Louis Debierre

Louis François Debierre (* July 18, 1842 in Nantes ; † June 7, 1920 there ) was a French organ builder and founder of the organ building company of the same name.

Life

The son of a carpenter and cabinet maker did an apprenticeship in his father's business for five years. In 1869 he came to Paris, where he first worked for the organ builder Thébault and later for the Debain harmonium factory . In 1862 he returned to Nantes. Here he built his first organ the following year, which was accepted by Georg Schmitt , the organist of the Great Organ in Saint-Sulpice (Paris) .

He then founded his organ building company in the Chaussée de la Madeleine in Nantes. Since 1871 he produced portable organs, for the construction of which he submitted a patent in 1872 ( un orgue à tuyaux portatif à soufflerie indépendante ), which was granted in 1873. By 1875, he built specially designed production rooms in Rue St-André and Rue St-Clément, which enabled him to practically industrialize individual parts and small instruments. Another invention that also benefited the construction of small, compact organs were organ pipes that could produce several different tones ( nouveaux tuyaux d'orgues à notes multiples , later referred to as tuyaux polyphones ), which he applied for a patent in 1882. Instruments of this design were sent all over the world - to America as well as to Asia and Africa.

In 1888, Debierre finally submitted a patent for an electropneumatic action ( le remplacement de tous les organes mécaniques par des tubes ou des fils conducteurs de l'air comprimé ou de l'électricité ) and is one of the pioneers of this technology alongside Joseph Merklin .

In total, Debierre left behind more than 600 organs in France and many other countries. In 1919 he sold the company to the organ builder Georges Gloton , a student of Jean-Baptiste Ghys in Dijon. In 1947 the company was taken over by his grandson Joseph Beuchet-Debierre , whose son of the same name ran it from 1970 until it closed in 1980.

Works (selection)

year	place	church	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1896	Nantes	Nantes Cathedral , choir organ		III / P	25th	→ Nantes cathedral organs . Largest choir organ in France.

literature

• Michel Cocheril under the guidance of Claire Mussat: Les facteurs d'orgues en Bretagne de 1600 à 1900 . Rennes 1992 (Thèse University of Rennes 2 ).
• Pierre Legal: L'orgue à l'épreuve de l'industrie: la manufacture Debierre . Editions MeMo, Nantes 2005, ISBN 978-2-910391-76-8 .
• Mark Richli: "L'orgue portatif à tuyaux polyphones" by Louis Debierre; in: Musik und Gottesdienst 2/2007 . Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel 2007.

Web links

• Homepage about Louis Debierre (French)