The Silbermann Family
Organ Builders

Gottfried Silbermann's Organs | Schnitger-Silbermann Comparison

Introduction

Most organists in the United States know some names of organbuilders, and we usually think of them in two groups. The first group of names includes those individual builders and firms that are active today, that have built notable organs that we have read about, or that perhaps built the instrument we play every day. The second group of names is smaller, becuse it includes those notable builders of the past whose works survive today as the finest examples of their type. We might think of Clicquot in eighteenth-century France, or Schnitger in seventeenth-century Germany.

If your were to survey organists today, the name Silbermann would perhaps be at the top of the second list. To a large extent, this would be because

  • organs built by Silbermann are associated with the music of J. S. Bach,
  • and they served as models for some of the landmark instruments of the mid-twentieth century. 158
The Silbermann family was indeed active in the eighteenth century, but it is important to realize that different members of the family built different types of instruments:

Andreas Silbermann and his son Johann Andreas worked in Alsace, the area indicated by a small red circle on the map to the left. They both built some outstanding instruments that are extant there, and Johann Andreas continued to build organs through the late eighteenth century. 159 Andreas spent some time in Paris, learning about French organ-building from Thierry, and his instruments all have a firm basis in the French Classical aesthetic.160 The organs of Johann Andreas show more German characteristics, especially in their pedal divisions, but their French basis can still be seen in stop names.

Most of the time, though, when you hear someone mention a "Silbermann" organ, the speaker will mean an instrument built by Gottfried, the younger brother of Andreas. Gottfried actually started his career working with Andreas, and he absorbed a few French characteristics from his organs. The center of his activity as an independent builder was in Saxony, however, the area indicated by the red circle on the map to the right. This part of Germany includes Leipzig, where Bach spent more than twenty-five years, but Bach never held a position where he played a Silbermann organ on a regular basis. We do know his reactions to Silbermann's organ in the Frauenkirche in Dresden, though, so you might say that Bach is "on record" as having approved of Gottfried Silbermann's work as an organ builder.

Because Gottfried Silbermann was a near contemporary of Bach, because they worked in the same area of Germany, and because we know that Bach respected Silbermann's work, we associate the work of these two men. The "Silbermann organ" is in the mind of many organists today the "Bach organ."

Introduction | Gottfried Silbermann's Organs | Schnitger-Silbermann Comparison

Gottfried Silbermann's Organs

Gottfried Silbermann's organs had some characteristics commonly found in other organs of Saxony or Thuringia - - the nearby section of Germany in which Bach was born and worked earlier in his career.

  • The manual divisions usually included some combination of Hauptwerk, Oberwerk, and Brustwerk, but the Rückpositiv was less common.
  • Pedal divisions were typically small, with an emphasis on fundamental stops used to play supporting bass lines.
  • The primary manual principal chorus was usually complete from 16' or 8' pitch through one or two chorus mixtures.
  • The secondary manual typically served to play solo lines in chorale settings. Its chorus often didn't compare favorably with the amount of sound from the primary manual.
  • Color stops were usually found on both manuals, and they included not only a variety of flute colors, but string stops as well (Viola da Gamba or Salicional).
  • Reed stops included both chorus reeds and solo stops, but they might not be found on every manual division.
Gottfried Silbermann's organs were distinguished by
  • Their inclusion of elements absorbed from his brother Andreas' French-Alsatian instruments.

    Mutation stops were found in other instruments, of course, but Gottfried incorporated wide-scale stops of the sort more common on French than German organs. His Cornets were also made in the French style, consisting of large-scaled open pipes. To be sure, on larger instruments he would include the more "German" narrow-scale mutations as well, but his use of wide-scale mutations distinguishes his instruments.

    Silbermann's reed stops were particularly well built, and he seems to have included them on larger instruments in the French manner, enabling a French Grand jeu to be played on his organs with particular fidelity to their original aesthetic.

  • Their particular "silvery" sound.

    Silbermann's principals were generally voiced on low pressures, with low cut-ups, and they tended to be of smaller scale than normal, especially in the treble ranges. This meant that the higher pitches were quieter than those usually found on organs of Silbermann's time and place, never dominating the fundamental pitch but adding a particular soft quality to the ensemble.

As is always the case, a verbal description of the sound of a Silbermann organ is not going to tell you what the instrument really sounds like. It is a start, however, and you might find organs you know that have some of the same tonal characteristics to help you understand.

Introduction | Gottfried Silbermann's Organs | Schnitger-Silbermann Comparison

Schnitger-Silbermann Comparison

The two "schools" of German organ-building that you need to learn about first as an undergraduate are

  • The North German seventeenth-century organs, best represented by Arp Schnitger's instruments.
  • The "Bach" organs of eighteenth-century central Germany, best represented by the instruments of Gottfried Silbermann.

I assume you are reading these pages as a part of my class, so you should know about the Schnitger organs by now. It might help you to make a comparison between these two types of organ, although, again, the comparison will be made verbally. We can summarize the differences between the two in these categories:

  • Social position

    This might seem like a strange thing to talk about, but it's actually important. In north Germany many of the largest organs were built with the support of people who were business leaders, or organizations of such business leaders. Shipping and trade were the driving forces behind Dutch and North German society in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the financial importance of an organization or of a city was publicly displayed in various ways - - including the building of great, monumental organs. In a sense, this was advertising, or maybe a form of community service comparable to a multinational corporation buying computers for an inner-city school today.

    The large cases of the northern organs are evidence of this desire to impress upon the people the importance of the donors. The sound of the organs was equally bold. The desire to astound through splendor is both visible and audible.

    On the other hand, the organs of central Germany were supported by cities, business organizations, and individuals whose resources were more limited. In some ways, we can think of central German organs as "small town" organs, simply because they were smaller, less commercially oriented, perhaps even less vigorous. The people of these central German cities and towns were more settled and members of a more staid, older society. With the continuing importance of older noble families, who wielded more influence than commercial organizations, you can think of central Germany as building organs with "old money," rather than with the glitzy funds of the "nouveau riche" in North Germany.

  • Musical demands

    When you think of the music of Buxtehude, the first thing that comes to mind - - especially if you've just taken Music History I - - is the music he composed for the Abendmusiken, the impressive services-concerts of Lübeck in north Germany. From that same music history class, think of the music Bach wrote for the morning services in his church positions: cantatas and organ chorales. Of course, both composers wrote organ settings of chorale tunes, and both wrote impressive Praeludia, or preludes and fugues. But the different emphasis within the musical output of Buxtehude and Bach shows the different requirements of their positions. The intensely personal and inwardly directed religious life of central Germany required intensely personal and individualistic organ sounds. We find those requirements reflected in the multiple color stops, including strings and soft flutes, of the central German organs. The organs of eighteenth-century central Germany were built to serve musical requirements that were different from those of North Germany.

  • Quality of sound

    The differences in sound between the organs of Schnitger and Silbermann are, of course, the result of different scalings, voicing, placement, and even room shape and size.168 If we were to summarize the differences in their sounds, though, we could say that the Schnitger sound is more overt, more open, more "up front" in quality. On the other hand, the Silbermann sound is more inward, more reserved, more refined. These words mean little on their own, to be sure, but they can serve as a framework for your own descriptions of the different sounds.

    The first step you can take is to listen to good recordings of both types of instrument. Then, search for some new instruments in the United States that have been built in the style of one or the other builder. Finally, make it a goal to go hear some of the surviving works of both Schnitger and Silbermann. Seeing them and hearing them in their original locations is the final step in learning the differences between them.

Introduction | Gottfried Silbermann's Organs | Schnitger-Silbermann Comparison


© 2000 AD James H. Cook