Hendrik Niehoff (1495 – c. 1561) was a Dutch pipe organ builder, who learned with noted builder, Jan van Covelen (c. 1470-1532). According to Liuwe Tamminga, Niehoff was born in Leeuwarden, the capital of Province Friesland. (Tamminga has been organist since the 1980s on the ancient organ {1471-75} of Lorenzo da Prato at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna and also was born in a nearby Friesland village.) Following Jan van Covelen's death in ...
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Hendrik Niehoff (1495 – c. 1561) was a Dutch pipe organ builder, who learned with noted builder, Jan van Covelen (c. 1470-1532). According to Liuwe Tamminga, Niehoff was born in Leeuwarden, the capital of Province Friesland. (Tamminga has been organist since the 1980s on the ancient organ {1471-75} of Lorenzo da Prato at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna and also was born in a nearby Friesland village.) Following Jan van Covelen's death in 1532, Hendrik Niehoff established his shop in 's-Hertogenbosch to continue building new and upgrading organs throughout the Netherlands and in major Hanseatic cities and, thus, can be considered the most significant organbuilder in northwestern Europe in the middle third of the 16th century due both to the fabulous visual architectural quality of the cases and the exquisite sounds these instruments make for the eye and ear.
The pipes in Niehoff's organs are remarkable in that they use an alloy of over 98% lead, with only about 1.3% tin and...
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