The Art of South German Organ Music

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)
Magnificat octavi Toni ("Harmonia organica, Nürnberg 1645)

Johann Caspar Kerll (1627-1693)
Toccata IV ("Cromatica con durezze e ligature")
Canzona I
Capriccio sopra il Cucu

Franz Xaver Anton Murschhauser (1663-1738)
Aria "Dein große Lieb, o Jesulein" ("sexies variata")

Isfried Kayser (1712-1771)
Ouverture
Rigaudon (aus "Parthia III")

Franz Anton Maichelbeck (1702-1750)
Sonata prima ("Die auf dem Clavier spielende und das Gehör vergnügende Cäcilia", 1736)

Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Nova Ciclopeias harmonica
Toccata septima ("Apparatus musico-organisticus", Salzburg 1690)

Christian Brembeck


“Gradus ad Parnasum”, the ascent to the seat of the gods, is in the figurative sense certainly
the right title for the portrait of such a unique instrument; for indeed, alongside the other
daughters of Zeus, the father of the gods, the Muses also live on Parnassus.
In our program, this “gradus“ is musically symbolized by the two „cornerstones”, the intro-
ductory and concluding works by Froberger and Muffat. In terms of quality, precisely these
two musical creations can be conceded a top position in the music of the late seventeenth
century, which – provided one has at one’s disposal an adequate instrument, such as the
Baumeister organ – quickly makes the preconception of the supposed inferiority of South-
German organ music (in comparison to works of Central- and North-German provenance)
seem obsolete. On the contrary: The attentive listener will experience here a self-contained,
extremely colorful tonal cosmos from an exciting epoch of musical history.
The most important accouterment of the Maihingen Monastery Church is the organ by the
Eichstätt organ builder Johann Martin Baumeister (1692–1780) from 1737, which since
being sealed in 1803 (remains of the seal can to the present day still be found on the cover
of the keyboard) was hardly used anymore and fell almost completely into oblivion after
even the congregation had found its home in the village’s parish church. The results of a
very extensive scientific evaluation of the organ (by the Bavarian State Office for Historical
Monuments and Munich’s Technical University, among others) as well as the subsequent
restoration in 1988–90 by the pipe workshop Hildebrand & Brede (Überlingen) and the
organ building workshop G.F. Steinmeyer (Oettingen) were nothing less than sensational:
a historic South-German organ that was “frozen”, so to speak, in its original condition for
nearly two hundred years! This fact is hardly to be underestimated in its consequences for
an as authentic as possible performance practice of appropriate contemporary music. In-
deed, it elevates the Baumeister organ to the highest echelon of historical organs, absolutely
on a par with the most famous instruments.