Victor Gonzalez (organ builder)

Victor Gonzalez (born December 2, 1877 in Hacinas ( Burgos province , Spain), † June 3, 1956 in Paris ) was a French organ builder and representative of the neoclassical organ.

Life

Gonzalez was born in Spain. He was one of the last students of Aristide Cavaillé-Coll and learned the basics of organ building in his company from 1894. From 1899 to 1905 he deepened his knowledge with Merklin-Gutschenritter. He then worked at Limonaire Frères, who specialized in mechanical musical instruments, then as a voicer with Gustave Masure. In 1921 Gonzalez started his own workshop in Paris, which was relocated to Châtillon-sous-Bagneux in 1929 . His brother Fernand joined the company in 1930. In addition to building new organs, they rebuilt numerous organs in the neoclassical style, particularly romantic organs. Around 200 new buildings and restorations can be traced back to the company.

Together with the organist and musicologist Norbert Dufourcq and the organist André Marchal , who promoted him, Gonzalez founded the French neoclassical organ ("orgue néo-classique"). Between 1930 and 1960 it formed a counter-movement to the romantic, symphonic organ, which reached its climax in Cavaillé-Coll. Gonzalez pursued the concept of a universal organ with other tractor systems , dispositions and sound ideals. He resorted to the principles of classical French organ building and pushed back the influence of Cavaillé-Coll in order to arrive at the most authentic "Bach organ" possible.

Gonzalez was seriously injured in a car accident. He died a few months later after both legs had to be amputated. After his death, Georges Danion continued the company in the spirit of Gonzalez. The “Danion-Gonzalez” workshop was relocated to the Vosges in 1964 . Since 1980 the company has been operating under the name “La Manufacture Languedocienne de Grandes Orgues” under the management of Georges Danion and Annik Danion-Gonzalez.

List of works (selection)

In the fifth column, the Roman number indicates the number of manuals , a capital "P" indicates an independent pedal , a lower-case "p" indicates a pedal that is only attached. The Arabic number indicates the number of sounding registers . The last column provides information on the state of preservation and links with further information. Italic writing indicates that the organ is no longer preserved or only the historical case.

year	place	building	image	Manuals	register	Remarks
1929	Dieppe (Seine-Maritime)	St. Jaques		III / P	44
1930	Paris	St-Nicolas-des-Champs		V / P	58	Renewal of the organ by François-Henri Clicquot (1777)
1932	Meaux	Meaux Cathedral		II / P	33	Restoration and remodeling
1932	Paris	St-Eustache		IV / P	84	Restoration and extension of the Ducroquet organ (1854); Replaced in 1989
1933	Bailleul (North)	Église Saint-Vaast				Expanded in 1991
1934	Le Vésinet	Église Saint-Marguerite		III / P	31
1935	Lyon	Maurice Ravel Auditorium		IV / P	82	Revision of the organ of Cavaillé-Coll (1878, originally in the Palais du Trocadéro ) → Organ of the Auditorium Maurice Ravel
1935-1936	Bayonne	Bayonne Cathedral		III / P	53	Revision of the romantic organ by Merklin-Schütze (1865) in the style of neoclassicism
1936	Versailles	Castle chapel		IV / P	37	Reconstruction of the organ by Robert Clicquot (1711); Replaced in 1995
1937	Laroque-d'Olmes	Église du Saint-Sacrement		IV / P	30th
1937-1938	Reims	Reims Cathedral		IV / P	86	New building incorporating older registers
1947	Paris	St-Merry		IV / P	63	Reconstruction of the organ by Jean and François de Heman (1650) / Cavaillé-Coll (1857)
1948	Rennes	Église Sainte-Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus		II / P	21st	New building
1948	Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine)	Église Saint-Martin		III / P	43
1952	La Madeleine (North)	Église Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes		III / P	41
1954-1955	Vincennes	Église Saint-Louis		II / P	18th	New construction of the small organ
1956	Soissons	Soissons Cathedral		III / P	67	New building with barker machines

literature

• Georges Danion: Origine du développement de l'orgue neoclassique français. In: L'Orgue . No. 276, 2006, pp. 131-142.
• Victor Gonzalez - Master Builder. In: Organ Institute Quarterly. Vol. 6/7, 1956, pp. 17-31.
• Gonzalez, Victor (1877-1956) . In: Douglas E. Bush, Richard Kassel (Eds.): The Organ. To Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York, London 2006, ISBN 0-415-94174-1 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
• L'Orgue. No. 81, 1956, pp. 97-148. [Tribute to Victor Gonzalez.]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michel François (ed.): Gonzalez, Victor. In: Encyclopédie de la musique. Vol. 2. Fasquelle, Paris 1959, p. 304.
2. ↑ Kurt-Ludwig Forg: Symphonic or orchestral? The Aristide Cavaillé-Colls symphonic organ - an orchestral organ? In: Organ - journal for the organ . 4/1999, p. 16.
3. ↑ Christopher S. Anderson (ed.): Twentieth-century organ music. Routledge, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-415-87565-3 , p. 19.
4. ^ Rollin Smith: Louis Vierne. Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral. Pendragon Press, Hillsdale 1999. ISBN 1-57647-004-0 , p. 218.
5. ↑ Homepage Manufacture Languedocienne de Grandes Orgues , accessed on January 10, 2015.
6. ^ Organ in Paris, St-Nicolas-des-Champs , accessed on January 10, 2015.
7. ^ Organ in Versailles , accessed on January 10, 2015.