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 Montréal, Québec Notre-Dame-des-Lourdes Opus 1, 1880 |
The first organ built by Claver and Samuel Casavant in 1880 was a two manual mechanical action instrument. During the next twenty-five years, the Casavant brothers built 110 mechanical action instruments, mostly modest-size two manual organs but also some large instruments with as many as 82 stops.
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For centuries, organs always had mechanical key and stop action until changes in musical demands from composers and performers beginning in the late nineteenth-century compelled organ builders to develop other forms of action. During this period, many builders, including Casavant, were inventive in developing new types of key action that included tubular and electro-pneumatic forms, which were requested by the performers of the day. |
 Montréal, Québec Église Notre-Dame, Four manuals 82 stops in the workshop, 1891 |
 Saint-Pascal-de-Kamouraska Église Saint-Pascal in the workshop, 1964 |
In the mid-twentieth-century, strong interest in early music developed throughout the musical world. Scholarly research conducted in order to understand and replicate authentic performances led naturally to the use of historical instruments. The Organ Reform Movement (Orgelbewegung) in Europe and North America fostered an intense interest in historical organs, which motivated builders to build new organs with mechanical key action. Believing in the tenants of this movement and responding to this interest, Casavant Frères resumed building mechanical action organs in the early 1960’s. Since then, over 200 instruments have been designed and built in the second generation of mechanical action organ building at Casavant Frères. |
A
question sometimes asked is, “What is the raison d'être for building
mechanical key action today?” In these days of advanced technology,
is the traditional tracker organ obsolete? All too frequently, mechanical
action is automatically associated with “baroque” organs, a strict
style of voicing, heavy playing action or, more generally, a narrow
vision of the organ. This is unfortunate because, in addition to
the fact that none of these assumptions are valid, the appeal of
mechanical action does not rest on reinstating a historically based
instrument or in developing a complex machine, but on a very simple
fact: it offers direct physical contact between the performer and
the instrument. |
 Springfield, Missouri Kings Way United Methodist Church 1990 |
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The
assumption that tracker organs are difficult to play can be attributed
to various things, including some older organs where the action
was poorly designed or is out of regulation. Considerable knowledge
has been accumulated in the past fifty years on fluid mechanics
in general and on the wind consumption of organ pipes in particular.
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This, in turn, has helped in developing a better understanding of
ways to achieve optimal key action. Thanks to advanced engineering
and careful calculation, the organ designer now can balance the
mechanics of the action to achieve both prompt pipe speech and responsiveness
of the key movement. At Casavant, data from our long-honed experience
plus modern computer software are used to design fine, sensitive
playing actions for our mechanical action organs. |
 Demorest, Georgia Piedmont College, 2001 |
In order to be successful, mechanical
actions have to be straightforward and logically organized, qualities
that place specific demands on the organ specification. Therefore
borrowing and extending stops, for example, is significantly reduced
or impossible. The relationship of the console to the instrument
is governed by simplicity and the most direct path between key and
pallet. The logic of the internal layout is determined by the necessity
of uncomplicated tracker runs kept as short as possible. From these
seemingly stringent requirements comes a discipline
that exhibits numerous virtues ranging from ease of maintenance
to an internal logic and elegance. These primary principles provide
the foundation for determining the procedures used in the design
and construction of mechanical action organs at Casavant Frères.
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Elsah, Illinois—Principia College, 2005 |
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