100% Creation offers you a special series, in nine episodes, “The Rebuilders of Notre-Dame”. Five years after the cathedral fire, we set out to meet the companions, craftsmen and designers who worked on this renovation of this site. Today, the profession of organ builder with Bertrand Cattiaux. Organ builders imagine, design, build, maintain, tune, repair and restore organs.
A universe that is often little-known, whereas in France, there are nearly 10,000 instruments including more than 1,500 organs protected as historic monuments. Like that of Notre-Dame de Paris, saved from the flames. Explanations by Bertrand Cattiaux, organ builder.
“ The organ builder is both a creator and a restorer, so they are two slightly different branches of profession. This concerns the creation or restoration of pipe organs which are mainly found in churches, especially in France. “.
He describes the different facets of his job: “ During my career, I have had the chance to restore instruments from different eras from the 16th century to the 20th century. And I also created completely new organs, starting from a blank sheet. These are two completely different approaches. The restorer, in essence, must withdraw from the work, while the creator must put himself forward “.
Born in Étampes, near Paris, Bertrand Cattiaux discovered his passion for music at a very young age. Fascinated by the organ of the church of his childhood, he learned to play it, then he began his apprenticeship at 17, with a first meeting with Notre-Dame de Paris.
“ The day I arrived, I was amazed to see this monument. It is a three-story building filled with passageways, pipes, various mechanisms, etc. So, yes, it is a very impressive instrument, but very well laid out, where all the corners of the organ are accessible without too much difficulty, which is not often the case. And then it’s Notre-Dame, there is the majesty of the place. Yes, it was wonderful and it remained so. So, you understand that Notre Dame has been part of my journey for 50 years. For 50 years, I have been going to Notre-Dame regularly “, he says.
After having been the partner of his apprentice master for 20 years, in 1998, he foundedAtelier Bertrand Cattiaux in Corrèze, where he designed and restored numerous instruments and gained international fame. He was honored with prestigious titles, such as that of Master of Art and Knight of Arts and Letters. From the organ of the church of his childhood to the restoration projects of prestigious organs, such as those of the Saint-Denis basilica, and Notre-Dame de Paris, his career always refers him to the harmony between sound and architecture.
“ I loved my whole existence as an apprentice, and I was an apprentice for more than fifteen years, so I have not had more intense pleasure in making bed bases, one of the complicated pieces of wood, than in making tanks, pipes or mechanics. But today, I work more on sound, which is the goal. I take pleasure in being able to work on a pipe and give it the sound color that we want. There is a beautiful expression that is wind sculptor and indeed, we start from a pipe which is a technical piece, which we can make say what we want according to parameters already chosen. It’s very exciting! You must have awareness and knowledge of the acoustics of the place to be able to create sound. To make a French style organ, 17th or 18th or 19th century. But to be able to master all these different technicalities of each era, you must have practiced them », explains the organ builder.
Tracking down the secrets of organ building, Bertrand Cattiaux handles wood and metal with skill. It shares, with the organ of Notre-Dame de Paris, a very unique history. An organ exceptional in its size and musicality as well as its historical value. Bertrand Cattiaux followed the successive developments of the organ of Notre-Dame de Paris. He is one of the main restorers and has a seamless bond with the cathedral.
“ The Notre-Dame organ has always evolved over the centuries. It was created at the beginning of the 18th century, and it evolved during the 18th century and then in the 19th century. The great restoration of the time of Viollet-le-Duc, by the maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1868. And then the organ evolved a little further, and in 1960, the organ was no longer mechanical, it was electrified, which is a revolution. Electric is good, but it has a limited lifespan. In the 1980s, we kept the organ at arm’s length because all the electrical elements were worn out and we actually had to change them. The Ministry of Culture took the decision to carry out a major restoration. So, in 2012-2014 there was still another campaign of what is called a lifting, that is to say removing and cleaning the piping, and we change certain parts if necessary. Computer science in 1990 was obsolete. We therefore evolved this part, and in 2014 we added a sound plan. It was still a fairly important evolution of the instrument and everyone agreed that the organ had a kind of fullness and was accomplished. », says Bertand Cattiaux.
Bertrand Cattiaux was relieved to learn that the organ had not been affected by the fire.
“ The fire didn’t damage it, melt anything or anything. Everything was filled with lead dust. There was a little water, but not a lot. But afterwards, it remained for a year and a half almost in the open air since the hole in the vault was not blocked. And this is where there was more damage due to differences in humidity, heat, etc. In 2022, we dismantled the instrument to practically restore it, as we did in 1990.”
For this extraordinary project, the implementation is quite unusual, several teams and companies intervened in concert with that of Bertrand Cattiaux.
“ It’s an extraordinary project, extra-ordinary, really. There are 700 people at all times, so all these logistics have to be included and we are not used to it. When we arrive at a church, we are the only ones working in the church, we never see anyone, and there, we have to interact with a whole bunch of bodies, professions. And then there is the sound environment which is very noisy within the cathedral and therefore which obliged us, at least for the harmonization part, moreover, we do not reharmonize the organ of Notre-Dame, we re-equalizes, since we are putting it back as it was in 2014. But hey, we still have to work on the pipes and for that, we need total silence. We worked in two teams, a team which does the equalization at night and a team which, during the day, despite the noise, can tune, because agreement and harmony are two different things. We can tune when we are above the pipe, we hear the beats very strongly since when a pipe is not in tune, there will be beats which create ripples and therefore we can tune it by ear or with an electronic machine, today, practically perfectly, despite the ambient noise. We are able to work more easily in a more serene environment », he describes.
The unique experience of working on a construction site of such magnitude at Notre-Dame de Paris allowed Bertrand Cattiaux to rub shoulders with craftsmen from all backgrounds, reinforcing the idea of community and sharing of knowledge.
“ On this site, we meet the companions, stone workers, carpenters, roofers, etc. And for me, it’s a great experience. We feel a communion of companionship. Once we pass the barrier into the construction site, we can go anywhere. And I don’t deprive myself of going to the upper parts to see the carpenters at work or the roofers or stonemasons, etc. It’s quite dazzling. It’s moving to see how it was all recreated in an exceptional way, with the same techniques, etc. It’s very moving and it’s a pleasure », relates Bertand Cattiaux with emotion.
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