Zwolle Grote-/of St. Michaelschurch

Arp Schnitger had acquired great fame as an organ builder in the Hanseatic city of Hamburg. He was also known in our country. He built organs in Groningen and Friesland, among others. In 40 years he built more than 80 organs. In 1718 he was invited by the city council to make a design and a quotation. He came to Zwolle and that same year he presented the city council with a detailed plan for the construction of a large organ. An organ, as he wrote to the city council, that "sich sehr füglich in der schönen Michaelis Kirche here in der Stadt Zwoll nach derselben guthe proportion sich schicken könte."

On January 3, 1719, the Zwolle administrators signed the contract for the construction of the organ. Father Schnitger died a few months later, after which his sons finished the work. The specifications still assumed an organ with 46 voices (a group of pipes that produce the same timbre is called a voice). During construction, the number of stops of the organ was increased twice, so that the timbre of the Schnitger organ in Zwolle is still determined by 63 stops today.
In September 1721 the organ was inspected by three well-known organists from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. They gave the Schnitger family a lot of praise, although they also cracked some critical notes. The Schnitger brothers ignored the criticism, so that the organ remained unchanged.