Arp Schnitger and his work

With this volume, all of the surviving organs and organ façades from the workshop of Arp Schnitger have been gathered together for the first time. These instruments can be found in North Germany and the northern Provinces of the Netherlands, as well as Portugal and Brazil. Arp Schnitger (1648 – 1719) was, in his time, the organ builder with the most extensive Opus list and the widest geographical distribution of his instruments: in the east to Moscow, in the west to England, and in the south to Portugal. When an organ originally built for Lisbon was given to the Cathedral in Mariana (Brazil) in 1752, Schnitger’s area of influence was extended even to the Western Hemisphere. From over 160 original Schnitger organs, forty-six organ façades survive and give a fascinating impression of the organ culture of northern Europe in the Baroque Era. In the period around 1700, Arp Schnitger was a dominating figure in the context of European organ culture, and he has assumed a similar role again in our time. Today, Schnitger’s surviving instruments have been copied and heard in recordings throughout the world, and thus, have become an integral part of the global organ culture.

The authors, who are counted among the most knowledgeable experts on the Schnitger style, present the first comprehensive view of the art and design of Arp Schnitger’s organs. The publishers are two societies, one in North Germany and the other in the northern Netherlands, whose shared mission is to support and communicate the Art of the Organ as widely as possible.