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Joseph Kelemen,
Arp-Schnitger-Orgel 1693, St. Jacobi, Hamburg

Matthias Weckmann, born in 1616 in Thuringia, was trained in Dresden and Hamburg. After several years at the Dresden court, Weckmann was appointed organist at St. Jacobi in Hamburg in 1655, where he lived and worked until his death in 1674.
The instrument Weckmann played at St. Jacobi was one that today holds an honorary place among historic organs. The famous Arp Schnitger organ (the first four-manual instrument of its time) is the organ with the most well-preserved organ pipes from before 1700. It was restored between 1989 and 1993.
This CD continues Joseph Kelemen’s highly praised series of Southern German and Northern German Organ Masters.

Matthias Weckmann
Organ Works

Matthias Weckmann was probably born in 1616 in Niederdorla, near Mühlhausen, Thuringia. He moved to Dresden around 1628 and was a choirboy in the court chapel led by Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672). Schütz sent him to Hamburg in 1633 – complete with a scholarship sponsored by Saxon’s prince elector Johann Georg I – to study organ with Jacob Praetorius (1586–1651), the organist at St. Peter’s. Praetorius had studied with the famous teacher Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) in Amsterdam, just as had Heinrich Scheidemann (ca. 1596–1663), who was in Hamburg at the same time as Praetorius and the organist at St. Katharina’s. During his studies with Praetorius, Weckmann would certainly have heard Scheidemann on occasion. Weckmann’s acquaintanceship with both of these important masters during his Hamburg years gave him many insights into the Northern German manner of organbuilding and performance.

Weckmann returned to Dresden in 1636/37. He was appointed court organist and became a member of the crown prince’s chapel in 1637. In 1643, Weckmann – together with Schütz – traveled to Nykøbing, Denmark to found a court chapel for crown prince Christian V. In the course of these activities, which lasted until his reappointment in Dresden in 1647, Weckmann taught singers the Italian style that he had learned to love from Italian musicians at the Dresden court.¹

In winter 1649/50, Weckmann received the famous Southern German harpsichordist and organist Johann Jacob Froberger (1616–67) as a guest in Dresden. This meeting resulted in a musical contest between the two, which led to an active correspondence and finally, a close friendship. Through Froberger, Weckmann gained many insights into the musical practices of Southern Germany.

After a brilliant audition, Weckmann was accepted as the organist and church composer of Hamburg’s main church, St. Jacob’s, in 1655. This city, which gave Weckmann citizenship in 1660, had a vibrant musical life to which the organist made a lasting contribution. Weckmann died in Hamburg on February 24, 1674 and was buried in the church where he had worked so long.

The instru ment

With 4000 pipes and 60 registers distributed over four manuals and pedal, the Arp-Schnitger organ at St. Jacob’s in Hamburg is today’s largest and most important historical instrument. It contains the most extensive number of original pipes ever found in an instrument built before 1700. One-fourth of the original pipes were built even before Schnitger’s time. In these cases, the famous families of Scherer and Fritzsche are represented – in addition to many other generations of organ-builders. But of the many organ-builders who worked on the organ in St. Jacob’s, Arp Schnitger (1648–1719) was the last, and at the same time, the most important.²

The organ in St. Jacob’s was the first instrument in the history of organ-building that had four manuals. The fourth manual was built in 1636 by Gottfried Fritzsche; previously, the oberwerk and brustpositiv had been playable from one manual.

When Schnitger was working on the organ in 1693, the organist of the neighboring St. Katharina church, Johann Adam Reincken (ca. 1643–1722, Scheidemann’s successor and likewise a famous virtuoso) tried to prevent the installation of a 32’ principal in the pedal – a register that the organ in St. Katharina’s had.

In 1720, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) applied for the post of organist at St. Jacob’s; his competitor Johann Joachim Heitmann ³, however, who had paid 4000 Marks into the church tills (one seventh of the total costs of Schnitger’s extensive renovations), received the appointment. This demonstrates the tragic situation later reported by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–88) about his father, that “he… never ended up in a situation of having a large, excellent organ always at his disposal.”⁴

In the centuries of its existence, the organ at St. Jacob’s underwent many renovations that even further removed it from its condition in Schnitger’s period. But in a major project lasting from 1989 to 1993, just in time for the anniversary of the organ’s 300th birthday, the instrument was renovated by the Jürgen Ahrend (Leer-Loga) organ-building company for over five million deutschmarks.

The works ⁵

Three chorale-based works of Weckmann form the backbone of this recording: Ach wir armen Sünder (03-05), Es ist das Heyl uns kommen her (08-14) und Gelobet seystu Jesu Christ (16-19). These works can only be performed on the organ because the chorale melody is often written for the pedal. Three other freely composed pieces on this recording (i.e. not based on a chorale melody) – the Praeambulum Primi toni a. 5. (01), Fuga ex D. ped[aliter]. primi Toni (02) and Fantasia. Ex. D. (21) – include an obbligato pedal, thus making them also unsuitable for any keyboard instrument other than the organ. The four remaining works could be played on the harpsichord; playing them on the organ is the performer’s decision.

Weckmann probably composed his free works such as the canzonas during his Dresden or Nykøbing period. The chorale-based works are probably from Weckmann’s years in Hamburg (1655–1674).

The tripartite Praeambulum Primi toni a. 5. (01) that opens the program follows the style of Froberger’s toccatas.⁶ The virtuosic first section in free form and meter is followed by a very strict fugal section in consort- style, before the powerful third section – which is thematically related to the second – effectively closes the work. The Fuga ex D. ped[aliter]. primi Toni (02) also has three sections. Its theme appears in three rhythmically varied forms, made clear by three different colors in the registration.

The basic tenor of the three-movement Lenten chorale Ach wir armen Sünder (03–05) is introverted and contemplative. The chorale melody flows in moving quarter-notes; it appears in the tenor voice in verses 1 and 3 and in the soprano in verse 2.

In this recording, the Toccata Dal 12 Tuono (06) is handled as it might be performed at the harpsichord and was stopped with the rückpositiv plenum. In addition to shorter motivic parts, the focus of this composition seems to be solely its continuous motoric. The Canzon Dall istesso Tuono (= in the same tone) (07) that accompanies the toccata is based on a dance-like theme with repeated tones. Like the toccata, the Canzon is characterized by joyful motoric.

Weckmann’s several-movement choralebased compositions are designed for alternatim practice (= alternation of choir and organ), although the dimensions of his two major cycles Es ist das Heyl uns kommen her (08–14) and O Lux Beata Trinitas (not recorded here) burst the typical framework of this practice.

The chorale of the monumental cycle Es ist uns das Heyl kommen her was sung the most frequently of all chorales in the liturgy of St. Jacob’s. Due to its length of 30 minutes, Weckmann’s organ work based on this melody is in a category of its own. With this work, composed in the so-called Hamburg prunkstil (= flamboyant style), 17th century Northern German organ music reaches a second apex after Samuel Scheidt’s (1587–1654) Tabulatura nova (Hamburg 1624).

The chorale melody – heard primarily in the pedal – moves through all seven movements like a leitmotiv. While two plenum verses frame the beginning and the end, the middle movements (Secundus to Quintus Versus) are more delicate due to their almost chamber-musical structure. These movements are composed as canons, the essence of which is playfulness. The vitality of this music is particularly apparent in the Quartus Versus (11): the chorale is distributed over both hands; at the same time, a competition is taking place in the pedal in small note values. The bright 4’ registers used for the three voices make the playful character of this verse clear.

Tertius Versus (10) is characterized by its dignified rhythm (in dotted values), while Sextus Versus (13) offers a ten-minute paraphrase of the chorale in which the melody is performed as a sweeping cantus firmus in the right hand. Fourteen measures before the end, the melody as well as the pedal are divided to allow the movement to close with magnificent, even more escalated seven-voice part-writing.

Lucidor einß hütt der schaf (15) belongs to the genre of (secular) song variations. The simple rendition of the song is followed by a variation.

Weckmann’s dating of the Christmas chorale Gelobet seystu Jesu Christ (16–19) is found on the autograph copy: 1667. After the chorale is presented in the Primus Versus, a several-part chorale variation unfolds in the Secundus Versus (17), in which the chorale is extensively and elaborately varied. Here, Weckmann uses the effective – and for the Northern German style, typical – echo effect. In the registration of the chorale sections, a number of stops from the large palette of reeds in the St. Jacob’s organ are used. In the Tertius Versus (18), the chorale is heard in the tenor before its close in the Quartus Versus (19) in the pedal – accompanied by majestic passages in sixths on the manual. The entry of the cimbelstern at the end of the piece provides the desired Christmas mood.

The animated three-part Canzon (20) is based on a single theme. Tone repetitions ensure the pieces playful and joyous character, and it is stopped with Scherer’s clear, wellpreserved rohrflöht 4’ from the 16th century. At the beginning of the three-part Fantasia. Ex. D. (21), the theme is introduced in five voices, similar to the technique found in a ricercar. In the next section in triple rhythm, the theme is heard with marked dotted rhythms. This passage flows into a richly ornamented “cadenza” filled with rests. The last part closes the work brilliantly, using the greatest possible plena on three coupled manuals and the posaune 32’ of the pedal in the final chord.

Notes on the registration

Weckmann’s instrument is still evident in the Schnitger organ at St. Jacob’s, even though Schnitger’s later work on the organ makes it difficult to determine the exact sound of the composer’s working instrument. Although Schnitger was in the habit of reusing valuable old material, changes he made to the organ in 1693 also changed the instrument’s specification compared to its condition during Weckmann’s years of service (1655–1674).

This recording tries to restrict itself to the registers that the organ had while Weckmann was in Hamburg – with a few exceptions. Weckmann, for example, only had two 24’ registers in the pedal. Here, both 32’ registers now on the instrument are used. Furthermore, the chorale Ach wir armen Sünder uses the viola da gamba 8’ (its only appearance on the entire CD), which was added to the organ around 80 years after Weckmann’s death by Johann Jacob Lehnert. This register appears in Versus 3 (05) in the right hand, combined with the spitzflöte 8’. The resulting sound is well-suited to follow the delicate quintadena 8’ of the rückpositiv in the previous Versus 2 (04). Fundamentally, however, the beautiful viola da gamba 8’ in the organ at St. Jacob’s is insignificant for Weckmann’s organ music. Weckmann’s instrument had short octaves in all three manuals (werck, oberpositiv, brustpositiv). The rückpositiv, in contrast, contains the entire octave and thus, the notes F# and G#, which are missing on keyboards with a short octave. Weckmann must have been happy about the complete octave in the rückpositiv (very rarely found at the time); it is conspicuous that some of his works contain these tones, while others don’t need them and easily manage with “only” a short octave. Still, pieces with low F#s and G#s must have been played on the rückpositiv during Weckmann’s time. This recording deviates from this principle in the Quintus Versus (12) of Es ist uns das Heyl kommen her. Despite the desired low G# that occurs in the left hand of this verse, the movement has been played here on the werck and not on the rückpositiv. This way, the cantus firmus in the following Sextus Versus (13) can unfold all of its magnificence on the rückpositiv, which juts out into the nave.



The cantus firmus is heard on the rückpositiv, although a registration note in Weckmann’s hand states: “Oberst Positif (= 3rd manual) vol”. On today’s organ in St. Jacob’s, this instruction does not seem entirely feasible. When played on the oberpositiv, the richly ornamented cantus firmus does not adequately contrast with the accompaniment. Instead of the “oberst positif ”, the rückpositiv (1st manual) was used, in its “voll” (= loud) variant.

At the same time, it is very important to look closely at Weckmann’s directions because they give valuable clues about registration practices of the time. In the Tertius Versus (10) of the great chorale cycle, Weckmann’s fascinating original registration was able to be applied. This can be seen as an entry on the facsimile (page 10).

When deciding on the plenum for the major Weckmann compositions, the biggest question is what proportion of reeds to use. “Schnitger’s Trompeten… are plenum registers…”. ⁷ In this recording, reeds were thus used in various doses in the plenum to create a wide variety of plena sounds. Here, too, the organ in St. Jacob’s proves itself to be utterly inexhaustible in regard to the resources of sound that it offers.

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1 “The Italians had never heard such organists [as Weckmann], and thought very highly of him because he was able in all things. But to ingratiate himself even better with them, he even used the Italian language, and understood and spoke it rather well.” Johann Mattheson, Grundlage einer Ehren-Pforte, Hamburg 1740, Lipmannssohn, Berlin 1910, p. 395.
2 Information available in the booklet that accompanies the CD “Buxtehude: Orgelwerke Vol. 7” released by MDG, with notes by Harald Vogel. For a detailed history of the development of the organ in St. Jacob’s as well as thorough documentation of it, see Heimo Reinitzer (Ed.), Die Arp-Schnitger-Orgel der Hauptkirche St. Jacobi in Hamburg, Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1995. For the exact breakdown of the organ’s pipes according to organbuilders, see Disposition on pages 20–21 of this booklet.
3 “…a wealthy tradesman’s son, who is better at ‘präludiren’ with thalers than with his fingers”, Reinitzer, op. cit., p. 79.
4 Cited in: Schulze, Hans-Joachim, Dokumente zum Nachwirken Johann Sebastian Bachs 1750–1800, Kassel 1972, p. 88.
5 For an exemplary analysis of Weckmann‘s organ works, see Hans Davidsson, Matthias Weckmann: the Interpretation of his Organ Music, Gehrmans Musikförlag, Stockholm 1991.
6 “… so that Weckmann also through this became very familiar with Froberger‘s manner of playing.” Johann Mattheson, op. cit., p. 396.
7 Harald Vogel/Günter Lade/Nicola Borger- Keweloh, Orgeln in Niedersachsen, Verlag Hauschild, Bremen 1997, p. 169.