Casavant Frères is a Canadian organ building company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building pipe organs since 1879.[1] As of 2014, the company has produced more than 3,900 organs.[2]
Company history
Interior of the pipe shop, 1930
Brothers Joseph-Claver (1855–1933) and Samuel-Marie (1859–1929) got their start in organ building in the shop of their father, Joseph Casavant, under his successor Eusèbe Brodeur. Claver worked with Brodeur during 1874–1878, then went to France for a 14-month apprenticeship with the firm of John Abbey in Versailles.[3] He and Samuel then visited many organs and workshops in western Europe before establishing their factory in 1879 on the site of their father's workshop on rue Girouard in Saint-Hyacinthe.[4][5]
Technical innovations
Casavant's instruments boasted many innovations unique for that time, such as concave pedalboards, balanced expression pedals, keyboard improvements, and other enhancements. Their reputation as organ builders of international status was cemented in 1891 with their construction of the organ for the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, a four-manual organ of eighty-two stops. This organ features adjustable combinations and speaking pipes of thirty-two foot length in the façade.[6]
They won the Grand Prix at the International Exhibition held in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1930. They built organs around the world, including Canada, the United States, France, the West Indies, South and Central America, South Africa, and Japan.[7] Their organs have been praised by many well-known organists over the last 100 years, including Guilmant, Vierne, Widor, Bonnet, Lemare, Dethier, Courboin, Bingham, and many others who inaugurated and played Casavant organs.[citation needed] Casavant organs are also found in colleges, universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Canada.
After the death of the Casavant brothers, the company continued to add innovations to their instruments. These include a particularly reliable key contact and tracker touch mechanism, which is a feature of the Casavant playing action.
During the 1960s, Casavant developed new electronic technology to the capture system of combination actions. In 1960, the company returned to mechanical action technology (while continuing to build electropneumatic action instruments as well) and has since built over two hundred tracker action instruments ranging in size from a single manual portable Continuo of four stops to two, three, and four manual organs.[8]
New technology, such as solid-state coupling and switching systems, multiplex, multi-memory combination actions and MIDI have been adopted. Other improvements, such as more effective expressive enclosures, continue to be made.
The sound and style of Casavant organs has varied throughout the company's history. The Casavant brothers themselves, Samuel and Claver Casavant, reflected mostly influences from contemporary France, but they traveled widely and visited many European instruments. They later brought in an Englishman, Stephen Stoot, under whose direction the tonal palette reflected additional influences from England. Later tonal directors, Lawrence Phelps and Gerhard Brunzema, contributed styles from the German "Organ Reform Movement". The most recent tonal directors, Jean-Louis Coignet and Jacquelin Rochette, are rooted in but not limited to the various French organ building traditions.
Some significant Casavant organs
Opus 452, 1911 (orig), Opus 1841, 1946 (rebuilt), Highland Arts Theatre (formerly St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church), Sydney, Nova ScotiaSaints-Anges Gardiens in Lachine, Montreal, QuebecSaint-Nom-de-Jésus in MontrealNotre-Dame Basilica in Montreal
Opus 78, 1897, Westfield Massachusetts; St. Mary's Church, the oldest Casavant still in use in the United States, orig. Notre Dame Church, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, removed 2005, installed in St. Mary's 2008
Opus 281, 1907; St Marys, Ontario; United Church —upgraded many times over the years, including new pipe work and new console in 1979 and a solid state computer control system about 10 years ago. In 2011, thousands of additional voices and sounds were added by the installation of the Rodgers MX-200 MIDI sound expansion module, giving the organist access to several different 32' pedal stops, amongst other voices
Opus 371, 1909; Opus 2071, 1951/2007, Edmonton, Alberta; First Presbyterian Church of Edmonton
Opus 1397, 1930, Enfield, New Hampshire; Mary Keane Chapel, Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, 3 manuals, 4 divisions, 28 stops, 26 registers, 29 ranks, 1862 pipes
Opus 1424, 1932, Ottawa, Ontario; St. Joseph's Parish & Sanctuary, 3 manuals, 1892 speaking pipes, 24 stops[10]
Opus 1587/1588, 1938, Lewiston, Maine; Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 10 stops and 737 pipes, 53 stops and 4,622 pipes respectively
Opus 1608, 1938, Montreal, Quebec; Saint James United Church, 64 stops, rebuild of Wadsworth 1888 and Warren 1909
Opus 1647, 1940 - see Opus 75
Opus 1659, 1940, Flushing, Long Island, New York; Saint Andrew Avellino Church (Roman Catholic) 43 stops
Opus 1841, 1917 - see Opus 452
Opus 1879, 1921, Halifax, Nova Scotia; St. Matthew's United Church, 59 stops, 61 ranks; new console 1957, revoiced and console digitized 1998
Opus, 1925, War Memorial Pipe Organ in University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; Convocation Hall in memory of 80 University of Alberta comrades who gave up their lives during the Great War, cleaned and reconditioned in 1947[11]
Opus 3079, 1970, Portland, Oregon; Chapel of Lewis & Clark College, 66-stops, probably the only organ in the world which was built entirely suspended from the ceiling
Opus 3105, 1971, Iowa City, Iowa; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 53 stops, 74 ranks – relocated from the University of Iowa's Clapp Recital Hall after the flood of 2008.[16]
Opus 3145, 1972, Providence, Rhode Island; Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, 6,616 pipes, 4 manuals, 126 ranks, 74 stops, largest mechanical action organ in North America
There have been many recordings performed on Casavant Frères organs.
Celebrated Canadian pianist Glenn Gould recorded his 1962 album The Art of the Fugue by Bach (Columbia Records) on a 1960 Casavant Frères organ in All Saints' Kingsway Anglican Church in Toronto – available with other Art of Fugue recordings on Sony 87759. The organ was destroyed by fire in 1966. A new Casavant organ, opus 3874 (2009), replaced it.
^Britishness Abroad: Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures. Academic Monographs. 1 January 2007. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-522-85392-6.
^Delva, Pierre L.; Joan Campbell-Delv (September 2013). The Biography of a New Canadian Family. Vol. 4. Xlibris Corporation. p. 182. ISBN 978-1-4797-7872-0.
^Keillor, Elaine (18 March 2008). Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-7735-3391-2.
^Bouchard, Antoine. "Casavant Frères". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved 2008-12-19.
^ a b cIndustrial Canada. Vol. 31. Canadian Manufacturers' Association. 1930. p. 69.
^Bisby, Adam (30 April 2018). "Who needs Paris? Montreal is the new 'City of Light'". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
^The Hymn. Vol. 63. Hymn Society of America. 2012. pp. 9–11.
^"Forces". Forces. No. 50–56. Société d'édition de la revue forces. 1980. p. 146.
^"Church Organs | St. John Cantius Church | Chicago". St. John Cantius. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
^Byrne, Terry V. (2007). "Where The Spirit Lives: A History of St. Joseph's Parish Ottawa, Ontario 1856-2006". Ottawa: St. Joseph's Parish. ISBN 978-0-9782822-0-2.
^"Updated Statement: Convocation Hall renovation and Memorial Organ". University of Alberta. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
^"Organ keyboard - St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada". Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
^"History". St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica.
^"Organs – Music at St. Michael". Retrieved 2024-05-28.
^"Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch (Episcopal) - New York City". NYC American Guild of Organists.
^Penning, Matthew (16 October 2018). "Clapp Recital Hall's organ finds new home at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church". Iowa City Press-Citizen.
^"Casavant Frères Ltée. (1976)". Pipe Organ Database.
^"Broadway Baptist Church". Casavant Frères. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
^"Casavant Frères Ltée. (Opus 2288, 1955)". Pipe Organ Database. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
^"The King of All Instruments". Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
^"Sound, Soul, Story".
^Littler, William; John Terauds (15 June 2013). Roy Thomson Hall: A Portrait. Dundurn. p. 53. ISBN 978-1-4597-1876-0.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Casavant Frères.
Official website
Casavant Frères at Canadian Encyclopedia
Historica's Heritage Minute video docudrama about Joseph Casavant (Adobe Flash Player)