Here is what I did to create the organ out of (mostly) two smaller ones:
First, I have not recreated the multiple acoustic properties of Piotr's two Cavaillé-Coll organs. Both of his organs contain three complete sets of samples: front, rear, and dry. I have used only the wet samples recorded in these churches closest to the organ. Piotr calls these "front" samples, even though they were actually recorded in the rear of the churches - since the organs are both in the rear church galleries. These are wet samples with plenty of reverberation. If you really need more, I suggest you add your own - using either your own software or Hauptwerk's inherent reverberation capability.
The Grand-Orgue is essentially the one from the Orolon organ. However, I made a few changes. I added the 4’ flute from the Begard’s Récit. I created the 2 2/3’ Quint using pipes from the 4’ Prestant with a bit of additional voicing to bring it in line with the ensemble. I substituted the 2’ Doublette from the Begard instrument because I liked it a lot more. It is brighter and adds a lot to the principal chorus. I also substituted the Plein jeu from the Begard instrument. The corresponding Plein jeu in the Orolon organ is a “Plein jeu harmonique” which means it has no (or few, at least) cutbacks. This gives it a muddy sound in the low range that is not what I am used to hearing from such organs. The Plein jeu from Begard is a more standard one for this era and has a good overall sound. In a larger Cavaillé-Coll organ there would have been two mixtures in the Grande-Orgue; a Fournture and a Cymbale. Mine is a medium sized organ so I wanted use a single mixture. Finally, I created a 16’ Bombarde from the Trompette rank. The Grande-Orgue really needs this heavier bass reed. As shown below, the Orolon 16’ Basson did not go to waste.
The Récit has, at its core, the division from the Orolon organ. However, I needed to add quite a few stops here to bring it in line with what is expected in a three-manual Cavaillé-Coll instrument. The 16’ Quintaton comes from the 16’ Bourdon in the Grande-Orgue in Begard, revoiced of course. The 8’ Diapason also comes from the Begard Grande-Orgue. The Sesquialtera comes from the Begard’s Récit. I created the Plein jeu IV from nine copies of the Begard Grande-Orgue Doublette. I used a published mixture composition table from a similar stop in the Cavaillé-Coll magnum opus in San Sulpice, Paris.
For the reeds, I used the Basson 16’ I saved from the Orolone Grand-Orgue. It is much better placed in the Récit. The Clarinet, as mentioned above, is the sole rank from the Cracow organ. I used the Clarion from the Begard organ to round out the reeds.
The Positif is an entirely new division. It is completely based on the Positif at Saint Sernin. Most of the pipework comes from the Begard organ, revoiced to be softer and bit brighter. The one exception is the 8’ Monte, which is derived from the Begard. I created the interesting Carillon mixture stop from documentation of the one at Saint Sernin. This is an odd stop that is supposed to give the effect of a glockenspiel over the manual’s chorus. It has a 1’ rank for much of its compass.
The Pédale is mostly a union of the pedal divisions from Orolon and Begard. I added the two 32’ stops and I load them with a truncated release to stop them from reverberating for 10 seconds! Since I had two Soubasse ranks to play with, I revoiced one into what I call a “Petit soubasse.” This is not something Cavaillé-Coll actually did. Even some of his largest organs had only two 16’ flue stops in the Pédale. I did this for myself so I can have a softer 16’ for other genres of organ music. One of the nice things about the Begard and Orolon sample sets is that one has a 16’ Bombarde and the other a 16’ Basson. Hence, my organ can have both!
I have disabled the wind model - for historic reasons. Also, I have not (yet) incorporated any of the tracker, keyboard, expression, or stop noises from Piotr’s samples. In my own application, I like a clean organ without noises. I may add these later if I have more time since one can always disable them when loading the organ.
Finally, I added a full complement of couplers and a large combination action. There are also the standard reversable pistons and "bass" and "melody" functions - mostly because they are so easy to create in Hauptwerk. None of these are accurate for an historic Cavaillé-Coll instrument. However, Cavaillé-Coll actually did create some of the first true adjustable combinations (the San Sulpice or-gan is the best example) and I believe if he were alive today, he would be using all of these more modern appliances. If it helps, think of my CC instrument as an historic Cavaillé-Coll organ that has been given a modern console – several of these do exist.
If you want to use this organ, be sure you have Hauptwerk v4 or higher (this organ does not require a special license) and have already installed the three required organs from Piotr's web site: |
