(Ger.: ‘upper department’).
The upper chest and manual of a German organ, often (since c1840) provided with Swell shutters, able by its position to take larger pipes than the Brustwerk and other minor chests of a Werkprinzip organ. In many sources (e.g. the autograph registrations in Bach's Concerto bwv596) Oberwerk denotes Hauptwerk, i.e. the main chest above the player, as opposed to the Rückpositiv (Chair organ). Praetorius (1619) used other phrases such as ‘Oben in der Brust’ or ‘oberste Positiff’ if he wished to refer to the Oberwerk. Schlick (1511) disparagingly mentioned small subsidiary chests placed within the main case, but the Oberwerk found on such organs as Kampen (1523) was a major department. That called boven int werck at Amsterdam Oude Kerk in 1543 had two chests and took all the colour stops away from the Hauptwerk, which was thereby kept to a size convenient for builder and bellows-blower. Such a department was very useful when it had its own keyboard and became highly developed, those in the big four-manual organs of Schnitger (c1690) still full of flutes, full-length reeds and other colours giving variety. The Unterwerke, Seitenwerke, Echowerke and Kronwerke (‘under, side, echo, crowning, departments’) found in later Baroque and Romantic organs are of much less musical significance.
PETER WILLIAMS