outside of the Silbermann tradition. One of them was Johann Emanuel pork , who learned organ building from Trost and Hildebrandt. His organs in the Church of the Resurrection in Leipzig (1766) and in Böhlitz (1770–1771) have been partially preserved. The latter was originally in the old Reformed Church ( Thomaskirchhof ) and was implemented in 1901. The Flemming family of organ builders was based in Torgau in northern Saxony . In the second generation, Johann Christian Friedrich Flemming built 24 new instruments over three decades, mainly in the village churches in the area. Preserved works can be found in Radefeld and Klitzschen (both around 1780), Großwig bei Dreiheide (1787) and Lindenthal (1792). Johann Georg Friedlieb Zöllner was an apprentice and employee of Hähnel and took over his workshop. He left behind new buildings in Kleinbardau (1782), Grimma (1803), Königsfeld (1820) and Merkwitz (1819 or 1825). Christian Gottfried Herbrig created one and two manual village organs on the threshold from classicism to early romanticism in Schmiedefeld (1821), Großdrebnitz (1828), Dorf Wehlen (1831), Dresden-Eschdorf (1838), Langenwolmsdorf (1843–1844), Papstdorf (1845) ) and Old Town (1856). In the five-axis, flat prospectuses, the central arched field is always flanked by narrow two-storey fields. His son Wilhelm Leberecht Herbrig took over the design of the prospectus.

Features and functions

Herbrig organ in Wehlen (1831) behind a classicist prospect

Rococo and classicism were not very pronounced in Saxon organ building as independent cultural epochs and presented themselves as a transition period between baroque and romanticism. The Rococo influence, already recognizable in Silbermann's later works , of loosening up the rectangular pipe fields with curved ones ( Burgk Castle , 1743; Frankenstein , around 1752), continued in the second half of the 18th century, when many village churches were first equipped with an organ . The lateral rocailles , some of which were preserved as blind wings ("organ ears"), were gilded like the richly decorated veil boards with openwork carving and stood out from the white frame of the case. In terms of sound, more fundamental registers were used and softer voices such as flute and string registers were preferred. The concoctions were designed to be less sharp and powerful than in the Baroque era.

In many cases, the structure of the prospectus followed the usual Silbermann scheme with three flat, round pipe towers. Otherwise, the unadorned classicist prospect was dominated by strict symmetry and geometric shapes and flat triangular gables. The veil boards, richly decorated in the Rococo, and the popular blind wings have now been designed much more simply or have been omitted entirely. Pilasters divided the prospectus, which could have flat, round pipe towers, but was designed to be completely flat over the course of time. On the case there were often antique crowning vases or urns.

romance

Important organ builders and their works

Ladegast Sauer Eule organ in the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, largest organ in Saxony (1862/1903/2003)

In the first half of the 19th century, Christian Gottlob Steinmüller built 26 new organs for the Ore Mountains and beyond in his Grünhain workshop. He was the nephew and student of Johann Gottlob Trampeli and made the step from classicism to early romanticism. Preserved works can be found in Grünhain (1812), Wolkenstein (1818), Seifersbach (1827), Großrückerswalde (1828), Pausa (1831), Arnoldsgrün (1836), Schwarzbach (1837), Auerbach (1847) and Raschau (1848). They are characterized by their "versatile possibilities of gradation in terms of color and dynamics". An important representative of the early romantic organ building and the last Leipzig university organ builder was Johann Gottlob Mende . Of his 23 new organs in Saxony, the construction of which is strongly based on Silbermann, seven have largely been preserved. His largest work in the Paulinerkirche in Leipzig was rebuilt several times and in 1968 the church was blown up. Christian Friedrich Göthel acquired his precise knowledge of the Silbermann construction method by studying himself.

From the second half of the 19th century, with industrialization and the increasing movement of goods, the influence of foreign organ companies that delivered large instruments nationwide increased. A large part of the orders remained in the hands of Saxon organ builders, some of whom could look back on a long family tradition and who shaped the organ landscape for several generations. The Kreutzbach family of organ builders was one of them. From Urban Kreutzbach organs in Großpostwitz (1857) and Bockau (1860) have been preserved, from his son and successor Richard Kreutzbach organs in Jesewitz (1872), Frauenstein (1873) and in the Lindenauer Nathanaelkirche (1884). Johann Gotthilf Bärmig , a student of Urban Kreutzbach, was one of the few organ builders of the Romantic era who revived the old splendor of Silbermann's sound. Numerous Saxon organs from him have been preserved, among others in Oberwiesenthal (1866) and in the Klingenthal round church Zum Friedefürsten (1872). His workshop in Werdau was continued by Kreutzbach's grandson Georg Emil Müller. Of the more than 40 new organs of the Dresden family company Julius Jahn & Sohn , except for the Jahn organ in Dresden's Johannisfriedhof (1928), none of the instruments have been preserved unchanged or have been reconstructed to their original state. The organ of the Church of Reconciliation in Dresden was partially approximated to its original condition in the years 2008–2011. In contrast, the Schmeisser family of organ builders has preserved a few dozen organs from four generations. The company, founded in 1844, switched to pneumatic cone chests in 1905 and created works in a late romantic style.

The Dresden family company Jehmlich has the most extensive work of all Saxon organ builders with over 1100 organs worldwide. In the third generation under Emil and Bruno Jehmlich, it introduced the pneumatic action from 1888 . Three-manual Jehmlich organs from the late romantic period can be found in the Niederoderwitz Church (1874), the Kötzschenbroda Church of Peace (1885), in Dresden in the Martin Luther Church (1887), the Christ Church (1905) and the Sacred Heart Church (1909 ), others in Lößnitz (1899), in Großenhain (1901) behind the modified housing by Johann Gottlieb Mauer (1778) and in Lindenau's Philippus Church (1910). Medium-sized Jehmlich organs with an Art Nouveau prospect are preserved in the Christ Church, Dresden-Klotzsche , (1907) and in the Friedenskirche (Aue cell) , (1914).

Schubert organ in Marienberg, completed after seven years (1872–1879)

Hermann Eule founded a company in Bautzen in 1872 that had a lasting influence on the organ landscape. The company founder usually used mechanical cone chests , but pneumatic pocket shutters for his large organ in Bautzen's St. Petri Cathedral (1910). Today there are more than 150 owl organs in the buildings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony. One of the few surviving organs by Carl Eduard Schubert , also a successor to Silbermann, in Marienberg , St. Marien , took seven years to build (1872–1879). Schubert's meticulous way of working led to economic ruin. He ended up relying on handouts and ended his life in 1900.

Important foreign organ builders also worked in Saxony. Johann Friedrich Schulze from Paulinzella in Thuringia , one of the most famous European organ builders of his time, built an organ in Markneukirchen in 1848 after a city fire in 1840 destroyed the church and its furnishings. The instrument is his only organ in Saxony and at the same time his largest surviving work in Germany. One of the numerous technical innovations that Schulze introduced was a double-curved pedal keyboard , which, curiously enough , was replaced in Markneukirchen in 1873 by a Baroque keyboard in the style of Silbermann. A three-manual organ by Eberhard Friedrich Walcker from Ludwigsburg is in the St. Anne's Church in Annaberg-Buchholz (1883-1884) behind a neo-Gothic prospect. Friedrich Ladegast built medium-sized works in Altleisnig (1868) and the town church in Naunhof (1882) for the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig (1862), which was then as now the largest church organ in Saxony. After two expansions in 1902/1903 and 2002/2003, the large organ has 102 registers, which are spread over five manuals and pedal. The gaming table was designed by Porsche designers and contains display instruments from car production. Wilhelm Sauer from Frankfurt (Oder) created three-manual organ in the style of late Romanticism in the Chemnitz Luther Church (1908), in Leipzig Michaelis Church (1904) and in the Thomas Church extended (1886-1889), the Sauer in 1908 from 63 to 88 registers.

Features and functions

In the age of romanticism Silbermann's influence continued to have an effect and new organs were built in the baroque tradition. The 19th century initially turned out to be a post-baroque period with a reluctantly declining successor to Silbermann. At the beginning there was only a slight enrichment through new forms of registers that had long been widespread in other organ landscapes. The organ building theorist Johann Gottlob Töpfer exerted a great influence on Saxon organ building through his writings in the 19th century. He was responsible for the weakening of the second manual, which was used as a piano manual with gentle sounds for chorale preludes and the liturgy, while the vigorously arranged first manual served to accompany the congregation singing.

A real turnaround first took place - and then fairly quickly - with the introduction of new action and store systems at the end of the 19th century. In the late Romantic period, large organs were sometimes built that were equipped with the technical innovations of their time, such as blind sills and playing aids . Large organs had high pressure registers and a remote mechanism with an electric action, such as the four-manual Jehmlich organ of the Dresden Kreuzkirche from 1911. The cone chest and the pneumatic action were introduced, as did the electric action towards the end of the 19th century. The new action made even large organs easy to play. However, its components were not as durable as those of the mechanical action. In terms of sound, the aesthetics changed fundamentally. In place of the work principle that had dominated organ building since the late Gothic period, a sliding crescendo register appeared as a sound ideal, which found its equivalent in the symphonic orchestral sound. The reed and aliquot registers were replaced by predominantly fundamental labial voices in the same low register (equal register ), which enabled infinitely variable sound dynamics, supported by back and swell works . From the outside, this corresponded to a flat composite prospectus, which was mostly neo-Gothic in historicism from 1880 , and occasionally in Art Nouveau at the beginning of the 20th century . Neo-Gothic brochures have pointed-arched pipe fields and are decorated with pinnacles , finials , crabs and three or four-passports . Organ factories delivering nationwide joined the Saxon family businesses, which led to a Germany-wide harmonization of styles.

20th and 21st centuries

Important organ builders and their works

Neo-Baroque owl organ in Zwickau Cathedral (1969)
Jehmlich organ in the Schneeberg St. Wolfgang Church (1998)

In the 20th century, organ building in Saxony lost its character as an independent organ landscape and was largely absorbed in the general development of German organ building. After electropneumatics had already been introduced in the 1900s and had proven itself, organs with purely pneumatic action continued to be built for a long time, at Jehmlich until the mid-1950s. From around 1930 the first organs were created under the influence of the organ movement with neo-baroque characteristics, which were able to establish themselves to a greater extent in the second half of the 20th century, such as the organ by Hermann Eule in Zwickau Cathedral (1966–1969). The Hanoverian architect Heinz Wolff designed the case for the largest organ built in the GDR at the time, which is reminiscent of a dove. The previous instrument, which in 1930 was expanded to become the largest organ in Saxony with 101 voices, was lost after the Second World War.

The destruction of many churches and organs in the Second World War led to numerous new organs being built. The classic sliding chest was not used again on a large scale until the 1950s, when a return to classic organ building began. As Opus 800, the Jehmlich company built a four-manual organ for the Kreuzkirche Dresden in 1963 , which after several tonal revisions and an expansion in 2008 has 80 voices. The Jehmlich organ from St. Wolfgang's Church in Schneeberg , which was built between 1995 and 1998 after decades of difficulties , became internationally known . 56 stops are distributed over three manuals and pedal. The construction on the west side was a challenge because the preservation authorities forbade the installation of an organ stage. For the Church of the Resurrection in Dresden-Plauen , the Bautzen company Eule built a three-manual organ with 44 registers, including nine registers and the case of the previous organ by Jehmlich (1902).

From the 1930s onwards, Schmeisser restored historic organs. The preservation of monuments has increasingly determined organ building since the 1950s. The consistent return of the Renkewitz organ in Augustusburg to its original condition by VEB Orgelbau Dresden ( Jehmlich ) was a pioneering achievement in 1972. Other Saxon organ builders Eule (Bautzen), Rühle (Moritzburg), Georg Wünning (Großolbersdorf) and Wegscheider (Dresden) emerged. The great organ in Freiberg Cathedral played a special role, which has largely been preserved and, as one of the most valuable baroque organs in Europe, exerted a great influence on historically oriented organ building. One of the most elaborate restorations was the reconstruction of the Sauer organ in Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, which had been rebuilt several times to its late romantic condition from 1908 by Christian Scheffler and Matthias Ullmann in the years 1988 to 1993. The restoration practice in turn provided impetus for the new organ. The Wegscheider organ in the Wilschdorf Christophorus Church from 1995 can be played either in a medium-tone or a well-tempered tuning.

Schuke organ with horizontal trumpets in the New Gewandhaus, Leipzig (1981)

The Saxon organ landscape was enriched by large new organs from outside. For the Neue Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Alexander Schuke from Potsdam built a versatile concert instrument from 1975–1981. The four-manual organ comprises 90 registers and catches the eye with its asymmetrical arrangement and horizontal trumpet registers . In 1997, the Swiss company Mathis Orgelbau built a new work behind the old prospectus of the Görlitz “Sonnenorgel”, which was expanded in 2006 to four manuals and 88 stops. Gerald Woehl from Marburg built a so-called Bach organ for the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig in the Bach year 2000 as a supplement to the romantic Sauer organ. It is based on the Stertzing organ of the Eisenach Georgenkirche , the baptismal church of Johann Sebastian Bach, and bears Bach's coat of arms with the initials JSB in the center of the prospectus . In contrast to the church and its interior, the organ of the Dresden Frauenkirche was not reconstructed in the course of the reconstruction, as a synthesis with a modern universal organ was preferred. A publicly held "organ dispute" drew international circles. Was able to sit down Daniel Kern of Strasbourg , which in 2005 created a new building with neoclassical-French-style and an oppositely Silbermann extended disposition.

Features and functions

In the 20th and 21st centuries, too, the construction of new organs in Saxony was and is conservative. Free pipe or unconventional brochures are the exception. There is no longer a consistent trend as in previous epochs. In addition to the construction of the new organ, the preservation and proper restoration of the historical organs are becoming increasingly important. More than in earlier epochs, the organ not only fulfills the functions of worship, but is also a concert instrument and an object of research. Efforts to preserve the historical organ inventory in Saxony go hand in hand with organological research and making the organs accessible to the public. Organ scientists Ulrich Dähnert, Ernst Flade, Felix Friedrich , Frank-Harald Greß and Werner Müller have come out on top in research. Concerts and publications, radio and CD recordings, organ academies and master classes have made the Saxon organs known and attracted organists and organ builders from all over the world. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Saxony and the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden have compiled extensive online inventories of the organ inventory and made them accessible to a wide range of interested parties.

See also

literature

  • Hans Martin Balz : Divine Music. Organs in Germany (=  230th publication by the Society of Organ Friends ). Konrad Theiss, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 3-8062-2062-X .
  • Albin Buchholz : Organs in the Saxon Vogtland . Kamprad, Altenburg 2005.
  • Ulrich Dähnert: Historical organs in Saxony. An organ inventory . VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-920112-76-8 .
  • Ulrich Dähnert: The organ landscape of Saxony and Thuringia. In: Acta Organologica . Vol. 1, 1967, pp. 46-62.
  • Hermann Fischer : 100 years of the Association of German Organ Builders . Orgelbau-Fachverlag, Lauffen 1991, ISBN 3-921848-18-0 .
  • Felix Friedrich : Organ building in Saxony. Bibliography . Kleinblittersdorf 1995, ISBN 3-930550-39-3 .
  • Felix Friedrich, Vitus Froesch: Orgeln in Sachsen - A travel guide (=  257th publication of the Society of Organ Friends ). Kamprad, Altenburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-930550-89-0 .
  • Frank-Harald Greß : The organ landscape of Saxony. In: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (ed.): Silbermann. History and legend of an organ building family . Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe 2006, ISBN 978-3-7995-0218-4 , p. 81 f.
  • Frank-Harald Greß, Michael Lange: The organs of Gottfried Silbermann . (= Publications of the Society of Organ Friends 177 ). 3. Edition. Sandstein, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-930382-50-7 .
  • Walter Hüttel: organs and organ builder in south-western Saxony. In: Acta Organologica. Vol. 34, 1994, pp. 9-36.
  • Uwe Pape (Ed.): Lexicon of North German Organ Builders. Vol. 1: Thuringia and the surrounding area . Pape, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-921140-86-4 .
  • Uwe Pape, Wolfram Hackel (ed.): Lexicon of North German Organ Builders, Volume 2: Saxony and Bypassing . Pape Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-921140-92-5 .
  • Ernst Schäfer: Laudation Organi. An organ tour from the Baltic Sea to the Ore Mountains . VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1982, ISBN 3-370-00038-5 .
  • Christoph Wolff , Markus Zepf: The organs of JS Bach. A manual . Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-374-02407-6 .

Web links

Commons : Orgeln in Sachsen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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This article was added to the list of excellent articles in this version on May 31, 2015 .