管风琴是欧洲最早出现的键盘乐器,当欧洲进入漫长的封建社会(中世纪)后,管风琴逐渐成为唯一被教会认可的乐器。文艺复兴使南欧的世俗音乐艺术走向繁荣的时候,宗教改革也使另外半个欧洲的宗教音乐兴旺了起来。这时,在北欧的德国,管风琴艺术得到快速发展,器乐艺术、特别是管风琴艺术开始崛起,在德国音乐中占有重要地位。 The organ was the earliest keyboard instrument in Europe. After Europe entered the long feudal society (the Middle Ages), the organ gradually became the only instrument recognized by the church. When the Renaissance brought the secular music arts in southern Europe to prosperity, the religious reforms thrived in half the other European religious music. At this time, in Nordic Germany, the organ art developed rapidly. The art of instrumental music, especially organ art, began to rise and played an important role in German music.