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The Organ of the Trocadero Palace was built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll for the 1878 Universal Exhibition at the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris, France. The organ was transferred to the Palais de Chaillot in 1937, before moving to the Auditorium Maurice-Ravel in Lyon in 1977.

History

In 1878, a large concert hall was inaugurated in Paris at the Trocadéro, on the Chaillot hill, to face and serve as a backdrop to the Universal Exhibition being held on the other side of the Seine, on the Champ de Mars. The architect responsible for the design was Gabriel Davioud.

In the wake of the Commune, the aim was to give Paris its first public concert hall (all the others were private) and its first secular organ.

Building the organ

The organ's construction was entrusted to the French organ builder Cavaillé-Coll who already had experience with hall organs, with those in Sheffield (1873) and the Palais de l'Industrie in Amsterdam (1875). The organ builder took over the pipes of a 46-stop organ distributed over three manuals and a pedalboard he completed. This organ was destined for the new church of Notre-Dame-d'Auteuil, located near the Trocadéro, and the contract stipulated that it would be removed 15 days after the exhibition was closed. According to Rollin Smith, however, the instrument was originally designed not for this church (which was still in the planning stage) but for an unknown commissioner who later retracted his commission. Instead, the priest Abbé Lamazou took advantage of the existence of the orphan instrument to acquire it at a reduced price for his new place of worship.

An order was also placed for an additional 32-foot pedal with 10 stops, to be used at a later date in the construction of the definitive organ planned for the Trocadéro, and for pewter pipes.

Cavaillé-Coll adapted this material to the immense hall of the Trocadéro (5,000 seats) by increasing the number of manuals (from 3 to 4) and stops (from 46 to 66), favoring sound stops to compensate for the poorly reverberant acoustics. The organ was one of the largest of its time, incorporating the latest technical innovations: Barker machines (pneumatic assistance mechanisms reducing the mechanical resistance of the manuals and enabling the development of large symphonic organs), wind tunnels producing a wide range of pressures and capable of satisfying considerable wind requirements, a pre-combiner, etc.

The aesthetic was romantic, expressive and symphonic, with the abandonment of classical mutations and mixtures in favor of a profusion of 8' stops, a strengthening of the bass (16' and 32'), and stops of a concertante nature: undulating stops (Voix céleste, Unda Maris), reeds and backs of an "orchestral" nature (Violoncellos, Gambes, Diapason, Clarinet), and so on. In addition, two keyboards were expressive (Positif and Récit), which was a new feature.

Inauguration and first concerts

The first concert took place on 6 June 1878. Édouard Colonne conducted a 350-strong orchestra in Le Désert by Félicien David and the cantata Les Noces de Prométhée by Camille Saint-Saëns.

The organ was inaugurated on 7 August 1878 by Alexandre Guilmant, who played his Marche funèbre and Chant séraphique as well as pieces by Lemmens, Martini, Chauvet, Handel, Bach (Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565) and Mendelssohn.

Until 8 October 1878 (the end of the Universal Exhibition), sixteen concerts were regularly given. The organists played the new organ, including Eugène Gigout (13 August), Théodore Dubois (21 August), Camille Saint-Saëns (28 September), André Messager (8 October), and César Franck (who premiered his Trois Pièces for the occasion). The two major events were the concerts by Charles-Marie Widor on 24 August (with the premiere of his Sixth Symphony), and César Franck on 1 October, where he performed the three pieces he had composed for the occasion.

In addition to the official series, Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens and his wife, Helen Lemmens-Sherrington, took advantage of a stay in Paris to give a concert in September in the company of Guilmant and the flutist Paul Taffanel.

The following are some of the people who attended the event:

• 1st row: Stan Golestan (3rd), Xavier Leroux, Robert Lyon (Pleyel), Gaston Carraud (7th), Théodore Dubois (9th), Jean d'Estournelles de Constant (Director of Fine Arts), Dujardin-Beaumetz, Charles-Marie Widor (with the beard), Paul Vidal, Wanda Landowska and Pierre Monteux.
• 2nd row: Reynaldo Hahn (5th), Raoul Pugno, Philippe Gaubert, lower down, then Henri Rabaud, moving up, to the left of the drape, Francis Casadesus (2nd).
• 3rd row: Paul Dukas (5th), Gustave Lyon (Pleyel), Enesco, André Bloch, to the right of the drape: Alexandre Georges (3rd), Paul Le Flem, Roger Lion (Pleyel).

The Guilmant era

The Universal Exhibition closed in November 1878. The organ remained at Notre-Dame-d'Auteuil until the following summer, when Guilmant organized a series of concerts combining solo organ and organ accompanied by other instruments. On October 19, 1879, Widor gave the first public performance of his Fifth Symphony (a few weeks earlier, in June, the Lyon organist had played one of his two new symphonies, the Fifth or the Sixth – or both – at a private concert) before the Minister of Fine Arts.

Following his inaugural concerts, Guilmant promoted the early repertoire. He performed numerous works by Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Louis-Nicolas Clérambault and others, as well as the complete concerts for organ and orchestra by George Friedrich Handel.

The parish priest of Notre-Dame d'Auteuil demanded his pipes back, but thanks to Guilmant and Widor, the state had already acquired the pipes for the Trocadéro in 1882. Then, Cavaillé-Coll built an instrument with two manual keyboards and 32 stops for Auteuil, which was inaugurated on 11 February 1885. The acoustics proved inadequate for music other than organ. As a result, it gradually became the only venue for organ concerts. Until 1926, French, European and even American organists performed.

During the 1889 Universal Exhibition, Widor premiered a symphony for solo organ (the Eighth). On 11 June 1896, he conducted his Third Symphony for organ and orchestra, op. 69, with his pupil Louis Vierne as soloist.

The Dupré era

In the early 20th century, the organ faced escalating mechanical issues alongside a notable shortage of funds. The passing of Guilmant, regarded as the "unofficial incumbent" in 1911 was followed by the onset of war further compounding the organ's challenges.

In 1920, Saint-Saëns nevertheless scored a triumph with the French premiere of Cyprès et Laurier, in which Gigout played the solo organ.

That same year, Marcel Dupré achieved a feat: he performed the complete works of Bach by heart in ten recitals. Before attempting it at the Trocadéro, where rental costs were high and the hall immense, he had made a very successful first attempt in the more modest hall at the Conservatoire. In the spring, he gave a series of six recitals mixing the works of the masters with his own.

Nevertheless, the state of the instrument was increasingly worse, and Vierne was one of those concerned. In the first French performance of Dupré's Symphonie-Passion on 30 April 1925 to an audience of 3,000, the deterioration was notable. In 1926, having become professor of organ at the Conservatoire in succession to Gigout, he used his additional prestige to raise funds from his colleagues by giving a charity recital. He oversaw the renovation and inaugurated the instrument back to its original state on 2 March 1927. He performed there half a dozen more times, including the premiere of Chemin de la Croix on 14 August 1932. He played a farewell concert there on 14 August 1935, before the building was demolished.

After the Trocadéro

The organ was reborn in 1939 in the new Palais de Chaillot. In 1977, it was moved to the Maurice-Ravel Auditorium in Lyon.

The instrument

Characteristics

The organ features the following:

• Four manual keyboards of 56 notes (C to G) and a 30-note pedalboard (C to F).
• 66 stops on 85 ranks.
• Differentiated pressures within each sound plane, for the sake of balance (Petite Pédale/Grande Pédale/32' divisions on the Pédale, bottom/hip on the GO, bass/upper on the Solo).
• Mechanical traction with two Barker machines.

Combination pedals

• Tirasse G.O.
• Tirasse Positive
• Tirasse Recit
• G.O. stop call
• G.O. reed call

• Recit reed call
• Positive reed call
• Solo-Bombarde reed call
• Pedal reed call
• Copula Pos./G.O.
• Copula Rec/G.O.
• Copula Solo-Bombarde/G.O.
• Copula Rec./Pos.
• Low octaves on G.O.
• Low octaves on Pos.
• Low octaves on Rec.
• Low octaves on Solo-Bombarde
• Orage
• Positive Tremolo
• Trémolo Recit
• Expression Positive
• Expression Recit

Composition

(An): stops controlled by reed switches

Works created on the instrument

(CM = world premiere; CF = French premiere; PEP = first public performance.)

• Marcel Dupré: Symphonie-Passion – CF 30 April 1925, by the composer
• Marcel Dupré: Le Chemin de la Croix – CM 18 March 1932, by the author
• Gabriel Fauré: Requiem, definitive version for soloists, choir, organ, and orchestra – CM 12 July 1900, by Eugène Gigout (organ), the Conservatoire Choir and Orchestra conducted by Paul Taffanel
• César Franck: Three Pieces (Fantasy in A, Cantabile, Pièce héroïque) – CM 1 October 1878, by the composer
• Charles Gounod: La Rédemption, oratorio for recitalists, soloists, choir, organ, and orchestra – CF 3 April 1884
• Charles Gounod: Mors et vita, oratorio for soloists, choir, organ, and orchestra – CF 2 May 1886
• Alexandre Guilmant: Première Symphonie, for organ and orchestra – CM 22 August 1878, by the author
• Alexandre Guilmant: Second Symphony, for organ and orchestra – CM 31 December 1911, by Joseph Bonnet (organ) and the Orchestre Lamoureux, conducted by Camille Chevillard)
• Franz Liszt: Fantasy and Fugue on "Ad nos, ad salutarem undam" – CF 28 September 1878, by Camille Saint-Saëns.
• Camille Saint-Saëns: Cyprès et Lauriers, op. 156, for organ and orchestra – CF 24 October 1920, by Eugène Gigout at the organ and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conducted by Jules Garcin
• Charles-Marie Widor: Grave in C minor (by the author) – CM
• Charles-Marie Widor: Cinquième Symphonie, for solo organ – PEP 19 October 1879, by the author (a private audition had taken place previously)
• Charles-Marie Widor: Sixth Symphony, for solo organ – CM 24 August 1878, by the author
• Charles-Marie Widor: Eighth Symphony, for solo organ – CM 3 July 1879, by the author

See also

• Trocadéro Palace
• Louis Vierne
• Paul Taffanel
• Marcel Dupré
• Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens
• Notre-Dame d'Auteuil

References

1. Le Palais du Trocadéro: le coteau de Chaillot, le nouveau palais, les dix-huit mois de travaux, renseignements techniques (in French). V.A. Morel. 1878.
2. "1878: Palais du Trocadéro | Auditorium – Orchestre National de Lyon". auditorium-lyon.com. Retrieved 2024-07-08.
3. Paris, Société historique d'Auteuil et de Passy (1894). Bulletin de la Société historique d'Auteuil et de Passy (in French).
4. Manufacture de grandes orgues pour églises, chapelles et salons A. Cavaillé-Coll, Charles Mutin élève et successeur. 1923.
5. organist), Norbert Dufourcq (Musicologist and (1943). Le grand orgue du palais de Chaillot, Thêatre national populaire, restauré par V. & F. Gonzalez (in French). Floury.
6. Smith, Rollin (1998). The Aeolian Pipe Organ and Its Music. Organ Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-913499-16-0.
7. ^ Smith, Rollin (1999). Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Pendragon Press. ISBN 978-1-57647-004-6.
8. ^ texte, Manufacture de grandes orgues Cavaillé-Coll (Paris) Auteur du (1834–1878). [Marchés].
9. alaincochard (2016-04-21). "Trois Questions à Claire Delamarche, Conservatrice de l'orgue de l'Auditorium de Lyon – Un orgue mythique". Concertclassic (in French). Retrieved 2024-06-26.
10. "Les noces de Prométhée, Op.19 (Saint-Saëns, Camille) – IMSLP". imslp.org. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
11. Smith, Rollin (1997). Playing the Organ Works of César Franck. Pendragon Press. ISBN 978-0-945193-79-1.
12. Blakeman, Edward (2005). Taffanel: Genius of the Flute. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517099-3.
13. Leupold, Wayne (1999-12-22). The Organ Music of Alexandre Guilmant, Volume I: Pieces in Different Styles, 1st Series (Books 1-6). Alfred Music. ISBN 978-1-4574-5068-6.
14. "Tome XV – 1984 à 1986 – N° 133". Société Historique d'Auteuil et de Passy. 2014-04-01. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
15. texte, Manufacture de grandes orgues Cavaillé-Coll (Paris) Auteur du (1823–1901). [Archives de la Maison Cavaillé-Coll].
16. Steed, Graham (1999). The Organ Works of Marcel Dupré. Pendragon Press. ISBN 978-1-57647-007-7.
17. Hala, Patrick (2023). Les grands organistes: Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, Alexandre Guilmant, Jospeh Bonnet, Charles Tournemire, Maurice Duruflé, Olivier Messiaen, Marcel Dupré, Gaston Litaize (in French). Éditions de Solesmes. ISBN 978-2-85274-349-6.
18. ^ "The works premiered on the instrument | Auditorium – Orchestre National de Lyon". www.auditorium-lyon.com. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
19. Gilbert, David (2001). "Review of Requiem, Op. 48, pour soli, chœur et orchestre symphonique. Version de concert, 1900". Notes. 57 (4): 1018–1020. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 901034.
20. "TROIS PIECES POUR GRAND ORGUE – FRANCK CESAR: 9790201808451". AbeBooks. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
21. ^ "La Rédemption, premier grand oratorio de Gounod laissé dans l'oubli". Carnets d'Erik (in French). 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
22. "Alexandre Guilmant Première symphonie". repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
23. "Saint-Saëns, Camille: Chronologie 1919-1921 | Société Camille Saint-Saëns" (in French). 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2024-07-09.

Notes

1. See the photograph:

Bibliography

• Smith, Rollin (1995). Archbold and, Lawrence; J. Peterson., William (eds.). The Organ of the Trocadéro and Its Players in French Organ Music from the Revolution to Franck and Widor. University of Rochester Pre.
• de la Gaulayrie, Christiane Frain (1986). Heurs et malheurs de la colline de Chaillot (Les orgues du Trocadéro), (S.H.A.P) Tome XV N°4. Bulletin N° 133 de la Société Historique d'Auteuil et de Passy.

External links

• Auditorium-Orchestre national de Lyon
• Old postcards

• 1878 in music
• 1878 establishments in France
• 1870s in Paris
• Individual pipe organs
• Music in Paris
• Music in Lyon
• Classical music in France