(Ger.: ‘chief department’; Dutch: Hoofdwerk).
Like Great organ, Grand orgue and organo primo in some of their usages, Hauptwerk today denotes the main manual of an organ. Werk itself is an equivalent to opus used in church documents (Utrecht, c1400) or theoretical manuscripts (Arnaut de Zwolle, c1450, F-Pn lat.7295), and was first used to refer to the organ in general (Schlick, Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten, 1511). It soon meant by implication the main manual, i.e. the first to be planned, that with the main chorus – as distinct from (a) the Chair organ, (b) the Positive below or above the main chest, and (c) the pedals (see Pedal). Praetorius (1619) still used Oberwerkto refer to this main manual, since it was placed above the player; other terms had been Principael (referring to its purpose of supplying the Blockwerk), Werk (Gorinchem, 1518), Manual (Schlick, 1511), der vulle Orgel (Hamburg, 1548), Prinzipall-Lade (Münster, 1610). Terminology became stable early in the 17th century, but it was some time before Hauptwerk (Würzburg, 1614) became the most usually accepted term. The contents of the Hauptwerk and its relationship to the other departments are the history of the organ itself.
PETER WILLIAMS