1854/80 Ducroquet Cavaillé-Coll Organ St. Sauveur Cathedral Aix-en-Provence Provence France

The organ was built in 1854 by Alexandre Ducroquet, successor of the firm Daublaine et Callinet in Paris. Ducroquet built the new organ on the Gospel side in the genuine former chest, constructed by Isnard, the famous organ builder of St. Maximin . Cavaillé-Coll did tonal adaptions and restorations in 1880, added/replaced some stops.

The pedal compass was enlarged by Merklin 1915, who also replaced some stops. The restoration committee of 1972 had the difficult task to decide, to which organ they should go back, the original Ducroquet or Ducroquet-Cavaillé-Coll? They decided for the excellent 1880 Cavaillé-Coll state.

The big restoration and reconstruction by organ builder J. Dunand started in 1973. The inauguration concert took place on March, 19, 1975, performed by Marie-Madeleine DURUFLE and Maurice GAY. The last restoration took place in 2002. Titular organist has been Chantal de Zeeuw since 1979.

The Ducroquet-Cavaillé-Coll is a transitional romantic-symphonic instrument of very high quality and therefore was classified as a historical monument. Due to the Cromorne, the Sesquialtera and the brilliant Fourniture and Plein Jeu, which are normally not existing or have a darker colour within Cavaillé-Coll organs, one is able to play the complete (French) organ repertoire, beginning from late baroque up to modern pieces.

The church room has a rich wet acoustics with about 6,5 seconds of reverberation.

Recording technique

The organ was recorded in February 2005 with 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, multi-channel for Hauptwerk 2, using the multi-release technique introduced by OrganArt. The stops were recorded with multiple release levels for short and long key attacks.

Positif (C–f3)*

Laye des Fonds
01. Bourdon 8'
02. Salicional  8'
03. Prestant 4'
04. Sesquialtera 2 rgs
05. Flûte Harmonique* 8'
06. Flûte Octaviante* 4'

Laye des Anches
07. Doublette 2'
08. Plein Jeu IV rgs
09. Trompette 8'
10. Cromorne 8'
11. Clairon 4'
12. Picolo 1'

Grand Orgue (C–f3)*

Laye des Fonds
01. Bourdon 16'
02. Montre 8'
03. Flûte 8'
04. Flûte Harmonique** 8'
05. Bourdon 8'
06. Gambe 8'
07. Prestant 4'
08. Flûte Octaviante* 4'
09. Cornet 5 rangs

Laye des Anches
10. Quinte 2  2/3'
11. Doublette 2'
12. Fourniture 5 rgs
13. Bombarde 16'
14. 1ère Trompette 8'
15. 2ème Trompette 8'
16. Clairon 4'

Récit expressif (C–f3)*

Laye des Fonds
01. Flûte 8'
02. Bourdon 8'
03. Viole de Gambe 8'
04. Voix Céleste 8'
05. Flûte Octaviante 4'
06. Octavin 2'

Laye des Anches
07. Trompette 8'
08. Basson-Hautbois 8'
09. Voix Humaine 8'

Pedal (C–f1)

Laye des Fonds
01. Basse Acoustique** 32'
02. Soubasse* 16'
03. Flûte  16'
04. Basse* 8'
05. Gambe* 8'
06. Flûte 8'
07. Flûte 4'

Laye des Anches
08. Bombarde 16'
09. Trompette 8
10. Clairon 4

Commodités

Accouplements (Couplers)
8ve G.O.  (Suboctave coupler)
POS-G.O.
REC-G.O.
REC-POS

Tirasses (Pedal Couplers)
G.O., POS,  REC

Appeles (Activate Anches Layer)
Appel Anches PED
Appel Anches G.O.
Appel Anches POS 
Appel Anches REC

Tremolo Récit

Expression Positif (à bascule)
(Swell box pedal, extd.)
Expression Récit  (à bascule)

Rossignol I, II, III

NOTE: Extended features
*   Borrowed stops
** Added stop extension

* Extended Version:

Manuals C–g3