Saint Honoré d'Eylau

Orgue polyphone de la crypte

This crypt has the same dimensions as the church, with an apse and a semi-circular ambulatory, in the neo-Romanesque style. The initial decoration, made in 1928, disappeared about fifty years later. Built by Paul Marbeau, an architect and disciple of Gustave Eiffel, it surprises with its arcades, its metal columns and its ceiling height of nearly 5 meters. The Stations of the Cross were carved in white stone.

19xx - Louis Debierre (1) xxxx - Dargassies (5)

The organ in the crypt is an ‘orgue-polyphone’ , built by Louis Debierre. The Trompette is replaced by a "clariton", a kind of Plein-jeu progressif with a Tierce (info: Xavier Lebrun, facebook) There is the possibility of registering a combination through a simple but effective system. The keyboard is a transposing one fifth above and one third below. More info Thanks to Antoine Doucy for the information

Composition Bourdon16 Bourdon8 Voix Céleste Flûte harmonique 8 Violoncelle 8 B/D Flûte octav 4 B/D Clairon 4 B/D Combinaison B/D Vidéo Antoine Doucy Photos: Jeroen de Haan At the request of many parishes, which could not afford a pipe organ, Louis Debierre designed an instrument that resembled a large harmonium, but which in fact contained spectacular tricks and innovations. Thus, starting from the principle that in basses we never use joint notes, the lowest pipes can give 3 different notes, by an ingenious system of small bellows. This, of course, saves volume. Similarly, it halves the length of the bottom stops, by playing with the air pressure and the mouthpieces. Of course, the sound quality is not the same as a real 8-foot stop. The pipes of the trumpet are wonderfully angled to enter the cabinet. Debierre made about 500 of them, which are mainly found in Loire-Atlantique, but there were many installed in the former French colonies, with a special "tropicalized" treatment. (texte : Roger Martin) An other example of the sound of a Polyphone (Schoonhoven, Pays-Bas)