Arnolt Schlick - Writings

Writings

Schlick's treatise on organ building and organ playing, Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten ("Mirror of Organ Builders and Organists"), was published in 1511 in Speyer by Peter Drach. Only two copies survive to this day, but the book has long been recognized as one of the most important of its kind. The Spiegel is the earliest German organ treatise, and also the first book on musical matters to enjoy an imperial privilege (issued by Emperor Maximilian to protect Schlick's rights). It was widely influential in Maximilian's empire, but became obsolete towards the 17th century because of the advances in organ building. After years of oblivion, the Spiegel was republished in 1869, and interest in it has been growing ever since: a summary of its contents in modern language was available in 1870, a complete translation into modern German appeared in 1931, a partial English translation first became available in Organ Institute Quarterly, published between 1957–1960, and a complete English translation followed in 1980. Facsimile editions of the treatise appeared as early as 1959.

Schlick's book begins with a preface in three parts: the composer first thanks his patrons, then briefly discusses the nature of music, and finally describes the purpose of the Spiegel: it was not intended for organists and/or organ builders, as it may seem from the title, but for those church and monastery authorities who wanted to buy an organ, or had one entrusted to their care. Schlick's remarks about the nature of music are similar to those in other musical treatises of the time: he quotes, like numerous other authors of the period, the Bible, Aristotle, Boethius, Asclepiades of Bithynia and Guido of Arezzo. Quotations from these sources support Schlick's own views: that music has a profound effect on the listeners, and can heal both the body and the spirit. Schlick also praises the organ as the best musical instrument, his argument being that extensive polyphony with as many as six or seven parts can be executed by a single person on the organ.

The preface is followed by ten chapters which cover practically every aspect of organ-building: tuning, keyboard construction, making of chests, bellows, stops, etc.; even the instrument's position in the church and its decorations are discussed (Schlick's point of view being that excessive decorations are undesirable). Among other things, Schlick describes his "ideal" organ, which is a two-manual instrument with eight to ten stops for the Hauptwerk, four for the Rückpositiv, and four in the pedal:

He emphasizes that each stop should have a distinct sound, easily distinguishable from all others, and that performers should make good use of contrasting registrations. Some of the stops Schlick mentions are difficult to identify precisely, due to the age of the treatise and the changes that took place in organ-building since the 16th century. Perhaps the most mysterious is the hůltze gletcher, a stop with a percussive sound which Schlick admired and compared to "a bowl that idle journeymen hit with spoons."

The most discussed part of the Spiegel is its second chapter, which concerns organ pitch. To illustrate how an organ should be tuned, Schlick indicates the length of a pipe speaking F, the bottom note of his compass. To this end, a line is printed in the margin, and the length of the pipe is given as being 16 times the length of that line. Numerous estimates have been suggested in the past, and some scholars (most notably Arthur Mendel) actually doubted whether the length of the line in question was rendered correctly during printing. Today, most scholars agree that the pipe would produce a sound slightly more than a whole tone below the present-day F. The temperament Schlick advocates is an irregular one, close to meantone; the major thirds are slightly wider than pure. Interestingly, Schlick rejected keyboards with split accidentals.