The life and work of the organ builder Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688 – 1757) has always been over shaded by that of his teacher, Gottfried Silbermann. Although none other than Sebastian Bach himself clearly favored the organs of Hildebrandt, in later years even the Naumburg Wenzel – organ was supposed to have been built by Silbermann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sebastian Bach’s name is encountered in connection with Hildebrandt’s organs in Sangerhausen, St\u00f6rmthal and Naumburg. Between 1734 and 1743, Hildebrandt had settled in Leipzig. One could envisage the two gentlemen together, holding some nice conversations about their respective encounters with the “allzueigensinnige” Herr Silbermann from Freiberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, every Bach – connoisseur knows or should know the story of the lute – harpsichord Bach had built by Hildebrandt (ca 1738 – 1740). None of them seem to have survived. Fortunately a reconstruction has been made of which information can be found on a special Web – page of the Lute-Harpsichord<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Die Wenzelsorgel<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“\u2026 und wer diese Orgel gesehen und geh\u00f6ret, der ist niemahls ohne Bewunderung davon hinweggegangen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Johann Christoph Altnikol 1753 \u00fcber die Hildebrandt-Orgel in der Naumburger Wenzelskirche)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Die Wenzelsorgel ist heute die gr\u00f6\u00dfte und bedeutendste Orgel, auf der Johann Sebastian Bach gespielt hat. Bach und Hildebrandt hatten in Leipzig mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte hindurch enge Beziehungen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belegt sind die Einweihung der Hildebrandt-Orgel in St\u00f6rmtal 1723 durch Bach, Bachs Empfehlung Hildebrandts f\u00fcr einen Orgelneubau in M\u00fchlhausen 1735, der Auftrag Bachs zum Bau eines Lautenclavicymbels um 1740 an Hildebrandt, die Pr\u00fcfung der Scheibe-Orgel der Johanniskirche in Leipzig 1743 durch Bach und Hildebrandt und die Abnahme der Hildebrandt-Orgel in Naumburg1746 durch Bach und Gottfried Silbermann.
\nZacharias Hildebrandt untersucht 1734 das “schwinds\u00fcchtige” Orgelwerk, das “gar keine Gravitaet”von sich h\u00f6ren lie\u00df. Er reicht dem Rat eine ausf\u00fchrliche “Specification aller Gebrechen” ein. Durch F\u00fcrsprache Joh. Seb. Bachs kommt es am 27.8. zum Kontrakt zwischen dem Rat und Zacharias Hildebrandt \u00fcber die Erneuerung des Orgelwerkes unter Beibehaltung des alten Geh\u00e4uses.
\nUnter Beratung und Anleitung Joh. Seb. Bachs – und “niemand konnte besser als er Dispositionen zu neuen Orgeln angeben und beurtheilen” – erstellt Hildebrandt die ausgezeichnete Disposition mit 52 Stimmen f\u00fcr die Wenzelsorgel und baut unter schweren Bedingungen sein gro\u00dfes Meisterwerk.In der heutigen Gestalt ist die Wenzelsorgel ein vornehmes Werk, das die Darstellung der gesamten Orgelliteratur aus Vergangenheit und Gegenwart erlaubt, dem gro\u00dfen Namen des Silbermannsch\u00fclers Zacharias Hildebrandt aber nicht gerecht wird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While a number of organs have been built in America in the style of Schnitger, to date only a few emulate Silbermann, and just one is known to follow Hildebrandt – the organ at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston, Texas..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
D\u00c4HNERT 1962. Ulrich D\u00e4hnert, Der Orgel- und Instrumentenbauer Zacharias Hildebrandt. VEB Breitkopf & H\u00e4rtel Musikverlag, Leipzig. Lizenz-Nr. 472 – 155\/9\/62.D\u00c4HNERT 1970. Ulrich D\u00e4hnert, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Ideal Organ. The Organ Yearbook I (1970), page 20 – 37). Frits Knuf, Amsterdam. The life and work of the organ builder Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688 – 1757) has always been over shaded by that of his teacher, Gottfried Silbermann. Although none other than Sebastian Bach himself clearly favored the organs of Hildebrandt, in later years even the Naumburg Wenzel – organ was supposed to have been built by Silbermann. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-76","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/delatourfoundation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nD\u00c4HNERT 1980. Ulrich D\u00e4hnert, Orgeln in Sachsen. VEB Deutscher Verlag f\u00fcr Musik, Leipzig. ISBN 3-920-112-76-8.
\nJAHRBUCH 1996. Die Dresdner Frauenkirche. Jahrbuch zu ihrer Geschichte und zu ihrem arch\u00e4ologischen Wiederaufbau. Band 2. Verlag Hermann B\u00f6hlaus Nachfolger, Weimar. ISBN 3-7400-1017-7.
\nINSTRUMENTENBAU 1996. “Researches on the Hildebrandt – organ in Naumburg” (in German) .Nr. 9\/10 September \/ Oktober 1996.
\nSCH\u00c4FER 1992. Ernst Sch\u00e4fer, Laudatio Organi. Verlagshaus Th\u00fcringen, Erfurt. ISBN 3-86087-085-8.
\nWILLIAMS 1966. Peter Williams, The European Organ. Batsford, London. ISBN 0 7134 0753 0.
\nWILLIAMS 1971. Peter Williams, Review of Bach’s Kunst der Fuge, played on the Naumburg St. Wenzel Organ. The Organ Yearbook II, page 108
\nAdditional information and corrections to the above material have been found in several public archives and the Hildebrandt family inheritance by the foundation’s staff. This web site reflects the up-to-date data available.
\nAt this place we specially need to thank Dr. Rob CH. Kruijt, who has undertaken extensive research on Zacharias Hildebrandt and his work. He is the author of parts of this page. We encourage you to visit his web site here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"