Arnold Schlick’s Organ Disposition and Its “Distinct” Stops

This article is written in Russian. You can read it here.

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DOI 10.34690/449

Author Fedos’ya V. Tabyisova

Affiliation V. A. Bosikov Higher School of Music of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia

Email fedossia@inbox.ru

ORCID

0009-0008-4327-1720

Abstract

The article covers the history of the existence of Schlick’s treatise “The Mirror of Organ Builders and Organists” (1511), written in German, and provides characteristics of its original literary style. The sharpness and humour of Schlick’s vocabulary and the distinctness of his terminology are noted: the treatise mentions “underscheidlich” [sic] and “seltzam” [sic] stops, “Rohraffen” and “Hultze Glechter.” Since the information about the organ disposition that interests us is scattered across the chapters of the “Mirror” in the form of many separate motifs, a different order of presentation was chosen than in the treatise, reflected in the following rubrics: 1) organ landscape (the features of the German type of organ and the influences of other national organ-building schools); 2) interior and placement of the organ (the stylistic and architectural context of the church, a set of conditions corresponding to the correct placement of the instrument); 3) design of the organ (including the purpose of the elements of the puppet theater in the mechanism of the instrument); 4) size of the instrument and organ pulpit (the structure of the small and large organs and the dimensions of the organ pulpit convenient for playing); 5) groups and names of stops (“prinzipal” and “underscheidlich” groups of stops, group of “seltzam” timbres); 6) stop composition of the organ sections (their characteristics and examples of reconstruction of Schlick’s organ disposition by different authors).

Keywords Renaissance music, organ building, Southern German organ school, organ design, “The Mirror of Organ Builders and Organists”

For citation

Tabyisova, F. V. “Arnold Schlick’s organ disposition and its ‘distinct’ stops.” Muzykal’naya akademiya [Music Academy], no. 1, 2025, pp. 84–105, doi:10.34690/449. (In Russ.)

Acknowledgments

my scientific supervisor—Doctor of Art Criticism, Professor Larisa L. Gerver; the director of the Marienbibliothek (Halle an der Saale) Anke Fibiger; the Head of Collections and Ringier Image Archive Dr. Sandra Berger; the employees of the Department of Culture of the Cantonal Library of Aargau (Aarau) Lisa Plöchl and Samantha Hutter

Published 17.07.2023

Approved 30.10.2024

Submitted 24.03.2025