Drawings of 18th-century organ façades by Vilnius organ builders Part 2

Girenas Povilionis

Dr. Girenas Povilionis is associate professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. He is a senior specialist at the Center for Culture Heritage, an organ historian, researcher and restorer, and gives lectures at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and Grigalius Center for Church Music Studies. Since 2012 he has been a member of the Commission for the Certification of Movable Cultural Property Restorers. A more complete biography will appear with the part 2 of this series. For more information: www.vargonai.com.

Historical background

The Old and Rare Books Department at the library of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania, stores a unique collection of drawings and prints depicting works of art (e.g., altars) dating from the latter part of the eighteenth-century Ruzne rysunki.¹ This leather-bound album of drawings is believed to have belonged to the altar maker Jonas Danauskas, as one of the pages contains his name and surname as well as the date 1878; there is a date inscription (1879 roku 24 lipca /July 24, 1879) on the inside back cover. Next to the date the drawings and prints are listed by the artistic style they represent, and a separate list of ten organ façade designs (numbers 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 23, and 25) is provided.

Judging from the different kinds of paper used to glue authentic drawings and prints as well as from the consistent and methodical style of list making and handwriting, similar to that of Danauskas, which the lists reveal, it can be assumed that the album was his. However, the altar maker most probably was not the first compiler of the collection; he just added his own altar drawings and other images to the old album of prints and drawings. Stamps on the front pages point to subsequent owners of the collection including Kaunas School of Arts (hardly legible), Kaunas Institute of Applied Arts, and from 1953, Vilnius Academy of Arts Library (the album has been part of the Old and Rare Books collection since 1992).

The album also includes some pages featuring ten authentic organ façade drawings dating from the latter part of the eighteenth century, and two organ façade prints cut from a French or German book, which are of inestimable value to the history of Lithuanian pipe organs. In fact, this manuscript is also significant to the European history of pipe organs at large. The Polish art historian Marcin Zglinski began study of these drawings as far back as 1999,² yet he did not manage to read and fully decode some of the authentic inscriptions. Therefore, there are certain inaccuracies in the published works by Zglinski including inaccurate attribution of several organ designs to specific authors and erroneous or imprecise indication of some locations.

With light blue shading in some places, the organ designs were drawn in ink on paper with different watermarks, heraldic images on some pages, and regular illuminated lines on the other. The authorship of the drawings has not been fully determined, since the collection had several owners before it ended up in its current storage place. Yet, as we know, the architectural structure of an organ façade was inseparable from the instrument in the eighteenth century and was most often designed by the organ builder. Therefore, it is likely that the drawings were made by the same organ builders or were commissioned by them to be made after their own sketches. The authors’ professional excellence is witnessed by an extremely detailed and masterful execution of even the finest lines. Based on the drawing techniques, handwriting, style, and factual circumstances, the designs can be separated into five groups that will be discussed further in the article.

Drawing numbers 18 and 21

Featuring the same architectural structure, drawing numbers 18 and 21 (Figures 1 and 2) date from 1763. The two-tower Baroque and Rococo façade composition is particularly common among works by Vilnius organ builders. It consists of two tall semicircular towers at the sides of the façade, a lower triangular tower in the center, and two intermediate flats, curving upwards (a similar façade composition, albeit from a later period, can be seen in drawing numbers 16 and 25).

A symmetrical decorative façade design distinguishes drawing numbers 18 and 21 from the other eight designs, in which façades exhibit a lack of symmetry, with the left side being slightly different from the right one. Stylistically, these drawings are identical; undulating plant motifs, typical of late Baroque, are combined with dynamic and pliable lines characteristic of the Regency style. (It is important to note that in Lithuania Regency forms remained popular even for a few decades later than in Western Europe.) These drawings differ from each other in terms of decoration. Drawing number 21 features a group of music-making angel statues: an angelic baby in the middle is playing the flute while the other two on the sides are trumpeting. Bands of ornaments run over the base and the top of the pipes while the sides of the big towers are decorated with hollow garlands. A little angel atop the central tower is flanked by elegant vases dotted with tiny flowers, and imposing lacy wings sit on each side of the façade. Instead of music-making cherubs, the three towers of the façade are topped with wavy crowns featuring oblong cartouches in drawing number 18.

When it comes to the layout of the façade pipes, we can see that each of the three towers has seven metal pipes, even though in reality, in similar Baroque and Rococo façades of Lithuanian organs, groupings of five pipes were more common. Furthermore, both drawings display pipes in incorrect proportions. This suggests that the drawings were made by an artist rather than by an organ builder. The authors of the two designs or organ makers who built organs from these drawings have not been identified. However, the surviving authentic inscriptions on the drawings provide us with some useful information, which allows attributing the designs to the duo of Vilnius organ builders, Joachim Friedrich Scheel and Ludwik Klimowicz.

At the bottom of drawing number 18 there are two authentic eighteenth-century records, made in the Polish language around the same time. They suggest that around 1763 a ten-voice organ for Ratnycia (?) Church might have been built using the design. A record in the left-hand corner reads:

X. A. Dominik Grzybowski

P. M. Ten abrys do ko

scioła Rotnieckiego (?)

. . . nołu³

while one in the right-hand corner reads:

Ru. P. 1763

D. 27 Maia

Wedlug tego

abrysu ma

byc' Organ

stoiący od

glosow 10

zrobiony tą

strukturą X. P. S . . . [illegible].⁴

At the bottom of drawing number 21 there are three eighteenth-century inscriptions. Judging from the first inscription (on the left), the drawing might have been part of an organ building contract:

Według tego abrysu Pozytyw

zgodzisłem się

w Kościełę Janowski Xß

stawiony X. Ignacy La[chow]ski Xß. [P.] J.

B. X. Radwil[owicz] [hardly legible signature].⁵

The second inscription is very worn and hardly legible:

Ten abrys [. . . się] y według onego

. . . Duniłowickich

Jak sko . . . Żeholowski.⁶

The third inscription also refers to a contract:

[Terz] sko[nt]rakta przy J. P. Organmistrow, abrys obrałem, Di 25 Aprilis 17[?? . . .] X. Dominik Kochanski Przr Nieswiski

. . . Zakonu Kaznodzienskiemmn [. . .].⁷

The analysis of the three pieces of text in drawing number 21 makes it possible to assume that around 1763 (based on the confirmed date of a similar drawing number 18, drawing number 21 may date from circa 1763, too), organbuilders entered into an agreement to build an organ in the Dominican Church of Saint John, Nesvizh, and that the contract was signed by Reverend Ignacy Lia[chov]ski and the Prior of the Dominican Monastery, Dominik Kochanski. This drawing might have also been used for building an organ in the Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity in Dunilowicze (the contract was signed by [Reverend?] Žeholiowski).

The façade of the organ in the Dominican Church of Saints Philip and Jacob, the Apostles, Vilnius (Figure 3), is almost identical to design numbers 18 and 21. The church research report says that an eleven-voice organ was made between 1763 and 1765 by Friedrich Cheel⁸ (most likely, Joachim Friedrich Scheel), which makes it possible to link drawing numbers 18 and 21 to Scheel. Moreover, association of drawings numbers 18 and 21 with Scheel denies Zglin´ski’s hypothesis attributing the four organs in the Dominican Church of Saints Philip and Jacob, the Apostles, Vilnius, Ratnycia Church, Saint John’s Church in Nesvizh, and the Church of Dunilowicze to Gerhardt Arendt Zelle. (This is because Zelle died in 1761, whereas drawing numbers 18 and 21 date from 1763.) Zglin´ski provided one more misunderstanding regarding the location mentioned in drawing number 18. According to the analysis of inscription, I have to clarify that it is Ratnycia, not Krincinas as stated in the work by Zglin´ski.⁹

Drawing number 11

Drawing number 11 depicts a highly distinctive façade design (Figure 4). Pyramid-shaped, the structure displays asymmetrical ornamentation: a figure of a winged angel with a trumpet on the left-hand side, a cherub playing the flute on a carved wing slightly lower, and one more little angel with a curved horn above the rocaille-decorated cartouche at the very top of the façade. Instead of a statue, there is a vertical carved element on the right-hand side. The drawing may date from around 1761, as it resembles the façades of the organs in Saint Catherine’s Church and Saint Theresa’s Church in Vilnius (the only authentic part of the Saint Theresa’s Church organ façade is its centerpiece consisting of five elements, Figures 4a and 4b). The architectural structure of the organs is almost identical, with the only difference noticeable in the cornice profiles and the volute scrolls. The organ of Saint Theresa’s Church (Figure 4b) conveys the plasticity of intricate carvings that the design number 11 exhibits. Apart from the trumpeting cherubs, the façade of the organ in Saint Catherine’s Church features a statue of King David playing a harp. (The photo of the organ façade in Saint Catherine’s Church shows damaged angel figures with no trumpets in their hands anymore, Figure 4a.)

Written records attribute the organ of Saint Catherine’s Church (1761)¹⁰ to Vilnius organ builders Scheel and Klimowicz, whereas similarities shared between the organ façade in Saint Catherine’s Church and that in Saint Theresa’s Church make it possible to attribute both instruments to the same organ building duo. Correspondingly, drawing number 11 can be linked to these organs and their makers. Precision in the drawing of the cornice profiles and the keydesk suggests that the author was competent in architectural drafting and knew the specifics of the organ; therefore, the drawing was most probably custom made and served as a basis for building the above-mentioned organs.

Drawing numbers 7, 13, 16, 23, and 25

Five drawings, numbers 7, 13, 16, 23, and 25 (Figures 5–9), were presumably made by or with the participation of the same person, since they were carried out in the same manner with the only difference noticeable in the geometric outline. In drawing numbers 13 and 25, cornices of the convex towers form a single straight line, in numbers 16 and 23 they appear bent,¹¹ and design number 7 displays a combination of both features. These drafts were completed a few decades later than drawing number 11 depicting a pyramidal façade. It is noteworthy that design numbers 13, 16, and 25 represent small façades of the Vilnius organ building school suitable for instruments with seven to ten voices. (An addition of flats at the sides of the façades would make them suitable for bigger instruments with ten to fifteen voices.)

On the reverse side of these drawings there are some fragmentary inscriptions pointing to the location of organs built following the drawings. For instance, an inscription in Polish on drawing number 13 reads:

. . . Kos'cioła Bohdanowskiego

[. . .e] przyięty abrys 1794 Lą (?) 22 grudnia

J. Lachowicz [Hachowicz?].

Here the date of December 22, 1794, the priest J. Lachowicz (Hachovicz?), and the Church of Bogdanovo are mentioned.¹² The same church is referred to in drawing number 25:

Abrys . . . kos’cioła Bohdanowskiego . . .

Pon . . . Roku Tysiącu Siedemset Dziewiędzies . . .

. . . Przys . . . [Xs.] Gechowicz . . .

and another text reads:

Abrysu . . . [further handwriting is badly faded and illegible]

These records show that in the last decade of the eighteenth century this drawing might have served for building an organ in the Church of Bogdanovo; the name of a priest Gechowicz is mentioned. It is likely that design numbers 13 and 25 were offered for the same church in Bogdanovo.

Combining Rococo and Classical forms, design number 7 stands out among the five drawings. Nothing is known about the realization of this project, yet the façades of organs in Krincinas Church (Figure 5a, 1782–the indication of the year is based on an inscription on a façade pipe, RP 1782), Butkiške˙s Church (Figure 5b, 1814?), and Paluše˙ Church (Figure 5c, beginning of nineteenth century) all have a similar structure. Individual elements of the structure depicted in drawing number 7 can be seen in the organ of Trakai Church (Figure 5d, 1800). However, none of these organs has the authentic ornaments shown in drawing number 7 (Figure 5).

By the type of the façade they depict, the drawings can be paired. Design numbers 13 and 23 are distinguished by the elevated central tower, which is a rare case among Lithuanian organ façades. The façade featured in drawing number 13 bears some resemblance to that of the organ in Vilnius Calvary Church (Figure 6a, c.1780) as well as organ façades in Hieraniony Church (Figure 6b) and in the Parish Church of All Saints in Navahrudak (Figure 6). If we added outer flats to the façade depicted in drawing number 13, the structure would resemble that of the organ in the Bernardine Church of Druya. Drawing number 23 is thought to have served for building the organ in Vilnius University Aula Parva (Figure 7a, end of eighteenth century); the organ in Skaruliai Church (end of eighteenth century) also has a façade of a similar structure (Figure 7b).

Concave, polygonal, protruding towers on both sides of the façade and a triangular tower in the center (the towers are joined together by flat planes, slightly curving at the top) are the key components of the façade structure depicted in drawing numbers 16 and 25 (Figures 8 and 9). The lateral wings, central cartouche, and cartouche shields of the façade featured in drawing number 16 are decorated with stylized Rococo ornaments and plant motifs, which were widely used at the end of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. With graceful consoles at their foot, the façade towers in drawing number 25 are crowned with vases on massive pedestals.

The surviving organs as well as authentic records prove that these two-tower façade designs were implemented. For instance, an inscription on the reverse side of drawing number 16 witnesses that the design might have served for building an organ for Nemunaitis Church (neither the church nor the organ have survived):

abrys Organu do Kos'cioła Niemonoyckiego.

The adjacent hardly legible inscription points to another church:

temz˙e dory ... do Kos'cioł[a] Z˙ad[z...] (unidentified location).

The façade structure featured in drawing numbers 16 and 25 is typical of the Vilnius organbuilding tradition; therefore, quite a few organs that have survived bear resemblance to it. Yet none of the organs displays the exact likeness of architectural and decorative elements to those depicted in the drawings. Notable examples include organs built at the end of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the nineteenth centuries in Note˙nai Church (Figure 10a), the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Nicholas, Vilnius (Figure 10b), Vidsodis Church (Figure 10c), Suvainiškis Church (Figure 10d), Kantaucˇiai Church (Figure 10e), Semeliške˙s Church (Figure 10f), Saint George’s Church (Figure 10g), and Saint Joseph’s Church in Kedainiai (Figure 10h), as well as in the churches of Joniške˙lis (Figure 10i), Gaure˙,¹³ Medininkai (Figure 10j), Pivašiunai, Rozalimas, and Skaudvile. Larger and wider versions of the designs can be found in Saint George’s Church and the Church of All Saints in Vilnius as well as in the churches of Jieznas, Joniškis (Mole˙tai District), Južintai, Siesikai, Seda, Šeduva, Tverai, and elsewhere.

To be continued.

RELATED: Part 2

Notes

1. Old and Rare Books Department, Vilnius Academy of Arts Library, Inventory No. 3344.

2. Marcin Zglin´ski, “Organmistrz, snycerz, stolarz, inwestor – z działalnos'ci osiemnastowiecznego wilen´skiego warsztatu organmistrzowskiego. uwagi na bazie nowo odkrytych archiwaliów.” Przegląd Wschodni, Vol. 6, z. 2 (22), 1999, 289–303; “Budownictwo organowe na terenie dawnego Wielkiego Księstwa litewskiego do około 1850 roku w s'wietle najnowszych badan´. Materiały.” Muzyka, Warszawa, 2003, No. 3, 65–98; Nowoz˙ytny prospekt organowy i jego twórcy, Warszawa: instytut sztuki Pan, 2012, 320–23, 331–35.

3. “Rev. Dominik Grzybowski. It is designed for Ratnycˇia (?) Church [. . .] .”

4. “Following the structure depicted in this drawing, a stationary ten-voice organ should be [completed] on May 27 in the year of Our Lord 1763 [. . .]”

5. “Based on this outline [design] a contract is made to build [an organ] in Saint John’s Church, Rev. Ignacy Lia[chov]ski [. . .]
Radwilowicz (?).”

6. “This drawing [. . .] and following it [. . .] Dunilowicze like [. . .] Żeholowski.”

7. “The current organ building contract sets the date of April 25, 17[??]. Rev. Dominik Kochanski, Prior of the Dominican Order, Nesvizh.”

8. Šv. Jokubo bažnycia, 1975; Lietuvos TSR istorijos ir kulturos paminklų sąvadas, 1988, p. 331.

9. Zglinski, 1999, p. 293.

10. Mindaugas Paknys, “Vargonų meistrai Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštysteje.” Menotyra, No. 2 (23), Vilnius, 2001, p. 57.

11. The lower part of drawing number 25 is not visible as it has been cut off and moved to the reverse side of the drawing.

12. Bogdanovo is in the surroundings of Ashmyany, Belarus. A 1772 record mentions that Saint Michael’s Church of Bogdanovo belonged to the Alše˙nai Parish.

13. The organ was destroyed by fire together with the church in 1970.

Olena Matselyukh

Olena Matselyukh is an organ performer for the Lviv Organ and Chamber Music Hall, as well as a soloist of the Lviv and Rivne Philharmonic orchestras. She has concertized throughout Ukraine, as well as continental Europe. In 2017 Olena Matselyukh opened the Bach Festival in Brno, Czech Republic, and Wrocław, Poland. In Poland, she has performed at several other festivals, including “Music in Old Kraków.” Matseliukh has recorded CDs—Benedictus and Amazing Grace—as well as recordings of the works of composer Bohdan Kotyuk—Reflections and Mood and Spirits—and the compact disc Syrinx with Ihor Matselyukh on the pan flute.

Matselyukh is trained as a musician and a scientist, and her research in the domain of the organ is regularly published in Ukrainian and foreign journals. As a doctoral student of the oldest university in the Czech Republic, Moravian Palacký University in Olomouc, she has researched her doctoral dissertation on “The Sacred and profane in the organ creativity of the composers of Ukraine and the Czech Republic.”

Olena Matselyukh was artistic director of the VI. and VII. International Festivals of Organ Music “Diapazon,” which took place in the Lviv Organ and Chamber Music Hall in October 2016 and July 2017. For the Lviv Philharmonic, she is the founder and director of the international summer festival “Pizzicato e cantabile” and the international festival “Music in Old Lviv.” She is the producer and co-organizer of the international festivals of organ music in Rivne and Chernivtsi—“Musica viva Organum 2018.”

The origin of the organ and organbuilding in Lviv, Ukraine

Christianity played a fundamental role in the formation and development of Ukrainian society. The existence of an organ in Ukraine is noted on a fresco in Saint Sophia’s Church, founded in 1037 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise.¹ In western Ukraine, the organ and instrumental music played a major role in the church.

In 1240, Kyiv was destroyed during the Tatar-Mongol invasion, and the grandson of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Roman, united the Halychyna and Volyn principalities into a new unified state, which became Kyivan Rus. Thus, western Ukraine became a center of the cultivation of Christian artistic and musical traditions. The son of Roman, Danylo Halytskyi, founded the city of Lviv, which he named after his son Lev. In Dorogychin (Polissya Volyn), Prince Danylo received the royal crown, which was subsequently inherited by Leo.

Historians associate the introduction of the organ to Lviv with the reign of King Lev and his wife, Hungarian Princess Constance. Queen Constance invited monks of the Dominican order to Lviv, and the Dominicans brought an organ to the city.

The first mention of Lviv organist Peter Engelbrecht is found in the archives of the Latin Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1405. The organ tablature of Lviv musician Luke (d. 1532), dated 1530, is the oldest example of organ music notation in Eastern Europe. The tablature is now kept in an archive in Warsaw, Poland. Leszek Mazepa, a researcher of Lviv music history, lists the names of twenty-two musicians from the fifteenth to the first half of the sixteenth centuries, pointing out that in Lviv at that time organists were also virginalists, harpsichordists, and musicians playing all manner of keyboard instruments, including the regal and positive organs.²

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, court organists Bartholomew Cavinsky, Jakob Leydens, and the brothers Stanislav and Jan Kindlarsky were also organbuilders. They created instruments not only for Lviv and the Lviv Kingdom, but also exported them abroad.

According to researcher Jerzy Golos, Mykhailo Sadkovskyi built a new organ for the Dominican Church of Corpus Christi in Lviv between 1765 and 1766. This is one of the most prominent names in Lviv organbuilding of the eighteenth century.³

Lviv organ builders of the nineteenth century

The leading Lviv organbuilder of the nineteenth century was Jakub Kramkovsky (18th century–ca. 1840). He built the three most prominent organs of the era for Lviv, found in the Franciscan Church (25 stops, 1806), the Dominican Church (26 stops, 1808), and the Bernardine Church (33 stops, 1812).

Roman Dukhenskyi (ca. 1800–ca. 1870) started a career as an organbuilder in Warsaw and Krakow, and by the 1830s he had already built organs for the Jesuit monks in Stanislav and Lviv. Among the most interesting instruments he built was a two-manual organ for the Carmelite Church.

The Church of Saint Mary Magdalene was founded in Lviv in 1615. It was built on Holy George Mountain outside Renaissance Lviv and was regularly strengthened, rebuilt, and expanded as a defensive stronghold. While it is known that the church housed organs, no information about the first organs has survived.

Today this Baroque edifice functions in a twofold manner: as a Catholic church and as an organ hall. Lviv organist Antony Clement (ca. 1837–ca. 1897) built an organ in 1863 in the old village of Vovkiv (14 miles from Lviv), which was moved to St. Mary Magdalene Church in 1930. Subsequently, this organ was moved to the Catholic church of the town of Bohorodchany. In its place in 1936, the firm Rieger Kloss installed its Opus 3375, which remains the largest in Ukraine.

Among the Lviv organbuilders who worked at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were Romuald Bochensky, Jan Grocholsky, Tomasz Fall, and Bartholomew Zemiansky. All of them were professionally trained in either Leipzig, Vienna, or Kraków.

There is also a close connection between Lviv and Czech organbuilders, as evidenced not only by the organ of Saint Mary Magdalene Cathedral, built in the Moravian Krsno, but also by the presence of students of the most prominent Lviv organbuilder, Jan Sliwinsky—in particular, Rudolf Haase and Franciszek Gajda, who came from the Czech Republic.

Among the Lviv organbuilders is the family of Zebrovsky,⁴ with the last generation represented by the brothers Aleksandr and Kazymyr. Notable instruments include the organ of the Bernardine Church (33 stops, 1898), which was destroyed in the 1960s by Communists, though the façade still serves as a decoration of the church interior.

Among Kazymyr’s notable work is the organ of the Armenian Catholic Church, as well as an instrument in the Dominican church. With the advent of the Communist regime after the Second World War, this organ was destroyed. The pipes and the façade were saved thanks to the efforts of young enthusiasts. Now they decorate the concert hall of Stanislav Liudkevych, home to the Lviv Philharmonic.

Jan Sliwinsky (1844–1903) and his organ factory in Lviv

Little reliable information about Jan Sliwinsky’s early years has survived.⁵ He was born in the town of Pistyn in Pokuttia and at the age of nineteen went to Warsaw and participated in the January uprising of 1863. It is likely that the repercussions that befell the perpetrators of the anti-Russian uprising forced the young man to flee Warsaw. At first Sliwinsky headed to Vienna and then moved to France, returning to his homeland thirteen years later. From advertisements that he later published for the sale of organs, one can make a fairly integral picture of the life of the most prominent Lviv organbuilder.

From his earliest years as a child, his sphere of interests included organ construction. In his printed catalog, he wrote, “My love and enthusiasm for the organ arose at a very early age. From my youth I tried to learn as much as possible about the structure and function of the organ. I constantly felt the need to acquire knowledge in this profession.” Elsewhere in the same catalog, the master recalled his woodworking and joinery training.

Such a way to approach building organs was quite natural for a beginner. Woodworkers and joiners have long been highly valued for their skills in construction of musical instruments. After finishing an elementary education in his homeland (most likely in Lviv), young Sliwinsky went abroad, which meant leaving Halychyna. From documents describing the participants of regional organ exhibitions, one can infer that natives from Halychyna who worked outside their homeland participated in the exhibition process on an equal footing with the local masters of organbuilding. Most often, these were Halychyna natives who worked in France or in Vienna.

There is no information as to where Jan Sliwinsky continued his studies, but there is evidence that he worked for Aristide Cavaillé-Coll for several years. Between 1872 and 1876, Sliwinsky worked at Le Vigan (in the department Gard), where he independently built a twelve-stop organ for the Church of Saint Pierre.

The acquired experience allowed him to become a manager of one of the offices of the Cavaillé-Coll firm outside Paris for a few years. After his marriage, Vincent Cavaillé-Coll, Aristide’s brother, left the leadership of the office of the company in the city of Nîmes in the south of France, and Jan Sliwinsky was subsequently appointed manager.

Most likely, Jan Sliwinsky’s business in France was not successful, because in a year and a half, his branch sold only two organs. Jan Sliwinsky thus returned to Halychyna and started his own business in Lviv.

From its inception, Jan Sliwinsky’s firm was popular both in Lviv and throughout Halychyna. Some of the first organs he built for Lviv were located at Saint Mary Snizhna and Saint Kasimir Under the High Castle. Another important work for the firm was the radical restructuring of the organ in the Garrison Church of Saints Peter and Paul in the center of Lviv, which was under the leadership of Jesuit priests. In his price lists, Sliwinsky identified the following: four-stop organs were sold at 650 zloty, and large ones—up to thirty stops and three-manuals—for 12,000 zloty. Each instrument was custom designed and built. The acoustics of the church in which it was to be installed were studied as well.

Organ factories were highly successful around this time. Whether Roman Duchensky’s firm was still functioning is unknown, but the firms of Romuald Bohensky and Antony Clement, which worked simultaneously with the factory of Jan Sliwinsky, never achieved any such scope nor such publicity in their activities.

Around 1888, Jan Sliwinsky bought a house at Copernicus St., 16 to serve his growing business. It was rebuilt for the new owner by one of the most famous Ukrainian architects of Lviv, Ivan Levinskyi (1851–1919).

Organs built by Sliwinsky were installed relatively far afield: from Leipzig to Tbilisi, from Chisineu to Vilnius. But, of course, the vast majority of orders came from regional Halychyna parishes. In 1900, for the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), a two-manual and pedal, twenty-four-register instrument was installed.

Among Jan Sliwinsky’s seventy-four organs built for installation in Eastern Halychyna, only two instruments function today: one is in the Latin Roman Catholic cathedral in Lviv, and the other is in the city parish church in Sambir. Together with the ones in Western Halychyna, where the instruments were much better preserved (particularly in Krakow, Tarnow, Rzeszów, and Zamość), Jan Sliwinsky built more than 110 organs.

In the 1890s, this organbuilder also started selling pianos, with plans to eventually manufacture his own. The realization of this plan was thwarted by an accident he suffered in 1903. While tuning an organ he fell from the scaffolding and never recovered. He died in pain and was buried in the Lychakiv cemetery (field 51) in Lviv.

Jan Sliwinsky’s organs were notable for their quality construction. Selected varieties of wood were chosen that naturally dried well. The winding mechanism of the instruments was simple and reliable, and each register received copious air. For his large organs, the master used pneumatic machines similar to the Barker system, which allowed the easy coupling of manuals and registers with each other.

In his catalog, Jan Sliwinsky wrote: “The mathematical dimension of each pipe (the organ labial tube) has been brought to such perfection that it is possible to get the desired tone at once. This is my secret, which I learned during years of long studies.”

Music education in Lviv

With the arrival of the first organs in Lviv came the issue of how to train organists to play them. Again the initiative to teach organ performance was undertaken by the Dominican Fathers. In 1495, in the town of Belz, 62 miles north of Lviv, was founded a school for organists. As early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, the students of this school worked as organists in Lviv churches.⁶ Leszek Mazepa, who has carefully studied the documents of available archival collections, states: “At the end of the sixteenth century, the best music program was found at the chapel of the Dominican Church, where in the years 1587–1595 several organists and several trumpeters worked simultaneously, and from 1623 there was also a church choir.”⁷ A new Lviv school for organists was founded in 1841 by Franciszek Bemm. The instruction was expected to last two years, and the school was designed to house fifteen to twenty students.

The Halychyna Society of Saint Cecilia, founded by Franz Xavier Mozart, brought about a change in the music school system in Lviv. The youngest of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sons, he dedicated twenty-eight years of his life to the musical culture of Lviv. The Society of Saint Cecilia supported professional activities of Lviv musicians and created an organization of mutual aid for organists,⁸ initially led by Father Leonard Soletsky. These two societies became the initiators of the founding of the Halychyna Conservatory.

The Golden Age of organ art in Lviv

Lviv was the only Ukranian city that could boast of organ art and organbuilding at a rather high level in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Fifty different organs sounded daily in Lviv churches. Lviv factories and individual workshops were busy building organs not only for Halychyna, but also for sacred edifices in various European cities. Along with the daily use of organs at Mass in Lviv churches, organ concerts were frequently presented. There were concerts by international artists in the Catholic churches of Saint Elizabeth and Saint Mary Magdalene. Saint Elizabeth’s organ was larger, though Saint Mary Magdalene had excellent acoustics and housed a more technically advanced instrument.

Organ music in Lviv is inseparable from the Catholic liturgy. At the end of the eighteenth century Lviv’s Protestants began to encourage use of the organ, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Evangelical church, located at the beginning of Zelena Street, began to host organ recitals. At the same time, Lviv composers who created music for the organ began to skillfully combine deep spirituality with secular elements in their compositions.

Formation of the Lviv Organ School

As organbuilding in Lviv began to flourish in the middle of the eighteenth century, Lviv organs were sufficiently sophisticated to satisfy the performing needs of organ literature as well as improvisation. The best-known composers of the Lviv Organ School were educated in European capitals, primarily in Vienna, Prague, and Paris. The influence of French composition is particularly noticeable in the creative work of Mieczysław Sołtys and Tadeusz Mahl. One can also note the influences of post-classical Viennese masters and the German Leipzig school. In addition, there are influences from Warsaw and Kraków.

Piano technique of the nineteenth century provided a significant foundation for the curriculum of the modern Lviv Organ School and its representatives in particular. Notable is the role of piano virtuoso Karol Mikula, and later, composer, pianist, and teacher Tadeusz Majerski. Lviv organist and composer Andriy Nikodemovych as well as pianist and organist Samuel Daych started their performance careers as pianists.

The creativity of Lviv composers who wrote music for the organ during the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries is less known to the general public. Unfortunately, it is still weakly promoted in Ukraine, and this problem still continues for modern Ukrainian organ composers.

Mieczysław Sołtys (1863–1929)

Mieczysław Sołtys played a special role in Lviv’s music milieu. He was born and died in Lviv, although his years as a mature professional musician and composer were connected with Vienna and Paris.^{4, 9} Sołtys was a composer, conductor, pianist, organist, teacher, and publicist. He began his music career at the Conservatory of the Halychyna Music Society, where his mentor was the founder and director of the Society and the Conservatory, virtuoso pianist, composer, conductor Karol Mikuli (1819–1897).

According to Halychyna tradition, Sołtys simultaneously received another education, studying at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jan Kazimierz Lviv University. Beginning in 1887, he studied music composition at Vienna Conservatory (Das Konservatorium der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien) and later at the Paris Conservatory, where he mastered organ and counterpoint with Eugène Gigout and composition with Camille Saint-Saëns.

After his completion of studies, Sołtys returned to Lviv in 1891 and became professor at the Conservatory of the Halychyna Music Society. He taught musical forms and conducting, as well as piano and organ. At the same time, his reputation as a music critic and publicist grew. Sołtys became the editor of several Lviv periodicals, such as Artistic News, Our Art, People’s Diary, and Lviv Courier.¹⁰

The formation of public opinion in the musical sphere of Lviv in the early twentieth century was based on the unsurpassed authority of Professor Sołtys. He was not only a notable composer and organist, but also a researcher of organ art. One of his most famous essays was the article, “The New Organ in the Bernardine Church.”

Tadeusz Majerski (1888–1963)

Another teacher, composer, and pianist who associated with Lviv was Tadeusz Majerski. A Lviv native, he studied philosophy at the university, and at the Lviv conservatory (1905–1911) studied piano and composition under Ludomir Różycki (1883–1953). In 1920 at the Conservatory of the Halychyna Music Society, Tadeusz Majerski was named a professor of piano. In 1927 he founded the Lviv Trio, with which he toured Europe, and he acted as a critic and publicist in the Lviv press. In the 1930s, Majerski was one of the first avant-garde composers to use dodecaphonic technique.

In 1931 Majerski founded a society of music and opera admirers in Lviv, and in 1939, with the arrival of the Soviets, he became one of the first professors of the Lviv State Conservatory. Majerski is referred to by Andriy Nikodemovych, who recalls: “When I was studying composition, I was assigned to the piano class of Professor Tadeusz Majerski. Getting to know this great personality and musician was a turning point for me. Piano classes with him helped me cure my injured arm, and I started playing again. A few years later, I finished my piano course and, thanks to my professor, started to perform as a pianist.”¹¹

Majerski did not betray Lviv even in the Soviet era when communist ideologists accused him of formalism, for which he was persecuted and subjected to political repression.¹² Majerski concentrated his compositions on purely instrumental, non-programmatic music. Along with avant-garde features in some of these works, folkloric inspirations are also found. Among Majerski’s compositions are Four Works for Organ, recorded on compact disc by Valery Korostelyov of Lviv in 2007.

Tadeusz Mahl (1922, Lviv–2003, Kraków)

Organist and composer Tadeusz Mahl combined the sacred and profane in a flexible and convincing way. Mahl lived in Lviv from birth until 1946, but he never stopped loving the city of his youth throughout his life. Here his aesthetic views and his maturity as a composer were formed. In Lviv, he wrote his first works, among which the oratorio Stabat Mater (1945) stands out. His love for Lviv was evident throughout his life, so much so that he dedicated his symphonic poem My City (1991) to Lviv, and his Sixth Symphony (1997) was in a sense inspired by Lviv. Evaluating the role and significance of Tadeusz Mahl’s creativity, Polish scholars refer to him as a representative of the group of Lviv-Kraków composers.¹³

Mahl’s works for organ solo and ensemble with organ occupy the most prominent place in his compositional output. Undoubtedly, the impetus of the formation of Mahl as an organist and composer was studying at the Lviv Music School (in particular under Adam Sołtys), as well as his time as organist at Saint Elizabeth’s Church in Lviv.

At the end of the Second World War, Mahl moved first to Szczecin and then to Kraków. French musical culture exerted a decisive influence on Mahl’s compositional style. At the end of the 1950s, as a scholarship grantee, he left for Paris. But he faced a choice: either follow the fashion of the avant-garde (which then prevailed in Poland) or seek his own way.¹⁴ Mahl’s choice did not fall on the rejection of traditions through a radical renewal of musical language, but on a renewed comprehension of post-Romanticism in organ sound. In his Parisian studies he focused on César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, Gabriel Fauré, and, of course, Johann Sebastian Bach.

Among the creative corpus of Mahl’s works are six symphonies, four symphonic poems, and nine concertos for various instruments with orchestra. This includes Concerto No. 6 for organ and two orchestras—a big band and a string orchestra. Nevertheless, his seven organ concertos, twenty-two works for organ solo, and a Requiem for mezzo-soprano, baritone, mixed choir, and organ (1981) stand out among Mahl’s output.¹⁵

The creative life of Tadeusz Mahl can be divided into three periods:

1. The neoclassical period (1940s–1950s), including his first Concerto for Organ and Symphony Orchestra (1950). This work, according to Bronisław Rutkowski, is a vivid example of how difficult it is to combine a multi-timbral organ palette with orchestral sound. Only in tutti sections are these self-sufficient antipodes found in a common language. Therefore, the critic even suggests titling this work Sinfonia Concertante;¹⁵

2. The sonoristic period (1960s–1970s), in which Mahl refers to various musical instruments in the genre of concert, but again the organ holds a central place. Among his works of this period is a triple concerto for two pianos and organ (1971);

3. The postmodernist period (after 1975), in which Mahl gives preference to religious motives or to the elements of Podhale folklore. During most of this period, he composed for organ alone. In these works, one can detect a maneuvering between profane essence and sacred spirituality.

According to researchers, Mahl’s creativity in organ composition takes its roots in improvisation.¹³ “His concertos are marked by an unconstrained narrative, contrasts between quick passages and meno mosso, which are most often associated with ritardandi and accelerandi, the contrast of sequences of toccata-like or fast sequences, recitative ad libitum, and cadenza constructions”—a professional characteristic of the formal and structural layout of this composer’s language given by the researcher of organ music R. Koval.¹⁵

The creativity of Mahl occupies a very special place in contemporary music and is important not only for Ukrainian and Polish cultures. Critical notes of Tadeusz Mahl, as well as his publications on the development of organ art, have been published in Lviv and Kraków. This is mentioned in the publication Society of supporters of Lviv and the south-eastern lands. The latest information on this subject was published in Kraków in 1995.¹⁶

Andriy Nikodemowych (January 2, 1925, Lviv–January 28, 2017, Lublin, Poland)

Ukrainian-Polish composer, teacher, pianist, and organist Andriy Nikodemovych was a leading creator of religious music among Eastern European contemporary composers.^{17, 18} He was born in Lviv, where he lived, worked, and composed until 1980. His compositional output includes choral, orchestral, and chamber music, as well as works for organ and various ensembles. He composed nearly forty spiritual cantatas.

Andriy Nikodemovych spent half of his creative life in a country that led a ruthless and irreconcilable struggle against religion. He counted Lviv architect and professor of the Polytechnic Institute Marian Nikodemovych (1890–1952) as a relative. Prior to the Second World War, Nikodemovych studied piano and organ and was organist at the Carmelite sisters’ chapel from 1939 to 1940. From 1943 to 1947 he simultaneously studied chemistry at Lviv University and music subjects under the guidance of leading Lviv musicians—composition with Adam Sołtys and piano with Tadeusz Majerski. From 1947 to 1950, Nikodemovich was organist at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, and from 1951 to 1973 he taught composition, music theory, and piano at the Lviv Conservatory.

The first recognition of his compositional talent came in 1961, when he was awarded the third prize at the All-Union Composers’ Competition in Moscow. In the 1970s Nikodemovych was noted as one the most prominent composers according to UNESCO. However, having refused to renounce his religious beliefs, he was dismissed from his work at the conservatory in 1973 by Communist authorities and deprived of any livelihood, and the composer’s entire output was banned.

During the next seven years he earned his living giving private lessons. He moved to Lublin, Poland,¹⁶ and taught at University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska and at Lublin Catholic University (KUL). His creative achievements were acknowledged by the Award of Saint Brother Albert (1981), President of the City of Lublin (1999), the Polish Composers’ Union, and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (both in 2000). In 2008, Andrzej Nikodemowicz [Polish spelling] became an honorary citizen of Lublin.

Eventually, the independent Ukrainian State fully rehabilitated the name and work of this Lviv citizen. In 2003, the Lviv Music Academy gave Nikodemovych the title Professor honoris causa. His works are once more heard in the concert halls of Lviv and other cities of Ukraine. He returned to Lviv several times to participate in concerts. In April 2016, the fourth festival of classical music “Andrzej Nikodemowicz – czas i dźwięk” (“Andriy Nikodemovych – Time and Sound”) was held in Lublin.¹⁸ His religious works were performed for five evenings. The festival opened with his cantata for alto solo and small orchestra Słysz, Boże, wołanie moje (Hear, my God, my appeal). Sacred music remained an integral feature of his creativity until the end of his life.

Organ music by Bohdan Kotyuk

Bohdan Kotyuk (b. 1951) is a versatile and creative sacred music composer.^{19, 20} Kotyuk started writing music as a schoolboy, and his first mentor was a friend of his parents, Andriy Nikodemovych. At the Lviv Conservatory, he studied with Stanislav Lyudkevych (form, analysis, and folk art), Roman Simovich (instrumental study and instrumentation), Anatoly Kos-Anatolsky (polyphony and dramatic opera), Stephania Pavlyshyn (music history and musical-theoretical systems), and Desideriy Zador (composition).

For Kotyuk, spiritual music and sacred themes occupy a significant and prominent place, conditioned by family traditions and family members. Among the influential people in his life are Archbishop Samuel Cyryl Stefanowicz (1755–1858); doctor of philosophy, historian, ethnographer, and one of the founders of the Prosvita Society in Lviv, Julian Tselevych (1843–1892); Father Ivan Huhlevych; religious scholar, historian, doctor of philosophy, professor Hryhoriy Yarema; and the grandmother and teacher of Kotyuk, opera singer Olha Huhlevychivna-Yarema.

From Kotyuk’s first attempts at composing, spirituality and religious rites formed an inseparable integrity. He has written a variety of vocal and instrumental compositions, among which is the church cantata Chiesa, as well as spiritual songs and psalm settings. In the last decade he has turned to organ compositions for use in the church.

However, his spiritual works are not interpreted by the composer in a ritual-religious sense, but rather as a musical embodiment of the ideology of a biblical text. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has noted, “Spiritual music of Ukrainian composer Bohdan Kotyuk is a new word in the contemporary interpretation of the role of music in the church.”²⁰

In many cases, Kotyuk supplies brief essays to explain his concepts to his audience. This approach is followed in his collection of music pieces for wind and string instruments, Aulos and Kithara, as well as in his concert pieces, Monaco, Drive, Pit-Stop, and DJ. The composer has added his comments to his symphonic poems for organ, Sanctus, Bethlehem (with narrator or children’s choir), and Lauda nostra, as well as to organ works, Benedictus, Jericho – Fanfare, Adagietto “Tet-a-Tet,” Alleluia Prayers, and the epitaph, Way to Heaven.

The organ works by Bohdan Kotyuk can be divided into five groups:

1. The first group consists of purely sacred music, corresponding to the requirements of religious rituals. These works, though performed in concert, can be quite legitimately incorporated into liturgy. These include Sanctus, Benedictus, Alleluia (or “Praise to the Lord”), Laudatis (or “You are Lord of Honor”), and Ave Maria for pan flute and organ;

2. The second group is programmatic religious music: Jericho – Fanfare and the symphonic poem for solo organ Bethlehem; as well as works for soloists and ensemble accompanied by organ, Queen of the Angels, Christmas Carols for Joseph, Rejoice, Jordan, and Behold the Heart. To the same group can also be conditionally attributed the work for pan flute and organ, Mysteries of Dionysus;

3. The third group consists of works that, though deprived of a specific program, call forth certain associative allusions. First of all there is a collection for organ pedals Step by Step, which consists of four pieces: “The Step of the Faraoh,” “Canzona di Venezia,” “Sema –
The Dance of the Sufi-Dervish,” and “The Slalom – Zugspitze.” To this third group might also belong Adagietto “Tet-a-tet” for organ and celesta (ad libitum), as well as the trio for the pan flute, harp, and organ, Eolian Harp;

4. His concerto for organ Dona nobis pacem is in a classification of its own. The work is in three parts, which is rooted in the composer’s thoughts and feelings on the aggression and war in the East of Ukraine. These are contemporary philosophical reflections about the eternal theme of war and peace;

5. His transcriptions for organ include fragments from Richard Wagner’s operas published as a separate collection; W. A. Mozart’s operatic arias for soprano and organ; and Carnival of Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns for organ solo.

Kotyuk’s traditional Missa solemnis consists of six parts. Mentioned above, Sanctus and Benedictus, respectively, constitute the fourth and fifth parts of the Mass. Kotyuk interprets these texts as an impulse to the formation of independent organ compositions. Therefore, in concert performance Sanctus and Benedictus are stand-alone compositions.

Benedictus is lyric and at the same time an elevation of the “Song of Gratitude” the Prophet Zechariah sang at the birth of his son, Saint John the Baptist. Kotyuk’s Benedictus is a psalm of gratitude composed for the organ.

Bohdan Kotyuk’s Sanctus for organ is not just the words taken from Isaiah 6:3: “Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, the whole earth is full of your glory!” This is the viewpoint of a person in the twenty-first century for whom “the holiness and glory of the Lord” penetrate both the spaces of the universe and the elementary particles of the nucleus of the atom. They are also in the secret depths of human consciousness and subconsciousness. According to its emotional charge and deep essence, Kotyuk’s Sanctus is very similar to the poem “Deus Magnificus” from the collection by Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, Great Harmony (1932).

Laudatis (or “The Praised One”) for solo organ is a hymn in which the composer first of all addresses the Creator. Lauda Nostra (or “Our Song of Praise”) is a symphonic poem for solo organ, a majestic composition in which the author skillfully combines the principles of symphonic development with purely organ-related techniques.

In his creativity the composer provides historical and religious content through music. Kotyuk’s attention is attracted to those historic places that have an important bearing on the history of Christianity. Among the different themes are distinguished two: the first one is connected with the Old Testament and the city of Jericho, which became the final destination of the Israeli people led by Moses to the Promised Land. And the second one is the city of Bethlehem, in which the Savior, Jesus Christ, came into the world.

Jericho is the oldest city in the world and has been continuously populated for eleven thousand years. In the Bible, this city is referred to as a symbol of majestic achievements. In these events, fanfares on the ritual Jewish shofar played a special role. By means of the loud fanfares of Joshua, the commander crumbled the impenetrable walls of the city of Jericho, the first fortification on the West Bank of the Jordan River in the Promised Land, to which Moses brought his people (Joshua 6:1–27).

The fall of the walls of Jericho has symbolic significance. The composer seeks to draw a parallel between Biblical history and the symbolism of the influence of music (in particular, organ fanfares) on the destruction of stereotypes and misunderstandings between people with the help of sacred music.

In the New Testament, Jericho is the symbol of “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory” (Matthew 4:8). The Holy Spirit led Jesus after his baptism in the Jordan River through the desert to Mount Qarantal, overlooking Jericho. In one of the caves of this rock in solitude, praying and reflectioning on his mission on earth, Jesus spent forty days fasting and standing against the temptations of the devil. Mount Karantal (Mons Quarantana in Latin, Quaranta meaning forty) is also called the Mount of Temptation (Luke 4:12). Kotyuk’s Jericho –
Fanfare is a sonic attempt to convey the greatness of spirit and man’s faith in the triumph of the Lord’s intentions through the organ.

Kotyuk composed a symphonic poem for organ entitled Bethlehem (with narratator or children’s choir). Bethlehem was the royal seat of King David. It was from this royal family that came Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary and guardian of Jesus in his youth. After the accession of Judea to Syria, the emperor Octavian Augustus (63 BC–14 AD) ordered the governor of Rome in Judea Quirinium to carry out a census. This took place in the Holy Land just at the time when Jesus was born. The path of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem became a journey that was conditioned by the regulations of the census. God’s great love of mankind manifested itself in the birth of his Son, Jesus, and the long-awaited message about the Savior: “Today, in the city of David, the Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born to you” (Luke 2:11).

The impressive symbolism lies in the name of the city of Bethlehem: ית‭ ‬לחם [Beth-lehem] is a “bread house” in Hebrew; بيت لحم [Beit-Lahm] is a “house of meat” in Arabic. The difficult path through the Jewish desert to Bethlehem, the lack of accommodation for the pregnant Mary, and the birth of the Savior in the manger, the rise of the leading star in the sky, showing the way for the shepherds to the newborn Son and the Three Magi—this dramatic biblical history was drawn by Kotyuk into the program of Bethlehem.

The work has distinct dramatic sections. The texture of the first fast section with the highlighted tonal foundation that should be associated with the Arabic east is an image of a desert, but the composer also puts into this image a deep philosophical content. This is not only the desert symbolizing the compulsory wanderings of the Holy Family, but also a desert that overwhelms human souls in their inability and reluctance to give an adequate assessment of their own sinfulness. It was to reveal the essence of people’s sin that the Lord sent his Son among people for the sake of enlightenment and for the redemption of their sins. And these sins Christ took upon himself through his crucifixion.

The second image, contrasting with the melismatic briskness of the desert image, is the pompous grandeur of the cities and temples built by the hands of the people. The symbolism of this image in the symphonic poem is in excessive haughtiness and inaccessibility for the common man of Jerusalem’s strongholds, which the Holy Family was passing by, and the closed doors of Bethlehem’s buildings, which failed to open before the mother of the future Savior.

The vivid contrast in Bethlehem is the episode of the birth of the Savior. The optimistic nature of this episode is the bright hope of mankind for the possibility of salvation. However, anxiety and doubt overwhelm this composition; the desert continues to be the devouring trap from which it is so difficult for mankind to break through for millennia. The deep sacral content of Bethlehem is a kind of philosophical credo of Kotyuk, a composer for whom the Spirit, spirituality, and high moral values form a single whole.

All of the above-mentioned works have been written by Bohdan Kotyuk during the last ten years in his creative collaboration with organist Olena Matselyukh. They constitute part of her repertoire and are performed at organ concerts at the Lviv Hall of Organ and Chamber Music, in the Lviv Regional Philharmonic, and when she tours Ukraine and abroad. They are also performed at the concerts of touring organists from different countries of the world.

§

The names and achievements of composers and organists of the Lviv Organ School should rightly occupy a worthy place not only in Ukrainian musicology, but also in the history of world music and culture. This is especially true of the depth of sacredness and its interpretation in the conditions of modern innovative technologies and textual multi-interpretations.

Modern Ukrainian organ art has only recently begun to regain its rightful status. Ukrainian musicology still lacks specialists in religious ritualism, which provides an insight into the world of the sacred. It is this factor of sacredness that greatly inspires composers’ music for the organ. Such professional knowledge would allow many contemporary Ukrainian composers to better understand the boundaries of the sacred and profane in organ music. Using these important categories in the analysis of organ music must become an integral part of the apparatus of the musicologist-researcher.

Notes

1. Kiev History website: https://web.archive.org/web/20071109205908/http://oldkyiv.org.ua/data/s….

2. Mazepa, Leszek. “Muzycy i muzykalia w miejskich księgach kasowych Lwowskiego Magistratu w XV–XVII wiekach, Musica Antiqua IX, Vol. 1. Acta Musicologica, Bydgoszcz, 1991.

3. Gołos, Jerzy. “Polskie organy i muzyka organowa, Instytut wydawniczy “PAX,” Warszawa, 1972, p. 512.

4. Babnis, Maciej. Kultura organowa Galicji, Słupsk: Akademia Pomorska, 2012, p. 674.

5. Мацелюх О. Ян Сливінський і його фабрика органів у Львові // Українська музика. Щоквартальник. – Число 2 (24). – 2017. – С. 59 – 67.

6. Мазепа Л. З. Шлях до музичної Академії у Львові [у 2 т.] / Л. З. Мазепа, Т.Л. Мазепа. – Львів : СПОЛОМ, 2003. – Т. 1. – 288 с.

7. Mazepa, L. “Szkolnictwo muzyczne we Lwowie (XV-XX w.), Lwów–miasto, społeczeństwo, kultura, Kraków, Poland, 1996.

8. Mazepa, Leszek. “Życie muzyczne Lwowa od końca XVIII st. do uyworzenia Towarzystwa Św. Cecylii w 1826 r.,” Musica Galiciana. Tom V. / Red. Leszek Mazepa. – W-wo WSP, Rzeszów, 2000, pp. 97–118.

9. Blaszczyk, L. Zycie muzyczne Lwowa w XIX wieku / Leon Blaszczyk // Przeglad Wschodni, Warszawa, 1991, p. 197.

10. Sowiński, Wojciech. “Słownik muzyków polskich dawnych i nowoczesnych,” Paryż, Drukarnia E. Martinet, 1874, Biblioteka Śląska, Katowice, Poland, p. 436.

11. Nikodemowicz, A. “Tadeusz Majerski,” Ruch Muzyczny, 1964, nr. 23.

12. Nikodemowicz, A. “Zapomniany kompozytor lwowski,” Ruch Muzyczny, 1989, nr. 12.

13. Kostrzewa, Krzysztof. “Grupa kompozytorów Lwowsko-Krakowskich: T. Machl, K. Moszumańska-Nazar, B. Schaeffer,” Musica Galiciana. «Музика Галичини». Tom VI. Наукові збірки ЛДМА ім. М. Лисенка. Випуск 5. – Львів, 2001. – С. 141–147.

14. Rutkowski, B. “Koncerty na organy i wielką orkiestrę symfoniczną Tadeusza Machla, Muzyka, 1952, nr. 1–2.

15. Kowal, R. “Koncerty organowe i twórczość organowa Tadeusza Machla,” Krakowska szkoła kompozytorska 1888–1988, Red. T. Malecka, Kraków, Poland, 1992. «Zeszyt Naukowy Pol. Instytutu Muz.» V, Łódź, 2003, p. 76.

16. Machl, T. “Towarzystwo Miłośników Lwowa і Kresów Południowo-Wschodnich, oddział w Krakowie,” Informacje nr. 23., Kraków, Poland, 1995, p. 14.

17. Kosińska, Małgorzata. “Andrzej Nikodemowicz: Życie i twórczość,” Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej, Związek Kompozytorów Polskich, 2006, http://culture.pl/pl/tworca/andrzej-nikodemowicz.

18. Bojarski, Jerzy Jacek. “Andrzej Nikodemowicz: profesor znany i nieznany,” MOL czyli Miejskie Okienko Literackie, 2002, www.niecodziennik.mbp.lublin.pl/images/stories/archiwum/niecodziennik_0….

19. Баран Т. Інструменталізм Богдана Котюка у світлі тріади «композитор–виконавець–слухач»//Студії мистецтвознавчі.–Ч. 6 (10): Театр. Музика. Кіно.–К., 2005.–С. 27–32.

20. Гулянич Ю. Композитор Богдан Котюк. Грані творчої особистості. – Львів, Афіша, 2008. – 159 с.

Bibliography

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5. Blaszczyk, L. Zycie muzyczne Lwowa w XIX wieku / Leon Blaszczyk // Przeglad Wschodni, Warszawa, 1991, p. 197.

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10. Kostrzewa, Krzysztof. “Grupa kompozytorów Lwowsko-Krakowskich: T. Machl, K. Moszumańska-Nazar, B. Schaeffer,” Musica Galiciana. «Музика Галичини». Tom VI. Наукові збірки ЛДМА ім. М. Лисенка. Випуск 5. – Львів, 2001. – С. 141–147.

11. Kowal, R. “Koncerty organowe i twórczość organowa Tadeusza Machla,” Krakowska szkoła kompozytorska 1888–1988, Red. T. Malecka, Kraków, Poland, 1992. «Zeszyt Naukowy Pol. Instytutu Muz.» V, Łódź, 2003, p. 76.

12. Kosińska, Małgorzata. “Andrzej Nikodemowicz: Życie i twórczość,” Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej, Związek Kompozytorów Polskich, 2006, http://culture.pl/pl/tworca/andrzej-nikodemowicz.

13. Mazepa, Leszek. “Muzycy i muzykalia w miejskich księgach kasowych Lwowskiego Magistratu w XV–XVII wiekach, Musica Antiqua IX, Vol. 1. Acta Musicologica, Bydgoszcz, 1991.

14. Mazepa, L. “Szkolnictwo muzyczne we Lwowie (XV-XX w.), Lwów–miasto, społeczeństwo, kultura, Kraków, Poland, 1996.

15. Mazepa, Leszek. “Życie muzyczne Lwowa od końca XVIII st. do uyworzenia Towarzystwa Św. Cecylii w 1826 r.,” Musica Galiciana. Tom V. / Red. Leszek Mazepa. – W-wo WSP, Rzeszów, 2000, pp. 97–118.

16. Machl, T. “Towarzystwo Miłośników Lwowa і Kresów Południowo-Wschodnich, oddział w Krakowie,” Informacje nr. 23., Kraków, Poland, 1995, p. 14.

17. Nikodemowicz, A. “Zapomniany kompozytor lwowski,” Ruch Muzyczny, 1989, nr. 12.

18. Nikodemowicz, A. “Tadeusz Majerski,” Ruch Muzyczny, 1964, nr. 23.

19. Rutkowski, B. “Koncerty na organy i wielką orkiestrę symfoniczną Tadeusza Machla, Muzyka, 1952, nr. 1–2.

20. Sowiński, Wojciech. “Słownik muzyków polskich dawnych i nowoczesnych,” Paryż, Drukarnia E. Martinet, 1874, Biblioteka Śląska, Katowice, Poland, p. 436.

21. Баран Т. Інструменталізм Богдана Котюка у світлі тріади «композитор – виконавець – слухач» // Студії мистецтвознавчі. – Ч. 6 (10): Театр. Музика. Кіно. – К., 2005. – С. 27–32.

22. Гулянич Ю. Композитор Богдан Котюк. Грані творчої особистості. – Львів, Афіша, 2008. – 159 с.

23. Еліаде М. Священне і мирське. Міфи, сновидіння і містерії. Мефістофель і андрогін. Окультизм, ворожбитство та культурні уподобання (пер. Г. Кьорян, В. Сахна). – К.: Основи, 2001. – 592 с.

24. Ермаш Г. Л. Искусство как мышление / Г.Л. Ермаш. – М.: Искусство, 1982. – 276 с.

25. Каюа Р. Миф и человек. Человек и сакральное / Роже Каюа. – М.: ОГИ, 2003. – 296 с.

26. Кисельов О. Феномен екуменізму в сучасному християнстві, http://risu.org.ua/ua/index/studios/announcements_of_publications/29834.

27. Ле Гофф Жак. Цивилизация средневекового запада. – М., 1992. – 380 с.

28. Мазепа Л. З. Шлях до музичної Академії у Львові [у 2 т.] / Л. З. Мазепа, Т.Л. Мазепа. – Львів : СПОЛОМ, 2003. – Т. 1. – 288 с.

29. Мацелюх О. Ян Сливінський і його фабрика органів у Львові // Українська музика. Щоквартальник. – Число 2 (24). – 2017. – С. 59 – 67.

30. Отто Р. Священное. Об иррациональном и идее божественного и его соотношении с рациональным. – СПб.: АНО «Издательство Санкт-Петербургского Университета», 2008. – 272 с.

Photo: Cathedral of Saint Mary Magdalene, Lviv, Rieger Kloss Opus 3375

Steven Young

Steven Young is a professor of music at Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where he teaches courses in music theory and directs the University’s choral ensembles. He is also organist at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Providence, Rhode Island. Young has presented papers and performances for regional and national conventions of the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, and the American Choral Directors Association. He research interests focus on late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French organist/composers, and he has written several feature articles and reviews for The Diapason. He also wrote the liner notes for Christine Kamp’s series of recordings of the organ works of Louis Vierne on the Festivo label. Young has recorded several of the works of Boston organist/composer Henry M. Dunham on the AFKA label.

In October 1926, just a month before his death, Aloÿs Claussmann chatted with an old friend, Claude Nievre, a writer for La Montagne, a newspaper whose office was directly below the apartment where Claussmann lay dying. Nievre had written an article titled “Un grand talent méconnu, Claussmann, musicien et compositeur” (An underestimated talent, Claussmann, musician and composer).¹ Among other things, Nievre made the point that Claussmann’s many years of service to his community of Clermont-Ferrand should be rewarded by naming him to the Legion d’honneur, the highest civilian award given by the country to celebrate accomplishments given in service to one’s country. Claussmann had spent fifty years selflessly serving the musical and religious community of Clermont-Ferrand with little or no thought to promoting his own career as performer, teacher, or composer. Sadly, the award was never granted to Claussmann, despite the efforts of all his friends and colleagues. However, his tireless efforts bore many wonderful fruits in terms of quality students, artistic performances, and respected compositions.

A native of the Alsace region of France, born in Uffholz on July 5, 1850, Claussmann began piano lessons at age 11 with his uncle, a local musician and teacher. Following those lessons, Claussmann studied at the Petit Séminaire de La Chapelle-sous-Rougemont. Between 1868 and 1870, he studied with organ virtuoso Eugène Gigout at l’École Niedermeyer in Paris, during which time he was awarded the premier prix in both piano and organ.

Interrupting his studies, Claussmann returned to Uffholz to perform his military service in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and 1871. When Alsace was lost to Germany at the end of the war, Claussmann opted to retain his French citizenship. He returned to Paris to complete his studies, where he distinguished himself as both performer and composer, earning the grand prix de composition in 1872 from l’École Niedermeyer.

In 1873, the position of maître de Chapelle at the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand became available. Claussmann applied and was offered the position. He accepted it, and remained in Clermont-Ferrand for the entirety of his career, possibly to his professional detriment. Nonetheless, according to one writer, Claussmann wasted no time in establishing himself as a first-rate musician.²

In 1877, shortly after his appointment, the cathedral acquired a new organ with three manuals and forty-eight ranks of pipes, built by the Merklin firm, one of the most respected in France. The dedication program featured Edmond Lemaigre, then titular organist of the cathedral, and Alexander Guilmant, renowned organist. Claussmann participated as well, conducting two motets, including a Salve Regina of his own, newly composed for the event, and performing two organ works, one by François Benoist and another new work, also written by Claussmann, Offertoire.³

Claussmann’s musical work was not limited to his position at the cathedral. In 1881, Claussmann established the short-lived Société Philharmonique. Though enjoying only a brief existence, this may have been the first orchestra to provide written critical program notes for its concerts, attesting to Claussmann’s scholarly inclinations.⁴ Shortly thereafter, in 1886, he assumed position as organist titulaire, following Edmond Lemaigre’s relocation to Paris. It was at this tribune that Claussmann remained until his death in 1926.

During his tenure he composed the majority of his works for the organ (approximately 350 pieces), nearly a hundred for the piano, a fair number of songs, and a few other works for chamber ensembles and orchestra.⁵ Claussmann’s next big success was the premiere performance of his commissioned drame lyrique, Pierre, l’Eremite, composed to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the First Crusade (the text of the work was by the Abbé Raynaud). Written in 1892, the work awaited its premiere for three years. According to the reports, it was a resounding success, performed at least two times (May 15 and 17, 1895). The reviewer, while admitting that one could not analyze such a large work on one hearing, admired its beauty in both composition and performance.⁶ The performance featured an orchestra of sixty, a chorus of 200, and soloists, all led by Claussmann. It must have been quite the tour de force!

In 1909, Claussmann was appointed director of L’École municipal de Musique, and he remained its director until 1918 when he suffered from a serious health crisis that disabled him for nearly three months, at which point he was named honorary director, and Louis Gémont assumed directorship.⁷ The formation of this school was fraught with difficulties. Prior to its founding, there were two competing institutes, the Petit Conservatoire, headed by Jean Soulacroup, and the École de musique, directed by Louis Gémont, both of whom were considered for the position of director of the École nationale de musique. After several years of contentious battles about the school, and once it was decided to move ahead with the formation of a national music school that would align itself with the Conservatoire nationale in Paris, a closed door meeting took place, and Claussmann was named as director to the pleasure of many community members, and the displeasure of others, including the mayor of the city.⁸ Claussmann accepted, but wrote, with apparent jocularity, that if the conservatory were to open as planned, the undertaking would be substantial, and it would force him to cut his annual vacation very short. He did exactly that, and served with distinction for many years.

Little is known of Claussmann’s personal life; there are few letters and no personal papers. In 1877, he married Marguerite Barthélémy, and they had a daughter, Madeleine, in 1878. It is presumed that his wife predeceased him, based on the eulogies given at his funeral.⁹ According to Joseph Desaymard, writer and critic, who was his pupil and friend, Claussmann possessed a gentle spirit, keen intellect, good sense of humor, and youthful attitude.¹⁰ He rode his bike to work every day, and until the final few years of his life, he appears to have possessed good health.

Unfortunately, little is known about the critical reception of his work, at least in France. The local newspaper of Clermont-Ferrand rarely commented on musical events. However, the Société nationale included his Sonate pour violon et piano on a concert in May 1906, and the composition and performance received an extensive review reprinted in the Revue pratique de Liturgie et de Musique sacrée. The reviewer praised Claussmann’s melodic gift, his interesting harmonies, and his well-crafted forms.¹¹ This seems to be the generally held view of Claussmann as a composer.

Claussmann’s vast output of organ works includes music for any number of occasions. The two large collections, Cent pieces pour orgue ou harmonium, opus 34, and Cent pieces pour grand orgue, opus 66, encompass smaller works designed for liturgical usage, such as Entrées, Communions, and Sorties.¹² Undoubtedly he used these pieces himself over his fifty-year career at the cathedral.¹³ Even in these smaller works, Claussmann demonstrates substantial contrapuntal skill. The Entrée in D Minor, which opens opus 66, is only 63 measures long, yet it displays Claussmann’s fascination with counterpoint and with Franck, as the theme appears twice, in related keys, and then, upon returning to the tonic, is subjected to canonic treatment throughout (Example 1). The ninth piece in this set provides further evidence of Claussmann’s meticulous craftsmanship. While only 29 measures long, it has a tripartite form in which the return of the opening A section receives a new accompaniment with the melody moved to the left hand. In terms of larger organ works, Claussmann penned two sonatas, a Suite pour orgue, and several Livraisons containing varying numbers of pieces likely intended for concert use. These include fantaisias, pastorales, marches, toccatas, and many others. In these works one sees Claussmann’s wide-ranging inventiveness with their well-developed themes and solidly crafted counterpoint.

While steeped in the style of the Romantic era, the organ music often displays surprising originality. From the earliest opera, Claussmann combines both French and German styles, which may be the result of his earliest influences in Uffholtz, an area of France that reflected a great deal of Germanic influence due to its shared border with Germany. For example, opus 16 is entitled Orgelstücke rather than Pièces pour orgue. In the music, one often finds well-crafted melodies, a staple of the French tradition, fused with the intricate counterpoint that is intrinsic to German composition, making Claussmann’s organ music unique for its time.¹⁴ Claussmann’s fusion of the aforementioned styles is evidenced in Scherzo in G Major, opus 33, no. 4. While making use of a rather extended model of the scherzo and trio form—ABA′CA′, which resembles more of a Rondo—the typical French scherzo would not make use of the extensive counterpoint found in the fugal exposition that comprises the B section (in B minor). The fourth section, which itself is a small three-part form in the key of E-flat major, has a very lyrical melody for the outer parts and, again, the composer briefly employs some imitative polyphony in the middle portion.

Though Claussmann’s music is influenced by the style of César Franck, as evidenced in the Allegro symphonique, opus 33, no. 2, whose opening recalls Franck’s Pièce heroïque (Example 2), Claussmann often moves into unusual areas of tonality through his inspired use of chromaticism, following on and expanding the chromatic harmonic language of Franck. One even finds an example of progressive harmonic movement in some of Claussmann’s works, such as Pastorale, opus 26, no. 3, which begins in E major and ends in A minor, delivering an unexpected conclusion.¹⁵

In the United States, as early as 1892, one finds references to performances of Claussmann’s music. A concert review in the Indianapolis Journal accorded the Scherzo in A Minor a favorable assessment.¹⁶ (One assumes that the reviewer had heard other Claussmann pieces.) Several of the pieces from opus 26 were dedicated to American organists, including Clarence Eddy and William C. Carl, both former students of Alexandre Guilmant. (It is possible that Guilmant helped make the connection by recommending the works to Carl. Guilmant participated in the dedication of the organ at the Clermont-Ferrand cathedral in 1887 where he would have heard Claussmann’s music. It is also possible that Gigout recommended his music to Carl.¹⁷) The first volume of opus 16 was reviewed favorably by Everett Truette in The Organ, 1893, who wrote, “Three extremely interesting pieces . . . which are written somewhat in the style of reveries, and contain many passages of striking originality.”¹⁸ (It was of this Fantaisie in C Minor that Gigout wrote his praise of Claussmann.¹⁹) It is likely because of the work of Carl and Truette, who published some of this music in The Organ and other collections, that Claussmann’s music achieved some measure of popularity in America. Early twentieth-century newspaper accounts indicate that several of Claussmann’s works were performed quite regularly, especially Easter Dawn and Grand Choeur for organ and his Magnificat for choir.

Among other comments on Claussmann’s works, Pierre Balme linked him to a progressive aesthetic:

In his day, Claussmann had difficulty with being a ‘pioneer,’ even in spite of the example of his co-disciple Fauré, who remained all through to the end of his time, as innovative as younger composers. But why not have others reported rather how much he (Claussmann) was, in his prime, so profoundly ahead of the taste and knowledge of audiences and even music professionals? Twenty years ago, he was not afraid of modifying his composing technique according to the latest developments of the impressionist school.²⁰

Connecting Claussmann to the Impressionist school seems to be a stretch, though examples of augmented triads and unexpected harmonic connections are evident, as is the use of non-functional harmony, as witnessed in the frequent use of the raised fourth and fifth scale degrees, creating the sensation of whole-tone harmony. If this is what Balme refers to, then it is possible to put Claussmann in that category. However, Claussmann’s music is thoroughly steeped in the chromatic harmony of the period, and he often makes unexpected harmonic connections, such as moving between C major and F-sharp major for the middle section of the Fantaisie in C Minor, opus 10. These unexpected relationships may also be seen in the transitional passages of Au Crépusucle from opus 33, where the dominant seventh chord of the tonic G-flat resolves to a D major sonority, which is then repeated whole step below, obscuring any sense of the tonic (Example 3). If this fluidity of key relationships is considered “impressionistic” by the writer, then the term applies.

Overall, Claussmann retains a consistent style throughout his other music; one finds equally challenging tonal relationships in most pieces. Additionally, his treatment of form does not necessarily conform to expectations of his era, but a clear structure is always evident and logical. One might apply musicologist Carlo Caballero’s argument about Fauré, who he claims maintained the consistency of style throughout his works, which Fauré believes was “a crucial property of any music that is truly original,”²¹ and apply that to Claussmann as well. Hervé Desarbre would agree, according to the liner notes to his recording of selected organ works, as he claims that Claussmann’s style did not change much over the years.²² Claussmann retained remarkable consistency in his technical style and tonal language beginning with the major organ works from opus 10 and continuing through the late opera.

Many of Claussmann’s works have been recently republished, some with needed editorial emendations, as the printed editions contain numerous errors (especially clef change indications).²³ As there appear to be no extant manuscripts, it is difficult to know Claussmann’s intentions. Both B-note Musikverlag and FitzJohn Publishing have reproduced many of his works. IMSLP (www.imslp.org) has a reasonable collection available, and France’s Bibliothèque Nationale Gallica site had started to digitize many other works.

Whether Claussmann would have enjoyed the success his contemporaries did had he remained in Paris is a question that can never be answered. He made his choice, apparently without regrets, and enjoyed the respect of the community he served for nearly fifty years. The music of this underestimated talent attests to the mastery of his craft and the fertility of his imagination, and deserves to be re-examined and given a place in the concert repertoire.

Notes

1. Claude Nievre, La Montagne, October 12, 1926, p. 2.

2. Th. Mourgue, “Profil d’artistes: M. Claussmann,” Le Moniteur, June 29, 1892, p. 2.
“. . .il vient s’etabilir chez nous où on ne tarde pas à reconnaitra en lui un musician de premiere ordre.”

3. J. Merklin, Le cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand et ses orgues, Lyon: Impr. de A.-L. Perrin et Marinet (1878), p. 28. As with others, Offertoire served as a common title for works; Claussmann wrote several.

4. Joseph Desaymard, Avenir du Plateau Central, November 8, 1926, writing Claussmann’s obituary (No page citation as this comes from the Bibliothèque de la Patrimoine of Clermont-Ferrand collection MS 1654). Present research has yet to find concert announcements or programs presented. In 1885, another community orchestra was formed which enjoyed much success, directed by Jean Soulacroup.

5. Cataloguing the works of Claussmann has presented a challenge. Pierre Desaymard made an attempt at this in the 1980s but seems to have missed some pieces. Four of the works from opus 33 do not appear in any listing of his, possibly because they were published by the English firm J. Laudy and Co. See Desaymard, Bibliographie des oeuvres d’Aloys Claussman, Bulletin historique et scientifique de l’Auvergne, vol. 1.90, pp. 305–321 (1981).

6. Le Moniteur, May 16, 1895, p. 2, and May 18, 1895, p. 2. According to Louis Gémont, the work was performed again in 1925 (Le Moniteur, November 11, 1926, p. 2).

7. In a letter to Paul Dukas, Claussmann thought that he was close to death at that time (Bibliothêque Nationale, Paris, W-48).

8. Jean-Louis Jam, “Aux origins d’une succursale provinciale du Conservatoire de Paris,” Bulletin historique et artistique de l’Auvergne, vol. XCIX (1998), pp. 127–156. An excellent and somewhat entertaining chronicle of the events.

9. Le Moniteur, November 11, 1926, p. 2.

10. Joseph Desaymard, “Le Mort de Claussmann,” L’Avenir, Nov. 9, 1926, p. 2.

11. Alexandre Georges on “Aloys Claussmann,” Revue pratique de liturgie at de la musique sacrée, nos. 103–104 (1926), p. 169.

12. These sets appear to be based upon Franck’s L’Organiste, but Claussmann’s pieces are more technically advanced.

13. In one edition of Le Courrier Musical, opus 64 was listed among the pieces that an organist should play.

14. While the fugue was certainly not an uncommon form in French organ music of this period, it was used relatively infrequently. Franck composed one fugue for the organ; he relied on canon and melodic juxtapositioning as his preferred contrapuntal devices. In examining the Widor organ symphonies, with their numerous and varied movements, one finds only two fugues, and those appear in the earliest of the symphonies.

15. This work is dedicated to R. Huntington Woodman, an American organist who studied with César Franck in 1888.

16. Indianapolis Journal, March 11, 1894, p. 8, featured a review of an organ recital by
W. H. Donley. I believe this refers to the Scherzo in B Minor from the Deuxième livre de la première collection, opus 10.

17. Gigout wrote glowingly of Claussmann’s work and was pleased to be the dedicatee of one of his pieces. See Mourgue, op. cit.

18. Everett E. Truette, The Organ, vol. 1, no. 4 (August 1892), p. 95, reviewing the Fantasia in C Minor, First Meditation in B Major, and Andante in D Major.

19. See Morgue, op. cit.

20. Pierre Balme, “Aloÿs Claussmann,” L’Auvergne littéraire, artistique, et historique, January 1926 (vol. 85), p. 15–17.

21. Peter Cirka, A profound identity: evidence of homogeneity in Gabriel Fauré’s thirteen piano Nocturnes. Unpublished DMA paper, Boston University, p. 9, and p. 26 (2015).

22. Hervé Desarbre, Aloys Claussmann Organ Works, Disque Mandala MAN 4927, 1997.

23. An example of the need for good editing appears in the Sérénade for Cello and Piano, opus 49. The cello part and the piano score have completely different notes and keys in places.

John Joseph Mitchell

John Joseph “JJ” Mitchell is a musician and scholar from Arlington, Virginia. He is the director of music at Saint John Neumann Church in Reston, Virginia, where he oversees several musical groups and accompanies liturgies on the organ. JJ graduated summa cum laude from Westminster Choir College with a bachelor’s degree in sacred music. He then earned his Master of Sacred Music degree in organ performance from the University of Notre Dame, where he attended on a full-tuition scholarship. He also studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse, France, where he practiced and studied on the organs of the Puget family. JJ then earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Houston (UH). During this time, he worked as a teaching assistant in the UH Music History Department and served as a musician in multiple churches around the city. The article published in this magazine is a cut of his complete dissertation on the Puget family, which was finished in May 2023.

JJ has served as organist on the music staff of churches such as Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, Texas; the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More, Arlington, Virginia; and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, South Bend, Indiana. He has performed in these churches as well as at Boston Symphony Hall, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and various other churches in the United States, Canada, France, and England. He is the winner of the Nanovic Grant for European Study for Professional Development and was a finalist for the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant. He also won second prize in the graduate division of the Hall Pipe Organ Competition in 2022. At age 24, JJ’s research on César Franck and his musical influences was published in the Vox Humana organ journal. In September 2020 he was a guest on Jennifer Pascual’s Sounds from the Spires SiriusXM Radio program in which his organ recordings were broadcast. He has played liturgies and concerts for international television audiences on the Salt + Life and EWTN networks. JJ is a member of the American Guild of Organists as well as the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM), from which he has received several scholarships. He has served on NPM’s national publications committee. He is a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2021. JJ’s career goal is to teach sacred music to the next generation.

Editor's Note: Part 2 of this article is found in the July 2024 issue.

 

Théodore Puget, his sons Eugène and Jean-Baptiste, and his grandson Maurice, cultivated a dynasty of organ manufacturing that is worthy of recognition, though their work is often overshadowed by other organ builders in France. This essay argues that the organs of Théodore Puget and his sons demonstrate innovation and artistry in French symphonic organ building.

The Cavaillé-Coll problem

Since the Romantic era, the history of French symphonic organbuilding has been dominated by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.¹ A prodigy of both acoustics and mechanics, Cavaillé-Coll constructed instruments to meet the artistic and cultural demands of cosmopolitan Paris. His organs, often designed to boom down cavernous naves of Gothic cathedrals, inspired compositions by renowned musicians including César Franck, Alexandre Guilmant, Louis Vierne, and Marcel Dupré. Cavaillé-Coll’s influence is so great that one may be tempted to believe that he alone was responsible for an entire era of organbuilding. His immense fame overshadows the reputations of other builders.² The Puget dynasty also consisted of formidable organbuilders of note during this time and deserves recognition.³

Théodore Puget (1801–1883), his sons Eugène (1838–1892) and Jean-Baptiste (1849–1940), and his grandson Maurice (1884–1960), hereafter referred to by their first names, cultivated a family lineage of French symphonic organbuilding in a different style than that of Cavaillé-Coll.⁴ Set upon the backdrop of Toulouse in southern France, Théodore created instruments fit to serve local parishes throughout the Occitania region and beyond. These organs reflected local cultural aesthetics with technological materials of the region. Théodore’s sons expanded his vision and built lasting organs that won the respect of the aforementioned organists and have left musicians in the modern age asking themselves whose instruments they prefer: those of Cavaillé-Coll or the Puget family.⁵

The organs of Théodore Puget and his sons demonstrate innovation and artistry in French symphonic organbuilding. This research begins with a study of Théodore Puget’s early life and career and includes a description of cultural trends concerning the pipe organ in nineteenth-century France. Two of Théodore’s sons’ most notable instruments are examined: Notre-Dame du Taur, constructed by Eugène, and the Cathedral of Sainte-Cécile in Albi, built by Jean-Baptiste. Of the hundreds of organs the Puget family produced between 1838 and 1960, these two contrasting instruments are excellent representations of different periods in the Puget history.⁶ Though Théodore and his grandson Maurice are deserving of praise for their work as organbuilders, the instruments of Eugène and Jean-Baptiste demonstrate the pinnacle of the family’s production and influence.

The formative era, 1838–1877: Théodore Puget

The birth of a dynasty

The lineage of the Puget family can be traced back to the seventeenth century, and many of Théodore Puget’s ancestors were woodworkers.⁷ Most sources claim that Théodore was born in 1799, but genealogical research conducted by Jean-Marc Cicchero in 2016 proves that he was born on November 15, 1801, in the village of Montréal d’Aude. His parents, François Puget and Catherine Boyer, were carpenters.⁸ Growing up around the family’s workshop, Théodore learned the art of woodworking. His family also made sure that he studied organ, though they were not musicians themselves.⁹ Théodore lived in the village of Fanjeaux between the years 1822 and 1837, where he married Louise-Anne Mossel in 1824.¹⁰ During his early career, Théodore was both an organist and a clockmaker.¹¹

Théodore’s training in organbuilding is a mystery. Many scholars argue that he was self-taught, combining his skills of woodworking and musicianship. Cicchero suggests that while Théodore could have determined some aspects of organbuilding on his own, he likely apprenticed with a builder. He could have studied with Prosper Moitessier in Carcassonne between the years 1826 and 1830. He also may have apprenticed with Sieur Benoit Cabias, a local builder of musical instruments in Carcassonne at that time. There is no evidence concerning Théodore’s work with either of these builders, though it is probable that he met both of them while living in Fanjeaux.¹³

The greatest influence on Théodore’s organbuilding was Dom Bédos de Celles. Bédos was a monk and organbuilder in the eighteenth century whose most famous instrument is the gallery organ of l’Église Saint-Croix in Bordeaux.¹⁴ His treatise, L’Art Du Facteur d’Orgues, is one of the most important documents on organbuilding ever written. This collection of detailed descriptions and precise illustrations is a guide on how to construct a pipe organ, including information about layout, voicing, winding, and many other pertinent elements. Bédos’s writing concerns organs of the French Classical era, though many of his methods were continued or expanded upon in the building of French symphonic organs.¹⁵

To Théodore, the contents of Bédos’s treatise were sacred. He kept a copy of L’Art Du Facteur d’Orgues in the shop and referred to it frequently. Even Théodore’s sons and grandson Maurice, who were far more progressive in their organbuilding than the Puget patriarch, consulted the Bédos text when building their instruments.¹⁶ For example, when Maurice designed the organ for l’Église Saint-Michel in Villemur, he created a five-rank mixture according to Bédos’s instructions. This instrument, built in 1960, was the final organ of the Puget dynasty, and Maurice never witnessed its completion.¹⁷ Though the Pugets deviated from some of the instructions due to the advances of industrial age technology and trends of symphonic organbuilding, Bédos’s treatise was a grounding foundation through the complete duration of the dynasty.

Théodore and his wife settled in Toulouse between 1839 and 1840, during which time he assembled milacor organs.¹⁸ The milacor was a patented device to help amateur organists accompany Gregorian chant.19 This machine was connected to a simplified keyboard of a small pipe organ typically containing five or fewer stops that was built in a factory setting, shipped out in a kit, and assembled by a local distributor.²⁰ Théodore was a Toulousain subcontractor for the organbuilder Abbé François Larroque, whose organs were commonly paired with milacor systems.²¹ During these years, Théodore’s older children assisted in these projects and took music lessons.²²

The first Puget organ, installed in the gallery of l’Église Saint-Exupère de Toulouse, was too tall for the milacor workshop. Larroque and Théodore asked the parish to keep this organ, which was over twenty feet in height, in the loft at the church’s expense as a model for clergy and other potential customers.²³ The church council agreed to purchase the instrument on the condition that Théodore would play every Mass and feast day for free for six years or have one of his sons substitute on his behalf.²⁴ Completed in 1842, the new instrument was double the size of a standard milacor. Théodore served as an organist at this church, fulfilling the council’s demands.²⁵ This landmark project demonstrated Théodore’s ability to produce gallery organs of a larger size than milacors.²⁶

There are multiple documented claims to the year Les Facteurs d’Orgue Théodore Puget, Père et Fils was founded. Some scholars assert that the firm was established in 1834, the earliest date put forth by some Puget sons.²⁷ According to one source, the company began as late as 1843.²⁸ The first documentation about the age of the Pugets’ business comes from a newspaper article written in 1864, which indicates that the organbuilding firm was founded in 1838.²⁹ The year 1838 was also when Théodore entered into cooperation with Larroque to build milacor organs. During this year Théodore prepared to relocate his family to Toulouse and sent his wife to Lagrasse to be with relatives as she gave birth to Eugène.³⁰ Théodore parted ways with Larroque at some point between 1843 and 1845.³¹

The Pugets’ workshop was always in Toulouse, though the address changed several times. In some instances, the factory remained in one place while the street name or block number was altered; other times, the Pugets had moved. Directories indicate that by 1855 the Pugets were located three blocks north of Saint-Sernin Basilica on Rue de Trois Piliers. During many of the family’s most prosperous years, 1863–1895, the Puget shop was headquartered in the Jeanne d’Arc neighborhood of Toulouse at various addresses.³² In 1899 the factory was moved south to what is now Boulevard Michelet. The shop relocated again in 1925 to Rue de Négreneys where it remained until Maurice’s death in 1960. None of these sites retains any remnants from the Puget workshops.³³

Théodore had nine children, some of whom worked in the family business.³⁴ His firstborn child, François, was Théodore’s logical successor since he demonstrated much promise as an organbuilder.³⁵ Tragically, François passed away from cholera in 1854.³⁶ Some of Théodore’s other children founded their own organ factories, which, in the case of the second-eldest son, Baptiste, resulted in bitter estrangement from the family.³⁷ The latter is not to be confused with Théodore’s youngest son, Jean-Baptiste. It should be noted that there are two Pugets with the first name “Maurice:” one was Théodore’s third-eldest son born in 1835, and the other, born in 1884, was the son of Jean-Baptiste who took over the company in 1922.³⁸ Théodore’s daughters, Marie and Josephine, were unsung workers in the Puget family who traveled to the worksites, overseeing projects’ expenses.³⁹

Confusingly, Théodore and his sons signed correspondence as “Théodore Puget.” Authors sometimes refer to Eugène, Jean-Baptiste, and Maurice all as “Théodore.” Jean-Baptiste went by several names throughout his life because, when François passed away, Théodore began addressing his youngest son as François. Later, when Baptiste set up his rival company in 1863, Jean-Baptiste was called Théodore by his family. In the times when Jean-Baptiste did not sign his name as “Théodore,” he wrote the middle initials of his name: “F. E. Puget.”⁴¹ In my writing, I distinguish the sons by their first names where they might otherwise be referred to as “Théodore.”⁴²

The formative era, 1838–1877: Théodore Puget

Organ construction trends of the mid-nineteenth century redefined what soundscapes were possible, converting organs constructed to mirror stile-antico vocal polyphony and Baroque dances into instruments that could more closely resemble that of a symphony orchestra. Church organs were designed to enhance liturgy, but now they were also featured in concerts of secular Romantic works. During France’s industrial revolution, builders like Cavaillé-Coll and the Puget family converted organs of the French Classical style, such as the instruments of Robert Clicquot, into symphonic organs by transforming existing pipework and adding modern innovations, including expression shoes, pneumatic systems, and several new stops.⁴³ According to Vincent d’Indy, when César Franck played the newly constructed Cavaillé-Coll organ at l’Église Sainte-Clotilde in 1846, he was thrilled and compared his new organ to an orchestra.⁴⁴ These culturally turbulent years in France created a new kind of market for organbuilding on which the Puget family capitalized.

Compared to his descendants, Théodore’s organbuilding is difficult to define because of how drastically his artistry evolved over time. During his first several decades of building, he constructed anachronistic instruments. For example, in 1842 he built a twenty-rank organ for l’Église Saint-Cere, the specification of which was particularly French Classical.⁴⁵ This instrument was a prime representation of Théodore following the instructions in Bedos’s treatise. By contrast, one year prior, Cavaillé-Coll had revolutionized the Parisian music scene by constructing a French Romantic organ at l’Église Saint-Denis.⁴⁶

Some clients favored Théodore’s anachronistic organs built in the French Classical style. His reputation in southern France was well established over the course of the nineteenth century. Many clients chose Puget because they did not want to pay Cavaillé-Coll’s steep fees for a new organ. Customers also recognized Théodore’s use of local, quality materials, such as oak and tin, which were durable. Following Bédos’s method, he pursued consistency and reliability rather than artistic innovation.⁴⁷

By 1865 Théodore’s sons persuaded their father to build organs in a Romantic style.⁴⁸ Eugène became the chief voicer for his father, beginning with the organ at l’Église Saint-Mathieu in Perpignan. Théodore constructed fewer mixtures and mutations, choosing instead reed choruses and ranks such as the Kéraulophone, Unda Maris, and Salicional. The 1875 organ of Saint-Vincent de Carcassonne, hereafter referred to as Saint Vincent, represents a transitional period in the Puget family’s history: the departure from organs built in the French Classical style to the creation of symphonic instruments. This organ is also one of Théodore’s last major projects before his retirement in 1877, so it is indicative of change in the family business leading to Eugène’s takeover. Théodore’s new style of organbuilding made him appealing to new clientele in the turbulent nineteenth-century market, which was rife with competition from Cavaillé-Coll and other organbuilders.

The same year the Saint Vincent organ was inaugurated, the Pugets began drawing up a proposal for a new organ in l’Église Notre-Dame du Taur in central Toulouse. Théodore did not oversee this project as he had transitioned the company into the hands of his ambitious son, Eugène. The organ of Notre-Dame du Taur would become a unique, defining opus for the Puget family that gave them an edge against their tenacious competition. Though credit for the Notre-Dame du Taur organ belongs to Eugène, Théodore’s organ at Saint Vincent set the precedent.⁵⁰ Eugène’s groundbreaking innovations at Notre-Dame du Taur were rooted in the organbuilding techniques he had learned while working for his father. The organ at Notre-Dame du Taur would catapult the Pugets’ prestige beyond the regional level.

The golden era, 1877–1892: Eugène Puget

Eugène, the sixth-eldest of his siblings, demonstrated keen intelligence at a young age.⁵¹ He studied at the Conservatoire de Toulouse and excelled in his study of music.⁵² Following the unexpected passing of his eldest brother François, Eugène took up a position in the family business.⁵³ His approach to organbuilding was influenced by his fascination with Romantic ideals of the nineteenth century, which is evidenced in his nicked pipework, Bertounèchian reeds, and symphonic foundations.⁵⁴ Though he did incorporate some new technology into his organs, Eugène was a traditionalist when designing instruments.⁵⁵

Under Eugène’s leadership, which officially began in 1877 following Théodore’s retirement, the Puget company expanded professional relations beyond Occitania. Eugène established relationships with famous Parisian organists of the time such as Charles-Marie Widor, Alexandre Guilmant, and Eugène Gigout, all of whom dedicated at least one Puget instrument each.⁵⁷ In letters to Eugène Puget, Widor addressed him as mon cher ami (my dear friend).⁵⁸ Camille Saint-Saëns sent a message to Eugène in 1891 that read: “I don’t think I will have time to visit your organ, but I know what you are worth and I will give you with great pleasure all the attestations you desire.”⁵⁹ When Eugène passed away unexpectedly, Guilmant wrote a letter of condolence to the family workshop, describing him as an “artiste.”⁶⁰ These professional connections with Parisian organists indicate the increased status of the Puget family. The organ most emblematic of Eugène’s craft is the gallery organ of l’Église Notre-Dame du Taur, hereafter referred to as the Taur.

Notre-Dame du Taur

The Taur is a historic church, the origin of which can be traced back to the martyrdom of Saint Sernin, the first bishop of Toulouse.⁶¹ The Romans had settled in Toulouse by the third century as part of their occupation of Gaul. The local authorities seized Saint Sernin, tied him to the back of a bull in the capitol plaza, and sent the animal running through the city streets, dragging the bishop. An oratory was built on the site where Saint Sernin was detached from the bull and pronounced dead. The church was called “l’Église Saint-Sernin du Taur” until the nineteenth century when a local statue of a black Madonna was moved there. L’Église Notre-Dame du Taur (Church of Our Lady of the Bull), became an official historic monument in 1840.⁶²

The first record of an organ in the Taur comes from the time of the French Revolution. The instrument at the time, a twenty-three-stop organ in the French Classical style, was described in a review of Toulousain organs by Jean-Baptiste Micot as useless in both its sonority and appearance.⁶³ There were restorations of the instrument carried out between 1840 and 1860, all of which failed.⁶⁴ When the church underwent renovations during the years 1870 to 1876, the clergy made plans to rebuild the organ and declared that this instrument needed to endure for at least longer than forty years. On November 24, 1875, the priests approved the Pugets’ proposal, which cost 32,000 francs.⁶⁵

One evident aspect of the organ was its unique tripartite façade. The Taur borders buildings on either side of the nave, so little natural light comes into the sanctuary save for the rose windows on the gallery wall and some smaller windows over and behind the altar. During the restoration, Henri Bach, the city architect of Toulouse, requested the Pugets to design an organ that would not obstruct these windows.⁶⁶ Bach approved these drawings after he made some corrections to them.⁶⁷ When the preeminent architect of France at the time, Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, visited the Taur during the renovation and learned of the plans for the organ’s layout, he skeptically commented that the Pugets would be great artists if they yielded a successful result.⁶⁸

To frame the windows, three cases were built in the gallery. The two outer cases display pipes on two of their sides, and the middle case’s pipes are exposed on three sides. The tripartite façade contains 159 pipes in total, only two of which do not speak. If the whole façade were lined up horizontally, it would be sixty-nine feet wide.⁷⁰ In order to make the instrument playable, Eugène constructed five Barker machines to lighten the weight of the long trackers, the most extensive of which is forty-five feet.⁷¹ These trackers activate over 800 pallets.⁷²

Eugène chose local materials for the construction of his instruments. The cases and console at the Taur were made of oak, which was desirable for its durability.⁷³ Puget scholar Henri de Rohan states that burnished oak was the dominant wood used in the Puget’s workshop.⁷⁴ The bellows were made of sheepskin leather. Eugène prioritized these refined local materials in his instruments, which are integral to the organ’s authentic southern French character. All of the Taur organ’s original oak and sheepskin have endured.⁷⁵

The organ’s specification is impressive. With forty stops spanning over three manuals, each containing fifty-six notes, and a thirty-note pedalboard, this organ was the largest in Toulouse at the time of its construction.⁷⁶ The specification for the instrument boasted ten foundation stops speaking at 8′ pitch in the manuals. As a result, the foundations supported the upperwork easily. When drawn together, their combined sound was potent but not oppressive. Jean-Claude Guidarini, who was titular organist at the Taur from 1990 until 2020, described the jeux de fonds as “somber” and “calm.”⁷⁷

The voicing of the foundations at the Taur was mellow with a dark, rounded tone. This color was a contrast to foundations of other builders of the time, who constructed foundation stops that sounded brighter. Why the Pugets desired this kind of sound for their foundations is unclear, but the resulting unique sonority is an example of artistry from the organbuilder. In a demonstration of this organ I attended by Guidarini, he indicated that the Flûte harmonique was voiced to be a solo stop. He dissuaded visiting organists from registering this rank with the other 8′ stops, the rest of which were powerful enough on their own.

Though the foundations were mild, the reeds were vigorously round and powerful. Toward the end of Théodore’s life and the start of Eugène’s tenure, the company used brass shallots.⁷⁸ These reeds were voiced brighter than typical French symphonic organs by other builders. When paired with mixtures, mutations, and the foundations, the brashness of the reeds balances out and results in a broad sonority.⁷⁹ One crucial distinction concerning the reeds is the role of the Hautbois in the ensemble. On Puget instruments, this stop is labeled “Hautbois-Basson” rather than “Basson-Hautbois” and is activated on the reed ventil.⁸⁰

In addition to the foundations and reeds, there are other color stops on this instrument. The Voix humaine on the Récit is soft, especially compared to the stronger stops on the organ. Guidarini described all of the flutes, open and stopped, as “lovely and clear.”⁸¹ On the Positif, there is a Clarinette and a Cornet, which was originally on one stopknob. In 1939 Maurice Puget separated out the Cornet; removed the 8′ Kéraulophone, 4′ Dulciana, 2′ Doublette, and Unda Maris; and added a 1′ Piccolo.⁸²

Another major element of Eugène’s instrument was its two enclosed divisions operated by two expression shoes. In nineteenth-century France, the vast majority of symphonic organs had only a single enclosed division, which was almost always the Récit. By having both an enclosed Récit and Positif, half of the Taur organ was under expression. With the boxes shut, the pipes were barely audible. The organist could achieve a smooth crescendo from a mystic pianissimo to a robust fortissimo by manipulating the boxes as well as the seventeen combination pedals. One division could accompany the other with ease, and the Grand Orgue could serve as a tutti contrast.⁸³

Because he was an organist, Eugène understood how to construct a console to suit performers’ accessibility needs. Stops were arranged in the French tiered-console style and were comfortably within an arm’s length from the bench. The music rack was placed above the Récit so the view of the upper manual was unobstructed. The expression shoes were easy to manipulate and did not require much leg strength. The natural ergonomic design of the Taur organ console was more comfortable than the consoles of Cavaillé-Coll, who designed with the perspective of a technician rather than an organist.⁸⁴ Though the plaque on the console reads 1878, which is the date of the completion, the organ was not inaugurated until two years later.⁸⁵

Théodore promoted the instrument’s dedication ceremony with flyers that were sent almost exclusively to local parish priests and affluent southern French residents who were likely to be future customers of the Pugets.⁸⁶ Eugène found his father’s grassroots, old-school method of advertising to be unacceptable for the family’s ambitious new organ. To garner attention at the national level, Eugène invited lionized organist Alexandre Guilmant to dedicate the Taur organ. Guilmant’s performance fee of 1,000 francs for the inaugural concert was considered astronomically expensive at the time.⁸⁷ His performance spanned two evening sessions on the nights of June 17 and 18, 1880.⁸⁸ The program included works by Handel and Mendelssohn, along with transcriptions of selections by Beethoven and several compositions by Guilmant himself, concluding with an improvisation on a popular theme.⁸⁹

The reception committee included almost all the organists of Toulouse, the director of the local conservatory, and Théodore Sauer of the Daublaine et Callinet organ company.⁹⁰ The committee’s report lauded the new instrument’s voicing, round and powerful foundation stops, and orchestral qualities.⁹¹ The organ’s expressive Positif division impressed several listeners who were accustomed to instruments with only one enclosed division. The vast dynamic range of the Taur organ astounded musicians, audiences, and congregations alike. The Reverend Eugène Massip, who was the rector of the Taur at the time, described how the two expressive divisions would yield magnificent results for worship. Jacques Lacaze, the Taur’s titular organist at the time, wrote glowing reviews about the new Puget instrument.⁹²

The Taur church as a whole is a prime representation of Toulousain art and culture. Its domineering, fortress-like façade overlooking the Rue du Taur is constructed of red brick, a common local material.⁹⁴ The dark interior of the church is lined with paintings of Saint Sernin’s martyrdom by Toulousain artist Bernard Bénézet.⁹⁵ The black Madonna and the sculpture of the bull in the sanctuary are staple fixtures with local significance. The whole church is a quintessential example of southern French neo-Gothic ideals. The Puget organ tastefully complements the church’s aesthetic.

Of all the instruments the Pugets built, the Taur organ is the most influential opus of the dynasty. This instrument inspired several organs of Eugène’s tenure, including l’Église Saint-Fulcran in Lodève, l’Église Saint-Amans in Rodez, l’Église Notre-Dame des Tables in Montpellier, l’Église Saint-Aphrodise in Béziers, and l’Église Notre-Dame de la Dalbade in Toulouse.⁹⁶ The Taur organ was an archetype but not a reproduced, copied project. For example, the Pugets did not have standardized models for organs in the manner that other companies did with factory catalogs published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the artistic and technical decisions Eugène made for his other projects were based on the success of the Taur organ. Eugène’s traditionalist tendencies are evident in his consistent organbuilding choices, such as the use of tin rather than zinc, mechanical action with Barker levers, and tiered three-manual consoles. He voiced all of his instruments in a similar manner to that of the Taur organ.⁹⁷

Eugène elevated the perception of the Puget family during the Taur project. After Guilmant’s inaugural performance in 1880, the Pugets cultivated a national reputation. In the eighty years that followed, highly respected Parisian organists of multiple generations—from Guilmant to Xavier Darasse—dedicated Puget organs.⁹⁸ The Taur organ was widely considered the finest, most innovative organ in southern France at the time of its inauguration, surpassing Cavaillé-Coll’s reputation there.⁹⁹ As a result, organists traveled across France to play and listen to Puget instruments.

Today many organists and scholars consider the Taur organ to be the greatest instrument the Puget dynasty ever built. Save for its electric blower and Maurice’s minor changes to the specification, the organ remains entirely in its original state from 1880. The 143-year-old sheepskin has always been treated naturally without chemicals.¹⁰⁰ On September 25, 1987, the organ was classified by the French government as a historic monument. In July 2022 the first ever restoration of the organ was announced as part of a renovation of the whole church. The project is scheduled to finish in autumn of 2025.¹⁰¹

The Taur has maintained a prominent role in both the artistic and liturgical life of Toulouse. To showcase the organ and celebrate the seasons of the liturgical year, Guidarini initiated a concert series called “Moments Musicaux au Taur.”¹⁰² He would invite local organists as well as students at the Toulouse Conservatory to give recitals on the Puget instrument for the general public, with programs centered on works for appropriate liturgical seasons. I performed at the Taur in December 2019, the final year Guidarini organized the concert series before his passing. My experience playing the Taur organ has, in major part, inspired 
this research.

To be continued in the July 2024 issue.

Notes

1. Jesse Eschbach, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll: A Compendium of Known Stoplists, second edition, volume 1 (Kraichtal: Verlag Peter Ewers, 2013); John R. Shannon, Understanding the Pipe Organ (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009); Philippe Cicchero, Les Orgues Des Cathédrales de France (Gentilly: EMA, 1999). Cavaillé-Coll built over 500 instruments across Europe and beyond. He is considered a master of both technical prowess and artistry. Some innovations for which he was known include the implementation of the Barker lever, the development of the harmonic flute stop, and the construction of ventil systems. These engineering feats gave his organs qualities more similar to a symphony orchestra than a choir and, as a result, influenced the composition of new organ repertoire.

2. Arjen van Kralingen, “Recensie Clair-Obscur: Henri Ormières Bespeelt Het Puget-Orgel in de St. Vincent Te Carcassonne,” Orgel Nieuws (blog), March 20, 2021, https://www.orgelnieuws.nl/recensie-clair-obscur-henri-Ormières-bespeelt-het-puget-orgel-in-de-st-vincent-te-carcassonne/. Puget scholars Jean-Claude Guidarini and Henri de Rohan make similar remarks in their writings when discussing Cavaillé-Coll from the perspective of the Puget family.

3. Henri de Rohan, Th. Puget: Une Famille de Facteurs d’orgues à Toulouse, 1834–1960 (Toulouse: Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse, 1987), pages 11, 17, 19, https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Puget-Rohan-catalogue-expow.pdf.

4. Jean-Marc Cicchero, “Montreal d’Aude, Une Autre Colline Inspirée?,” July 13, 2016, accessed January 28, 2022, https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ob_760b48_theodore-puget.pdf; Maggie Hamilton, “Poetic License,” Choir & Organ (June 2009), page 62. Eugène’s full name was Eugène Germain Lagrasse Puget. Jean-Baptiste’s full name was François-Ernest Jean Baptiste Puget.

5. Jean-Claude Guidarini, “Cavaillé, Puget . . . un Débat Cool,” Orgues Nouvelles, 6ème année, no. 23 (December 2013), https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/puget-cavaille-coll.odt.

6. Jean-Claude Guidarini, “Compositions Du Quelques Instruments Construits Ou Reconstruits Par La Manufacture Puget de Toulouse,” n.d., http://www.orgues-nouvelles.fr/ON23/textes/CompoOrgPuget.pdf?fbclid=IwAR11p00_bj-jvug9IbbgxWZyuVSrCQnsne0fup0Nmv15E8pneGhXEuUc3ec.

7. Jean-Marc Cicchero.

8. Philippe Bachet, ed., Orgues En Midi-Pyrénées (Toulouse et Région): 15ème Congrès de La FFAO, July 13–18, 1998 (Lyon: Fédération Francophone des Amis de l’Orgue, 1998), page 28; Jean-Marc Cicchero, Rohan, page 35. François Puget, a dressmaker, was born in 1771 and died in 1831. The dates of Catherine Boyer are unknown. Together, they had six children, of which Théodore was the only surviving male; one of his siblings died in infancy. Only one of Théodore’s four sisters, Hélène Geneviève, married.

9. Jean-Marc Cicchero.

10. Bachet, page 28; Jean-Marc Cicchero; Rohan, page 35. Louise Anne Mossel was born in 1802, but her death date is unknown.

11. Jean-Marc Cicchero.

12. Reprinted from Jean-Claude Guidarini, “Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’orgues,” May 13, 2019, accessed April 12, 2022, http://www.orgue-puget-lavelanet.com/2019/05/les-puget-une-dynastie-de-facteurs-d-orgues.html.

13. Jean-Marc Cicchero. Cicchero argues that one cannot learn organbuilding from books alone because there are several nuances and details as to how complex mechanisms in the instruments work. Also, there is no evident relation between Benoit Cabias and Abbé Cabias, who was another organbuilder of the time.

14. I use the words “gallery” and “tribune” interchangeably in the research. These terms are synonymous.

15. Dom François Bédos de Celles, L’Art Du Facteur d’Orgues, Facsimile edition (New York: Bärenreiter, 1963).

16. Rohan, page 17. Eugène’s and Jean-Baptiste’s instruments contained stops that were scaled, voiced, and labeled according to the directions in L’Art Du Facteur d’Orgues. This is especially true of the pipes speaking at 8′ and 4′ pitches, such as the Montre.

17. Mathieu Delmas, Zoom call. Interview by John J. Mitchell, July 1, 2022; L’Association Orgues Meridionales, “Villemur,” Orgues Meridionales, http://orgues.meridionales.free.fr/Villemur.pdf. During the 1920s and 1930s, there was a newfound appreciation for organs of the seventeenth century.

18. Mathieu Delmas; “Quand Théodore Puget Etait Representant Du ‘Milacor’ . . .,” May 28, 2021, accessed January 29, 2022, https://orguesaintantonin.fr/quand-theodore-puget-etait-representant-du-milacor.

19. Kurt Lueders, emailed comments made to the author, April 24, 2023. In French, the word “milacor” is a play on words, combining “mille,” which means “one thousand,” and “accord,” meaning chords. According to Kurt Lueders: “This brand name has the same pronunciation as ‘a thousand chords,’ cleverly evoking the use to which the device is put. An overtone of the French word ‘cor’ [which means ‘horn’] may also be present, but the allusion would be much less obvious to a French speaker.”

20. “L’abbé Dessenne, L’abbé Cabias et l’orgue simplifié, l’abbé Larroque et Le ‘Milacor,’” Les Orgues de l’Abbé Clergeau, accessed January 29, 2022, https://rmcks.pagesperso-orange.fr/orgue/orgues_clergeau/index_abbe_Larroque.htm; “Quand Théodore Puget Etait Représentant Du ‘Milacor’ . . . .”

21. “L’abbé Dessenne, L’abbé Cabias et l’orgue Simplifié, l’abbé Larroque et Le ‘Milacor.’”

22. Jean-Marc Cicchero.

23. Michel Évrard, “Toulouse Bonnefoy Un Orgue Puget aux Prénoms Trompeurs dans Deux Églises Successives,” Les Amis des Archives de la Haute-Garonne, Petite Bibliothèque, no. 162 (October 31, 2008): page 4, https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/pb_162_txt.pdf.

24. Delmas; Évrard, page 4.

25. Évrard, page 4.

26. Jean-Claude Guidarini, “Grand Orgue de l’Église Saint-Exupère,” Toulouse Les Orgues, accessed April 26, 2022, https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-saint-exupere/; “St Exupère Church–Toulouse (Haute-Garonne),” Orgues en France et dans Le Monde, accessed April 26, 2022, http://orguesfrance.com/ToulouseStExupere.html. Théodore’s organ at Saint-Exupère was fourteen stops with two manuals, one under expression, including stops found in Romantic-era symphonic organbuilding such as Clarinette and Hautbois-Basson. Eugène expanded this organ’s pipework and installed a new console in 1885. Jean-Baptiste and his son Maurice made further modifications to the instrument.

27. Évrard, page 9; Rohan, page 35.

28. Maison Théodore Puget, Père et Fils, “Orgues Construites Ou Restaurées Par La Maison,” October 1911, reprinted from Pastór de Lasala, “A Puget Organ in Sydney: A Fortunate Historical Accident,” OHTA News 44, number 1 (October 4, 2018), page 18.

29. Évrard, page 4; S. L. [sic], “On Nous Ecrit de Pibrac,” Journal de Toulouse: Politique et Littéraire, février 1864, 60ème année, no. 45 édition, BNF, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k53716127/f1.item.r=puget.zoom. An advertisement for the Puget family written in 1869 also lists 1838 as the year of founding.

30. Jean-Marc Cicchero.

31. Delmas; Hamilton, page 55.

32. Évrard, pages 6, 9. On September 10, 1869, a fire broke out at the Puget factory. The structure survived, but most of what was inside the shop was lost to the flames.

33. Bachet, page 15. Bachet’s and Évrard’s writings describe the precise addresses of the Puget factory in more detail.

34. Bachet, page 28. Théodore’s sons Olivier and Jean Ernest Gustave died in infancy.

35. Rohan, page 36.

36. Bachet, page 16.

37. Delmas; Rohan, page 36; “Orgue Puget de l’Église de Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val,” Fondation du Patrimoine, January 19, 2022, https://orguesaintantonin.fr/lorgue-puget. The organ in Saint Antonin-Noble-Val, north of Toulouse, is an example of Baptiste’s work. His son emigrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the twentieth century, and two of his descendants, Elsa and Alberto Puget, are alive today.

38. Bachet, pages 16–18.

39. Évrard, page 4.

40. John J. Mitchell, compiled from Bachet, pages 15–19; Delmas; Évrard, pages 3–4; Jean-Marc Cicchero; Rohan pages 35–37; Jean-Gabriel Pélaprat, “Les Orgues de la Famille PUGET” Facebook group, May 20, 2023.

41. Évrard, page 3.

42. Successors of instrument builders commonly continue signing work using their father’s or mother’s name after the head of the family has died.

43. Douglas Earl Bush and Richard Kassel, “Clicquot,” in The Organ, an Encyclopedia (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2006).

44. “César Franck–Classical Music Composers,” Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, accessed March 18, 2023, https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/composer/cesar-franck/; Léon Vallas, César Franck, trans. Hubert J. Foss (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), page 102; John J. Mitchell, “German Influences on Franck’s Chorale in E Major,” March 31, 2019, accessed March 18, 2023, https://www.voxhumanajournal.com/mitchell2019.html.

45. Bachet, pages 15–16.

46. Rohan, page 18.

47. Rohan, pages 17–18.

48. Delmas; Rohan, page 18.

49. Photo credit: Tylwyth Eldar (cropped). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.

50. Toulouse Les Orgues, “Grand Orgue de l’Église Saint-Barthélémy,” accessed March 16, 2023. https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-saint-barthelemy/.

51. Jean-Claude Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’orgues à Toulouse (Toulouse: Médiathèque José Cabanis, 2008), https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ob_79c1c0_les-puget-catalogue-expo-2008.pdf.

52. Rohan, page 37.

53. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’orgues à Toulouse, page 3. When François died, Eugène joined the factory to make up for the new lack of manpower. Eugène was titular organist at la Basilique Notre-Dame de la Daubade in Toulouse for most of his career until his passing.

54. Rohan, page 38. Abel Bertounèche was a reed voicer for Cavaillé-Coll who influenced the Pugets and other organbuilders of the time.

55. Rohan, page 36.

56. Reprinted from Rohan, page 39.

57. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 3; “Orgue de Rodez, Église Saint-Amans,” Orgue Aquitaine, accessed February 13, 2023, https://orgue-aquitaine.fr/; The Puget family members were almost all organists, which may explain why their instruments were so ergonomically suited to musicians.

58. Bachet, page 16.

59. Rohan, page 25.

60. Rohan, page 25.

61. Saint Sernin is also referred to as Saint Saturnin in certain sources.

62. “Notre-Dame Du Taur,” Basilique Saint-Sernin de Toulouse (Site officiel), accessed March 7, 2023, https://www.basilique-saint-sernin.fr/note-dame-du-taur/; Robert Poliquin, “Orgues En France,” Organs Around the World, 1997–2023, http://www.musiqueorguequebec.ca/orgues/france/toulousendt.html.

63. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue;” Jean-Baptiste Micot, “Rapport Sur Les Orgues de Toulouse,” 1796, Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

64. Dominique Amann, Le Facteur d’Orgues Frédéric Jungk (France: La Maurinière éditions, 2013), www.la-mauriniere.com, pages 53–54; Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue.” One restoration was carried out by organbuilder Frédéric Jungk between the years 1850 and 1857. This organ was expanded to thirty-seven stops over three manuals. There were nine couplers and tirasses with a swell box (boîte expressive), pneumatic machine, Barker lever, and a state-of-the-art winding mechanism. The organ was inaugurated in 1860 and after only fifteen years was damaged during the church’s restoration in 1875.

65. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 6. A complete specification of this Puget organ is found on page 17, Mitchell, reprinted from Guidarini, “Compositions Du Quelques Instruments Construits Ou Reconstruits Par La Manufacture Puget de Toulouse.”

66. L’Association Orgues Meridionales, “Notre-Dame-du-Taur,” Orgues Meridionales, http://orgues.meridionales.free.fr/SaintExupere.pdf. The church’s reception committee claims that it was the wish of the clergy to leave the gallery windows unobstructed. Henri Bach designed the windows and was delegated the responsibility of overseeing the organ façade’s layout.

67. Jean Nayrolles, “Un architecte toulousain du XIXme siècle: Henri Bach (1815–1899),” Histoire de l’art 1, no. 1 (1988): page 45, https://doi.org/10.3406/hista.1988.1628; Radio Présence, “Jean-Claude Guidarini: ‘Immersion à Notre-Dame Du Taur’” (Toulouse, 2012), 18:27, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy69JOvYnsE.

68. Rohan, page 54.

69. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

70. Sixty-nine feet is about twenty-one meters.

71. Forty-five feet is about fourteen meters.

72. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue.”

73. Delmas.

74. Rohan, page 54.

75. Hamilton, page 58.

76. Rohan, page 56.

77. Hamilton, page 58. It is unclear if Guidarini made these comments in English or if they were translated from French to English by Hamilton.

78. Bachet, page 24; Delmas; Hamilton, page 59.

79. Guidarini “Le Grande Orgue.”

80. This detail regarding the oboe is critical for performers bringing French symphonic repertoire to Puget instruments. On a Cavaillé-Coll organ, for example, not only is the label different, but also, the Hautbois-Basson is not on the reed ventil. When taking repertoire to a Puget written for a Cavaillé-Coll, the performer and their console assistant(s) must strategize in advance how to bring on this stop.

81. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue;” Hamilton, page 58.

82. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue.”

83. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue.”

84. Radio Présence, “Jean-Claude Guidarini: ‘Immersion à Notre-Dame Du Taur’” (Toulouse, 2012), 15:38, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy69JOvYnsE.

85. Guidarini, “Grand Orgue de l’Église Notre-Dame du Taur,” Toulouse Les Orgues, accessed March 9, 2023, https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-notre-dame-du-taur/; Rohan, page 23.

86. Rohan, page 15.

87. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 6. The fee for the performance was over three percent of the cost of the whole organ. For perspective, if a new organ in 2023 costs $1,000,000, Guilmant’s fee for a performance would be about $32,000.

88. “La Séance d’orgue,” Le Journal de Toulouse: Politique et Littéraire, June 1880, Année 76, No. 16 édition, Gallica.

89. Alexandre Guilmant, “Deuxième Séance d’Inauguration Solennelle du Grand Orgue de Notre-Dame du Taur” (Typo.-Lith C. Berdoulat, June 1880), in “Le Grande Orgue,” Guidarini, https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1024x10000:format=jpg/path/s5bdc24606d23f03d/image/i8c3c33134c11eaa2/version/1411689846/image.jpg.

90. “Les Callinet de Rouffach,” accessed April 12, 2022, http://decouverte.orgue.free.fr/facteurs/callinet.htm; Rohan, page 48. The Callinets, another organbuilding dynasty, predate both the Pugets and Cavaillé-Coll. They were one of the first symphonic organbuilding companies in France. Their instruments demonstrate the drastic changes in French organ building from the early eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century.

91. Bachet, page 17.

92. Delmas; Rohan, page 56.

93. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

94. Toulouse is colloquially referred to as “La Ville Rose,” meaning “The Pink City,” since many of its historic buildings are constructed with red brick.

95. Poliquin.

96. Guidarini “Le Grande Orgue.”

97. Rohan, page 38.

98. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 6.

99. Guidarini, “Le Grande Orgue”

100. Hamilton, page 58.

101. Gala Jacquin, “Toulouse: l’église Notre-Dame du Taur va faire peau neuve,” L’Opinion Indépendante, January 30, 2023, https://lopinion.com/articles/actualite/15240_toulouse-eglise-notre-dame-taur-peau-neuve.

102. “Association Jean-Claude Guidarini– AssoJCG.Org,” accessed January 25, 2022, https://assojcg.org/.

John Joseph Mitchell

John Joseph “JJ” Mitchell is a musician and scholar from Arlington, Virginia. He is director of music at Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Reston, Virginia, where he oversees several musical groups and accompanies liturgies. JJ graduated summa cum laude from Westminster Choir College with a bachelor’s degree in sacred music. He then earned his Master of Sacred Music degree in organ performance from the University of Notre Dame, where he attended on a full-tuition scholarship. He also studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse, France, where he practiced and studied on the organs of the Puget family. JJ then earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Houston (UH). During this time, he worked as a teaching assistant in the UH Music History Department and served as musician in multiple churches. The article published in this magazine is a cut of his dissertation on the Puget family, which was finished in May 2023.

JJ has served as organist on the music staff of churches such as Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, Texas; the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More, Arlington, Virginia; and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, South Bend, Indiana. He has performed in these churches and various other churches and concert halls in the United States, Canada, France, and England. In July 2024, JJ will give a lecture recital on the Puget family at the location of one of their instruments in Sydney, Australia. He is the winner of the Nanovic Grant for European Study for Professional Development and was a finalist for the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant. He also won second prize in the graduate division of the Hall Pipe Organ Competition in 2022. JJ’s research on César Franck and his musical influences was published in the Vox Humana organ journal. In September 2020 he was a guest on Jennifer Pascual’s Sounds from the Spires SiriusXM Radio program in which his organ recordings were broadcast. He has played liturgies and concerts for international television audiences on the Salt + Life and EWTN networks. JJ is a member of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) as well as the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM), from which he has received several scholarships. A leader in the field, he has served on NPM’s national publications committee and will serve on the board of the Northern Virginia AGO chapter beginning later this year. He is a member of The Diapason’s 20 Under 30 Class of 2021. JJ’s career goal is to teach sacred music to the next generation. For more information: 
jjmitchellorganist.com.

Editor’s note: Part 1 of this series appeared in the May 2024 issue, pages 12–18.

The progressive era, 1892–1922: Jean-Baptiste Puget

Unlike his older brother Eugène, Jean-Baptiste, the youngest of Théodore’s children, was more interested in science and technology than musical aesthetics. He was a gifted visual artist who designed organ façades such as that of Notre-Dame de la Dalbade and the choir organ of Notre-Dame du Taur, both in Toulouse. He was also different from Théodore and Eugène because he did not study music and had not been tasked with voicing pipes.¹⁰³ Though Jean-Baptiste’s skills were a major asset to the family, he did not have much authority until he assumed leadership of the business following Eugène’s sudden passing in 1892.¹⁰⁴ He married Zélie-Augustine Raynaud, and together they had three children: Maurice, Louis, and Germaine.¹⁰⁵

Enamored with innovation, Jean-Baptiste introduced progressive changes to the company’s organ building style. For example, he favored zinc bass pipes instead of tin due to practicality and low cost.¹⁰⁶ This choice in materials, which was controversial at the time, resulted in a robust sound without having to use as much metal.¹⁰⁷ The use of zinc reflects Jean-Baptiste’s knowledge of English organs, particularly the work of Henry Willis. Eugène’s metal pipes were mostly constructed with tin.¹⁰⁸

Another significant change under Jean-Baptiste’s tenure was the shift from mechanical action to tubular-pneumatic action.¹¹⁰ Organbuilders of the Romantic era through the early twentieth century wanted to modify actions to make their instruments easier to play, employing wind-based solutions to do so.¹¹¹ The Barker lever, which was common on French symphonic organs, was a wind-activated mechanism to lighten mechanical action. Eugène and Jean-Baptiste used Barker levers when building their instruments. The two brothers traveled together to London to study tubular-pneumatic action, in which a pneumatic tube connection takes the place of a tracker in conveying the key action from console to windchest, thereby lightening the key action.¹¹² Eugène typically maintained the status quo of mechanical action with Barker levers, but Jean-Baptiste embraced the new tubular-pneumatic technology.¹¹³

Jean-Baptiste’s professional connections attracted new attention from the scientific community. One prominent ally of the company during Jean-Baptiste’s reign was Dr. Gabriel Bédart, a medical doctor who had an advisory role at the Puget company.¹¹⁴ Penning an opinion in a Toulousian newspaper in 1895, Bédart discussed the benefits of turn-of-the-century advances in organ technology and advocated for the implementation of tubular-pneumatic systems. He praised the work of Jean-Baptiste by citing recently constructed Puget organs.¹¹⁵ Much of what is known about Jean-Baptiste’s organbuilding philosophy comes from Bédart’s writings.

Jean-Baptiste connected with other professionals differently than Eugène, whose relationships with masterful Parisian organists had elevated the family’s status. Jean-Baptiste maintained these connections while devoting much attention to fostering friendships with other organbuilders around the world. At a conference of organbuilders held in 1895 in Paris, Jean-Baptiste established professional relationships with other prominent constructors of the time, including Henry Willis, Samuel Casavant, and Charles Mutin. In 1899 Jean-Baptiste became a member of the jury of the Exposition Internationale Paris-Neuilly.¹¹⁶ Through his professional correspondences and promotion from colleagues, Jean-Baptiste elevated the reputation of the Puget family both nationally and internationally.¹¹⁷ This fame was expanded further when the Pugets constructed an organ at la Cathédrale de Sainte-Cécile d’Albi, hereafter referred to as Albi Cathedral.¹¹⁸

La Cathédrale de Sainte-Cécile d’Albi

Albi is located about fifty miles northeast of Toulouse on the Tarn River. This picturesque city, the home of painter Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, has a distinguished artistic history.¹²⁰ The cathedral, considered to be the largest brick building in the world, is easily identifiable in Albi’s cityscape. The fortress-like structure was constructed in the thirteenth century to suppress the Albigensian heresy and assert the Catholic Church’s dominance. Albi Cathedral’s thick walls, buttresses, and tall windows tower over the surrounding streets.¹²¹

The 1736 Moucherel instrument that preceded the Puget organ at Albi Cathedral had been in disrepair for decades.¹²² In 1841 the Claude brothers, two organbuilders from Mirecourt, tried to romanticize this French Classical organ cheaply. The result was described as a “mutilation” upon its reception, according to one listener.¹²³ Jean-Baptiste was familiar with this instrument since the Puget family had repaired it and made slight adjustments to its specifications in 1875.¹²⁴ In 1902 Jean-Baptiste wrote to the rector of the cathedral and described a proposal for a new instrument. Jean-Baptiste was both persuasive and persistent, arguing for his project to clergy members in Albi four times within one year.¹²⁵ The clergy signed a contract for a new Puget organ in March 1903 and amended it in October of the same year, paying the Pugets 31,650 francs.¹²⁶

Jean-Baptiste designed a gargantuan organ with four manuals and seventy-eight ranks for Albi Cathedral.¹²⁷ He preserved some of the existing pipework while adding much of his own.¹²⁸ Forty-two of the stops were placed behind shades, making it the only organ in France to have so many pipes under expression.¹²⁹ The tonal scheme was diverse, featuring orchestral stops such as a Euphone.¹³⁰ There was also a Clarabella, an English stop that was unusual for a French symphonic organ.¹³¹ The Great division boasted seven stops speaking at 8′ pitch, which provided a plethora of foundational tone for the upperwork. Upon completion, Albi Cathedral contained the largest French symphonic organ outside of Paris. Only two organs exceeded its size in France at the time: the Cavaillé-Coll instruments of Notre-Dame de Paris and l’Église Saint-Sulpice.¹³²

Jean-Baptiste and his team of technicians devised solutions for the challenges of making an instrument of such magnitude to function. Three enormous bellows and four pairs of blowers installed in the cathedral tower powered the Albi organ.¹³³ The entire organ was on tubular-pneumatic action.¹³⁴ This manner of construction allowed the resistance in the keyboards and pedalboard to remain consistent regardless of how many manuals were coupled.¹³⁵ This instrument also featured a crescendo pedal with a dial that indicated which stops were added based on the position of the shoe.¹³⁶ Though the Pugets did not invent tubular-pneumatic action or the crescendo pedal, the builders demonstrated originality in applying these innovations to such a large organ. There was no existing prototype or precedent for constructing a French symphonic organ of this size with these technological innovations.

Adolphe Marty, who was the organ instructor at Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris at the time, dedicated the instrument on the feast of Saint Cecilia, November 22, 1904. The performance date was significant as Saint Cecilia, the namesake of the cathedral, is also the patron saint of music.¹³⁹ This premiere program by Marty, a former student of César Franck, included works by Bach, Buxtehude, and a new composition of his own specifically for the inauguration of the organ. It was called Sonate héroïque Sainte Cécile and had four movements: “Extase,” “Chant d’Hyménée,” “Entretien et Conversion,” and “Triomphe et Apothéose.”¹⁴⁰ This piece is significant as it represents a contribution to the French symphonic organ repertoire inspired by a Puget organ.

The organ in Albi Cathedral was judged to be the Puget family’s masterpiece. In a review of this concert, the cathedral rector wrote the following week in a local publication that only two organs exceeded the greatness of that in Albi: Notre-Dame de Paris and l’Église Saint-Sulpice.¹⁴¹ A prominent Parisian organist of this era, Albert Perilhou, echoed the sentiment of this review with even more praise. He declared in a message to Puget that the Albi organ was a “deserving rival” of the two massive Paris organs.¹⁴² These testimonies demonstrate awe and respect for Jean-Baptiste’s work ranging from local members of the Albi religious community to two of the most distinguished French musicians at the turn of the century.

In addition to pleasing mid-career professionals at the turn of the century, the Albi instrument also inspired young organists. Léonce de Saint-Martin was born in Albi in 1886 and was the deputy organist at the church by age fourteen in 1900. Four years later, while he still served in this position, the cathedral organ was inaugurated by his teacher, Marty.¹⁴³ In the years after Saint-Martin had moved to Paris, Jean-Baptiste received a letter from him. He described that he spent his holiday vacations playing the Albi organ and told the builder: “I bless the Lord one hundred times to have been so well privileged.”¹⁴⁴ Saint-Martin went on to succeed Louis Vierne as the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1937.¹⁴⁵

For fifty years, the Puget organ filled the expansive nave of Albi Cathedral with music and rarely required maintenance. However, the instrument did not survive into the modern age. Following a recital given by André Marchal in May 1954, musicologist and organist Norbert Dufourcq, who was in the audience, declared that the organ was in disrepair. Speaking metaphorically, he described the organ as having a “vocal illness” and in dire need of a “remedy.”¹⁴⁶ He was describing problems in the instrument’s winding system and the failing tubular-pneumatic action. Dufourcq also bemoaned the organ’s tonal palette, crying for more mixtures and upperwork rather than reeds and 8′ tone.¹⁴⁷ He was a major proponent of Victor Gonzalez’s neo-Classical organs and tended to besmirch the Pugets.¹⁴⁸

A restoration of this instrument would have involved hundreds of hours of meticulous work on the organ’s tubular-pneumatic systems. This type of organ technology had fallen out of style by the 1930s because the thin leather membranes had aged and needed to be replaced.¹⁴⁹ Air leaks that had developed over time impaired the pneumatic system. In 1971 the Puget organ was dismantled and would ultimately be replaced by 1981 with an organ in the neo-Baroque style.¹⁵⁰

The Puget instrument of Albi Cathedral represents both desirable and unpreferable aspects of organbuilding at the turn of the century. One could perceive Jean-Baptiste poorly for choosing low quality materials that risked unsustainability over time. Others may be tempted to pass judgment on Dufourcq’s criticism and Albi Cathedral’s governance for choosing not to restore the Puget organ in the latter part of the twentieth century. Regardless of opinions, the organ of Albi Cathedral was ultimately a product of its time.¹⁵² Jean-Baptiste could not have known the long-term sustainability problems of tubular-pneumatic systems because his decisions were cutting-edge at the time of the organ’s construction. The French Culture Ministry and its commission of Albi Cathedral acted practically when electing to replace the Puget organ.¹⁵³

The neo-Classical era, 1922–1960: Maurice Puget

During the tenures of Théodore, Eugène, and Jean-Baptiste, the family business operated under a rapidly changing French political landscape. The company endured the separation of church and state (1789–1905); the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871); the Expulsion of the Congregations (1880); the civil unrest following the assassination of the charismatic socialist orator Jean Jaurès, a native Occitanian (1914); and the numerous inefficacious post-Napoleonic governing systems that rose and fell in nineteenth-century France.¹⁵⁵ The Pugets also survived competition against Cavaillé-Coll and managed to establish themselves in the south of France. Though technology had evolved during these years, the family’s instruments up to the 1920s were French symphonic organs indicative of the Romantic era. The external factors of political turmoil, new competition, and changing artistic aesthetics all were challenging factors in Maurice’s career.

Life and works

In his youth, Maurice attended the Toulouse Conservatory and took organ lessons with Georges Debat-Ponsan. During these years, he was awarded medals for his proficiency in solfège, piano, and organ while learning from his father in the family workshop. Young Maurice was the chief voicer of his father’s Albi Cathedral organ, ensuring all seventy-four stops sounded harmoniously.¹⁵⁷ To continue his study in organ performance, he left Toulouse and joined the studio of Adolphe Marty in Paris. After two years he came back to Toulouse to work again with his father and married Elia-Jane Desmons in 1912. His organbuilding career was interrupted when he was conscripted in World War I.¹⁵⁸

During the war, Maurice put his training as an organ technician to use. To trace enemy planes flying in the night sky, a French military captain, René Baillaud, designed a primitive sonar that he named the “Parabaloïde Baillaud.”¹⁵⁹ In order to operate this echolocation device, the user needed to have a keen ear, which Maurice had developed from his years of musical training and labor in the family workshop. He was directed by the French military’s general headquarters to help Baillaud develop the tool further.¹⁶⁰ For his successful work, which helped keep French soldiers and civilians safe during the war, Maurice was awarded the Croix de Guerre.¹⁶¹

Maurice officially took over the family business from his father in 1922, though Jean-Baptiste likely transferred responsibilities to his son gradually in the years prior.¹⁶² The same year Maurice and his wife had a son, Jean, whose descendants are alive today.¹⁶³ Maurice had several apprentices, the most famous of whom was Robert Boisseau.¹⁶⁴ However, neither his son nor any other apprentice succeeded Maurice after his sudden stroke in 1960.¹⁶⁵ By 1965 a central heating company had taken the place of the Puget workshop on Rue de Négreneys.

As Maurice assumed his role as head of the Puget workshop, organbuilding aesthetics in France were shifting. In the early twentieth century, Norbert Dufourcq and André Marchal spearheaded a movement to create eclectic organs. These instruments would have the foundation tone of a French symphonic organ but would also have sounds common to French Classical and German Baroque organs, such as brilliant mixtures, lustrous mutation stops, and soft reeds. Spanish organbuilder Victor Gonzalez, a former employee of both Cavaillé-Coll and Merklin based in Paris, constructed instruments in this style. This type of organbuilding became known as the neo-Classical movement. Shortly after his business was established in 1929, Gonzalez dominated the market with the help of his powerful allies, who included Dufourcq, Marchal, and German organbuilder Rudolf von Beckerath.¹⁶⁶ The Puget family faced more difficulty competing against the Gonzalez firm in post-war France than they did against Cavaillé-Coll at the height of his business’s power.¹⁶⁷

Maurice was aware of the rapid changes occurring in the organ industry and started constructing instruments in the neo-Classical style at least seven years before Gonzalez’s firm was founded. He was a gracious man who made concessions to his clients, though some scholars argue that his acceptance of customers’ neo-Classical demands damaged the reputation of the family. For example, Maurice made modifications to the organ in the Salle Franklin, the opera house in Bordeaux, by adding an 8′ Bourdon made of zinc; a three-rank Mixture, two ranks of which were made with spotted metal and the third plain metal; and a Voix humaine, also made of zinc.¹⁶⁸ After World War I, tin, oak, and other durable materials became even more expensive and scarce than they had been previously. Many critics decried Maurice’s work and reminisced about the organs of Eugène’s tenure.¹⁶⁹

Three notable reconstructions from Maurice’s first decade as head of the workshop include the organs of la Cathédrale Saint-Just et Saint-Pasteur in Narbonne in 1927, la Cathédrale de Perpignan in 1930, and la Collégiale Saint-Salvy d’Albi in 1931. These projects are defined by their Stentor stops and plethora of mutations.¹⁷⁰ Maurice also installed electro-pneumatic systems in his instruments throughout his career, and he altered mechanical blowers by adapting them to electricity. By using the electro-pneumatic system, Maurice was able to create extended and borrowed stops that shared the same rank of pipes. For example, on the organ at Saint-Salvy, there are sixty stops for forty ranks of pipes.¹⁷¹ Maurice constructed his instruments with strong foundation stops, similar to the robust 8′ tone his father designed at Albi Cathedral as well as other French symphonic organs by the family. By voicing his instruments to produce a vigorous sound, Maurice differed from Gonzalez, whose foundation stops were quieter.¹⁷²

World War II wreaked havoc on the Puget dynasty.¹⁷⁴ Materials that were already rare and expensive in France after World War I became even more scarce during the 1940s, which affected organbuilding as well as numerous other industries. The country’s economy was in shambles due to soaring inflation. The Puget family’s net worth was depleted, and clients for new organs were few and far between. French clergy were also lacking money after the separation of church and state, and Gonzalez snatched up whatever major organ projects were available at the time.¹⁷⁵ Cavaillé-Coll’s workshop, which had been succeeded by Charles Mutin and Auguste Convers after Aristide’s passing, closed its doors during this war. The once formidable giant of French symphonic organbuilding throughout the nineteenth century fell victim during these difficult years.

Despite dire circumstances, Maurice had some advantages to keep the family business afloat. First, he had a thorough understanding of organs throughout Occitania. He was a desirable restorer because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of many organs in the south of France. He always approached restoration projects respectfully, voicing organs from different eras in an appropriate, tasteful manner. Maurice also had influential Parisian contacts, continuing in Eugène and Jean-Baptiste’s tradition of professional correspondences.¹⁷⁶ Thanks to his friendships with prestigious organists such as Marcel Dupré, Alexandre Cellier, and Xavier Darasse, he was able to win contracts despite Gonzalez’s grip on the French organ scene. Three of Maurice’s most notable restorations were in the cathedrals of Toulouse in 1947, Monaco in 1953, and Nice in 1958.¹⁷⁷

In both Maurice’s time and the present day, one finds critics of France’s neo-Classical movement. Oftentimes, when builders tried to create eclectic organs with the versatility to perform multiple kinds of repertoire authentically, they produced instruments that could not interpret any single style well. Maurice’s organs were controversial because of their electrification, specification, and materials.¹⁷⁸ However, Maurice’s proficiency in technology, music, and history was never questioned. He brought artistry to neoclassicism with the resources that were available to him.

Maurice was adaptable, enduring several challenges in his environment. Before he succeeded his father, he was forced to sacrifice years of his early career to serve his country in World War I. He built with cheaper materials because those were what was available to him at a price the business could afford. Maurice prioritized his customers’ preferences in his work, which some critics perceived as a detriment. He treated each organ that he restored with a sensitivity to its history and its original construction.¹⁷⁹ Ultimately, by navigating through uncertain, turbulent cultural shifts with minimal resources, Maurice brought honor and prestige to the Puget family. After Maurice passed away, Marcel Dupré wrote a letter of condolence to the family: “I had not only the highest esteem for his value and talent as an organbuilder, and the deepest admiration for his courage and dedication to his art, but a deep friendship for him.”¹⁸⁰

Conclusion

Of the twenty-five largest Puget organs, fifteen were destroyed, typically replaced by neo-Classical instruments of other builders.¹⁸² Of the remaining ten large instruments, three are not functioning but are well preserved; another three are playable but are in need of restoration; and four have been restored.¹⁸³ Over the course of roughly 120 years, the Puget family constructed 350 organs and worked on 742 in total.¹⁸⁴ These instruments were found in churches, salons, theaters, conservatories, and concert halls not only in France but also in other European nations as well as in Asia, Africa, and Australia.¹⁸⁵ The Pugets built thirteen organs in Paris, a city defined by the work of Cavaillé-Coll.

The international demand for Puget organs was a result of the instruments’ caliber. For example, the Taur organ was durable and designed for the comfort of the performer. The Albi Cathedral instrument astonished onlookers with its five tubular-pneumatic systems. With seventy-four stops, there were limitless possibilities of combinations. The organs of the Taur and Albi Cathedral encapsulate the Pugets’ work as masterful technicians and artists.

Puget organs represent the best of Toulousain culture. A historic city, Toulouse has a rich musical heritage that can be traced as far back as the troubadours in the Medieval era. Toulouse also displays a distinct architectural style that, like many European metropolises, contains a variety of buildings both ancient and modern. By choosing local materials and constructing in the symphonic style, the Pugets created a distinct Toulousain organ sound that balanced normative French trends at the national scale with unique developments, such as voicing in a darker tone and consistently placing multiple divisions under expression. Puget façades tastefully reflect the architectural styles of the rooms in which they reside, maintaining aesthetic consistency. In perfecting aural and visual aspects of their instruments, the Pugets created a distinct Toulousain organ identity.¹⁸⁶

The Pugets were unique because of the culture of their workshop in which each of the four heads of family constructed organs differently from one another. They did not feel pressure to always build instruments in a prescribed manner and were quick to make changes. For example, Eugène made radical innovations at the Taur just after assuming control from his father, and Jean-Baptiste stopped building with mechanical actions immediately after he succeeded Eugène in 1892. Though Théodore likely apprenticed with Moitessier and abided by Bédos’s treatise, he was largely self-taught and instructed his sons in the craft of organbuilding. When asked why he preferred Puget organs to those of Cavaillé-Coll, Jean Daldosso said that every Puget organ is a new revelation since the family did not fear unorthodox experimentation.¹⁸⁸

By studying organs of the Puget family, performers can create better informed interpretations. For example, organists may be surprised to learn that on Puget organs, the Hautbois-Bassoon and Voix humaine were both activated by the reed ventil, unlike a Cavaillé-Coll instrument. Though Widor’s Symphonie V was written for his instrument at l’Église Saint-Sulpice, which had a single expressive division, one could deliver a historically informed performance of his work by manipulating the shades of an expressive Positif division like the Puget organ of Notre-Dame de la Dalbade. Jean-Claude Guidarini argued that timbres of mystic organ composers such as Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire, and Olivier Messiaen are easy to produce on Puget instruments because the composers’ registrations feature somber 8′ foundations with tastefully balanced upperwork.¹⁸⁹ If Cavaillé-Coll’s and Gonzalez’s organs are the sole instruments upon which performers conceive their interpretations, the possibilities for artistry and creativity are constrained. The many testimonials in which generations of formidable French organ composers expressed respect and honor towards the Pugets indicate the validity of the family’s works, which allowed for tasteful interpretations of symphonic organ repertoire. Some compositions inspired by Puget organs include Georges Debat-Ponsan’s Elévation and the aforementioned sonata by Adolphe Marty, written for Albi Cathedral.¹⁹⁰

Organ builders also can benefit from learning about the Puget family. Each head of the family was attuned to the history of instruments, the desires of their clients, current trends in organ building, and how to voice organs in a tasteful manner. As a result, their numerous technical innovations, voicing styles, and materials were always calculated risks. The engineering details of their instruments, such as scalings, pneumatic system components, and façade blueprints are a worthy area of study that can inform organbuilders on different types of approaches to French symphonic organbuilding. Théodore, Eugène, and Maurice were especially considerate of the needs of performers since they were organists themselves.

Musicians and scholars are still seeking further information on the Puget family. For example, little is known about Jean-Baptiste’s organ in the prestigious Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. It was constructed in May 1913, and the façade is still visible today above the proscenium.¹⁹¹ Léonce de Saint-Martin was appointed as the theater’s organist.¹⁹² At the inauguration of this fifty-two-rank instrument, which had an array of percussive stops, an orchestra was conducted in turn by Claude Debussy, Vincent d’Indy, Paul Dukas, Gabriel Fauré, and Camille Saint-Saëns.¹⁹³ Though some details of the organ’s history are known, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées did not keep many records on the instrument, and in 2020 the theater petitioned the general public to provide information about the organ so that they could begin a restoration.¹⁹⁴

Many questions about the dynasty puzzle Puget experts today. For example, one wonders if the organ of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées provided prelude music to audience goers at the premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, an infamous disaster in which the performance by the Ballet Russes resulted in a riotous uproar from the audience.¹⁹⁵ There are many questions surrounding Théodore’s life, especially concerning the exact year of his company’s founding. In addition, one wonders when did Eugène discover the possibility of having two expressive divisions, and what organ, if any, inspired him to implement this organbuilding technique at the Taur. For many of the Puget instruments, both surviving and lost, there is a need for further research. I hope that this essay will serve as a springboard that inspires future study of the Pugets and their instruments.

The organs of the Puget family remain relevant in the modern age. Annually, thousands of organists flock to southern France for the festival of “Toulouse Les Orgues” to hear instruments such as the Puget organs of Notre-Dame du Taur and Notre-Dame de la Dalbade in concert. Students at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régionale de Toulouse come from around the world to study and perform repertoire on these organs. Many people can describe a Puget instrument they have experienced, but few are able to share information they have learned about the builder.¹⁹⁶ If the Pugets’ legacy is to be celebrated and their organs are to survive, further scholarship is needed. The priceless, masterful works of the Puget family deserve more recognition from the international organ community.

Notes

103. Guidarini, “La Dalbade France 1888, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns. . .,” page 74.

104. Bachet, page 17.

105. Guidarini, page 74.

106. Rohan, pages 19, 76.

107. Delmas; Rohan, page 19. Delmas read a letter by Jean-Baptiste saying that zinc pipes were more expensive than tin, but that the organbuilder sought after the material for the sound it produced. Other evidence from Rohan suggests otherwise.

108. Bachet, page 10; Delmas.

109. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

110. De Lasala, “The Eugène Puget Organ Is Reborn,” page 10.

111. Shannon, page 8.

112. Comments made by Katelyn Emerson, April 26, 2023; Shannon, page 177.

113. Hamilton, page 56. One instance in which Eugène did use the pneumatic system was in the pedalboard of the Dalbade, as previously mentioned.

114. Rohan, page 19. It is unclear just how involved Bédart was with the Puget company. Rohan describes his role as “éminence grise,” which means “gray eminence.” He was influential in the philosophy of the company and its direction without having an official title.

115. Gabriel Bédart, “Les Orgues Tubulaire à Membranes de M. Puget,” L’Art Méridional, July 1, 1895.

116. Rohan, page 19.

117. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 4.

118. Albi is a town located northeast of Toulouse in Occitania.

119. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini. White-bearded Jean-Baptiste is standing in the center of the image with his arms folded.

120. Justin Postlethwaite, “Albi: The Birthplace of Toulouse-Lautrec,” France Today, August 3, 2022, https://francetoday.com/travel/travel-features/city-focus-albi/.

121. “Albi Cathedral,” World Monuments Fund, December 2020, https://www.wmf.org/project/albi-cathedral.

122. Gérard Terrissol, Les orgues de la Cathédrale Sainte-Cecile d’Albi (Albi: Éditions Grand Sud, 1992), pages 8–16. Several other builders had made minor adjustments to Moucherel’s organ, which was built in 1736.

123. Terrissol, pages 20–22; Chris Van Doodewaard, “Pipe Organs: Albi Cathedral France 1736 Christophe Moucherel,” Pipe Organs (blog), October 20, 2010, http://mypipeorganhobby.blogspot.com/2009/01/albi-cathedral-france.html.

124. Terrissol, pages 20–22; “Composite of Sainte-Cécile,” Organa Reginae Caeli, November 18, 2019, https://organareginaecaeli.wordpress.com/composite-of-sainte-cecile/.

125. Jean-Claude Guidarini, “Le Grand Orgue Jean-Baptiste Puget de La Métropole d’Albi,” Le Dermogloste, March 17, 2009. Accessed January 25, 2022, http://dermogloste.viabloga.com/news/le-grand-orgue-jean-baptiste-puget-de-la-metropole-d-albi.

126. Terrissol, pages 20–22.

127. Guidarini. See Figure 8 for an image of the console.

128. Terrissol, pages 20–22.

129. Guidarini.

130. Guidarini.

131. Brown.

132. Guidarini. In 1932 the organ of Saint Eustache in Paris was expanded significantly, making the Puget organ the fourth largest in all of France.

133. Delmas; Guidarini. The wind pressure on the Albi organ was much higher than a typical French symphonic organ of this time.

134. Guidarini.

135. Shannon, page 72.

136. Guidarini; Terrissol, pages 20–22.

137. Reprinted from Guidarini.

138. Reprinted from Guidarini.

139. J. Lapeyre, “Variétés: Un Orgue et Une Sonate d’Orgue,” La Semaine Religieuse Du Diocèse d’Alby, November 26, 1904, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6390560d. November 22 was also the anniversary of the Dalbade organ dedication.

140. Lapeyre; Adolphe Marty, Sonate Héroïque de Sainte-Cécile (Paris: A. Nöel, 1905); Poliquin.

141. Lapeyre.

142. Guidarini.

143. Jean Guérard, “Leonce of Saint-Martin,” Musica et Memoria, 2016, http://www.musimem.com/st-martin.htm.

144. Ibid.

145. Philip Andrew Smith, “Léonce de Saint-Martin: Organist and Composer” (Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation, Hamilton, New Zealand, The University of Waikato, 2018), https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12116, 82.

146. Delmas; Guidarini; Terrissol, page 22. Dufourcq was a staunch political opponent of the Puget family. He championed organs built by Gonzalez.

147. Guidarini.

148. Delmas.

149. Delmas; Shannon, pages 66–67. Delmas says that pneumatic membrane decay, lead tube corrosion, and lack of maintenance were likely the sources of the problems.

150. Guidarini; Terrissol, pages 20–22; Timothy Tikker, “Albi Cathedral–Moucherel Organ,” Mander Organ Builders Forum, September 3, 2005, https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/182-albi-cathedral-moucherel-organ/.

151. Neither the Pugets’ organ nor the 1981 instrument altered the existing casework, so Jean-Baptiste’s organ would have looked identical to this one.

152. Guidarini.

153. Delmas; Guidarini. Dufourq’s critiques were not the only red flags concerning this instrument’s condition. Delmas describes a report in the French Ministry of Culture in Paris from 1958, which states what organists Alexandre Cellier and Pierre Cochereau found when they were sent to evaluate the instrument. They claimed that a lack of maintenance and drastic temperature fluxes made the organ unplayable, especially in warm weather. The two recommended electrifying the action, moving the Echo into the Positif case, and swapping one or two stops. Regrettably, no action was taken following this report. At French cathedrals, decisions such as organ projects are made by the French Ministry of Culture and the commissions they assemble for their restoration projects.

154. Mitchell, reprinted from Guidarini, “Compositions Du Quelques Instruments Construits Ou Reconstruits Par La Manufacture Puget de Toulouse.”

155. B. S. Bennet, “19th Century French Politics,” University of Botswana History Department, September 11, 2000. http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ub/h202/fr19p1.htm; Musée protestant. “The Law of 1905.” Accessed April 12, 2023. https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-law-of-1905/.

156. Reprinted from “Histoire et Anecdotes,” Toulouse Les Orgues, accessed April 12, 2022, https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/orgues-2/histoire-et-anecdote/.

157. Guidarini, “La Dalbade France 1888, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns. . .,” pages 74–75.

158. Rohan, page 37.

159. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse, page 6. Paraboloïde Baillaud was a precursor to flight radar.

160. “L’Inauguration du Grand Orgue,” Le Cri de Toulouse, December 1921, 11ème Année, No. 47 edition.

161. Guidarini, “La Dalbade France 1888, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns. . .,” page 75. “Croix de Guerre,” which is a military medal, best translates to “War Cross.”

162. Évrard, page 8.

163. Delmas; Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues, page 37. Jean, who passed away in 2018, was a career pharmacist. His daughter, Françoise, was born in 1953. She and her son, Nicolas, are living descendants.

164. Vincent Hildebrandt, “Boisseau–Cattiaux–Chevron,” Organs of Paris, accessed April 9, 2022, https://www.organsparisn.vhhil.nl/boiscat.htm. Boisseau and his apprentices built several organs. His son, Jean-Loup Boisseau, restored the organs of la Basilique Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame de Paris, la Cathédrale de Poitiers, and la Basilique Saint-Sernin in Toulouse.

165. Rohan, page 37.

166. Vincent Hildebrandt, “Gonzalez-Danion-Dargassies,” Organs of Paris, accessed March 19, 2023, https://www.organsparisn.vhhil.nl/gonzalez1.htm.

167. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues, page 36; Rohan, page 28. One reason Dufourcq wrote scathing critiques about the Albi Cathedral organ when its tubular-pneumatic systems failed was he saw the Pugets as competitors of Gonzalez, with whom he was aligned. Dufourcq did complement the Pugets on their restorations, citing their remarkable knowledge of instruments throughout the south of France.

168. Bachet, page 18.

169. Delmas; Guidarini, “La Dalbade France 1888, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns. . .,” page 75. Another struggle Maurice faced came in 1936 when the French government instituted paid holidays. This law did not help organbuilders generate profit.

170. Bachet, page 18; Edward J. Stauff, “Stentor Bombarde,” Encyclopedia of Organ Stops, 1999, accessed March 20, 2023, http://www.organstops.org/s/StentorBombarde.html. Stentor stops were loud stops common on organs in the early twentieth century. A Stentor stop may refer to a Stentorphone, Stentor Octave (sounding at 4′ pitch), or a Stentor Bombarde, which is a penetrating reed.

171. Bachet, pages 18–19.

172. Hamilton, page 62.

173. Joseph Rivel, “Bénédiction & Inauguration Solennelle du Grand Orgue,” Le Bourdon de la Basilique Saint-Just & Saint-Pasteur Narbonne, October 23, 1927, 6ème Année, No. 11 edition, in Organ Historical Society Library and Archives, Villanova, Pennsylvania.

174. World War II was a particularly dark period for pipe organs and organbuilders. Across Europe, thousands of organs were dismantled so that metal pipes could be melted down to make ammunition. Many historic organs were bombed and lost forever. The Pugets were fortunate since their most famous instruments were not destroyed as a consequence of the war.

175. Delmas.

176. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues, page 40.

177. Bachet, page 19.

178. Bachet, page 19.

179. Bachet, page 18.

180. Rohan, page 26. Translation by Mitchell.

181. Rohan, page 26. Translation by Mitchell.

182. Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues, page 40. The dismantling of large organs was common in the neo-Classical era of organbuilding. The instruments of Merklin and other notable builders were also destroyed in similar fashion in the latter part of the twentieth century.

183. Guidarini, “Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues,” page 40.

184. “Histoire de l’orgue et Concert Lyrique: le Public Conquis,” La Dépêche, March 4, 2015, https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2015/03/04/2059782-histoire-de-l-orgue-et-concert-lyrique-le-public-conquis.html; Guidarini, Les Puget, Une Dynastie Toulousaine de Facteurs d’Orgues, page 40. It is unclear exactly how many organs were built for their homes outside of France and how many were moved there later. One of the Pugets’ instruments in Sainte-Marie College in Toulouse, built in 1875, was supposed to be transferred to Madagascar. Since Théodore could not oversee its completion in Africa, the organ remained in France and was later moved to Saint Barthélémy Church in Montastruc-la-Conseillère.

185. Delmas; Le Cri de Toulouse; Pastór de Lasala, “A Puget Organ in Sydney: A Fortunate Historical Accident,” OHTA News 44, no. 1 (October 4, 2018): pages 14–21. There was a single cinema organ constructed by the Puget family at Le Royal Cinéma in Toulouse.

186. Rohan, page 17. Because of their unique elements regarding aesthetics, some scholars such as Rohan argue that Puget organs are not comparable to Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments.

187. Reprinted from Guidarini. Addressed to the Pugets, the perimeter of the image lists all the family’s organs that Marty had dedicated up to 1901.

188. Hamilton, page 62.

189. Hamilton, page 62.

190. Rohan, page 30.

191. Delmas.

192. Smith, page 80.

193. Guidarini, Les Pugets, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’orgues à Toulouse, page 6.

194. Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, “Le Saviez-Vous? L’Histoire de l’Orgue du Théâtre N’Est Pas Évidente à Retracer,” December 2020, YouTube video, 2:41, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxvUGQV3NC8.

195. Delmas. The Puget organ was examined and accepted exactly one week before the Rite of Spring premiere.

196. Simon Thomas Jacobs, “In the Organ Lofts of Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Paris,” The Diapason, volume 105, number 8, whole number 1257 (August 2014), pages 20–24.

 

References

Key:

BNF=Bibliothèque National du France, Paris

OHS=Organ Historical Society Library and Archives, Villanova, Pennsylvania

 

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Freeman’s Journal. “Rose Bay Convent Organ.” March 17, 1906. Trove. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article119940189.

Grenyer, Titus. “Sydney’s French Romantic Organ–the Puget Organ of Kincoppal Rose Bay, 2021.” Uploaded April 9, 2021, in Sydney, Australia. YouTube, 12:18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tN87BZSI2Y.

Guidarini, Jean-Claude. “Cavaillé, Puget. . . un Débat Cool.” Orgues Nouvelles 6ème année, no. 23 (December 2013). https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/puget-cavaille-coll.odt.

———. “Compositions Du Quelques Instruments Construits Ou Reconstruits Par La Manufacture Puget de Toulouse.” n.d. http://www.orgues-nouvelles.fr/ON23/textes/CompoOrgPuget.pdf?fbclid=IwAR11p00_bj-jvug9IbbgxWZyuVSrCQnsne0fup0Nmv15E8pneGhXEuUc3ec.

———. “La Dalbade France 1888, Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin, Saint-Saëns. . . .” Jacket notes to Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique performed by Yves Rechsteiner. Alpha ALPHA652, 2011. CD. https://cdn.naxosmusiclibrary.com/sharedfiles/booklets/ALP/booklet-ALPHA652.pdf.

———. “Le Grande Orgue.” Moments Musicaux à Notre-Dame du Taur à Toulouse, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2022. http://taur-1880.jimdofree.com/.

———. “Grand Orgue de l’église Notre-Dame du Taur.” Toulouse Les Orgues. Accessed March 9, 2023. https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-notre-dame-du-taur/.

———. “Grand Orgue de l’église Saint-Exupère.” Toulouse Les Orgues. Accessed April 26, 2022. https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-saint-exupere/.

———. “Le Grand Orgue Jean-Baptiste Puget de La Métropole d’Albi.” Le Dermogloste, March 17, 2009. Accessed January 25, 2022. http://dermogloste.viabloga.com/news/the-jean-baptiste-puget-organ-of-albi-metropolitan-cathedral.

———. “L’Orgue Jean Daldosso du Temple du Salin à Toulouse.” Le Dermogloste, June 2008. Accessed February 10, 2022. http://dermogloste.viabloga.com/news/l-orgue-jean-daldosso-du-temple-du-salin-a-
toulouse-4.

———. Les Puget, Une Dynastie de Facteurs d’Orgues à Toulouse. Toulouse: Médiathèque José Cabanis, 2008. https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ob_79c1c0_les-puget-catalogue-expo-2008.pdf.

———. “Les Puget, Une dynastie toulousaine de facteurs d’orgues.” Midi-Pyrénées Patrimoine, Été 2011: pages 34–36, 40.

Guilmant, Alexandre. “Deuxième Séance d’Inauguration Solennelle du Grand Orgue de Notre-Dame du Taur.” Typo.-Lith C. Berdoulat, June 1880. In “Le Grande Orgue” by Jean Claude Guidarini. Moments Musicaux à Notre-Dame du Taur à Toulouse, 2018. Accessed January 25, 2022. https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=1024x10000:format=jpg/path/s5bdc24606d23f03d/image/i8c3c33134c11eaa2/version/1411689846/image.jpg.

Gullet, Laura. “Day 8: L’orgue Rend-Il Fou?” Boston Organ Studio (blog), June 10, 2017. http://www.bostonorganstudio.com/2017-france-study-tour/2017/6/13/day-8.

Hamilton, Maggie. “Poetic License.” Choir & Organ, June 2009: pages 55–62.

Hildebrandt, Vincent. “Boisseau–Cattiaux–Chevron.” Organs of Paris. Accessed April 9, 2022. https://www.organsparisn.vhhil.nl/boiscat.htm.

———. “Gonzalez-Danion-Dargassies.” Organs of Paris. Accessed March 19, 2023. https://www.organsparisn.vhhil.nl/gonzalez1.htm.

Hissink, Willemijn. “Carcassonne, Église Saint-Vincent, Hoofdorgel.” De Orgelsite (blog), May 25, 2021. https://www.orgelsite.nl/carcassonne-eglise-saint-vincent-hoofdorgel/.

Huegel, Henri. “Paris et Départements.” Le Ménestrel 54, no. 49 (December 1888): page 391.

“L’Inauguration du Grand Orgue.” Le Cri de Toulouse. December 3, 1921, 11ème Année, no. 47. BNF. https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Le_Cri_de_Toulouse___..._bpt6k5395733j.pdf.

Jacobs, Simon Thomas. “In the Organ Lofts of Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Paris.” The Diapason 105, no. 8 (August 2014): pages 20–24. https://www.thediapason.com/content/organ-lofts-bordeaux-toulouse-and-paris.

Jacquin, Gala. “Toulouse: L’église Notre-Dame Du Taur va Faire Peau Neuve.” L’Opinion Indépendante, January 30, 2023. https://lopinion.com/articles/actualite/15240_toulouse-eglise-notre-dame-taur-peau-neuve.

Le Journal de Toulouse: Politique et Littéraire, “La Séance d’orgue.” June 1880, Année 76, No. 167 édition. BNF. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5377532h/f1.item.r=puget.zoom.

Julien, Abbé R. C. Toulouse Chrétienne: Histoire de La Paroisse de Notre Dame La Dalbade. Toulouse: Chez Edouard-Privat, 1891. https://archive.org/stream/histoiredelapar00juligoog/histoiredelapar00juligoog_djvu.txt.

Kincoppal-Rose Bay School. “Kincoppal-Rose Bay History.” Accessed February 23, 2023. https://www.krb.nsw.edu.au/about-us/our-history/.

Kralingen, Arjen van. “Recensie Clair-Obscur: Henri Ormières Bespeelt Het Puget-Orgel in de St. Vincent Te Carcassonne.” Orgel Nieuws (blog), March 20, 2021. https://www.orgelnieuws.nl/recensie-clair-obscur-henri-Ormières-bespeelt-het-puget-orgel-in-de-st-vincent-te-carcassonne/.

L., S. [sic] “On Nous Ecrit de Pibrac.” Journal de Toulouse: Politique et Littéraire, February 1864, 60ème année, no. 45 édition. BNF. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k53716127/f1.item.r=puget.zoom.

Lapeyre, J. “Inauguration du Grand Orgue de Saint-Benoît de Castres.” La Semaine Religieuse Du Diocèse d’Alby, November 2, 1922. BNF. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6279905k.

———. “Variétés: Un Orgue et Une Sonate d’Orgue.” La Semaine Religieuse Du Diocèse d’Alby, November 26, 1904. BNF. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6390560d.

Lea-Scarlett, E. J. “Delany, John Albert (1852–1907).” In Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Accessed March 15, 2023. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/delany-john-albert-3389/text5133.

Marion, Colette. “La Maison Puget: L’Orgue de Saint-Antonin.” Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Saint-Antonin, 2004. http://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pages-de-2004.pdf.

Marty, Adolphe. Sonate Héroïque de Sainte-Cécile. Paris: A. Nöel, 1905.

Masson, Yves. “Orgues.” Les Orgues, 2022. http://orgue.free.fr/.

McAfee, Kay. “French Organ Music Seminar.” The Diapason 91, no. 1 (January 2000): pages 15–17.

Meyer, Peter. “Organist Had Love for French Culture.” The Sydney Morning Herald. May 24, 2012, sec. National. https://www.smh.com.au/national/organist-had-love-for-french-culture-20120523-1z5af.html.

Micot, Jean-Baptiste. “Rapport Sur Les Orgues de Toulouse,” 1796. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

Ministère de la Culture. “Église Saint-Vincent.” Accessed March 13, 2023. https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/merimee/PA00102594.

———. “Gallery Organ: Instrumental Part of the Organ.” Accessed March 13, 2023. https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/palissy/PM11000760auteur=%5B%22Puget%20Th%C3%A9odore%20%28facteur%20d%27orgues%29%22%5D&last_view=%22list%22&idQuery=%225e8e000-f2fa-c55-c8c-60a5a6b060%22.

Mitchell, John J. “German Influences on Franck’s Chorale in E Major.” Vox Humana, March 31, 2019. https://www.voxhumanajournal.com/mitchell2019.html.

Musée protestant. “The Law of 1905.” Accessed April 12, 2023. https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-law-of-1905/.

Nayrolles, Jean. “Un architecte toulousain du XIXe siècle: Henri Bach (1815–1899).” Histoire de l’art 1–2, no. 1 (1988): 41–50. https://doi.org/10.3406/hista.1988.1628.

Oldham, Guy, and Kurt Lueders. S.v. “Puget.” Grove Music Online, January 20, 2001.

Organa Reginae Caeli. “Composite of Sainte-Cécile.” November 18, 2019. Accessed February 10, 2022. https://organareginaecaeli.wordpress.com/composite-of-sainte-cecile/.

Orgue Aquitaine. “L’Association Pour Le Développement de l’Orgue En Aquitaine.” Accessed February 13, 2023. https://orgue-aquitaine.fr/.

Les Orgues de l’Abbé Clergeau. “L’abbé Dessenne, L’abbé Cabias et l’orgue simplifié, l’abbé Larroque et Le ‘Milacor.’” L’Orgue de Sète. February 2009. Updated April 2017. Accessed January 29, 2022. https://www.organsparisaz.orguesdeparis.fr/index_htm_files/les_orgues_de_l_abbe_Clergeau.pdf.

Les Orgues de Paris. “Théâtre Des Champs-Elysées.” Accessed January 19, 2023. https://www.organsparisaz4.orguesdeparis.fr/Theatre%20Champs-%20elysees.htm.

Orgues en France et dans Le Monde. “L’orgue Puget (1885) de l’église St Exupère de Toulouse (Haute-Garonne).” Accessed April 26, 2022. http://orguesfrance.com/ToulouseStExupere.html.

Ormières, Henri. “Le Grand Orgue Theodore Puget de Saint-Vincent.” Association les Amis de l’Orgue de Saint-Vincent. Accessed October 13, 2022. http://orgue.st.vincent.pagesperso-orange.fr/.

Paroisses Cathédrale Toulouse. “Notre-Dame de La Dalbade,” September 1, 2016. http://paroissescathedraletoulouse.fr/home-2/culture-et-tourisme/notre-dame-de-la-dalbade/.

Paul, Vivian. “The Beginnings of Gothic Architecture in Languedoc.” The Art Bulletin 70, no. 1 (1988): pages 104–22. https://doi.org/10.2307/3051156.

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. “César Franck–Classical Music Composers.” Accessed March 18, 2023. https://www.pcmsconcerts.org/composer/cesar-franck/.

Poliquin, Robert. “Orgues En France.” Organs Around the World, 1997–2023. Accessed March 3, 2023. http://www.musiqueorguequebec.ca/orgues/orguef.html.

Postlethwaite, Justin. “Albi: The Birthplace of Toulouse-Lautrec.” France Today, August 3, 2022. https://francetoday.com/travel/travel-features/city-focus-albi/.

Puget, Théodore. “Copie In-Extenso Du Devis Inséré Au Registre Des Délibérations Du Conseil de Fabrique de l’église St-Vincent.” Edited by Conseil de Fabrique de l’église St-Vincent, January 22, 1870. Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

Radio Présence. “Immersion à Notre-Dame Du Taur.” Recorded by Jean-Claude Guidarini and Radio Présence in 2012 in Toulouse. YouTube video, 26:12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy69JOvYnsE.

Ramackers, Robert. “Les Orgues de L’Abbé Clergeau,” February 2015. https://rmcks.pagesperso-orange.fr/orgue/orgues_clergeau/les_orgues_de_l_abbe_Clergeau.pdf.

Religiana. “Church of Notre-Dame de La Dalbade, Toulouse.” Accessed March 21, 2023. https://religiana.com/church-notre-dame-de-la-dalbade-toulouse.

Rivel, Joseph. “Bénédiction & Inaugration Solennelle du Grand Orgue.” Le Bourdon de la Basilique Saint-Just & Saint-Pasteur Narbonne, October 23, 1927, 6ème Année, No. 11 edition. OHS.

Rohan, Henri de. Th. Puget: Une Famille de Facteurs d’orgues à Toulouse, 1834–1960. Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse, 1987. Exhibition catalog, Bibliothèque Municipale de Toulouse, October 1–31, 1987. https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Puget-Rohan-catalogue-expow.pdf.

Rumsey, David. “Norman Johnston, 1917–2012.” Organ Music Society of Sydney, April 28, 2012. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://sydneyorgan.com/Norman.html.

Rushworth, G. D. “Richardson, Charles (1847–1926).” In Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2006. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/richardson-charles-8200.

Shannon, John R. Understanding the Pipe Organ. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009.

Smith, Philip Andrew. “Léonce de Saint-Martin: Organist and Composer.” DMA diss., The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 2018. https://hdl.handle.net/10289/12116.

Stauff, Edward J. “Stentor Bombarde.” Encyclopedia of Organ Stops, 1999. http://www.organstops.org/s/StentorBombarde.html.

Terrissol, Gérard. Les orgues de la Cathedrale Sainte-Cecile d’Albi. Albi: Éditions Grand Sud, 1992. OHS.

Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. “Le Saviez-Vous? L’Histoire de l’Orgue du Théâtre N’Est Pas Évidente à Retracer.” Filmed in December 2020 in Paris, France. YouTube video, 2:41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxvUGQV3NC8.

Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une dynastie de facteurs d’orgues. Lavaur: Musée du Pays Vaurais, n.d. Exhibition catalog. https://orguesaintantonin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/plaquette-Lavaur.pdf.

Thomas, Louis. Rapport de la Commission de Réception du Grand-Orgue de la Cathédrale de Montauban. Montauban: Imprimerie Catholique Jules Prunet, 1917. OHS.

Tikker, Timothy. “Albi Cathedral–Moucherel Organ.” Mander Organ Builders Forum, September 3, 2005. Accessed February 6, 2022. https://mander-organs-forum.invisionzone.com/topic/182-albi-cathedral-moucherel-organ/.

Toulouse Les Orgues. “Grand Orgue de l’Église Saint-Barthélémy.” Accessed March 16, 2023. https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/instrument/grand-orgue-de-leglise-saint-barthelemy/.

———. “Histoire et Anecdotes.” Accessed April 12, 2022. https://toulouse-les-orgues.org/orgues-2/histoire-et-anecdote/

​Vallas, Léon. César Franck. Translated by Hubert J. Foss. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951.

Van Doodewaard, Chris. “Pipe Organs: Albi Cathedral France 1736 Christophe Moucherel.” Pipe Organs (blog), October 20, 2010. http://mypipeorganhobby.blogspot.com/2009/01/albi-cathedral-france.html.

Widor, Charles-Marie. The Symphonies for Organ: Symphonie V. Edited by John Near. Volume 15. Recent Researches in the Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1993.

Weigle, Carl G. “Nouvelle construction pneumatique pour les tuyaux d’orgues, d’églises, et de concerts. Paris, 1890.” Archives of the Musée de Lavaur, shared by l’Association Jean-Claude Guidarini.

World Monuments Fund. “Albi Cathedral,” December 2020. https://www.wmf.org/project/albi-cathedral.

Appendix A: Finding aid to selected topics

Organs

Albi Cathedral (la Cathedrale Sainte-Cecile d’Albi): Bachet; Deschamps; Guidarini; Lapeyre; Organa Reginae Caeli; Orgue Aquitaine; Poliquin; Postlethwaite; Rohan; Smith; Terrissol; Tikker; Van Doodewaard; World Monuments Fund.

The Taur (l’Église Notre-Dame du Taur): L’Association Orgues Meridionales; Amann; Bachet; Basilique Saint-Sernin de Toulouse (Site officiel); ECHO-Organs; Guidarini; Guilmant; Gullet; Hamilton; Jacquin; Le Journal de Toulouse: Politique et Littéraire; Poliquin; Masson; Micot; Nayrolles; Radio Présence; Rohan; Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une Dynasty de Facteurs d’Orgues; Toulouse Les Orgues.

Puget family

Eugène Puget: Bachet; Évrard; Guidarini; Hamilton; Rohan; Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une Dynasty de Facteurs d’Orgues; Toulouse Les Orgues.

Jean-Baptiste Puget: Bachet; Bédart; Évrard; Guidarini; Hamilton; “L’Inauguration du Grand Orgue;” Les Orgues de Paris; Rohan; Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une Dynasty de Facteurs d’Orgues; Toulouse Les Orgues; Weigle.

Maurice Puget: Bachet; Évrard; Guidarini; Hamilton; “L’Inauguration du Grand Orgue;” Rohan; Rivel; Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une Dynasty de Facteurs d’Orgues; Thomas; Toulouse Les Orgues.

Théodore Puget: Les Amis de l’Orgue Puget Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val; Les Amis de l’Orgue de Seysses; Art Lyb; Bachet; Cicchero; Dufourcq; Évrard; Guidarini; Hamilton; Les Orgues de l’Abbé Clergeau; Orgues en France et dans Le Monde; Ramackers; Rohan; Théodore Puget Pére et Fils 1834–1960, Une Dynasty de Facteurs d’Orgues; Toulouse Les Orgues.

Appendix B: Discography

Albums

Avot, Lionel. Franck: Pièces pour orgue. Toulouse: Hortus, 2011. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Mar11/Franck_organ_Hortus083.htm.

De Miguel, Matthieu. Symphonic Acclamations and Gregorian Paraphrases. Toulouse: Priory, 2019. https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8716922--symphonic-acclamations-and-gregorian-paraphrases.

Ensemble Vocal Les Élements, Frédéric Desenclos, and Joël Suhubiette. Alfred Desenclos: Requiem. Toulouse: Hortus, 1997. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/oct05/Desenclos_hortus009.htm.

Ensemble Vocal Les Élements, Michel Bouvard, and Joël Suhubiette. Duruflé: Requiem. Toulouse: Hortus, 1999. http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/may05/Durufle_requiem_hortus018.htm.

Monin, Virgille. Mulet: L’œuvre pour orgue. Toulouse: FY & Solstice, 2015. https://www.resmusica.com/2015/11/08/lorganiste-henri-mulet-revele-par-virgile-monin/.

Ormières. Clair-Obscur. Toulouse: Priory, 2021. https://www.prioryrecords.co.uk/Ormieres-St-Vincent-Church-Carcassonne-Puget-Franck-Vierne.

Rechsteiner, Yves. Organ recital: Rechsteiner, Yves–Beethoven, L. van, Berlioz, H., Chopin, F., Saint-Saens, C. (L’univers de l’orgue–La Dalbade, France 1888). Toulouse: Alpha, 2011. https://uh-naxosmusiclibrary-com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/h5/catalogue/ALPHA652.

YouTube

Bach, Johann Sebastian. Erbarm’ dich mein, O Herre Gott, BWV 721, performed by Mary Prat-Molinier, Albi. 5:52. YouTube, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoB0t59V6O0.

Bélier, Gaston. Toccata in D Minor, performed by Pastór de Lasala, Sydney. 4:21. YouTube, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27dtjo2asj4&ab_channel=tormus1.

Boëllmann, Léon. Élevation in E-flat Major, performed by Titus Greyner, Sydney. 3:08. YouTube, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzHK6ES-saU&ab_channel=PepOrgan.

Franck, César. Chorale in E Major, performed by John J. Mitchell, Toulouse. 15:43. YouTube, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae-EC8S2J3Y.

Lemaigre, Edmond. Prelude et Cappricio, performed by Pastór de Lasala, Sydney. 3:20. YouTube, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27dtjo2asj4&ab_channel=tormus1.

Vierne, Louis. “Final” from Premiere Symphonie, opus 14, performed by Mary Prat-Molinier, Albi. 6:34. YouTube, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri6wJB65d4w&ab_channel=EricCord%C3%A9.

John Collins

In 2019 there are several composers whose anniversaries can be commemorated, albeit some of the precise birth and death dates are not known for certain. Several names below need no introduction, but there are also quite a few lesser-known names listed here whose compositions are well worth exploring. No claim is made for completeness, and there is no guarantee that every edition is readily available and in print­—there may well also be editions by other publishers. Publishers’ websites have been given where known. Details of a few composers whose preserved output consists of only one or two pieces have been omitted.

An increasing number of pieces, ranging from complete, original publications or manuscripts (which present the usual problems of multiple clefs as well as original printer’s errors) to modern versions of complete or individual works, are to be found on various free download sites, most noticeably IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library (http://imslp.org); however, the accuracy of some modern typesetting is highly questionable, and all should be treated with caution before use.

Aurelio Bonelli (1569–ca.1620) was born in Bologna. He succeeded Adriano Banchieri as organist of Boscom and was listed as organist in Bologna in 1620. His collection Il primo Libro di Ricercari, et canzoni a quattro voci con die Toccate e doi dialoghi a otto was published in Venice in 1602. The ricercars have been edited by Candida Felice for Armelin, Padua, as Fiori Musicali (FM 002). This edition also includes the intabulated versions found in the Torino Fiori Musicalimanuscripts. The canzoni, toccate, and dialoghi have been edited by Federico del Sordo, also for Armelin (AMM 299). Eight canzonas, the final two of which are also set at a fifth and a fourth lower respectively, are for solo keyboard instrument. A toccata in eight parts is arranged for two keyboards, as is a Dialoghi. A further piece in eight parts is for two choirs.

Jakob Hassler (1569–1622), a brother of Hans Leo Hassler, was organist to the Fuggers in Augsburg, and later organist to the imperial court of Rudolf II in Prague. In addition to some madrigals and choral music, seven pieces for keyboard including three ricercars, a canzona, a fantasia, a fuga, and a toccata have survived in the Torino manuscripts. These have been edited by Hartmut Krones for Verlag Doblinger as DM570 in the Diletto Musicale series.

Anthoni van Noordt (ca. 1619–1675) lived in Amsterdam where he became organist of Nieuwezijdskapel in 1652 and of the Nieuwe Kerk in 1664. His Tablatuur-Boeck van Psalmen en Fantasyen of 1659 contains ten psalm settings with from one to eight verses and six fugal fantasias. The notation shows the pedal part in German organ tablature. The complete book has been edited by Jan van Biezen for Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, Amsterdam as MMN11.

André Raison (ca. 1648–1719) became organist of the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, in 1665. His Livre d’Orgue of 1688 contains five Masses in the first, second, third, sixth, and eighth Tones with five versets for Kyrie, nine for Gloria, three for Sanctus, one Elevation, two Agnus Dei versets, and a Deo Gratias, along with an Offertoire in the 5th Tone. Edited by Alexandre Guilmant and André Pirro in Archives des Maîtres de l’Orgue des XVIe, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, volume II for B. Schotts Söhne and by Norbert Dufourq for Éditions Musicales de la Schola Cantorum et de la Procure Générale de musique (SCOL105). It has also been edited by Nicolas Gorenstein in three volumes for Editions Chanvrelin. A facsimile from Fuzeau is out of print but may be available from second hand sites.

The second Livre d’orgue sur les Acclamations de la Paix tant désirée (1714) commemorates the Treaty of Utrecht and contains preludes and fugues, an offertoire, ouverture, allemande grave, and some eighteen noëls. It has been edited by Jean Bonfils for Éditions Musicales de la Schola Cantorum et de la Procure Générale de musique (SCOLQ109). It has also been edited by Nicolas Gorenstein in one volume for Editions Chanvrelin. Further pieces are in the Livre d’Orgue de Limoges, which also contains pieces by G. Julien and G. Corrette; this has been edited by Jolando Scarpa for Musica Restituta, Music Reprints, and also by Nicolas Gorenstein in two volumes for Editions Chanvrelin. A facsimile is available from Fuzeau (Ref 2632).

Giovanni Maria Casini (1652–1719), organist of the cathedral in Florence and to Grand Duke Cosimo III in Tuscany, published a set of twelve Pensieri per l’organo in Partitura in two volumes in 1714. Most of these elaborately contrapuntal pieces are in two or three movements, these being variations in a different rhythm, frequently dance based, of the opening movement. The complete set has been edited in one volume by Milton Sutter for Ricordi (133218) and in two volumes by Jörg Jacobi for Edition Baroque, Bremen (eba 4013 and 4014).

Miguel López (1669–1723), a Benedictine friar who studied theology, was also maestro de capella and organist in Marid, Valladolid, and Montserrat. He composed sacred and secular vocal music, orchestral music, and organ music, of which three Llenos, an Exercici d’ecos i contraecos, a Partit de mà dreta (i.e., a piece for divided keyboard with the solo in right hand), three sets of Versos on the eight Tones, and a set of eight Versos on the first Tone have been edited by David Pujol in Mestres de L’Escolania de Monserrat, Vol. IV, which also contains sixteen Pasos for keyboard by Narciso Casanoves. A further six settings of Pange Lingua and two settings of Sacris Solemnis have been edited by Gregorio Estrada in pages 181–198 in volume VI of the same series, the great majority of the volume containing vocal settings of the Mass.

Louis Marchand (1669–1732) was organist of several churches in Paris and also to the French King. Twelve of his organ works were published posthumously, and some forty-two survive in manuscript, which have been edited by Alexandre Guilmant in Archives des Maîtres de l’Orgue des XVIe, XVIIe, et XVIIIe siècles, volumes III (the print) and V (manuscript pieces) for B. Schotts Söhne. Jean Bonfils has edited the organ works in three volumes for Alphonse Leduc (ALHE32989-91); volume 1 contains the twelve pieces, volumes 2 and 3 contain manuscript works. A facsimile of Pièces choisies pour l’orgue 1740 has been published by Fuzeau (Ref 2665). Also available in facsimile from Fuzeau is Pièces d’orgues manuscrites (Ref 3172), which includes autograph manuscripts with the composer’s corrections, now in the Municipal Library of Versailles.

Marianus Königsperger (1708–1769) was organist and choirmaster of Prüfening Abbey. He published a large amount of church music in Latin as well as chamber music and keyboard pieces. Modern editions of the latter include Praeambulum cum fuga primi toni facili methodi elaboratum (prelude and fugue on each of the eight Tones) originally published in three volumes between 1752 and 1756, edited by Laura Cerutti for Armelin (AMM151)—the fugue on the eighth Tone is missing—Der wohl-unterwiesene Clavier-schüler . . . VIII Praeambula, XXIV Versette, und VIII Arien (i.e., eight sets of preludes, 24 versets, and 8 arias on each of the eight Tones) of 1755 edited by Laura Cerutti for Armelin (AMM030). A Praeambulum in C minor and a Fuga in C major from Fingerstreit oder Klavierübung of 1760, together with three of the preludes and fugues and two arias, has been edited by Eberhard Kraus for Otto Heinrich Noetzel Verlag, Wilhemshaven, in Cantantibus Organis, volume 5 (ref 3465). This volume also contains three preludes and fugues by Placidus Metsch along with three fugues and two sets of Versetten by Georg Pasterwitz.

William Felton (1715–1769) was vicar choral at the cathedral of Hereford and an amateur composer. He left thirty-two concerti for organ or harpsichord based on Handel’s, in five sets of six, opp. 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 (the latter set was reissued with eight concerti), and two sets of Eight Lessons for the harpsichord, opp. 3 and 6. The keyboard part for the six concerti in opus 1 has been edited by Greg Lewin and is self-published (OM131).

William Walond (1719–1768), assistant organist of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, left two sets of works. Organ Voluntaries, opus 1, is a set of six two-movement voluntaries (ca. 1752)—three are for Cornet, one is for Cornet and Flute, one is without registration indication, but clearly for Cornet or Flute, and the final one is a prelude and fugue—and has been edited by Greg Lewin and self-published (OM102; a facsimile is available as OM102A). Also there is Ten Voluntaries, opus 2, printed in 1758, with a much wider range of pieces comprising three single-movement fugues, a single-movement piece alternating between Sesquialtera in the left hand and the Swell, and six two-movement pieces including one prelude and fugue, one Voluntary for Cornet and Flute, one for Trumpet, its Echo and Flute, one Voluntary for the two Diapasons, Principal, and Fifteenth, one for the full swell and Vox Humana or Bassoon, and one for Flute, edited by Greg Lewin (OM110).

Friedrich Christian Mohrheim (1719–1780) attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig from 1733 to 1736 and acted as J. S. Bach’s copyist, later becoming Kapellmeister in Danzig. He left seven trios for organ, three of which are on chorale melodies, and six chorale preludes. The complete pieces have been edited by Maciej Babnis for Organon in three volumes (ORG0007–9), and the trios have been edited by Maurizio Machella for Armelin (AMM 223).

Joaquín de Ojinaga (1719–1789), born in Bilbao, became organist of the Chapel Royal, Madrid, and then of the cathedral of Toledo. Eleven pieces comprising five Fugas, a Paso, an Intento, two sonatas, and two minuetos have been edited José López-Calo for Eusko Ikaskuntza Sociedad de Estudios Vascos as Cuadernos de música 2. It can be downloaded free of charge from http://hedatuz.euskomedia.org/8679/1/obras_musicales.pdf.

Nicolas Séjan (1745–1819), an organist in Paris, left a set of six sonatas for harpsichord with violin accompaniment as his opus 1, and a Recueil de pièces (13) for the harpsichord as his opus 2, as well as a posthumously published print, Trois Fugues et plusieurs Noëls pour l’Orgue, which has been edited by Nicolas Gorenstein for Editions Chanvrelin.

Pierre Nicolas Verheyen (ca. 1750–1819) was an organist in Gent. Seven pieces in a manuscript (two andantes, four one-movement sonatas, and a Nouvelle Marche) have been edited by Armando Carideo for Ut Orpheus (ES14).

Carlo Gervasoni (1762–1819), born in Milan, became maestro di cappella at Borotaro in 1789. His three-part treatise La Scuola della Musica of 1800 contains much useful information about organs and performance practice as well as some Lezioni d’organo, which have been edited by Maurizio Machella for Armelin (OIO 109).

Giulio Maria Delfrate-Alvazzi (1772–1819), organist in Varzo and Cattagna, left a handful of pieces in manuscripts, of which three single-movement sonatas, an Elevazione Bellissima, a Presto, an Andante, and seven versetti have been edited by Luca Lovisolo as volume II of the Flores Organi Cisalpini series, Edizione Carrara (4158).