Clavitura

Clavitura · Public edition · Scores open on IMSLP; no PDF downloads are hosted here.

Musical Europe · Lübeck · Hamburg · Leipzig

Chorale, counterpoint and the Bach world

A musical language assembled from journeys north and south

The north-German and central-German schools were written for different physical worlds. Surviving organs let us compare those worlds rather than treating 'the organ' as one fixed instrument.

11 linked composers · 1609 playable or downloadable scores

Map of Germany marking the principal cities in this musical journey
The route follows the places named in the chapters below.

Composers through time

Half-century groups use the midpoint of each composer's recorded lifespan as an orientation, not a composition date. Within each group: earliest birth first.

1600–1649

Historical portrait of Heinrich ScheidemannHeinrich Scheidemann1595–166369 scores →Instrument copperplateJohann Jacob Froberger1616–166771 scores →Instrument copperplateMatthias Weckmann1616–16747 scores →

1650–1699

Instrument copperplateDietrich Buxtehude1637–1707115 scores →Historical portrait of Johann Adam ReinckenJohann Adam Reincken1643–17226 scores →Instrument copperplateJohann Pachelbel1653–1706269 scores →Historical portrait of Johann KuhnauJohann Kuhnau1660–17229 scores →

1700–1749

Historical portrait of Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach1685–1750848 scores →Historical portrait of George Frideric HandelGeorge Frideric Handel1685–1759169 scores →Historical portrait of Wilhelm Friedemann BachWilhelm Friedemann Bach1710–178442 scores →

1750–1799

Historical portrait of Johann Philipp KirnbergerJohann Philipp Kirnberger1721–17834 scores →

Stories, places & programmes

Open a chapter to follow the story or play a short programme.

The northern route · Hamburg · Lübeck · c. 1600–1700
I

Hamburg · Lübeck · c. 1600–1700

The northern route

Sweelinck's teaching in Amsterdam fed directly into the north-German organ school. Scheidemann, Reincken and Buxtehude turned chorales, preludes and free forms into large musical architectures designed for the sonority of northern organs.

Play this room4 scores chosen as a miniature recital
Courts, cities and private keyboards · Vienna · Nuremberg · Leipzig
II

Vienna · Nuremberg · Leipzig

Courts, cities and private keyboards

Froberger brought Italian and French keyboard manners into a highly personal style. Pachelbel joined contrapuntal clarity to chorale practice, while Kuhnau's suites and sonatas show the keyboard becoming an instrument of narrative as well as devotion.

Play this room4 scores chosen as a miniature recital
Bach gathers the traditions · Weimar · Köthen · Leipzig · 1685–1750
III

Weimar · Köthen · Leipzig · 1685–1750

Bach gathers the traditions

Johann Sebastian Bach did not end these traditions; he made them converse. The inventions train two independent hands, the suites absorb dance, and the organ works unite chorale, rhetoric and virtuosity. On the Inventions pages, Thomas Ragossnig's complete Spotify recording is the primary listening link.

Play this room3 scores chosen as a miniature recital

The instrument room · builders and surviving instruments

The objects behind the music

The north-German and central-German schools were written for different physical worlds. Surviving organs let us compare those worlds rather than treating 'the organ' as one fixed instrument.

Hamburg · 1693

Arp Schnitger at St Jacobi

The four-manual, 60-stop organ completed by Arp Schnitger preserves a major body of older pipework and remains a central witness to the north-German sound behind Scheidemann, Weckmann and their successors.
Verified source: Hauptkirche St Jacobi · the organs →

Freiberg · 1711–1714

Gottfried Silbermann's great organ

Freiberg Cathedral's three-manual instrument combines French-Alsatian features with central-German foundations and pedal emphasis—a useful counterweight to the Hamburg tradition.
Verified source: Freiberg Cathedral · Great Organ →

Continue into the archives

Find an instrument or builder

Orgel-Verzeichnis · GermanyRegional location index with individual organ and builder pages. Orgel-Verzeichnis · buildersBuilder-led paths through the same German–Swiss–Austrian archive. Orgelverzeichnis SchweizA long-running Swiss location index supplied by the site owner. Orgel-Verzeichnis · SwitzerlandCantonal and local routes through the Schmidt organ archive. HSLU Organ Documentation CentreArchivally checked historical and technical records for participating Swiss cantons.

External registers are linked for research; their text and photographs are not copied here. Instrument records change as restorations and scholarship advance.