1693 Arp Schnitger Organ, Germany

Located in St. Jacobi Church, Hamburg, Northern Germany. Its current disposition is four manuals and pedalboard with a total of 60 stops.

Organistic activity in St. Jacobi is documented as of around 1300 when some “Master Rudolf” is mentioned as organist. A two manual organ built by Jacob Iversand and Harmen Stüven is documented by 1516. In the mid 16th century, a Rückpositiv was added. Further extensions were made during the 16th and 17th centuries mainly by Jacob Scherer in 1551. Later, in 1577-1578, Dirk Hoyer built a new Rückpositiv and two pedal towers. A new upper organ was added by Hans Scherer the Elder by 1592 and, by 1606-1607, Hans Scherer the Younger still extended it so that by the end of the 16th century it had become the largest organ of its time, as it is described by Michael Praetorius in his Syntagma Musicum of 1619, with “three” (sic) manuals, pedalboard and 53 registers. In the years 1555-1558 Gotffried Fritszche carried out several transformations of the Renaissance keyboard extension. Between 1689 and 1693, Arp Schnitger undertook a rebuilding of the organ. He kept 27 registers from the previous organs, the oldest of which comes from the 1516 organ, building the remaining stops entirely himself. Hence, Schnitger expanded the four manual organ to 60 registers. Against Jan Adam Reincken’s advise, the pedal was given a 32′ Principal and Trombone. Several alterations took place during the 18th and 19th centuries. But the removal of the wind chest and pipework in 1942 saved the sounding parts of the organ from destruction during the Second World War, when the church was burned down and Schnitger’s facade, bellows and console were lost. A provisional reinstallation on the south aisle was carried out by the Kemper workshop of Lübeck in 1950. The aim to restore the organ to its original state with all the preserved parts came from Rudolf Kelberg in 1982. The task fell upon the hands of Jürgen Ahrend, outstanding expert on Schnitger organs, who handed over a fully restored and reconstructed organ by Eater of 1993, exactly three hundred years after Arp Schnitger had done so.

With its 4000 pipes, the St. Jacobi’s is the largest Baroque-Style Organ in Northern Europe as of before 1700, with pipes dating back to the Reformation time.

Contextual historical chronology

1685: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Birth on March 31st.

1687: Jean-Baptiste Lilly (1632-1687) Decease on March 22nd.

1691: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) King Arthur.

1694: Delphin Strungk (1601-1694) Decease on October 12th.

1695: Henry Purcell (1659-1695) Decease on November 21st.

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