This post features the Arp Schnitger organ stamp from Germany in 1989. One of the most famous pipe organs in the world is located in the St. Jacobi Church (St. James) in Hamburg, Germany. The instrument is by the organ builder Arp Schnitger who began his work in 1689. After many renovations, the instrument is still in use today.
Among the variety of music-themed stamps on this blog, there are few dedicated to specific instruments. Most stamps feature generic instruments (guitar, piano, violin) and are not featuring an exact object. However, a great many stamps featuring organs do celebrate a very specific instrument. You can read about several such stamps on this blog, including the instrument built for the church of St. Nicolas in Wasquehal, France in 1989.
The Stamp
That exact year, 1989, was also the 300th anniversary of the Arp Schnitger organ in Hamburg. To mark this momentous occasion, the West German government released a postage stamp featuring the Schnitger organ on November 16 of that year. The stamp is the design of graphic artists Peter and Regina Steiner.
Hamburg, Germany, 1989
Scott # 1590
Pipe Organs in St. Jacobi Church
The organ has a pretty amazing history. The church had an organist around the year 1300, but it is unknown what instrument he would have played. Jacob Iversand and Harmen Stüven built an organ for the church between 1512 and 1516. Over the next two centuries it would have many alterations, repairs, and additions. Among the builders during this period who worked on the instrument were Jacob Scherer, his son-in-law Dirk Hoyer, Hans Bockelmann, Hans Scherer the Elder, and his sons Hans and Fritz. In the seventeenth century, Gottfried Frizsche and later his son Hans Christoph Fritzsche also expanded the organ. For a complete history of the instrument and its modifications make sure to check out this great post. The instrument is in the important treatise Syntagma Musicum (1619) by Michael Praetorius. This is one of the most important musical instrument books of the baroque period.
The Arp Schnitger Organ
When Arp Schnitger began to build a new instrument in 1689, he actually used some of the older instrument, namely twenty-seven stops, including some pipes from the original 1516 instrument. His greatly expanded instrument had sixty stops, four keyboard manuals and a full pedalboard, and more than 4,000 pipes.
In 1720, Johann Sebastian Bach, already a famed organist, applied for the position of organist at St. Jacobi. However, the organist Johann Joachim Heitmann, who made a donation of 4,000 Marks to the church and also married the pastor’s daughter, was named to the position.
CC BY-SA 3.0; An-d – Own work
The organ underwent many modifications, additions, and repairs in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. In 1890, it was converted to a modern pneumatic action system.
After World War II
More drastic changes occurred in the twentieth century. The metal pipes went to the war effort during World War I. Then, to protect the instrument during WWII, the wind chests, pipework, and case carvings were taken out of the church. A new case was constructed in the rebuilt church and the pieces were painstakingly returned to the church, however the technical aspects of the organ did not function well for many years.
Then in 1982, the organist Rudolf Kelber led a drive to have the instrument restored to its former glory. The organ restorer Jürgen Ahrend (b. 1930), led the work, and he spent many years and consulted with many musicologists to restore the instrument. As a result, the instrument restoration returned the instrument to its 1762 configuration. The full disposition of the present organ can is on this page. The restoration of the instrument was finished in 1993, the 300th anniversary of the completion of Schnitger’s original instrument.
Today, organist from around the world travel to Hamburg to perform on the Arp Schnitger organ. You can see a full list of recordings on the instrument here. There also many available video performances on the instrument such as the one below featuring the organist Fabien Moulaert.
