GALLERY
I. Grand OrGueMontre 16
Montre 8
Bourdon 8
Flûte harmonique 8
Prestant 4
Flûte 4
Quinte 22/3
Doublette 2
Cornet V 8
Grand Plein Jeu III-V 22/3
Fourniture IV-V 11/3
Cymbale III 1/2
Bombarde 16
Trompette 8
Chamades I
Chamades II
II. POsItIf (enclOsed)Quintaton 16
Principal 8
Bourdon 8
Flûte harmonique 8
Prestant 4
Flûte à cheminée 4
Nazard 22/3
Doublette 2
Tierce 13/5
Larigot 11/3
Plein Jeu IV 11/3
Cymbale IV 2/3
Basson 16
Trompette 8
Cromorne 8
Clairon 4
Trémolo
Chamades I
Chamades II
III. récIt (enclOsed)Bourdon doux 16
Diapason 8
Viole de gambe 8
Voix celeste (GG) 8
Flûte traversière 8
Cor de nuit 8
Voix éolienne (t.c.) 8
Octave 4
Flûte octaviante 4
Nazard harmonique 22/3
Octavin 2
Cornet V 8
Fourniture III 1
Cymbale III 1/2
Bombarde 16
Trompette harmonique 8
Hautbois 8
Voix humaine 8
Clairon harmonique 4
Trémolo
Chamades I
Chamades II
G.C. high pressure stops on Récit
IV. Grand chœur (enclOsed)Bourdon 16
Violon 8
Voix celeste (t.c.) 8
Bourdon 8
Grand Nazard 51/3
Violon 4
Flûte ouverte 4
Grande Tierce 31/5
Nazard 22/3
Septième 22/7
Quarte de Nazard 2
Tierce 13/5
Piccolo 1
Clarinette 8
Trémolo
Trombone 16
Trompette harmonique 8
Clairon harmonique 4
Cloches
Chamades I
Chamades II
(in separate box on higher pressure)
Diapason 8
Octave 4
Mixture III-V 2
Cor français 8
chamades (flOatInG)Dessus de Bombarde 16
Basse de Trompette 8
Dessus de Trompette 8
2e Trompette 8
3e Trompette 8
Basse de Clairon 4
Dessus de Clairon 4
(all chamade stops duplicated in groups
I and II)
PédaleMontre (ext.) 32
Soubasse (ext. G.C.) 32
Contrebasse 16
Montre 16
Montre (G.O.) 16
Soubasse 16
Bourdon (G.C.) 16
Grande Quinte * 102/3
Octave 8
Violoncelle * 8
Flûte * 8
Bourdon 8
Grande Tierce * 62/5
Quinte * 51/3
Grande Septième * 44/7
Octave 4
Flûte * 4
Contre-Bombarde (ext.) 32
Bombarde 16
Basson 16
Clarinette * 16
Trompette 8
Trompette-en-Chamade 8
Clairon 4
Clairon-en-Chamade 4
* = enclosed, extended one octave from
affiliated Grand Chœur rank
Attached console: mechanical action with
optional electric coupling; each division
always plays mechanically from its home
manual
Stage console: electro-pneumatic action,
with sub and super couplers, adjustable
pedal divide, sostenuto, and other
features (SSOS)
La Maison Symphonique, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaCASAVANT FRèReS, OP. 3900 (2014)
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GALLERY
on four rather than three levels. What
comes across as a bit linear and lacking
in brilliance from the floor becomes
scintillating as heard in the top balcony.
In true 21st-century fashion, acoustical
adjustability is comprehensive. Many
new halls have moveable canopies over
the stage area, to fine-tune early reflections
from musicians to audience (in the
process earning nicknames such as
‘Enterprise’ or ‘the Mothership’). At
Montreal, the entire ceiling is segmented
into canopies, all of which lower, tilt
and slope. Retreating curtains muffle
reverberation as deemed necessary.
With walls clad in layers of beech wood
and sculpted off-white accent stripes, the
hall has an airy Nordic elegance. A mere
three experiences are hardly sufficient
to claim actual acquaintance. However,
between hearing it at its most live, for
the Canadian International Organ
Competition last October, then again this
February, with many canopies down and
half the curtains deployed (the instrument
now beautifully demonstrated by house
organist Jean-Willy Kunz), it was clear that,
even damped, Montreal has fundamentally
active acoustics, with warmth and buoy-
ancy: a big, resonant slice of lemon cake.
Acoustics become critical when
discussing the work of Casavant tonal
director Jacquelin Rochette. To expect a
barn-burning hoedown of an organ from
Rochette is to expect a building in the
style of Frank Gehry from Renzo Piano.
Rochette’s approach – indeed, his very
soul – is too moderate for flag-waving. His
tonal relationships are both subtle and
tightly organised, recalling the approach
of Flentrop at Holy Name Chicago or
even G. Donald Harrison in his larger,
multi-mixtured palettes. When the space
cooperates even if the reverberation
doesn’t, Rochette’s style works: Principia
College in Elsah, Illinois, remains a high
point. If the reverberation is there but the
space isn’t, as with the Kauffman Center
in Kansas City, Rochette’s subtleties and
structures can end up resembling an intri-
cate herringbone seen from too great a
distance: a single pane of colour.
In Montreal, the instrument unquestion-
ably connects to the room and comes across
clearly. Despite the Gallic scheme (plenty
of pleins jeux for the fingers, none for la
pauvre Pédale), one would not mistake this
for a French organ, although there is a kind
of Frenchness to certain relationships. For
instance, the Pédale’s own flues are clear
and warm, none of them bellowing in the
big American or English manner. What
roaring the Pédale does stems partly from
coupled manual reed basses, partly from
its own independent battery. The manual
fluework at first seems restrained, though
definitely favouring the treble such that
melodies remain present and accounted
for, even if nothing quite takes off like the
Concorde of Cavaillé-Coll. Quieter founda-
tion stops, particularly the strings, are finely
voiced and add up richly, not in the slotted
manner of 1875, but to a clear, colourful
sound. Deserving special mention are the
Récit Cor de nuit (capped, wide-scale) and
Voix éolienne (narrower, with chimneys)
for their hypnotic, spinning celeste.
Oliver Latry served as project consult-
ant, and his influence is seen particularly
in the Grand Chœur. Its high-pressure
section isn’t stentorian (remembering again
The electric-action stage console has additional sub and super couplers, as well as sostenuto and pedal divide functions
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gallery
Rochette’s sense of proportion), merely
fuller in scale and voicing than the other
departments. The chorus rounds out the
leanness of those elsewhere; the French
Horn is considered both as solo voice and
a fonds d’orgue booster shot; the mutations
lie much in the Notre Dame-Cochereau
tradition. What really works is Latry’s idea
of extending certain ranks one octave into
the Pedal. The 32ft mutations do exactly
what is expected, while the 16ft Clarinette is
a model of evenness and promptness. Being
enclosed seems a bonus, and the whole idea
is a clever spin on the Résonance concept.
And, if one starts with the 8ft Montre and
thinks ‘is that all?’, the tutti totally delivers,
with brilliance and blaze in good measure.
For those who hear with their eyes, this
organ is one chic lady: sheathed in a strap-
less tin gown, adorned with twin curving
consoles like chokers, and stretching out
a hand for the kissing with her retractable
chamade trumpets. Yes, retractable! With
Latry as consultant, a battery of chamades
was inevitable, and these are really on the
move. Three ranks are involved, 8 and 4
plus a 16 from middle C, formed in treble
and bass groups. While the left-hand
cluster stays put, the larger right bank rolls
in and out on a screw-driven platform.
The commute occurs at a stately enough
pace that tuning is not disturbed, and once
parked inside, the chamades assume the
power of the Grand Orgue reeds. With
another touch of the toe-stud, the wood
panel slides away and out comes the artil-
lery again. Patently unnecessary, maybe a
little silly, and completely wonderful.
The façade reflects an even greater
leap of engineering, since the pipes don’t
Sheathed in a strapless tin gown, adorned with twin curving consoles, this organ is one chic lady
The façade and steel supports as seen from below
rest on anything. Each pipe is formed
to continue its tubular shape down to a
bottom bias cut, then bolted to a project-
ing steel frame. The console begins to show
the scale — that’s 32ft DDDD# hanging
mid-air on the left. In all, the façade is 15
tonnes of steel and tin made to look like a
floating arc, dramatically lit for concerts.
The elegantly curving consoles respond
to room details as does Glatter-Götz’s
winged fir at Walt Disney Hall or Dobson’s
notched cello for Verizon. Inside, the
instrument is built up on spacious levels:
winding and action on the bottom, Positif
and big pedal next, Grand Orgue and
Grand Chœur above that, and Récit at the
top. A generous spiral staircase, with octag-
onal newel post, welcomes the visitor.
Concert organs seem routinely supplied
with attached tracker consoles, which are
then rarely used. Some question whether
attached consoles and mechanical action
are necessary, but this organ argues the
case as persuasively as any. Of course, this
is hardly a pure tracker organ: even played
from the attached console, some registers
are fully electric, including certain Pédale
ranks, the high-pressure Grand Chœur and
the chamades. Rochette’s approach, while
not so wind efficient as, say, Paul Fritts
or Fritz Noack, isn’t gulpingly consump-
tive either, and this makes four unassisted
coupled manuals perfectly manageable.
The centralised console location and
short tracker runs belie the instrument’s
scale, and the sense of connectedness is
true. Optional electric control is engaged
division-by-division for the upper three
manuals, affecting only how those depart-
ments couple, not how they play from
their home manuals. Thus every keyboard
retains its tracker connection and feel.
Inside and out, piano to tutti, this organ
has the feel of a benchmark. Casavant is
a firm whose identity fluctuates across a
wide range of projects. But in this instance,
they are the old-guard local builder doing
their best work for a home audience, with
complete support from government, archi-
tect and acoustician. A grand circumstance
has been done proper justice.
www.casavant.ca
Jonathan Ambrosino is an organ technician, consultant and journalist in Boston.
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