Draft:Joachim Richborn

Organ in Buttforde, 1681

Joachim Richborn (died 1684) was a German organ builder, active in north Germany and Scandinavia during the second half of the 17th century. He was one of the most influential organ builders in Hamburg before and during the career of Arp Schnitger.

Life

Joachim Richborn came from Hamburg and was possibly a pupil of the organ builder Friedrich Stellwagen. In 1676 he was involved in the repair of the organ in the convent church of Mary Magdalene (Hamburg), and he also carried out work in Møgeltønder, Denmark.

Richborn's first major new-build was the organ of the first church to be built on the site of the present Lutheran church of St. Michael in Neustadt, Hamburg. During the first years of his independent career, he is often found associated with Matthias Weckmann, who was organist of St. James' Church, Hamburg between 1655 and 1674. Weckmann was also a god-parent to members of Richborn's family.

In 1673 Richborn carried out major alterations to the large organ of St. Mary's Church, Lübeck for Dieterich Buxtehude, and the following year to the large organ of St. Catherine's Church, Hamburg, for Buxtehude's friend Johann Adam Reincken. Between 1671 and 1673 Richborn made substantial enlargements to the organ of St James' Church, Lübeck, extending it to 51 stops and three manuals; some of his registers remain today. Letters written in chalk on the pipework of this organ, to indicate the pitch of the pipes, match writing found in the case of the former rood-screen organ, indicating that this smaller organ was also Richborn's work. The rood-screen organ was reconstructed by Mads Kjersgaard in 2003, based on the preserved positive organ at the convent church of Skokloster, Sweden.

Richborn built organs around the North Sea and Baltic East coast regions of Germany from East Frisia through North Frisia as far as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Scandinavia. Only two instruments in Germany and one in Sweden have survived the intervening centuries substantially intact, including the important and almost completely original organ at Buttforde, Wittmund, from 1681. Pipes from this organ were used as models by the Dutch organ builder Winold van der Putten for ranks in the great (Hauptwerk and pedal divisions of his 2001-2002 organ in the Waller Kirche, Bremen.

Eine kleine Richborn-Orgel von 1684 in der Schlosskapelle zu Bützow ließ 1794 die Fürstin Juliane zu Schaumburg-Lippe für eine Spende von 150 Reichstalern in die Dorfkirche zu Ruchow umsetzen. Dort wurde sie 1796 durch den Orgelbaumeister Heinrich Schmidt aus dem Kloster Dobbertin aufgestellt und wurde später umgebaut. 2012 wurde diese Orgel durch den Orgelsachverständigen und Leiter des Mecklenburgischen Orgelmuseums Friedrich Drese in Malchow als Richborn-Positiv wiederentdeckt und durch die Firma Orgelbau Jehmlich in Dresden restauriert (Einweihung am 4. Juni 2016). Sie ist das älteste erhaltene Orgelpositiv in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Im Jahre 1684 begann Richborn mit dem Bau der Orgel für die Nikolaikirche zu Elmshorn, verstarb aber während der Arbeiten. Diese Orgel wurde von Arp Schnitger fertiggestellt. Richborns Sohn Otto Diedrich Richborn wurde ebenfalls Orgelbauer und führte die Schnitger-Tradition fort.