Casavant Frères

Casavant Frères
legal form	Limitée
founding	1879
Seat	Saint-Hyacinthe , Canada
management	Jacquelin Rochette
Branch	Musical instrument making
Website	www.casavant.ca/

Casavant Frères ( French : "Casavant Brothers") is the oldest organ building company in North America still in existence today .

history

The company, which is still significant today, was founded by the Canadian brothers Joseph-Claver (1855–1933) and Samuel-Marie Casavant (1859–1929), the sons of the blacksmith and organ builder Joseph Casavant. The brothers went to France in 1878 , where they studied with John Abbey in Versailles and with Aristide Cavaillé-Coll . They visited organ builders and inspected important organs in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and England. After returning to Canada, they founded the Casavant Frères company in Saint-Hyacinthe in 1879 . The following year her first two-manual organ was created for the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Montreal . Their first three-manual organ, built in 1885 for Saint-Hyacinthe Cathedral , was added to the list of historically important organs in North America by the Organ Historical Society in 1999 .

The four-manual organ for the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal from 1891 found international recognition . In 1895 the first organ in the United States followed in Holyoke , Massachusetts . In addition to other organs in North America, instruments were made in France, the West Indies, South and Central America, South Africa and Japan. In 1930 Casavant Frères was awarded the Grand Prize at the World Exhibition in Antwerp . Casavant organs have been played by organists such as Alexandre Guilmant , Louis Vierne , Charles-Marie Widor , Joseph Bonnet , Edwin Henry Lemare , Gaston Dethier , Charles Courboin and Seth Bingham .

After the death of Claver Casavant, the organist and organ builder Stephen Stoot became the company's artistic director. His organ in the Church of Saint Roch is an early example of a North American organ that matched the ideas of the organ movement .

At the beginning of the 1960s, Casavant returned to organs with mechanical action , with the German organ builder Karl Wilhelm and the Swiss organ builder Hellmuth Wolff playing a key role . Under the artistic direction of Gerhard Brunzema (1972–79), the Casavant organs continued to approach the ideal of the north German baroque organ. Jean-Louis Coignet , artistic director from 1981, brought the symphonic sound conception of French organ building into the company. Jacquelin Rochette has been Coignet's successor since 2004 .

After Claver's death, Casavant Frères was presided over by his brother Samuel's son, Aristide Clave (until 1938), and Samuel's son-in-law, Fred N. Oliver (until 1959). Then followed Jules Laframboise (1959–61), Charles Perrault (1961–71 and 1972–74), Lawrence I. Phelps (1971–72), Paul Falcon (1974–76), Bertin Nadeau (1976–80) and since 1980 Pierre Dionne.

Casavant Frères built their 100th organ in 1899, the 500th in 1912, the 1000th in 1923, and by 1996 there were 3750 instruments.

Works (selection)

year	opus	place	church	Manuals	register	Remarks
1885		Saint-Hyacinthe	Cathédrale Saint-Hyacinthe-le-Confesseur	III / P	38	Mechanical action action, pneumatic stop action, 1885; four manuals, pedal, 41 stops, electropneumatic action, 1912
1891		Saint-François-du-Lac	Église Saint-François-Xavier	II / P	15th	Mechanical action
1891		Sainte Cécile-de-Milton	Église Sainte-Cécile	II / P	16	Mechanical action
1891		Montréal	Notre-Dame de Montréal	IV / P	82
1896		Oswego (New York)	St. Louis Catholic Church	II / P	21st	Mechanical action
1897	79	Montreal	St. George's Anglican Church	III / P	45	Electro-pneumatic action, 2862 pipes, front side organ replacing SR Warren and Sons unsatisfactory organ from 1870
1900	115	Montreal	St. George's Anglican Church	II / P	13	Electro-pneumatic action, gallery organ on the back of the church (solo and echo)
1909	369	Quebec City	Holy Trinity	III / P	45	Electro-pneumatic action, 3058 pipes
1918	741	Quebec City	Notre-Dame-des-Victoires (Québec)	II / P	13	Extensively restored by Guilbault-Thérien in 1988
1919		Baltimore	Charlestown Retirement Center	III / P	35	Electro-pneumatic action
1921	906	Halifax (Nova Scotia)	St. Matthew's United Church			Revised in 1957 and completely renovated in 1998, now as Opus 2409A IVP / 46 with 3252 pipes
1923		Charlottetown	St. Dunstan's Basilica
1927	1192	La Baie	St-Alphonse de Liguori	II / P	17th	pneumatic action
1927	1217	Quebec City	Notre-Dame de Quebec	IV / P	70	Main organ, electro-pneumatic action, restored in 1983/84 by the Guilbault-Thérien company; 2 other organs in this church also by Casavant Frères
1936	1518	Charlottetown	St. Paul's Anglican Church	III / P	34	Electro-pneumatic action
1938		Lewiston (Maine)	Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul	IV / P	53	Electro-pneumatic action
		Monroe (Michigan)	Immaculate Heart of Mary Motherhouse	III / P	51	Electro-pneumatic action
1955	2256	Charlottetown	Trinity Church (Charlottetown)	III / P	48	English romantic organ with baroque adaptations, 2978 pipes
1957	2409A	Halifax (Nova Scotia)	St. Matthew's United Church	IV / P	57	(1921 as Opus 906), revised in 1957 and completely renovated in 1998, with 3252 pipes
1960	2570	Halifax	St. Mary's Basilica	III / P	38	Electro-pneumatic action, 2856 pipes

literature

Antoine Bouchard: Canada's Oldest Organbuilding Firm . In: The Tracker . tape 43 , no. 2 , 1999, p. 9-20 .

Norbert Dufourcq : Beckerath et Casavant. In: L'Orgue . No. 102 , 1962, pp. 38-42 .

Kurt Ludwig Forg: opposites combined with ease . Casavant Frères - 100 years of successful Canadian organ building. In: Organ - journal for the organ . tape 4 , no. 1 , 2001, p. 4-11 .

Stephen Pinel: Casavant (Frères Limitée), family . In: Music in the past and present 2 . Person part band 4 . Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel / Stuttgart 2000, Sp. 342-345.

Tom Stocker and Stan Scheer: Casavant Celebrates 125th Anniversary . In: The American Organist . tape 39 , no. 1 , 2005, p. 72 .

Web links

Commons : Casavant Frères pipe organs - Collection of images, videos and audio files