A question about the Notre Dame organ

[dll927]

A few comments here:

1. Some animal lover is going to raise a fuss about those 1,000 sheep skins.

2. Louis Vierne was essentially blind.

3 Candle smoke and breathing of all those visitors -- Do they expect a church to remain empty?? As for candle smoke, when they decided to clean up the ceiling of the famed Cistine Chapel, such smoke was blamed for the problem. Do they really need to burn candles in a church??

4. Notre Dame has been tinkered with for several decades now. If St. Sulpice still functions pretty much as it was built, who decided that N. D. needed to be "modernized"??? The other "Michaelangelo" at St.Ouen in Rouen is also supposed to be pretty much still as it was built. Poor old
Aristide must be turning over in his grave over Notre Dame and the many others that have been ruined.

[GoneBaroque]

This is an interesting site.

http://www.cathedraledeparis.com/-The-Great-Organ-


Margaret

Thank you for the site Margaret. Very interesting I have been in Casre Couer, but not Notre Dame in Paris.

[Corno Dolce]

If my memory serves me, the offending computer system at Notre Dame de Paris organ was designed, constructed and installed by Synaptel. What a piece of junk........Glory to God it was stripped out - Now things work as they should.

[dll927]

Organs are still being built with mechanical action, at least for the key action if not the stops. Which raises an interesting question: Are there more modern materials and building methods that make an organ easier to play and not in need of constant maintenance and adjustments? We have advanced somewhat since 200-300 years ago, and there are probably improvements (?) in the ways they do things. I'm asking this assuming a mechanical-action organ. But if St. Sulpice still works, who's complaining?

[Corno Dolce]

St. Sulpice is in a league of its own........N.de P. is of course not the original C-C........I have always fancied what the sound would be like if all the original stops were in place...........?

[Soubasse]

^^ Amen to that. And dll has made an interesting point too. Whilst it's obvious to anyone who plays a modern concert instrument, just how much easier programmable combinations and stop sequencers make for performances, I'd also be curious to know how much today's advanced technologies have aided or improved the actual mechanical processes from the keys to the pallets. I suppose some parts and connections can be more finely machined than they can by hand, but given that remarkable devices like the Barker lever and similar pneumatic and/or mechanical systems have been happily built and even restored by hand, is it still a case of "if it ain't broke..."?

Obviously I need to read more

[Corno Dolce]

Insofar as mechanical action is concerned I have come to appreciate the servo-pneumatic lever action as designed by Stephen Kowalyshyn of C.B. Fisk.

[GoneBaroque]

The smallish city in which I live (about) 35,000 population has a magnificent Fisk in one of our churches. It is the best organ in the area and one of the best in the state. Perhaps rivaled only by the Frobenius in Cambridge and a Flentrop in a museum at Harvard College.

[Corno Dolce]

Thanx for sharing about the Fisk in your area - My experience with Fisk is limited to the instrument in Lausanne Cathedral and the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

Back on topic: At this point we all probably know how much "change" took place when Cochereau was master at N. de P. These days I find my self divided as to all the necessay and/or unnecessary changes, (removal of Synaptel system excluded for very obvious reasons). It is most impossible to return the instrument to its original state and maybe its just as well that it will never happen.

[Thierry59]

Thanx for sharing about the Fisk in your area - My experience with Fisk is limited to the instrument in Lausanne Cathedral and the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

Back on topic: At this point we all probably know how much "change" took place when Cochereau was master at N. de P. These days I find my self divided as to all the necessay and/or unnecessary changes, (removal of Synaptel system excluded for very obvious reasons). It is most impossible to return the instrument to its original state and maybe its just as well that it will never happen.

In fact, the synaptel system which is largely out of date, should be replaced in the coming months. It is also foreseen that the stops of the small pedal(petite pédale) will be extended to 56 notes.