Saint Sulpice

Place Saint Sulpice, 75006 Paris

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Saint-Sulpice is one of the largest churches in Paris, only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame. It was built on the place of a small shrine dedicated to Saint- Sulpice-des-Champs, which dates back to the 12th century. It was enlarged in the 14th and 16th centuries. The construction of a new church begun in 1646 and was not completed until 1745. The classic Italian-style façade (1732) was designed by Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni. The south tower was never completed (due the the revolution). The interior decoration of the building is typical of neo-classical churches with its abundant statuary. The many works of art were created by the most talented artists of the time (Jean-Baptiste Louis- Simon Boizot, Bouchardon, Slodtz brothers). The remains of Charles Marie Widor lie in the crypt.

C2 1776-1781 The organ of Saint-Sulpice began to take shape in 1776. Two designs for the organ case are presented: the first, by the architect Laurent, where there were no apparent pipes - a new fashion - and the second, a drawing by Jean-François Chalgrin. The churchwardens opted for the second project because, in their opinion, it was more in harmony with the vast stone gallery built on Servandoni's plans. On January 1, 1778, a contract was signed with master carpenter Jadot (20,000 pounds) and sculptor Duret (16,000 pounds) for the making of the organ case. As for the organ, the proposition was prepared by François-Henri Clicquot and revised by Dom François Bédos while the contract was signed on January 1, 1780, for the sum of 40,000 pounds. The organ was completed by Clicquot on April 30, 1781. The referees appointed were the three organists of Notre-Dame, Armand-Louis Couperin, Claude Balbastre and Nicolas Séjan, assisted by Jean-Jacques Charpentier. Dom Bédos, who had been so passionate about the construction of the monumental instrument, had been dead for two years. The official inauguration took place on 15 May 1781 and, in the face of public interest, a second hearing was held the following day. The Clicquot organ had 64 stops, 5 keyboards, a 36-note pedal and 4,328 pipes powered by fourteen bellows. During the Revolution, Clicquot's masterpiece was fortunately preserved. 1834-1845 Restoration of the instrument begun by Louis Callinet in 1834. This organ builder was plagued by financial difficulties and abandoned the project in 1838. The restoration of the organ was then entrusted to the Daublaine and Callinet establishments. The latter did not complete the work and it was finally the organ builder Pierre- Alexandre Ducroquet who completed the restoration work. • Removed multiple rows of full decks • Added reed stops •Addition of a Barker machine. The restored organ was received in April 1846. It had 65 stops. 1855-1863 Following this restoration, neither the parish nor the organist were satisfied with the instrument. In 1855, they hired Aristide Cavaillé-Coll to ensure the voicing and maintenance of the instrument. Almost immediately, Cavaillé-Coll prepared a project for a complete reconstruction of the instrument by reusing existing material. After five years of work, Cavaillé-Coll delivered, in the Chalgrin case, an instrument with 100 stops, spread over no less than 7 floors. The magnificent terrace console brought a great innovation which consists in entrusting the drawing of the stops to the Barker machines. This innovation allows, among other things, to memorize a registration in addition to the stops prepared with the double layes system. From the Clicquot organ, he retained about 40 ranks of pipes, including mixtures and reeds. This is about 2/3 of the original instrument. He also kept 7 windchests but converted them to include a second set of valves to optimize the wind supply. From Callinet, he kept the Trompette en chamade, a few bassoons and rows of reeds. He also kept the Barker machine, which he installed on the Récit. All the mechanics were rebuilt as well as the ventilation and air supply systems. The latter were equipped with different air pressures for the bass and treble in addition to having higher pressures for the reeds than for the bottom stops. Each division has its own Barker machine while a general machine is in charge of couplings. The great organ is distributed over seven floors, from the floor of the gallery to the vault, at a height of 18 metres (59 ft). Four floors are occupied by the mechanism and the other three by the pipes. The inauguration of this monumental organ took place on 29 April 1863 with the participation of César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Alexandre Guilmant, Auguste Bazille and the titular organist, Georges Schmitt. In 1863, a storm pedal, a nightingale and the hail engine were added at the request of Lefébure-Wély. 1883 The first cleaning was carried out by Cavaillé-Coll himself and some minor modifications were made mainly to ensure a better supply of wind to the lower notes of the Récit. 1903 Charles Mutin undertook a major restoration of the instrument and made changes at Widor's request: • small changes in the composition of the instrument: the Clarinet of the Positif was replaced by an 8' Baritone and the Euphone 8' of the same keyboard by a 16' Basson. Three new stops were introduced by exchange: an 8' Diapason on the Récit, a 2 2/7' Seventh and an 8' Chamade Trumpet on the Solo keyboard. • the order of the keyboards at the console was changed. While the I Grand Choeur and II Grand-Orgue remained in the same place, tghe Bombarde's division, placed on the Third Manual, was moved to the Fifth Manual and took the name of Solo. The division of the Récit, hitherto on the Fifth Manual, was transferred to the Fourth Manual. Finally, the division of Positif, originally speaking on the Fourth Keyboard, is moved to the Third Manual. 1933 Widor's only criticism was that the Pedal division was still too small with only 12 stops. To mark his retirement in 1933, the parish offered him two additional sets for the Pedal, a 16' and 8' Principal, installed by Pleyel-Cavaillé-Coll, outside the case on pneumatic chests with purses. 1988-1991 Jean Renaud carried out a thorough dusting of the instrument, with the utmost respect for its authenticity. 2000 An overhaul by Swiderski. This organ is an authentic Cavaillé-Coll and one of the few larger organs of this builder which is NOT electrified! It is a magnificant instrument, in a church with very good acoustiscs. Site of the organ

Organiste titulaire

Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin & Karol Mossakowski, titulaires du grand-orgue Daniel Roth, titulaire émérite du grand-orgue Louis Jullien, titulaire de l’orgue de choeur Anciens organistes titulaires : Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (1651 - 1702) J.B. Totin (1702 - ca. 1714) Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (1715-1749) César François Clérambault (1749 - 1760) Evrard Dominique Clérambault (1761 - 1773) Claude Etienne Luce (1773 - 1783) Nicolas Séjan (1783 - 1819) Louis Nicolas Séjan (1819 - 1849) Georges Schmitt (1850 - 1863) Louis-James-Alfred Lefebure-Wely (1863 - 1869) Charles-Marie Widor (1870 - 1934) Marcel Dupré (1934 - 1971) Jean-Jacques Grunenwald (1973 - 1982) Concerts Sunday 10:45 AM Prelude of the mass of 11 AM Audition Sundays at 10 AM or 4 PM Masses with great organ Sunday 11.00 AM Videos Karol Mossakowski Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin Sophie Veronique Cauchefer Choplin Daniel Roth Jean-Jacques Grunenwald Marcel Dupré Audio (Festivo) Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin All organs built before the revolution Photo above: Jeroen de Haan Other photos: Victor Weller