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

COMPOSITION 1859

COMPOSITION 1853-1859

CONSOLE

BUFFET 1925