| Aristide Cavaille-coll |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ARISTIDE CAVAILLé-COLL | |
| pipe organ builders | |
| cavaillé-coll, aristide | |
| 1811 births | |
| 1899 deaths | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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LIFE Born in Montpellier , France to Dominique, one in a line of organ builders, he showed early talent in mechanical innovation. He exhibited an outstanding fine art when designing and building his famous instruments. There is a before and an after Cavaillé-Coll. His organs are "symphonic organs", that is, they can reproduce the sounds of other instruments and combine them as well. His largest and greatest organ is in Saint-Sulpice , Paris . Featuring 100 stops and five manuals, this magnificent instrument is a candidate to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Cavaillé-Coll was also well known for his financial problems. The art of his handcrafted instruments, unparalleled at that time, was not enough to ensure the firm's survival. His firm was acquired in 1898, shortly before his death in Paris, by Charles Mutin . He continued in the organ business, but by World War II , the firm had almost disappeared. ORGAN BUILDING INNOVATIONS Cavaillé-Coll is responsible for many innovations that revolutionized the face of organ building, performance, and composition. Cavaillé-Coll placed the Grand Orgue manual as the lowest manual instead of the Positif, and included couplers that allowed the entire tonal resources of the organ to be played from the Grand Orgue. He refined the English (proclaimed a basilica by Pope Leo XII in 1897) was the first to be built with several of these new features. Consequently, it influenced the works of César Franck , who was the titular organist there. The organ works of Franck have influenced generations of organist-composers who came after him. LEGACY Marcel Dupré stated once that " Composing for an Orchestra is quite different than composing for an organ... with exception of Mr. Cavaillé-Coll's symphonic organs, in that case one has to observe an extreme attention when writing for such kind of majestic instruments." Almost a century beforehand, César Franck had ecstatically greeted his discovery of a Cavaillé-Coll instrument with words that sum up everything the builder was trying to do: ''"Mon nouvel orgue? C'ést une orchestre!"'' ("My new organ? It's an orchestra!") EXISTING CAVAILLé-COLL ORGANS
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