Building the Organ for St. Paul’s

This chapter describes Scheibe's rebuild and expansion of the organ in St. Paul's Church, Leipzig University. The renovation—essentially construction of a new organ—began inadvertently in September 1710 and was carried out in spite of a competing proposal from Gottfried Silbermann to build a “perfect new instrument.” Scheibe's skill and devotion, the unshakeable commitment to the project by organist Daniel Vetter and rector Johann Burkhard Mencke, and a generous gift from professor Gottlieb Gerhard Titius resulted in the organ's completion in 1716. The organ—Scheibe's magnum opus-was successfully examined by J.S. Bach the following year. Vetter reported that Bach praised the organ's “rare, newly invented stops.”