| Instruments The
St. Thomas Church focuses on two different tasks: first, to provide a rich and
attractive community life and second, to preserve the musical heritage of Johann
Sebastian Bach. Therefore, the church owns two valuable organs, the Romantic period
Sauer-Organ and the new Bach-Organ, which was built for the traditional performances
of Bach's compositions. Additionally, the church owns a collection of historic
string-instruments of Bach's time. 
Sauer
Organ
The organs of Bach's time do not exist anymore.
Today,
we find the Sauer-Organ on the west choir loft. The instrument was built by one
of the most famous German organ builders ever, Wilhelm Sauer. Together with the
newly reconstructed church, it was dedicated on Pentecost in 1889. Originally,
the Romantic period instrument had 63 organ pipes.
| Complaints
about the faded acoustic performance of the organ were soon followed by various
technical complications. In 1902, the organ received two more organ pipes.
In the years 1907 and 1908, they were increased again by 23 more pipes, a new
manual with a larger tone range, and new bellows. During the reconstruction
of the St. Thomas Church, the Sauer-Organ remained the only usable instrument,
which is why it still needs to be restored.
| |
|  | New
Bach-Organ
| One
of the major goals of the St. Thomas Church is the preservation of the musical
heritage of its best-known former member - Johann Sebastian Bach. Therefore, in
the 1980s, the idea was proposed to equip the St. Thomas Church with an organ
that would offer the possibility to play the organ works of Bach the way he intended
them to be played. |
 | This
new Bach-Organ is based on a 300-year-old instrument, which Johann Christoph Bach,
an uncle of Johann Sebastian, designed for the St. Georg Church in Eisenach. In
this way, it is similar to the sound quality of the Middle-German organ style
of the 18th century, like the famous Silbermann-Organs. The instrument was built
by Gerald Woehl, and it was dedicated in the year 2000. Unique in the world, it
enables the organist to play compositions two semitones deeper, which was the
standard pitch of historical baroque instruments. |
String-Collection
In the south sacristy, musical instruments from the baroque period
are on display. They belong to the St. Thomas Church. There are two violins, a
viola, a contrabass, a violoncello, and two kettle drums. 
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