Hendrik Niehoff - Major Niehoff Projects - BOLD Entried Organs Still Extant in 2006

BOLD Entried Organs Still Extant in 2006

• 1534 Breda - Groote / OLV (Onze Lieve Vrouwe - Our Lady's) Kerk. (Dutch) The positive case on the current organ survives from 1534; information on the 1534 case is taken from a book about the organs in this church which was published in 1989. Jan van Biezen states this organ was built by Jan Graurock; whether or not Niehoff helped is debatable.

• 1528 Franeker - St.-Maarten. Van Biezen and Vente say this instrument was a Jan van Covelen project but, upon his death in 1532 and at the request of van Covelen's widow, Niehoff brought it to completion in 1534. This project is likely the beginning of Hendrik Niehoff's career as an independent organbuilder.

• 1539-1540 Schoonhoven - St.-Bartholomeüs. The case of this organ since 1958 houses the Marcussen organ located in the south transept of the Groote / Laurenskerk in Rotterdam. (Dr. Vente recovered the case when the Schoonhoven congregation abandoned this historic organ in the 1930s to purchase a new organ. He gave it to the war desecrated Rotterdam congregation to use in its new replacement organ as the demolished church was being restored.)

• 1539-1545 Amsterdam - St.-Nicolaas / Oude Kerk. The renowned Dutch musician, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, was organist here from 1580 till 1621.

A pictorial description of the Oude Kerk. More views of the Oude Kerk. and more.

• 1545 Delft - St.-Hippolytus / Oude Kerk

• 1544-1545 Amsterdam - St.-Nicolaas / Oude Kerk. A second, smaller organ was made for the north transept. Some pipes of that organ are still extant in the new organ that Hans Wolf Schonat (Dutch) built ca. 1658 and Ahrend & Brunzema (German) restored in 1964-65.

• 1545-1549 Zierikzee - St.-Lievensmonster. An interesting description of this organ is written in "Beschrijving van het oude en nieuwe orgel in de Groote of St. Lievens Monsterkerk der stad Zierikzee" by Willem Lootens, 1771.

• -1548 Delft - St.-Ursula / Nieuwe Kerk

• 1548 Enkhuizen - St.-Gommarus / Westerkerk. Niehoff's organ case remains, but the organ was rebuilt by the van Hagerbeer and Duyschot (Dutch) families ca. 1645 and 1679-83. Some of its pipes are still extant in the organ at the St.-Pancras / Zuiderkerk church in Enkhuizen.

Go here for further information on the church. (Dutch)

• 1548-1550 Hamburg - an upgrading rebuild of the existing organ at the Petrikirche. Following the terrible Hamburg fire of 1842, nothing remains of this organ.

• 1551-1553 Lüneburg - Johanniskirche, built together with Jasper Johansen. In 1699, Georg Böhm became organist here and, beginning soon after (according to Christoph Wolff) gave Johann Sebastian Bach lessons on this instrument during Bach's student tenure at the Michaeliskirche from 1700 through 1702. Böhm had the Niehoff organ considerably rebuilt and upgraded in 1714 by Arp Schnitger's student, Matthias Dropa. It has been restored on several occasions by Rudolf von Beckerath's shop (Hamburg); it probably has the most of Niehoff's work remaining in any of his large organs.

Go here for further history of the Lüneburg Johanniskirche organ (German)

• before 1553 Schiedam - St.-Jan (Dutch) The center case and some pipes from Niehoff are still extant in a new instrument (Dutch) the Flentrop firm built in 1975 and upgraded in 1994.

• 1555 Bergen op Zoom - St.-Geertruida Kerk

• 1556-1558 Gouda - St.-Jans Kerk (Dutch) The drastically altered remnants of this organ's case were placed in the 19th century Roman Catholic parish church in Abcoude.

• 1557 Brouwershaven - St.-Nicolaas (Dutch), built together with his son, Nicolaas Niehoff. The historic case and upper case façade pipes were used when the Van Vulpen firm built a new organ in 1968 and 1980. Note the similarity between the Brouwershaven and Lüneburg Ruckpositive cases!