Youtube — Dupré's home organ

[acc]

I meant to say that the original Guilmant instrument (ie, prior to Dupre's purchase and subsequent additions) was, so I gather, a reference point for Albert Alain's rather unique construction.

That is indeed possible. Albert Alain studied with Guilmant in 1906–07 (the same year as Dupré, by the way), so he may very well have visited his house organ in Meudon. And this was three years before he started working on his own instrument, so the chronology certainly fits.

 

[acc]

I meant to say that the original Guilmant instrument (ie, prior to Dupre's purchase and subsequent additions) was, so I gather, a reference point for Albert Alain's rather unique construction.

Update to my previous reply: I've looked it up in the Alain biography by his granddaughter, Aurélie Decourt, which has a whole section entitled « Les influences principales » (pp. 81–83). In that section, she enumerates a number of influences on Albert Alain as an organ builder, and Guilmant's house organ is indeed mentioned as “model for his first organ project.”

So our esteemed friend Soubasse is absolutely right! :up:

 

[Corno Dolce]

Hi ACC,

Oh yes indeedy - the Kleuker at Alpe d'Huez designed by Guillou is a marvel of diversity and it is also my favorite amongst small organs. It has to be heard(preferably live) to be believed. I take it that you are well-versed as to what is going on with the *organ of variable structure* that Guillou and a few others with Klais Orgelbau contracted to build it. Its a project I hope to see finished in the not-so-distant future.

Humbly,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

Well, I only mentioned the number of ranks to explain why there is nothing miraculous about fitting all the pipes behind the case. But of course, I agree with you: one can achieve great diversity with a limited number of stops. My favourite example for this is the Kleuker organ at l'Alpe d'Huez (designed by Jean Guillou): it has incredible diversity with only 24 stops!

 

[acc]

Hi Corno,

I must confess that I am not following up on Guillou's “structure variable” ideas very closely.

But involvement of Klais doesn't surprise me: only last Sunday, Guillou gave a concert in Lille (Northwestern France) for the inauguration of this organ, which was newly rebuilt by Klais (and of which an esteemed but, alas, lately very quiet member of this board is assistant organist).

 

[Corno Dolce]

Hi ACC,

Yes by golly - I remember reading about the Lille instrument. Did not that instrument at one point have some stops that were by Cavaille-Coll? The original Trocadero organ? Might you know anything about that? Well, at least the organ is now in an acoustically reverberant space and will be able to really *sing*. I hope to get over there next summer to hear it.

Cheers,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

 

[acc]

The Trocadéro organ ended up in the Auditorium Maurice Ravel in Lyons, where it was transferred by Danion-Gonzalez in 1977 (but it has been heavily transformed and must now be very different from the original Cavaillé-Coll organ).

The one that is now in Lille is a different instrument: it was newly built in 1966, also by Danion-Gonzalez, for one of the concert halls of Radio France in Paris.

 

[Corno Dolce]

Hi ACC,

Thanx for clearing up my conflation of two different instruments. I had known about Danion-Gonzalez doing some *unspeakable* things with C-C's oeuvre. Ah well.......

Cheers,

CD :tiphat::tiphat::tiphat::tiphat:

 

[Contratrombone64]

chronologically inept

what a marvellous little phrase ... I'm going to use it next time someone attempts to sneak into a meeting late.

 

[Soubasse]

Cheers - I'd be interested to hear how it goes down! It was mostly a 'note to self' kind of thing from marking far too many music history essays in which the chronology of some composers and eras was more tangled than my own intestines after a bad night on the curry. I even read one where apparently Bach had recorder lessons with Mozart.:crazy::crazy::crazy:

I did end up actually saying it though to a class one time "I'm sorry to have to say that many of your assignments were chronologically inept."

So our esteemed friend

Oh, I wouldn't go that far!

is absolutely right!

Well I was sure I'd heard it somewhere, whether it was in sleeve notes or from MCA herself. I'd love to be able to read those Alain biogs of Decourt ... and Gavoty ... and Schaurte, but I'd have to get them translated first!