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Tales of 1001 Pipes. For Mendelssohn’s organ lessons: The Wagner Organ at St. Mary’s Church, Berlin

January 29, 2010
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Michael Gailit received his musical and academic training at the University of Music in Vienna, Austria, studying piano with Hilde Langer-Rühl and Alexander Jenner, and organ with Herbert Tachezi. At age 20 he received his performance degree in organ, and took first prize in the competition “Jugend musiziert.” He subsequently earned degrees in piano and organ pedagogy. From 1993–2008 Michael Gailit was organist at St. Augustine‘s Church, which has the largest music program in Vienna, including recitals and orchestra concerts throughout the year. In 1995, Gailit was asked to take over an organ performance class at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. There he initiated a series of seminars and workshops on performance practices in organ music of all periods. Gailit has been a member of the piano faculty of the University of Music in Vienna since 1980. He has given courses, masterclasses and lectures in Europe and North America, and has performed in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Slovakia, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Canada, Russia, and Mexico. Since 1984, he regularly has toured the United States giving recitals and masterclasses. In a series of six recitals in Vienna, Gailit played the six Mendelssohn Sonatas, the six Bach Trio Sonatas, and the six Vierne Symphonies within three weeks. Gailit has released seven solo CDs, among them piano and organ music of W. A. Mozart (the first interpretation of the organ pieces after the original open scores) and selections of rarely played French romantic organ music. In addition to several articles in music magazines, he has published the first comprehensive book on the Liszt pupil Reubke (Julius Reubke—Life And Works) in 1995.

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Prologue
For some, musicology can offer captivating moments. What has happened at a certain place during a certain time? Changes in organs remind us sometimes of CSI. Who really knew what was going on? The pastor might be not the best guess, and the lead has intelligent ways to tell everybody how to look at things—2556 pipes in an organ it’s not worth it, with 1001 pipes you get even more!

Wagner and St. Mary
Let us imagine a visit to St. Mary’s Church in Berlin at the beginning of the 19th century. Our reason is the celebration last year of the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847). During the period 1820–21, the ingenious multi-talent received organ lessons at St. Mary’s and composed his first organ pieces. Mendelssohn’s organ teacher August Wilhelm Bach (1796–1869)—not related to the Thuringian family of musicians—had at his post in St. Mary’s an organ by Joachim Wagner at his disposal. The instrument, Wagner’s first masterpiece from 1719–23, established his fame as the “Berlin Silbermann.” As Uwe Pape has pointed out,1 there are resemblances in the original stoplist of St. Mary’s Wagner organ to the first masterpiece of the famous Saxon organ builder Gottfried Silbermann at the Freiberg cathedral from 1714:

St. Mary’s Church, Berlin

Hauptmanual
(I; CD–c3; 12 stops)
16′ Bordun
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöt
8′ Viole di Gamba
4′ Octav
4′ Spitzflöt
3′ Quinta
2′ Octav
[8′] Cornet V (c1–c3)
11⁄2′ Scharf V
1′ Cimbel [III]
8′ Trompet

Oberwerk (II; CD–c3; 11 stops)
16′ Quintadena
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackt
4′ Octav
4′ Fugara
3′ Nassat
2′ Octav
2′ Tertie
1′ Siefflöt
11⁄2′ Mixtur IV
8′ Vox humana

Hinterwerk (III; CD–c3; 9 stops)
8′ Gedackt
8′ Quintadena
4′ Octav
4′ Rohrflöt
2′ Octav
2′ Waldflöt
11⁄2′ Quinta
1′ Cimbel
[8′] Echo V [c1–c3]

Pedal (CD–d1; 8 stops)
16′ Principal-Baß
16′ Violon
8′ Gembßhorn
6′ Quinta
4′ Octav
2′ Mixtur VI
16′ Posaune
8′ Trompet

Accessories
2 tremulants
Zimbelstern
4 ventil stops (one for each division)
2 manual couplers
1 pedal coupler

Freiberg Cathedral

Hauptwerk (I; CD–c3; 13 stops)
16′ Bourdon
8′ Principal
8′ Rohrflöte
8′ Viola da Gamba
4′ Octava
3′ Quinta
2′ Super-Octava
13⁄5′ Tertia
8′ Cornet V (c1–c3)
2′ Mixtur IV
11⁄3′ Cimbeln III
8′ Trompete
4′ Clarin

Oberwerk (II; CD–c3; 13 stops)
16′ Quintaden
8′ Principal
8′ Gedackt
8′ Quintaden
4′ Octava
4′ Spitzflöte
2′ Super-Octava
1′ Flaschflöt
11⁄3′ Mixtur III
1′ Cimbeln II
8′ Krummhorn
8′ Vox humana
8′ Echo V (c1–c3)

Brustwerk (III; CD–c3; 9 stops)
8′ Gedackt
4′ Principal
4′ Rohrflöte
3′ Nasat
2′ Octava
13⁄5′ Tertia
11⁄2′ Quinta
1′ Sifflöt
1′ Mixtur III

Pedal (CD–c1; 10 stops)
32′ Untersatz
16′ PrincipalBaß
16′ OctavBaß
16′ SubBaß
8′ OctavBaß
4′ OctavBaß
22⁄3′ Pedalmixtur VI
16′ PosaunenBaß
8′ TrompetenBaß
4′ ClarinBaß

Accessories
2 tremulants
2 ventil stops (HW/BW, OW)
2 manual couplers (OW/HW, BW/HW)
1 pedal coupler (HW/P)

Simply Vogler
When A. W. Bach was appointed to St. Mary’s, the organ was no longer in its original state. The history also of this organ was influenced by a man whose name has survived today mainly in treatises on organ building. The priest Georg Joseph Vogler (1749–1814), often addressed as “Abbé Vogler,”2 shouted at his contemporaries:
Wake up, you parrots, you philistines of Liliput, from your lethargic slumber!
Listen (to the music)! Look (at scores)! Feel (the effects)! And think!3
Vogler sought to make the organ a more vivid instrument, both by performance style and through certain construction components. The sound was to be based on lower registers, which he achieved through the acoustic phenomenon of combination tones. The Italian violinist Giuseppe Tartini, when developing the double-stop technique, had found that if a consonant interval were played as purely as possible, a third, lower tone could be heard as a result of the addition of the vibrations. Describing the effect in his Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell’armonia of 1754, Tartini was regarded as the discoverer of the combination tones, which were later even named Tartini tones. The German organist Andreas Sorge (1703–1778), however, had already described the effect in his treatise Vorgemach der musik-alischen Komposition of 1745. He had noticed that when a fifth is played on a flute stop, the note of the lower octave can be heard.
Vogler used this phenomenon to build a low-pitch stop from two ranks of smaller pipes in the octave and the fifth. His Simplifikationssystem comprised also the removal of mutation stops and mixtures. He achieved dynamic flexibility through the use of free reeds, which could respond to variable wind pressure without change of pitch, and through swell boxes that enclosed not only one division, but the entire organ. The first musical instrument with free reeds seems to be the Cheng, a Chinese pumpkin instrument equipped with a mouthpiece and bamboo tubes containing thin metal plates. This technical idea developed eventually into an organ pipe rank shortly before 1800, with the exotic attempt to build a speaking machine. The Cheng is also regarded as the common ancestor of the other free reed instruments, such as the accordion or the harmonium.4
No matter where, in the Swedish capital Stockholm or the Austrian capital Vienna, Vogler convinced authorities to improve the organs in their churches. In the Prussian capital, Berlin, he arranged the conversion of the Wagner organ at St. Mary’s in 1800–01, carried out by local organ builder Johann Friedrich Falckenhagen (1752–1823). The 40 stops were reduced to 26, and reports tell that from 2556 pipes only 1001 remained in the organ.5 On November 28, 1801, at 5 pm, Vogler presented the converted organ to an obviously enthusiastic, but not completely converted, crowd in an inauguration recital with a memorable program:

1st Part
1. Prelude and fugue with full organ, using 3 octave stops, 3 fifths, 2 thirds and 4 reeds, with a total of only 498 pipes
2. Terrace song of the Africans stamping limestone, to surface their terraces, always one choir resting and singing, the other one stamping
3. Double concerto of a flute and a basson, with clear distinction of four manuals:
I. [manual] for the flute
II. [manual] for the bassoon
III. [manual] for the full orchestra
IV. [manual] for the gentle instrumental accompaniment
Allegro. Andante. Rondo.

2nd Part
4. The Mahomedanian [sic] Creed: There is only one God and Mahomed is his prophet, which is sung during funerals alternately with 2 choirs in the front and in the back of the corpse, performed with an Adagio
5. The boat ride on the Rhine, interrupted by a thunder storm
6. The Chorale: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, with a Basso continuo, in contrapuntal and canonic manner
NB. The terrace song, the Mahomedanian song, and the boat ride have been specially requested by music lovers.6

In an extended review, the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung preserved the terrace song theme for posterity (Example 1). As seriously as possible, the author makes fun of the limestone stamping choirs, wondering if they are familiar with the European canon form (Example 2).
The pastor of the church later complained that Vogler had taken out the best pipes, selling them to St. Hedwig’s Church and the Catholics, and replacing them with pipes of lesser quality.7 Other sources claim that Vogler used the now superfluous pipes in a new organ at St. Hedwig’s. We can even read that he received money from the king to build the organ at St. Hedwig’s, that he completed it at his own expense, or even donated the whole instrument.8 Time for CSI.

Questions and questioning
First: Are the numbers 2556 and 1001 correct? Did the original Wagner organ have 2556 pipes, and did only 1001 really remain in the instrument? Provided that in the Hinterwerk the Cimbel consisted of three ranks and the Echo Cornet had the same compass as the Hauptwerk Cornet, the total number of 2556 Wagner pipes appears correct (Table 1).
The more difficult task is to find out what happened in the course of the conversion. (An “after” stoplist is shown in Table 13.) After all these pipe relocations, would we get a total of 1001 remaining pipes? At first, the report tells us which ranks stayed, which were removed, and which were partly or wholly relocated. For a whole new rank or stop in another pitch, Vogler needed to take out pipes from two ranks, one rank providing the majority of pipes for the upper octaves, and another rank at least for the lowest octave. The conversions can be described as follows. Sometimes there is more than one solution—in this case, only one is given.

Conversion 1
To achieve a 32′ sound, Vogler created a new Groß-Nasat 102⁄3′ on the Hauptwerk. He took the bottom octave from the Pedal Quinte 51⁄3′ and had it stopped to transpose the pitch an octave lower. The Hauptwerk Gamba 8′ supplied the rest of the rank. Since the lowest octave was taken from the same range, the missing C# did not cause a problem (Table 2).

Conversion 2
For a new discant stop, it was sufficient to take the corresponding section from one old stop. In this manner, part of the Spitzflöte 4′ became a new Terzflöte 31⁄5′ to support the 16′ sound at the Hauptwerk (Table 3).

Conversion 3
To ascertain the number of both remaining and removed pipes, one must keep in mind that the key for C-sharp did not exist. If a section of a rank were relocated to the bottom octave, then the pipe that would take the place of the bottom C-sharp must be included in the number of removed pipes. When creating the Klein-Nasat 51⁄3′ for the support of the 16′ sound of the Hauptwerk, the bottom G-sharp from the Gedackt 8′ of the Oberwerk was superfluous. Vogler took the rest of the rank from the Hinterwerk Oktav 2′ (Table 4).

Conversion 4
Except for the bottom octave, the Oberwerk Nasat 22⁄3′ provided the pipes for the new Hinterwerk Terz 31⁄5′. The bottom octave came from the Rohrflöte of the Hauptwerk; the pipe for the note f° became superfluous due to the non-existing key for the bottom C-sharp (Table 5).

Conversion 5
According to David and his sources, the new Vox humana 16′ started at tenor C. It is more plausible that it had the compass c1–c3. First, in order to meet 1001 as the total number of used pipes, all five discant stops could have comprised only two octaves or 25 keys each. Second, to change the Vox humana 8′ to a 16-foot stop, Vogler would have had the problem of a gap in the tenor octave caused by the missing C-sharp (Table 6).

Conversion 6
The conversion of the Hauptwerk Quintade 8′ to the Pedal Quintatön 4′ caused one superfluous pipe because of the missing C-sharp key (Table 7).

Conversion 7
There are a limited number of possiblities of how Vogler could have changed the Echo cornet of the Hinterwerk into the two pedal stops Nachthorn 2′ and Blockflöte 1′. This given solution takes the pipes only from the octave ranks. The actual conversion depended on the scaling of the rank (Table 8).

Conversion 8
To convert the Pedal Trompete 8′ into a Dulcian 32′ for the Hinterwerk, Vogler probably did not build a new pipe for the missing C-sharp. He could have shifted all pipes above C and tuned them a half tone lower. This is supported by the given number of pipes, otherwise there would be a difference of one pipe in the total numbers before and after the conversion (Table 9).

Conversion 9
While David names precisely from his sources the stops that were used in the other conversions, the creation of the Oberwerk Quinte 22⁄3′ is described only as “taken from the Hinterwerk.” This is logical because not one single stop remained in the Hinterwerk to put together a complete discant stop. Fitting to the Octave 4′, Vogler could have used the rest of the Octave 2′ (Table 10).

Conversion completed
An overview of all conversions shows the complete deforestation (Table 11). Diagonal arrows indicate direct relocation, straight and edged lines stand for relocations where pipes were taken from more than one stop. 535 pipes evaded relocation (white bars), 466 pipes changed into another division (grey bars); therefore a total number of 1001 pipes remained. Ranks and those parts that were not used anymore appear as free space.

Stories and Tellers
The overview (Table 12) shows the stops that were partially used or completely unused. The question of their whereabouts will probably never be settled. The Catholic priest Vogler donated, according to David, the pipes to the Catholic Church St. Hedwig. The Catholics were a minority, and their church was in need of spiritual and financial support. Consecrated in 1773, the edifice was completed only in 1887. Today having the status of a cathedral, St. Hedwig was the only Catholic church in Berlin until 1844.
Sieling has pointed out that a preacher named Rütschel complained that Vogler had cheated St. Mary’s out of the beautiful organ, taking out the best pipes, selling them to St. Hedwig, and replacing them with pipes of lesser quality.9 The priest was Dr. Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl (1783–1858), who held the position of a preacher at St. Mary’s at that time.10 Ritschl poured his heart out to Julius Beer, the nephew of the famous opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. Beer in turn told the story to his uncle in a letter as a warning against Vogler. Ritschl had noticed the difference in sound, but not known what had actually happened. As shown above, Vogler either removed pipes or kept pipes in the instrument.
In 1888, Karl Emil von Schafhäutl, an engineer by profession and organ expert by avocation, tells again something different.11 Vogler reportedly used the superfluous pipes to erect a new organ in St. Hedwig, completing the instrument at his own expense. Schafhäutl, a declared supporter of Vogler and his ideas, obviously exaggerated in his account in order to combat the rumor that Vogler, according to Schafhäutl being the envy of many, had been accused of stealing the removed pipes.
Another source also mentions that the organ at St. Hedwig’s had been enlarged and rebuilt at the expense of the renowned Abbé Vogler.12 On the contrary, A. W. Bach, organist at St. Mary’s, opined that Vogler had, through his machinations, built several organs, among them the instrument of St. Hedwig, at the expense of no less than the Prussian king himself.13 Pape mentions that St. Hedwig, formerly equipped with an organ of only 10 stops, got a new instrument in 1801.14 In this year, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reports that the Prussian king had commissioned Vogler to built a new organ in Neu-Ruppin (probably providing the mentioned 20,000 Prussian Taler for this purpose), while Vogler had been successful in establishing a budget for a new organ at St. Hedwig’s through the support of the Berlin people, acquiring 1600 pipes from the organ at St. Mary’s.15

Restoration
Usually a reliable source in his reports about organs, Schafhäutl tends to deviate from the facts as far as Vogler and his significance is concerned. The instrument at St. Mary’s did not remain as an example of Vogler’s ideas without major changes until 1888, as Schafhäutl wants us to believe. The insufficient condition of the instrument was constantly an issue and an example of Vogler’s questionable activities. Already before 1830, a rebuild was carried through by the Berlin organ building company Buchholz. While David gives April 18, 1829 as the date of the contract and quotes Carl August Buchholz (1796–1884) as contract partner,16 Sieling has pointed out that the Prussian organ expert A. W. Bach mentioned Johann Simon Buchholz as party to the contract who, however, died in February 24, 1825.17 Thus, the rebuild could have been taken place even earlier. Pape has been successful in discovering hints to three receipts in files of the Berlin municipal office. According to notifications on overdue fees, the organ builder Johann Simon Buchholz received three major payments in 1814 and 1815. Pape assumes that the organ had already been restored almost back to its original state when, in 1829, Carl August Buchholz carried out some work, not only cleaning and repair, but also changing some stops.18
Following is a comparison of the stoplists of the Wagner organ, the Vogler organ, and the state of the instrument after the work of the Buchholz company.19 Asterisks mark those restored stops that are said to have been given to St. Hedwig. The spelling of the stops is according to Seidel, who quotes A. W. Bach himself as his source (Table 13).
There were a few changes by Buchholz compared to the original Wagner organ. The rebuild must have been larger in the Unterwerk and Pedal due to space requirements of the lower stops.

Hauptmanual
All stops remained or were installed according to the original stoplist

Oberwerk
Mixtur IV — split in bass and discant, omitting the Terz
Vox humana 8′ — Fagott-Hautbois, split in bass and discant

Unterwerk
Waldflöte 2′ — Gemshorn 8′
Quinte 11⁄3′ — Salizional 8′
Cimbel 1′ — Liebliche Flöte 4′
Echo 5r. — Nassard 22⁄3′

Pedal
Mixtur VI — Subbaß 16′
Quinta 6′ — Groß-Nassard 102⁄3′
Baßflöte 8’ (from Vogler’s
Hauptmanual?)
Trompete 8′ — Posaune 32′

What actually happened in the course of the conversion and restoration will probably never be discovered due to the sparse and divergent evidence in the sources. At any rate, the pipes and ranks at St. Mary’s that became superfluous fall into two groups. As listed above, there were the remains of the ranks from which Vogler created new stops, and then there were 12 completely unused stops. Even a thirteenth stop could be added: If conversion 7 had been carried through as assumed, a discant Sesquialtera II would have remained from the Echo cornet on the Hinterwerk. Except for the Pedal Mixture, the stoplist of the restored organ shows again all these stops taken out by Vogler. It could be correct that those ranks were moved back to St. Mary. Why, however, should they have come back when they had been sold or donated in order to serve in a new organ at St. Hedwig?
The identical names of the restored stops do not necessarily mean that original Wagner pipes took their accustomed place. After further rebuilds in 1892/93 and during the 20th century, it had to be realized during the organ restoration in 2001 that there was not one stop that consisted only of Wagner pipes. The company Daniel Kern Manufactures d’Orgues finally built a new instrument into the renovated organ case with the incorporation of all Wagner pipes according to their scaling.20 On the one hand, pipes might have come back from St. Hedwig’s. Today we find in some of the completely removed or dismantled stops historical Wagner pipes:
Hauptwerk: Rohrflöte 8′, Cornet V, Scharf V, Cimbel III
Oberwerk: Octav 2′
Hinterwerk: Quintadena 8′, Octav 4′, Echo V
Pedal: Octav 4′, Mixtur VI

On the other hand, pipes might have never come back from St. Hedwig’s. The total number of Wagner pipes today is 823, that is, 178 pipes less than the 1001-pipe organ after Vogler’s simplification. Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. Among the removed pipes there was certainly a surplus of high-pitch ranks, and probably not all of them were used at St. Hedwig’s. The Hauptwerk Scharf seems to be a candidate for this possibility. All its 240 pipes were given away; today it contains 149 (~62%) old pipes.

Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809–1847) composed all of his early works between 1820 and 1823, during the tenure of his organ teacher A. W. Bach at the Vogler organ of St. Mary’s. In Bach’s organ works we find dynamic markings for both a swell and a stop crescendo as special effects. A stop crescendo is described for the first time 1798 in the organ method of Justin Heinrich Knecht (1752–1817). Swell devices for dynamic flexibility were new in Germany and an issue in music and instrument periodicals. In February 1799 of the first volume of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, an article explains Vogler’s Simplifikationssystem and the various existing swell systems. Besides those working with shutters in the front and on the roof of the swell box, the wind swell and the progression swell are explained, the former working with variable wind pressure, the latter meaning a stop crescendo device. Other articles followed in 1821 and 1823, for example Ueber die Crescendo- und Diminuendo-Züge in Orgeln by the music director and organ expert Friedrich Wilke. Readers were informed about the invention of the dynamically flexible free reeds, which remain stable in pitch despite changing wind pressure.21
In all of Mendelssohn’s organ works the designation crescendo appears only once22—at the beginning of his first completed organ work, the Prelude in D Minor. Was the opening inspired by Vogler’s swell in the organ of St. Mary’s? First bars played on the Hinterwerk, opening the swell during the crescendo, manual change at the mezzoforte (apart from other possibilities with a registrant)? Rich foundational sound, which would have pleased Vogler, was achieved by doubling the chords (Example 3).

Coda
Whoever gets hold of Vogler should cross-examine him asking a few awkward questions. Did the Catholic priest launch the simplification of the Wagner organ at St. Mary’s Lutheran in order to harvest pipes for a new Catholic organ? If the pipes were sold, who received the money? Why did the Catholics pay money for the pipes when others considered Vogler as their donor? And why was he considered as a donor when the pipes belonged to St. Mary’s? Maybe we can negotiate getting at least names from him. Did the Lutherans know in advance that 60% of their organ pipes would go to the Catholics? Quite some questions, but musically not relevant. So we leave possible answers to others and return to the inspiring music scores of Mendelssohn.

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