The Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger was a highly influential German organ builder. He was primarily active in Northern Europe, especially the Netherlands and Germany, where a number of his instruments survive to the present day; his organs can also be found as far away as Portugal and Brazil.Notable examples still in...

 organ in St. Jacobi Church

St. Jacobi, Hamburg

The St. Jacobi church is one of the five principal Lutheran churches of Hamburg, Germany. The church is located directly in the city center, has a 125 m tall tower and features a famous organ by Arp Schnitger from 1693. It is dedicated to St James the Greater and often incorrectly known in English...

, Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, (St James' Church), one of the five Hauptkirchen of Hamburg, is a world-famous monument of North-German organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 building, and the largest surviving baroque organ in Northern Europe.

The church was very badly damaged in the bombing of Hamburg in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, but the pipes of the organ had been removed and stored for safekeeping. The original case, however, remained in the church and was destroyed.

The reconstructed version of the original was re-dedicated in a church service on January 19, 1961. From 1989 to 1993, the organ was completely restored with great care and at great cost by the German Jürgen Ahrend

Jürgen Ahrend

Jürgen Ahrend is a German organ builder famous for restoring instruments such as the Rysum organ and the Arp Schnitger organ in St. Jacobi, Hamburg as well as building original instruments...

 organbuilding firm, and since its rededication at Easter 1993 it can be heard every Sunday during services and at regular recitals. The current church organist is Rudolf Kelber

Rudolf Kelber

Rudolf Kelber is a German organist, harpsichordist, conductor and church musician.- Biography :Rudolf Kelber began his musical education at high school in Nuremberg State Conservatory and received instruction in piano, organ, cello and music theory...

.

The St Jacobi organ, sited in the west gallery alongside another large but modern pipe organ, has 60 stops (registers

Register (music)

In music, a register is the relative "height" or range of a note, set of pitches or pitch classes, melody, part, instrument or group of instruments...

) and around 4000 pipes, the oldest of which is from 1512. Over 80% of the pipes are from 1693 or earlier. The case of the organ shows clearly the manual and pedal divisions. The Ruckpositiv division, controlled from the lowest manual, hangs off the upper gallery. The Brustwerk is immediately above the console; above that is the Hauptwerk and then the Oberwerk at the top. None of the divisions is expressive (contained within a swell box). The Pedal pipes are contained within the two Pedal towers either side. This configuration is called the Hamburger Prospekt.

An older console remains in the gallery, with wooden human heads forming the stop-knobs (to engage a particular stop, or register) portraying musicians and prominent Hamburg citizens.

Disposition

After the 1993 restoration :

I Rückpositiv CDE–c3 ---- Principal 8′ A Gedackt 8′ Sch/F Quintadehna 8′ Sch/F Octava 4′ F/A Blockflöht 4′ Sch/F Querpfeiff 2′ F/A Octava 2′ F/A Sexquialtera II F/A Scharff VI-VIII F/A Siffloit 11/2′ F Dulcian 16′ S Bahrpfeiffe 8′ S/A Trommet 8′ L/A Cimbelsterne IV Brustpositiv CDEFGA–c3 ---- Principal 8′ F/? Octav 4′ S/A Hollflöth 4′ S Waldtflöht 2′ S Sexquialtera II F/Sch Scharff IV-VI S Dulcian 8′ S Trechter Regal 8′ S

II Werck CDEFGA–c3 ---- Principal 16′ A Quintadehn 16′ F/S Octava 8′ Vor Sch/Sch/S Spitzflöht 8′ S Viola di Gamba 8′ L Octava 4′ Sch/S Rohrflöht 4′ Sch/S Flachflöht 2′ A Rauschpfeiff II Sch/S Super Octav 2′ S Mixtur VI-VIII F/S Trommet 16′ F/S Pedal C–d1 ---- Principal 32′ A/S Octava 16′ S Subbaß 16′ S Octava 8′ S Octava 4′ F/? Nachthorn 2′ S Rauschpfeiff III F/S Mixtur VI-VIII F/S Posaune 32′ S Posaune 16′ S Dulcian 16′ S Trommet 8′ S Trommet 4′ S Cornet 2′ S

III Oberpositiv CDEFGA–c3 ---- Principal 8′ S/A Rohrflöht 8′ S Holtzflöht 8′ S Spitzflöht 4′ S Octava 4′ Sch Nasat 3′ S Octava 2′ S Gemshorn 2′ Sch/F Scharff IV-VI F/A Cimbel III S/A Trommet 8′ S Vox humana 8′ S Trommet 4′ S/A

• Coupler
  Coupler
  Coupler is a word used to describe any of a number of things:* A railway coupling device;** A Janney coupler;* An electronic device, more properly, an acoustic coupler;* A telecommunications device known as a directional coupler;...
  
  s: IV/II, II/III.
• Two tremulant
  Tremulant
  A tremulant is a device on a pipe organ which varies the wind supply to the pipes of one or more divisions . This causes their pitch to fluctuate, producing a vibrato effect. A large organ may have several tremulants, affecting different ranks of pipes...
  
  s.
• Trommel.
• One Hauptventiel
• Five Ventiele for the whole organ
• Cimbelstern

• Pitch: a' = 495.45 Hz at 18 degrees Celsius
• Tuning: Modified meantone
• Wind pressure: 80 mm

Sch = Scherer (16./17. century)

F = Hans Christoph Fritzsche (1636)

S = Arp Schnitger (1693)

L = Johann Jakob Lehnert (1761)

A = Jürgen Ahrend (1993)

External links

• http://www.arpschnitger.nl/shamb.html Link to the specification and history of the organ