COMPOSITION 1933
CHANGING OF PLANS 1853-1859
There are several hypotheses about thE radical change in the original
plans of Cavaillé-Coll, resulting in a two-year delivery delay:
1 Change of the architect
At the beginning of the fall of 1853, the architect Gau ceded his place
to his younger assistant Théodore Ballu, who changed the
construction of the façade and towers, creating significant changes
to the position of the tribune and the organcase which could have
forced Cavaillé-Coll to change his plans radically.
The architect installed the buffet (in a neo-Gothic style) on the
second floor of a high wooden case, carved by Pyanet and Th.
Lechesne. The first floor was designed for the choir, accessible by a
staircase from the inside of the church. The upper gallery (level of the
Great Organ) was accessible by an another staircase, only accessible
from the exterior of the church. This construction implied that the
organ tribune was placed very high and that Cavaillé-Coll had little
space to position the organ. Looking at the organ, it seems the organ
has plenty of space, but the turrets of the organ are placed before a
very heavy arc that forms the connection between the two towers of
the basilica. The organ had therefore to be built mainly in the depth
(backwards). This space problem was solved partially by expanding
the side turrets of the organ to the front of the gallery itself, which
created (limited) place for the Great Organ.
It is clear that his high position and its construction towards the back
of the organ loft created a significant problem for the sound of the
organ in the church. Indeed, the bottom of the organ case is at the
back three meters and at the front two metres above the level of the
tribune where the console was placed. Probably, Cavaillé-Coll did not
know at the time he wrote his prfeliminary proposal for the design of
the instrument in 1853. Indeed, in 1855 he wrote to the prefect that he
did not receive the final plans for the buffet of organ yet from the
architect. These plans confronted Cavaillé-Coll with a completely new
situation on a very late time. As a result, his initial plan was not
appropriate anymore and he had to change them to a significant
extent to obtain a satisfactory result***.
2 Influence of César Franck
Franck was named maître de chapelle and intended organiste-
titulaire of the new organ in 1857 and in this role he may have
exercised a great influence on the final design of organ and its
composition.
3 Change of the point of view of the builder himself
In the four years between 1853 and 1857 Cavaillé-Coll’s opinion and
vision had time to mature further, and accordingly it is possible he
changed his own ideas about the ideal design of this organ; by the
way: Cavaillé-Coll often changed his plans quite thoroughly during
the building phase of his organs.
In this regard, the following novelty should be noted, which could be
realized due to the changes that Cavaillé-Coll made in the concept
**** :
this organ is completely designed from a dynamic perspective to
obtain a huge crescendo. The basson-hautbois of the Swell, which
disrupts the piano with the Swell box closed, joins the ‘fonds’ of the
other keyboards, is situated on the funds-case, so that the jeux des
combination are reserved for the reeds-battery. To play increasingly
stronger, the organist has simply to pull almost all stops (those
constituting the Grand Choeur), to close the Swell box (funds +
Hautbois), push the couple Swell/Great Organ - but this did not work
at Sainte Clotilde - and play on the Grand organ, then add the
Positive/Great Organ coupling, and then the appel Great Organ, and
then to add the jeux de combinaisons of the Positive and finally the
Great organ and Pedal. There are two pedal couplers, the Postif
couple pulls the Swell couple, the Couple great Organ pulls the
Positive couple; one has to be careful not to add the Great organ
coupler until the moment that one plays on that keyboard. Some
writers and performers did mention the absence of coupler Pedal-
Swell and the coupler and coupler Swell/Great Organ, but in the logic
of the crescendo when going down on the keyboards, this coupler
qwould be superfluous in as much as Swell/Positive and
Positive/Great Organ do function in a cascading way.
4 Hypothesis of Helga Schauerte
She argued that the organ suffered a further delay in completion
(until 1863) due to the fact that - just before the official inauguration
in december 1859 - workers damaged the organ severely when
placing the cornice othe organ. Cavaillé-Coll had to repair or
reconstruct the damaged mechanisms and may have choosed to
keep things simple by reversing the order of the manuals, and thus
realising a more simple transmission for the GO (Helga Schauerte-
Maubouet Théodore Dubois et César Franck à Sainte-Clotilde La
tradition musicale de la basilique Sainte-Clotilde de Paris L’Orgue n°
278-279 (2007/II-III) 7-14 ISSN 0030-5170).
THE ORGAN OF CESAR FRANCK 1/2
There are no data other than newspaper articles from that time which contain the precise
composition of the organ in 1859. However, a reconstruction of the composition from later
sources clearly indicates that the instrument delivered in 1859 was very different from the
preliminary design of 1853.
The main differences were:
•
changing keyboards function: the design of 1853 was still classical: the Great played on
the second keyboard, the positif on the first keyboard; on the instrument delivered in
1859 the Great was the first keyboard, the positive the second keyboard;
•
extension of composition with six stops by elimination of some stops and adding other;
•
different distribution of the jeux de fonds and the jeux de combinaisons, with
consequently some new windchests*;
•
second machine Barker (positif);
•
new mechanics;
•
adaptation of the wind supply
•
the size of the pedal was extended from 25 to 27 notes.
An indication of the seriousness of these interventions are the costs, which were finally
almost 1 ½ times higher than expected. Cavaillé-Coll explained these higher costs to Ballu
claiming that the circumstances were very unusual, involving much more work and
expenses than expected.
The organ was harmonized by Gabriel Reinburg.
It was not Franck who made the instrument sound first. Lefébure-Wely was
commissioned to play the new organ on the occasion of two social weddings celebrated
on 20 and 29 September at the insistence of the Duchess of Alba and the Bishop of
Carcassonne who officiated that day.
The inauguration** of the organ, originally scheduled for 5 December, took place on 19
December 1859. Franck and Lefébure-Wely shared the keyboards on this occasion.
The program was as follows:
•
César FRANCK: Final (by César Franck)
•
J.S. BACH: Prelude & Fugue in E minor BWV 533 ( by César Franck)
•
L.J. LEFEBURE-WELY : Three improvisations on famous Christmas hymns (Adeste
Fideles, Grand-Choeur on Il est né le Divin enfant).
Canon Hamelin, the parish priest, proceeded to his blessing some time later.
Cavaillé-Coll wrote a few lines on the subject of the sound conception and mechanics
at the time of the construction of the organ of Ste Clotilde : ****
Cet orgue est complètement conçu dans une perspective dynamique en vue d’un
gigantesque crescendo. Le Basson-Hautbois du Récit, qui intervient dans la nuance
piano, boîte fermée, accouple aux jeux de fonds des autres claviers, est sur la laye des
fonds, de façon à réserver celle des jeux de combinaison aux anches de batterie. Pour
jouer de plus en plus fort, il suffit à l’organiste de tirer presque tous les jeux (ceux
composant le grand chœur), de fermer la boite du Récit (fonds+hautbois), de mettre
l’accouplement Récit/Grand Orgue – mais cela ne fonctionnait pas à Sainte Clotilde -
et de jouer au Grand Orgue, puis d’ajouter l’accouplement Positif/Grand Orgue, puis
l’appel Grand Orgue, puis, parvenu à ce stade, d’appeler les jeux de combinaison du
Positif et enfin du Grand Orgue et de la Pédale. Il y a deux tirasses, celle du Positif
entraine l’accouplement Récit, celle du Grand Orgue entraine l’accouplement Positif,
on aura soin de ne mettre la tirasse Grand Orgue qu’au moment de jouer sur ce
clavier. Certains auteurs et interprètes remarquent l’absence de Tirasse Récit et
d’accouplement Récit/Grand Orgue, qui sont inutiles dans la mesure où les
accouplements Récit/Positif et Positif/Grand Orgue fonctionnent en cascade.
Maintenance works on the organ 1859-1933
Before the major works in 1933, the organ had maintenance in 1891 (without significant
changes) and at the beginning of the 20th century (at that point, the 'Pédale d'orage' was
replaced by a 'Tirasse Récit') by Mutin (Cavaillé-Coll's successor). Probably also in this
period, the spoonlike swellpedal (with three positions: closed, half-open and open) was
replaced by balanced pedal.***
* it is likely that various parts of the never finished 1853-organ have been used for the organ of Saint Martin in Bergues, built in 1858 by Cavaillé-Coll.
** Helga Schauerte argued that the organ - despite its inauguration in 1859 - was not finished before fall 1863, and that Franck was officially appointed as organiste titulaire at that moment (Helga Schauerte-
Maubouet Théodore Dubois et César Franck à Sainte-Clotilde La tradition musicale de la basilique Sainte-Clotilde de Paris L’Orgue n° 278-279 (2007/II-III) 7-14 ISSN 0030-5170).
*** already in 1844, Cvaillé-Coll stated in a letter: 'Architects, at least in France, are the enemies of organ-builders. If they can imprison us, they will not hesitate to do so in order to preserve architectural lines'. (in:
Fenner Douglas, 1999, p 183)
**** Source : Roland Galtier Innovations techniques et musicales chez Cavaillé-Coll des débuts à l’orgue de Sainte-Clotilde. La Flûte Harmonique Numéro 97 Assocation Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, Paris, 2015.
Next concert
21 • 09 • 2024, 5 PM
Olivier Penin (titulaire)