Casavant is one of the oldest continuing names in the world of organ building, starting with Joseph Casavant who completed his first organ in 1840. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada dedicated a plaque in his honour in Saint-Hyacinthe where his two sons, Claver and Samuel, established Casavant Frères in 1879.
According to the most recent edition of the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, Joseph Casavant was the first Canadian-born organ builder of note. A blacksmith by trade, he decided at the age of twenty-seven to give up his business in Saint-Hyacinthe and enter the Collège de Sainte-Thérèse. While a student he was asked by Abbé Ducharme to restore an old organ to working condition. The copy of the 1766 treatise by Dom Bédos de Celles L'Art du Facteur d'Orgues, which he used as the guide for his first organ building venture, remains today in the archives of the firm established by his sons. In 1840, Joseph Casavant received his first contract for an entirely new organ and by the time of his retirement in 1866 he had produced some seventeen organs including two of considerable importance for the Catholic cathedrals of Bytown (Ottawa) and Kingston, Ontario.
Joseph Casavant
Claver
and Samual Casavant
1895
Joseph Casavant's two sons, Claver and Samuel grew up observing their father's love of the craft of organ building. After their father's retirement they worked in the shop of Joseph's successor, Eusèbe Brodeur. It was soon apparent, however, if they wanted to follow their father's career and perfect their art, they would need to acquire wider knowledge and experience. Therefore in 1878 Claver left for France, followed somewhat later by his younger brother Samuel. Claver worked for John Abbey in Versailles, and both he and Samuel spent time with Cavaillé-Coll.
The Casavant brothers traveled extensively in Europe, visiting various builders and significant organs in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and England. On their return to Saint-Hyacinthe, in 1879 they established themselves as Casavant Frères (Casavant Brothers) on the site where the present workshops stand. In their first announcement they stated, “We are capable of building instruments boasting the most recent innovations such as: concave pedalboard, balanced expression pedal, keyboard improvements, etc.”
1879
Announcement
Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes
Their first organ, completed in 1880, is a two-manual organ of thirteen stops installed in the Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes in Montréal. Claver was twenty-four and Samuel was twenty. Further contracts followed at the rate of two or three a year. Their first three manual instrument, Opus 8, a thirty-eight stop organ installed in the Saint-Hyacinthe Cathedral in 1885 featured the first successful adjustable capture combination action mechanism to be installed in an organ. Witnessing to the quality of construction and musical attributes, both these instruments, plus many others, continue to serve their congregations generations after they were originally installed.
The instrument that firmly established Casavant Frères as organ builders of international repute was a four-manual mechanical action of eighty-two stops completed in 1891 for the Church of Notre-Dame in Montréal. This instrument, which celebrated its centennial in 1991, included adjustable combinations and speaking pipes of thirty-two foot length in the façade. The early organs, all installed in Québec, soon were followed by others throughout Canada. The first organ built for the United States was installed in 1895 in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Notre-Dame, Montreal, 1891
International Exposition
Grand Prix Antwerp, 1930
During their career, the brothers received much recognition for their work including being awarded the Grand Prix at the International Exhibition held in Antwerp, Belgium in 1930. In addition to the numerous fine organs on the North American continent, they installed others in France, the West Indies, South and Central America, Zimbabwe and Japan. Voluminous archives, preserved by the company, abound in letters and testimonials from famous organists, including Guilmant, Vierne, Widor, Bonnet, Lemare, Dethier, Courboin, Bingham and many others who inaugurated and played Casavant organs. Visitors have always been welcome and individuals such as Marcel Dupré and Henry Willis, for example, have been photographed at the workshops with the Casavant brothers.
Unlike other firms that relied on the direction of only one individual, Samuel and Claver were partners who worked together with their individual interests and talents complementing one another. As their reputation and business grew they sought to add other dedicated individuals who would function as a part of a strong team. In this way they could assure continuity in the event of illness or misfortune as well as enable the company, which they founded and loved, to continue long after them.
During the last decade of the Casavant brothers' work they brought into the firm a young Englishman, Stephen Stoot. Mr. Stoot was a well-trained craftsman who had an intense interest in all aspects of organ building. He was very inventive and responsible for many technical improvements including an extraordinarily reliable key contact and tracker touch mechanism. This system has been in continuous use since 1918, is widely appreciated by organists and is a hallmark of the Casavant playing action.
Claver & Samuel Casavant, 1926
Stephen
Stoot
Stephen Stoot was an accomplished organist who first finished instruments during the tenure of the Casavant brothers, later succeeding Claver Casavant after his death. Mr. Stoot's background and training gave him an appreciation and knowledge of design based upon the best European traditions. Perhaps the best example of his work is found in the eighty-four stop organ at the church of Saint-Roch in Québec, finished in 1943. With its complete and well-developed choruses through the mixtures on each division, independent pedal, and unenclosed Positiv; it was a radical departure from organs built at that time and qualifies as one of the earliest examples of the application of organ reform movement ideals in an organ in North America.
Ever since the beginnings of the company there has been a desire to keep abreast of new developments and to test new ideas and concepts, rejecting those of little merit while adopting and improving those that are important and worthy. The interest in historical instruments, principally those of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that began in Europe early in the present century and developed after World War II in North America, was embraced by the company in the mid 1950's as Casavant moved towards establishing an approach to organ building based upon classical principals of design as foreshadowed in the Saint-Roch instrument.
Lawrence Phelps
Lawrence Phelps joined the company, first as an advisor, later becoming Tonal Director. His passion for organ building and keen interest in its history and repertoire led to building organs with a unity of design and structure that had been obscured for some decades. He was an articulate spokesperson and was in demand as an author, lecturer and panellist. He wrote voluminously profusely, traveled widely and was recognized as one of the important leaders of his time. Generations of organists learned to play on Casavant organs built during his tenure, which, because they were on the cutting edge of design concepts, were installed in the leading colleges, universities and conservatories in the United States and Canada.
The year 1960 marked a significant date in the history of the company with a return to the building of mechanical action organs. Since that time over two hundred tracker instruments have been built ranging in size from a single manual portable Continuo of four stops to two, three and four manual organs. These instruments are found in concert halls, educational institutions and churches around the world.
Gerhard
Brunzema
In 1972 Gerhard Brunzema assumed the position of Tonal Director at Casavant Frères following an eighteen-year partnership with Jürgen Ahrend in the firm of Ahrend & Brunzema in Germany. He brought to his position both considerable training and experience with new instruments as well as extensive knowledge of historically important European organs. He honed Casavant's already well-established mechanical action capabilities resulting in the extraordinarily reliable and sensitive key actions that continue to be built to this day. The tonal palettes of the organs often reflected his admiration for the tonal precedents of his homeland. Notable examples include the three manual organ at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa and the two manual instrument at The Maternity of Mary Catholic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.
While the instruments built under his leadership were well grounded in historic precedent, he believed that an instrument's appearance should reflect contemporary design practices rather than be a copy of some historical model. As his travels took him across the North American continent, he soon recognized the importance of the rich heritage of instruments and found it strange that organists at that time did not fully appreciate how much in common there was between North America's best nineteenth-century instruments and those an ocean and one or more centuries distant. This appreciation for older organs resulted in important restoration projects on Casavant organs such as those in the parish church in Saint-Eugène, Ontario (Opus 38, 1893) and the Saint-Hyacinthe Cathedral (Opus 482, 1912).
Jean-Louis Coignet
At the close of the 1970's and during the early 1980's the musical world witnessed an awakening of interest in organ design of a broader perspective than what had been in vogue then for some twenty years. Realizing the importance of this movement, Casavant began to look for an individual whose background, training and expertise would provide such direction. In 1981, Jean-Louis Coignet became Tonal Director of the firm. His life-long interest of the organ in France and other countries, European training and position as the organ expert for the city of Paris brought a new perspective and vitality to the company and to the instruments built under his leadership. His practical approach to tonal design based on a synthesis of classical, symphonic and modern principles continues to win admiration from musicians around the world. He developed a tonal pallet palette of great variety where the color of individual stops is developed to the fullest extent while working to blend them in such a way that the ensemble becomes more and more cohesive as stops are added to the texture resulting in flexible and eminently musical instruments regardless of size.
Jacquelin Rochette
Following the practice established by the Casavant brothers, the firm continues to add trained organists and practicing musicians to the staff whose interest and knowledge extends into both technical and tonal areas. In 1984 Jacquelin Rochette joined the firm as assistant to Jean-Louis Coignet, later becoming Associate Tonal Director and assuming the leadership of a carefully assembled team of voicers as well as gradually taking charge of all tonal matters, from the scaling to the final on site voicing of the instruments. In 2004, Mr. Rochette became the fifth sixth Tonal Director in the history of Casavant Frères upon the retirement of Jean- Louis Coignet, who remains associated with the firm as Tonal Director Emeritus. Mr. Rochette brought to his position more than two decades of experience and research in organ building, in addition to extensive experience as a recitalist and as a church organist that are essential to his tonal approach and conception of instruments.
Jacquelin Rochette continues to be active as a performer in recitals, radio broadcasts and recitals. His recordings of Louis Vierne's Sixth Symphony, Charles-Marie Widor’s Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and Marcel Dupré's Le Chemin de la Croix, played on Casavant organs of 1915, 1943 and 1963 respectively, have been released to critical acclaim.
While the majority of the organs built today by Casavant are two and three manual instruments for installation in churches and academic institutions, the firm gets commissioned every year to design and build new organs for projects of international stature in concert halls and large churches. In addition, there are a number of projects for restoring and providing additions or modifications to Casavant organs of all vintages where particular attention is paid to enhancing the musical aspects while respecting the original design.
Broadway Baptist Church
Ft. Worth, Texas
Orchestral
Hall
Chicago, Illinois
During their lifetime, the brothers Casavant established the finest traditions of craftsmanship among their artisans and a strong organization to carry on those traditions after them. Casavant Frères continues today to stand for the artistic integrity and painstaking care which the Casavant brothers cherished and fostered.
