Organ Music Treasures from the Gilmore Music Library

Organ Music in Europe

Portrait File

“Der Orgelmacher” from Christoph Weigel
Abbildung der Gemein-nützlichen Haupt-Stände
(Regensburg, 1698)

This illustration of organ builders was published in a book that features more than 200 engravings, each depicting a different occupation. The Music Library has only this one page, as part of the Portrait File, a large collection of miscellaneous photographs, engravings, and other images of musicians and musical topics. The Beinecke Library has a copy of the complete book.

Purchased with income from the Noss Fund

Jacques Boyvin
Premier livre d'orgue: Contenant les huit Tons, A l’Usage Ordinaire de l’Eglise
(Paris: C. Ballard, 1700)

Jacques Boyvin was a native of Paris, but the exact date of his birth is a matter of dispute; it is variously given as ca. 1649 or ca. 1653. He spent most of his career in Rouen, where he served as cathedral organist until his death in 1706. Boyvin’s first book of organ works contains eight suites, which, as the subtitle indicates, use each of the eight church modes. (To be sure, some theorists recognized as many as twelve modes.) This volume is in some ways more significant for its preface, which discusses issues of organ registration, and also illustrates how to realize certain ornaments. Many of the pieces also contain instructions for their registration.
In the volume displayed here, Boyvin’s first book is bound together with his second. Like the first, the second was published in 1700 and features suites in each of the eight modes. It too contains important prefatory material, in this case a “Traité abrégé de l’accompagnement,” which focuses mainly on figured bass.
Our copy was purchased in 1999 with income from a fund donated by Luther Noss (1907–1995), professor of organ and dean at the Yale School of Music. It was signed by Aristide Pouget, apparently a former owner.

Gift of Ralph Kirkpatrick

Johann Mattheson
Grosse General-Bass Schule
(Hamburg: J.C. Kissner, 1721)

Johann Mattheson (1681–1764) was one of the most versatile, energetic, and colorful musicians of his era. A native of Hamburg, Mattheson was a composer, conductor, singer, and organist, and he also played a variety of string and wind instruments. Mattheson’s work as an author was equally wide-ranging; he produced theoretical treatises, music criticism, translations, lexicography, biography, and even autobiography. (The most famous anecdote about his own life concerns a heated dispute between Mattheson and his close friend Handel; the two fought a duel, and only a button on Handel’s jacket saved him from Mattheson’s sword.) He also served as a secretary and all-around assistant to the English ambassador, and mastered the intricacies of English law, politics, and language. 
Mattheson wrote several books of interest to organists, including Exemplarische Organisten-Probe (1719), Grosse General-Bass-Schule (1721) Kleine General-Bass-Schule (1735), and Der Volkommene Capellmeister (1739). The Grosse General-Bass Schule (displayed here) offers important practical advice to organists on how best to realize a figured bass. Mattheson produced a revised edition in 1731.
This copy belonged to the eminent harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911–1984), a member of the faculty of the Yale School of Music.

Misc. Ms. 150

Harmonia organica
[Ochsenhausen Organ Book]
Manuscript, 1735

Ochsenhausen is a small town in what is now Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and the home of an abbey established by Benedictine monks in 1093. Between 1725 and 1734, Joseph Gabler (1700–1771) built a great new organ for the abbey, and in 1735, an anonymous author—probably one of the Ochsenhausen monks—produced this manuscript in its honor. The music is undistinguished, but many of the pieces are explicitly designed to demonstrate the organ’s multitudinous features. Several pieces are accompanied by charming illustrations of the keyboards, the stops, and the organist’s hands.
The abbey was dissolved during the Napoleonic Wars, and its buildings now belong to a music school. The manuscript was separated from the Abbey, and eventually found its way to Yale. In 2000 it returned temporarily to Ochsenhausen, as part of a festival commemorating Gabler’s 300th birthday. In 2004, Carus published a sumptuous facsimile as well as a modern edition, edited by Michael Gerhard Kaufmann.

Rinck Collection
Lowell Mason Library

 Gottfried Walther
Organ Concerto in G Major
(adapted from a work by Georg Philipp Telemann)
Manuscript, 18th century

This organ concerto in the hand of Johann Gottfried Walther (1684–1748) represents an unsolved mystery: Walther indicates that it is arranged from a work by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767). Despite Telemann’s renown—and the enormous number of his works that have come down to us—his original piece has not been identified. Novello published a modern edition in 1961, edited by Philip Prince.

Gift of the Yale Library Associates

Johann Sebastian Bach
Einige canonische Veraenderungen über das Weynacht-Lied, Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her
(Nuremberg: Schmid, [1748])

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was renowned for his virtuosity at the organ, and also for his technical expertise; when new organs were constructed, he was sometimes called upon as a consultant, or to perform on the completed instrument. More than two and a half centuries after his death, Bach is still the most admired of all organ composers. His works are well represented in the special collections of the Gilmore Music Library; we could have created an impressive exhibit devoted solely to his organ music.
Although he was remarkably prolific, during his lifetime Bach issued just a handful of publications; most of his music circulated only in manuscript. Several of those publications—the Clavier-Übung III, the Schübler Chorales, and the Canonic Variations on “Vom Himmel hoch"—were for organ, and it is the last of these that we have displayed here. Bach composed the Canonic Variations to demonstrate his qualifications for membership in the Corresponding Society of the Musical Sciences, a group that numbered Telemann and Handel among its members. The most famous portrait of Bach, painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, was also a by-product of Bach’s application to the Society.

Misc. Ms. 545
John Herrick Jackson Fund

Johann Sebastian Bach
Vermischte musicalische Choral Gedanken
[Selections from the Orgelbüchlein]
Copyist’s manuscript, 1747

Although few of J.S. Bach’s works were published during his lifetime, many others circulated in manuscript. The manuscript displayed here contains selections from the collection of chorale preludes known to us as the Orgelbüchlein. It is dated 1747 (three years before Bach’s death), and belonged to Johann Christian Kleingünther, who may have been the copyist.

Rinck Collection
Lowell Mason Library

Johann Sebastian Bach et al.
[Neumeister Collection, LM 4708]
Copyist’s manuscript, after 1790

Johann Gottfried Neumeister (1757–1840) compiled this manuscript at some time later than 1790. It contains 82 chorale preludes, by a variety of German composers of the 17th and 18th centuries. From Neumeister, the manuscript came into the possession of the German organist Christian Heinrich Rinck. In 1852, the American educator and church musician Lowell Mason bought Rinck’s collection. After Mason’s death in 1872, his entire library—including the Neumeister manuscript—came to Yale.
For a few months, in 1984–85, the Neumeister manuscript was front-page news around the world, as the media reported that Prof. Christoph Wolff of Harvard had discovered 33 previously unknown chorale preludes by J.S. Bach. Bach was already in the news because of the many celebrations of his 300th birthday. The modern premiere of the 33 pieces took place in Yale’s Battell Chapel on March 17, 1985, with Charles Krigbaum of Yale and John Ferris of Harvard taking turns at the organ. NPR broadcast the concert live around the United States.
Although these events were usually characterized as a discovery, the Neumeister manuscript was by no means unknown. In fact, it appears in Joel Sumner Smith’s magisterial handwritten catalogue of the Lowell Mason Library. But previous researchers tended to assume that the attributions to Bach were unreliable. Wolff argued persuasively that they could be trusted, in part because Neumeister was a student of Georg Andreas Sorge (1703–1778), one of Bach’s colleagues in the Corresponding Society of the Musical Sciences.
Although the manuscript was compiled long after Bach’s death, the 33 chorale preludes probably date from an early phase of his career, perhaps even while he was still in his teens. No dates appear in the manuscript; we can only make educated guesses on the basis of the musical style and certain details in the notation.

Lowell Mason Library

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen
Third edition
(Leipzig: Schwickert, 1787)

No family has a more illustrious place in the history of music than the Bachs. From our perspective, Johann Sebastian Bach appears to tower over the other members of this dynasty, but Sebastian’s son Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–1788) was arguably the most prominent and successful member of the Bach family in the 18th century.
C.P.E. Bach (or Emanuel, as he was known) was born in Weimar, and raised there and in Cöthen and Leipzig. In addition to the peerless musical training he received from his father, he studied at the Thomasschule in Leipzig and then at the university in Frankfurt an der Oder. In the late 1730s he began working for Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, who became King 1740. Frederick II (or Frederick the Great, as he is often called) was a military conqueror, a supporter of the Enlightenment, and an enthusiastic amateur musician who composed and played the flute. In 1747, J.S. Bach visited the Prussian court and improvised for the King, a famous event that led to the composition of the Musical Offering. C.P.E. Bach remained in the King’s employ until 1767, when he succeeded Telemann as the church music director in Hamburg. He remained there until his death.
Although he is now overshadowed by his father, Emanuel Bach was one of the leading composers of his age. He was prolific, and he worked in most genres (except opera), but he is best known for his keyboard sonatas. His book, Versuch ü̈ber die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments) is the most important keyboard treatise of the 18th century. The first edition was published in 1753, and over the years it was enhanced by musical examples, supplements, and revisions; the edition displayed here appeared in 1787, a year before the author’s death. Bach discusses many topics, including fingering, ornaments, tasteful performance, accompaniment, and improvisation. Bach’s Versuch was influential in its day, and it remains a crucial source for anyone interested in historically informed performance of 18th-century music.

From the library of Dragan Plamenac

Johann Samuel Petri
Anleitung zur praktischen Musik
(Leipzig: J.G.I. Breitkopf, 1782)


Johann Samuel Petri (1738–1808) studied at the University of Halle, and served as a church musician and teacher in Lauban and Bautzen, towns that are now on opposite sides of the Polish-German border. He belonged to a musical family; his father, uncle, and brother were all notable musicians. Petri is best known for his treatise, Anleitung zur praktischen Musik. It was first published in 1767; the 1782 edition (displayed here) was substantially revised and enlarged. He covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from figured bass to numerous string, wind, and keyboard instruments. The book is of particular interest to organists because of Petri’s treatment of pedaling.
The library has two copies of this book; the one displayed here is from library of the musicologist Dragan Plamenac (1895–1983), while the other is from the library of Lowell Mason.

Gift of Ralph Kirkpatrick

John Stanley
Ten Voluntaries for the Organ or Harpsichord
( London: Printed for John Johnson, [1754?])

Though his name is no longer a household word, John Stanley (1712–1786) had a remarkable career. He became blind at the age of two, but this did little to slow his rapid progress in music. He studied organ with Maurice Greene at St. Paul’s Cathedral, found his first church job at the age of eleven, and earned a degree from Oxford at seventeen. Stanley pursued a highly successful career as an organist, violinist, conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1779 he became the Master of the King’s Band of Musicians. His most famous compositions are his organ voluntaries, one set of which is displayed here.