You can now play a majestic 17th-century Baroque organ (from your laptop)

31 July 2019, 15:49

Here’s your chance to pull out all the stops and play on one of the world’s most magnificent instruments.

In St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg you can find one of the world’s mightiest instruments, the 1693 Schnitger Organ. Just look at it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Classic FM (@classicfm) on Jul 30, 2019 at 8:20am PDT

Fancy having a play on it? Well, now you can. Thanks to a new app as part of Hamburg's Organ Year 2019, which celebrates the city's historic organs and music-making traditions.

The organ is by famous Northern German organ builder Arp Schnitger. It was completed in 1693 and boasts four manuals, a pedal board and 60 stops, powering 4000 pipes. As you can see, only a modest selection is available on the app but it all still sounds authentic and fantastic.

The app lets you play via your trackpad or keyboard, pressing the keys and pulling out the desired stops. It also helps you learn more about the instrument and the colour of its stops as you play (because, like us, you've probably always wondered what a Bahrpfeiff 8’ is).

What a great thing. Play for your friends or serenade your loved one with an authentic 17th-century ditty. Baroque organs are great.