Tobias Brunner (baptised 23 August 1602 - c. 1665) was a German
organ builder
Organ building is the profession of designing, building, restoring and maintaining pipe organs.
The organ builder usually receives a commission to design an organ with a particular disposition of stops, manuals, and actions, creates a desig ...
of the
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
period.
Life
Brunner was baptised in a document on 23 August 1602 in
Hormersdorf
Hormersdorf () is a former municipality in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2013, it is part of the town Zwönitz.
Dialect clock
In Hormersdorf a "" (Ziffer clock) was installed that displays the time of day in ...
(Saxony). He was apprenticed to the organ builder
Gottfried Fritzsche
Gottfried Fritzsche (sometimes spelled Frietzsch) (1578 – 1638) was a German organ builder.
Life
Gottfried Fritzsche was born in Meissen in 1578. He was the son of goldsmith Jobst Fritzsche (died 1585), and began his professional life learni ...
in
Ottensen
Ottensen () (old name: Ottenhusen) is a former town located in Hamburg, Germany in the Altona borough on the right bank of the Elbe river. It is a now one of the 104 quarters of Hamburg.
History
The first record of Ottensen dates from 1310. ...
. As a journeyman of Gottfried Fritzsche, he was involved in building the organ for the main church Beatae Mariae Virginis in
Wolfenbüttel
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel District
Wolfenbüttel (; ) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, the administrative capital of Wolfenbüttel (district), Wolfenbüttel Distri ...
from 1620 to 1624 and the organ in St. Maria Magdalena in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
in 1629..
[Günter Seggermann, Wolfgang Weidenbach: ''Denkmalorgeln zwischen Nord- und Ostsee.'' Merseburger, Kassel 1992, .]
On 24 April 1631, he married his master's daughter Sybilla in Ottensen,
[Kirchenbuch Hamburg-Ottensen] and around 1632 he moved to
Lunden
Lunden is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Eider river, about 16 km north of Heide. It is part of the '' Amt Kirchspielslandgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") of Eid ...
(according to church records there, he had 5 children baptised in Lunden) and maintained an organ-building workshop there, presumably until his death.
Today, two organs built by Tobias Brunner are still preserved. The one in the
St.-Martins-Kirche in
Tellingstedt
Tellingstedt is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated approximately 13 km east of Heide
Heide (; Holsatian: ''Heid'') is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of ...
from 1642 is the oldest playable organ in Schleswig-Holstein. A second one stands in the Sankt-Secundus church in
Hennstedt (Schleswig-Holstein).
Brunner probably died around 1665.
References
Further reading
* Lars Brunner: ''Der Orgelbauer Tobias Brunner (1602–ca.1660), ein Schüler von Gottfried Fritzsche'', in ', 67 (2019), issue 2, .
External links
Vollständiger Lebenslauf Brunners
German pipe organ builders
1602 births
People from Saxony
{{Germany-music-bio-stub