Johann Scheibe: Organ Builder in Leipzig at the Time of Bach by Lynn Edwards Butler

Abstract

Reviewed by: Johann Scheibe: Organ Builder in Leipzig at the Time of Bach by Lynn Edwards Butler Laurence Libin (bio) Lynn Edwards Butler. Johann Scheibe: Organ Builder in Leipzig at the Time of Bach (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2022). 344 pp. Imagine trying to comprehend J. S. Bach's achievements if only one of his compositions had survived, not among his greatest, known from a single imperfect source. Such is the case with Bach's associate Johann Scheibe (1680–1748), a Saxon organ builder represented today by just one instrument, in the village church of St. Nikolai, Zschortau, Scheibe's probable birthplace. This one-manual, 13-stop organ of 1744–1746, overhauled in 1843, enlarged in 1870, and restored most recently in 2000, retains most of its original pipework and its elaborately carved and painted case (restored in 2009) but not much else recognizably from Scheibe's workshop. Though repeatedly altered, this modest organ fairly represents Scheibe's tonal palette late in his career, but it hardly compares in stature or variety to the monumental organs he built or rebuilt earlier in Leipzig—all, alas, lost, save for the heavily restored key desk from his organ (dismantled in 1894) for the Johanneskirche, now exhibited with its bench at Leipzig's Bach-Museum. Lacking other extant material from those great instruments, Scheibe's reputation now rests chiefly on a substantial documentary record that attests to his importance but offers few facts about his organs' distinctive sounds or innovative mechanisms. Scheibe introduced new tone colors and experimented with devices to vary registration, pitch, and dynamics, but aside from a short article he wrote for the 1732 Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen, reliable accounts of his inventions are scarce.1 Thus, with the limited exception of Zschortau, we can only guess how each of Scheibe's organs sounded and worked. But while our view of his accomplishments and circumstances is tantalizingly incomplete, his instruments clearly impressed listeners and players of his day—though how his clients understood their responsibilities toward him is unclear; he occasionally donated work beyond his contractual obligations and received customary gratuities, yet at times he was ill treated and struggled for years to obtain payments. [End Page 148] Bach's appreciation of Scheibe's work is well known from his reports on the organs for Leipzig's Paulinerkirche (1717) and Johanneskirche (1743) and his favorable remarks on the Zschortau organ, which he examined in 1746. Bach's approbation alone demands that Scheibe be taken seriously by historians, organ builders, and performers seeking insight into the composer's instrumental resources. However, unlike the prominent German baroque organ builders Gottfried Silbermann, Zacharias Hildebrandt, and Tobias Heinrich Gottfried Trost, Scheibe has received comparatively scant attention from modern scholars because of the paucity of tangible evidence of his work and difficulties in interpreting the complicated record of his career. Passing mentions of him are often inaccurate or opinionated and conflict in their judgments. The 1995 edition of Donald J. Boalch's Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440–1840, relying on Paul Küppers's 1886 Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Musikinstrumentenmacher-Gewerbes, confuses Scheibe with his son (see below).2 Joris Potvlieghe states inaccurately that Scheibe served as Leipzig's Universitäts-Orgelmacher until 1750.3 Hubert Henkel regards Scheibe as "an innovator in Hammerklavier construction," but this claim is dubious.4 The long-overdue task of explicating Scheibe's significance and placing his work in cultural context has now been accomplished by Lynn Edwards Butler, an organist specializing in baroque repertoire, co-founder in 1979 of the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, author of numerous organological studies, and translator of Christoph Wolff's and Markus Zepf's indispensable The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook.5 Butler possesses, abundantly, the sophisticated musical and technical knowledge and command of German language necessary for assessing Scheibe's legacy (she also assumes readers' familiarity with the organ's vocabulary). Moreover, she is [End Page 149] passionate about her subject, but objective. Her neatly produced book, in gestation for some fifteen years, addresses Scheibe's profound contribution to Leipzig's sonic landscape as fully as material, pictorial, and written evidence currently allows...