Nancy Cathedrale Notre-Dame
The history of the organ starts in 1763 when Nicolas Dupont built the first instrument in the newly built cathedral which was at the time Dupont’s largest organ with 44 stops. The 16′ facade was a remarkable feat for its time. The construction took Dupont 8 years and he retained care of the instrument until his death in 1781. After Dupont’s death, Jean-François Vautrin took care of the instrument who added a stop grosse caisse (bass drum), as well as other repairs in 1788. As the French revolution started in 1789 the organ incredibly didn’t suffer any loss, largely thanks to its then organist – Michelot.
Restoration work
More restoration work and enlargements were needed in 1808, including a keyboard extension from d3 to f3, 4 new additional stops to the Swell, and several stops were modified to the Grand Orgue and Positif divisions. Another important extension was made with the addition of two Bombarde stops (16′ and 32′). It’s worth noting it was the first Bombarde 32′ stop ever built in France.
The next big modification, and perhaps the most important one, was made by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1861. Cavaillé-Coll was appointed to reconstruct the organ in a symphonic style which corresponds to the tastes of the 19th century. Typically for Cavaillé-Coll, he retained much of the good pipework of his predecessors. The reeds of the Grand Orgue were integrated into a new Bombarde keyboard and a new Récit expressif was added in the middle of the organ case. Also rather unique is it’s huge number of reed stops: 23 in total – one third of the whole organ! This combination has never been found anywhere else in his long and successful career. This organ has the largest amount of pedal stops and pedal reeds of all his organs – 8 in total.
Nancy Cathedrale Notre-Dame
Specifications
General
- Dupont/Cavaille-Coll, 1763/1861
- 4 keyboards
- 65 stops