Arp Schnitger

Arp Schnitger (Schmalenfleth, Oldenburg, 1648 – Neuenfelde, near Hamburg, 1719) was the most important organ builder in northern Europe during the Baroque period and one of the central figures in the history of the German organ. His work, concentrated on the northern coast of Germany and in the Netherlands, served as a model for generations of builders and reportedly influenced twentieth-century organ building more than that of any earlier master.

The son of a carpenter who was also named Arp, he learnt his trade as a carpenter from his father. In 1666 he entered an apprenticeship with his uncle Berendt Huss, in Glückstadt, in Holstein. Together with him he built the large three-manual organ of the Cosmaekirche in Stade (1668–1675), which Schnitger enlarged in 1688. After Huss died in 1676, Schnitger took over much of his uncle's outstanding commissions, among them the completion of the instrument at St. Wilhadi, also in Stade, and he built new organs in Cappel and Lüdingworth. In 1682 he obtained the contract to build the organ of the Nikolaikirche in Hamburg and moved his workshop from Stade to that city. That instrument, built between 1682 and 1687, was the largest he ever constructed and was destroyed by a fire in 1842. His two sons, Johann Jürgen and Franz Caspar, assisted him in the work.

His workshop produced more than 170 instruments, among them several four-manual organs, twenty-six three-manual organs and more than twenty large two-manual organs with independent pedal, as well as more than thirty domestic organs. Many have been lost to fires, wars or later alterations; the surviving ones are concentrated between Hamburg and Groningen. His instruments are valued for the clarity of their sound, the harmonic balance between the fundamental and the overtones, the quality of the reed stops, and the ability of the principals and reeds to blend. He maintained the northern German tradition of independent sound bodies (Rückpositiv, Hauptwerk, Brustpositiv, Oberwerk and pedal), and frequently reused stops from earlier organs. This structure responded to the need to accompany congregational singing and, according to some accounts, provided the foundation for a notable school of organist-composers in northern Germany.

His legacy was carried on through some fifty pupils, many of whom opened their own workshops that followed his style, such as Christian Vater, Hans Hantelmann or Erasmus Bielfeldt in Germany, and Rudolf Garrelts or Johan Radeker in the Netherlands. In Zwolle, his son Franz Caspar continued the workshop's activity after Arp's death, and the family line ended in 1869 with the death of H.E. Freytag. In the twentieth century, Helmut Walcha's recordings of Bach played on the organ at Cappel brought his sound to performers, teachers and builders around the world, and the organ of the Jacobikirche in Hamburg became a decisive model for the Orgelbewegung movement.