Aristide Cavaillé-Coll
French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811‒1899) has been described in the Grove Dictionary of Music as "the true creator of the French Romantic organ." He and his firm designed over 500 organs found primarily in France — in Paris including Ste. Marie-Madeleine, St. Clotilde, St. Sulpice, the Notre Dame Cathedral, throughout western Europe (although not Germany), and even in South America. Through his work, he was acquainted with and inspired French organ composers including Cesar Franck, Charles Marie Widor, and Olivier Messiaen.
Oberlin's connection with Cavaillé-Coll arose in part through a former faculty member, Fenner Douglass (OC `42) now emeritus professor of music and university organist at Duke University. Douglass' research on the organ designer resulted in the gift to the Conservatory Library of the Notebook (on view in this case, also in the Conservatory Library's special collections, call number ML95.5 .C19 1830z) as well as microfilms of correspondence and other documents — letters, contracts, and other unpublished materials contained in the bound archives of the Cavaillé-Coll firm — now in the collection of Mme. Jean Lapreste (microfilms are located in Mudd Library under call number .C313 R4).
Lasting evidence of such the Cavaillé-Coll connection at Oberlin can be found in the Kay Africa Memorial Organ in Finney Chapel. The organ was built by the C.B. Fisk company based on specifications which Professors David Boe and Haskell Thompson derived from Cavaillé-Coll documents. The Kay Africa Memorial Organ is modeled on a late 19th century French instrument to complement the other fine organs found on campus.
References
- Fenner Douglass, Cavaillé-Coll and the French romantic tradition. (New Haven: Yale University Press, c1999) 235 p. Enlarged edition of his Cavaillé-Coll and the musicians: a documented account of his first thirty years in organ building (Raleigh: Sunbury Press, 1981). Reviewed by Lawrence Archbold in Music & Letters 81, 4, pages 625‒27.
- Hans Klotz and Kurt Lueders. "Aristide Cavaille-Coll" in New Grove Online, accessed on 1 December 2006.
- C.B. Fisk, Incorporated. Opus 116, Finney Chapel, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, 2001. <http://www.cbfisk.com/welcome.html> accessed on 1 December 2006.