Petr Koukal The Organ and its Relation to the Local Music Life in Czech historical lands

The terrain of the Czech historical lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) as a part of the central European space reflects one typical feature in its music historical research – the importance of sacred music life. Generally speaking, such formulation says nothing new. But the closer view of research reveals more interesting findings. Till the end of the 19 century, the churches represented the ruling stage for almost all forms of sacred music. In this connection must to be posed a legitimate question: What was the most important, i. e. the most listened musical instrument in its performances? That was nothing but the organ, which represented the most used musical instrument in sacred music since the Middle Ages. In the earlier periods, not every church or chapel in the central Europe was equipped with an organ. In the 2 half of the 17 century, it was only one of each four Bohemian and Moravian churches. Nevertheless, the number of organs grew rapidly after the wars against the Turks during the Baroque and later periods; the Theresian, Josephinian and Caecilian sacred music reforms did not halt or decelerate this progressive trend at all. Thanks to the latest results of the Czech music historiography and organology, we are informed quite well as to the question how the historical organs looked like. Nevertheless, those writings do not answer fully the question how the historical organs did sound like. Here we are at the roots of the matter. In each time and place, the organ represented a powerful, influential and almost unsubstitutable part of the music reception and communication in the church. It has not been a passive component of such a process; the organ always forms a system com-