In his nearly forty-year career, Johann Scheibe became Leipzig's most renowned organ builder and one of the late Baroque's masters of the craft. Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kuhnau considered Scheibe a valued colleague. Organists and civic leaders shared their high opinion, for Scheibe built or rebuilt every one of the city's organs.

Drawing on extensive research and previously untapped archival materials, Lynn Edwards Butler explores Scheibe's professional relationships and the full range of his projects. These assignments included the three-manual organ for St. Paul's Church, renovations of the organs in the important churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, and the lone surviving example of Scheibe's craft, a small organ in the nearby village of Zschortau. Viewing Scheibe within the context of the era, Butler illuminates the music scene of Bach's time as she follows the life of a gifted craftsman and his essential work on an instrument that anchored religious musical practice and community.

| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface Events in the Life of Johann Scheibe Abbreviations 1. Bach's 1717 Visit to Leipzig 2. The Life and Work of Johann Scheibe 3. The Organ for Zschortau 4. Building the Organ for St. Paul's 5. Bach's Examination of the St. Paul's Organ 6. Disposition and Tonal Character of the St. Paul's Organ 7. Construction Details of the St. Paul's Organ 8. Renovations at the New Church, St. Thomas's, St. Nicholas's, and St. Paul's 9. An Innovative Organ for St. John's 10. Small Projects and Proposals 11. Scheibe and Bach in Leipzig Directory of Appendixes on the Companion Website Notes Bibliography Index Back cover |"A pioneering book with no equivalent in the field. It is packed with fascinating facts about Leipzig and its history that will interest not only musicians and musicologists but scholars of history, religion, and many other disciplines. At the same time, Butler's coverage of Scheibe's professional, personal, and domestic life will engage anyone at all interested in J. S. Bach and his milieu."—Russell Stinson, author of J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument: Essays on His Organ Works
"The long-overdue task of explicating Scheibe's significance and placing his work in cultural context has now been accomplished by Lynn Edwards Butler. . . . Butler possesses, abundantly, the sophisticated musical and technical knowledge and command of German language necessary for assessing Scheibe's legacy. Moreover, she is passionate about her subject, but objective. . . . Her research uncovered many archival sources missed by previous scholars." —BACH
|Lynn Edwards Butler is an organist and harpsichordist, and the cofounder and former director of the Westfield Center. She is the translator of The Organs of J. S. Bach: A Handbook.