Loading AI tools
Canadian pipe organ company From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Casavant Frères is a Canadian organ building company in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, which has been building pipe organs since 1879.[1] As of 2014, the company has produced more than 3,900 organs.[2]
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Organ building |
| Founded | 1879 in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec |
| Founders | Joseph-Claver and Samuel-Marie Casavant |
| Headquarters | Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec , Canada |
Areas served | Worldwide |
| Products | Pipe organs |
| Website | www |
Brothers Joseph-Claver (1855–1933) and Samuel-Marie (1859–1929) got their start in organ building in the shop of their father, Joseph Casavant, under his successor Eusèbe Brodeur. Claver worked with Brodeur during 1874–1878, then went to France for a 14-month apprenticeship with the firm of John Abbey in Versailles.[3] He and Samuel then visited many organs and workshops in western Europe before establishing their factory in 1879 on the site of their father's workshop on rue Girouard in Saint-Hyacinthe.[4][5]
Casavant's instruments boasted many innovations unique for that time, such as concave pedalboards, balanced expression pedals, keyboard improvements, and other enhancements. Their reputation as organ builders of international status was cemented in 1891 with their construction of the organ for the Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, a four-manual organ of eighty-two stops. This organ features adjustable combinations and speaking pipes of thirty-two foot length in the façade.[6]
They won the Grand Prix at the International Exhibition held in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1930. They built organs around the world, including Canada, the United States, France, the West Indies, South and Central America, South Africa, and Japan.[7] Their organs have been praised by many well-known organists over the last 100 years, including Guilmant, Vierne, Widor, Bonnet, Lemare, Dethier, Courboin, Bingham, and many others who inaugurated and played Casavant organs.[citation needed] Casavant organs are also found in colleges, universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Canada.
After the death of the Casavant brothers, the company continued to add innovations to their instruments. These include a particularly reliable key contact and tracker touch mechanism, which is a feature of the Casavant playing action.
During the 1960s, Casavant developed new electronic technology to the capture system of combination actions. In 1960, the company returned to mechanical action technology (while continuing to build electropneumatic action instruments as well) and has since built over two hundred tracker action instruments ranging in size from a single manual portable Continuo of four stops to two, three, and four manual organs.[8]
New technology, such as solid-state coupling and switching systems, multiplex, multi-memory combination actions and MIDI have been adopted. Other improvements, such as more effective expressive enclosures, continue to be made.
The sound and style of Casavant organs has varied throughout the company's history. The Casavant brothers themselves, Samuel and Claver Casavant, reflected mostly influences from contemporary France, but they traveled widely and visited many European instruments. They later brought in an Englishman, Stephen Stoot, under whose direction the tonal palette reflected additional influences from England. Later tonal directors, Lawrence Phelps and Gerhard Brunzema, contributed styles from the German "Organ Reform Movement". The most recent tonal directors, Jean-Louis Coignet and Jacquelin Rochette, are rooted in but not limited to the various French organ building traditions.
There have been many recordings performed on Casavant Frères organs.
Celebrated Canadian pianist Glenn Gould recorded his 1962 album The Art of the Fugue by Bach (Columbia Records) on a 1960 Casavant Frères organ in All Saints' Kingsway Anglican Church in Toronto – available with other Art of Fugue recordings on Sony 87759. The organ was destroyed by fire in 1966. A new Casavant organ, opus 3874 (2009), replaced it.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
