Notre Dame: an organic tribute — jessicamusic.blogspot.com

The musical legacy of Notre Dame de Paris extends back as far as the history of music itself. That the cathedral is still standing at all after yesterday's inferno seems little short of miraculous - though of course it is actually thanks to the tireless efforts of the city's firefighters: four hundred of them risked their lives during this task and one has been seriously injured. What the state will be of the great organ, reputed to be one of the best in the world, remains to be seen; some reports this morning say it is presumed lost, another that it has been 'affected', still another that it is 'intact'. The latest I've read is that it may have sustained damage from the water used to battle the flames, but has not been burnt. There is little clarity at present, but France Musique is trying to find out what's happened to it and promises its Twitter followers an update as soon as possible (follow @francemusique). We watch this space with anxiety and hope.Notre Dame's Cavaillé-Coll organ was inaugurated in 1868 and built using pipes from the previous instrument - which originates far earlier than the French Revolution, from which it bears some scars. Indeed, early mentions of the organ go back to 1357, and François Thierry constructed a new one in 1730-33, which was then renovated and extended by Cliquot in the 1780s before Cavaillé-Coll transformed it 80 years later. Successive restorations and reworkings have taken place across the intervening years, translating the instrument's power according to the capabilities of modern technology; most recently, in 2010-14, Bertrand Cattiaux and Pascal Quoirin gave it an overhaul which included a new computer traction. It still has 33 pipes from the pre-Revolution instrument and around 50 by Cavaillé-Coll.In tribute, here it is, played by its current organist Olivier Latry, in Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor.You can see a fascinating film about the organ featuring Latry, at this link.(Photo above from Wikipedia)

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