Great organ of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Pipe organ in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, France.
The grand organ of Notre-Dame de Paris has 115 stops and 7,952 pipes, with five manuals and a pedalboard. It sits under the west rose window, above the main portal. The current case was built by François Thierry in 1733; the instrument was rebuilt by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1868.
Built in 1868 by French organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the instrument replaced a previous organ from 1733 and has undergone several restorations throughout its history.
Claude Balbastre, organist from 1760 to 1793, wrote variations on La Marseillaise and Ça ira while the cathedral served as a Temple of Reason. Since 1985 the instrument has been shared by several titular organists serving in rotation, as in Clicquot's day. It returned to liturgical use at the reopening ceremony on 7 December 2024.
The organ sits on the west tribune, directly beneath the west rose window above the main portal. After the 15 April 2019 fire it was unusable because of soot and dust and was taken apart almost completely, with only the buffet, the bellows and some ten-metre pipes left in place; the parts were cleaned in workshops and reassembled. It returned to liturgical use at the reopening ceremony on 7 December 2024.
In 1793, while the cathedral served as a Temple of Reason, organist Claude Balbastre composed variations on the Marseillaise and the revolutionary song Ça ira for this instrument, which was then under threat of destruction.
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