In 1759 the Richard organ of the Catholic cathedral of Quebec City was lost when the building caught fire during the Siege of Quebec, a battle which proved to be the crucial turning-point of the Seven Years War (1756–1763). In L'orgue de 1753 renaît de ses cendres, Canadian musicologist Élisabeth Gallat-Morin tells, on the one hand, the story of the organs – particularly the one made by Robert Richard in 1753 – and the musical life of Quebec City during the era of New France (1608–1763) and, on the other, the story of the 2009 reconstruction of the 1753 organ. The book itself is a work of art: beyond the content, which shows Gallat-Morin's meticulous research, the quality of the graphic design surpasses the standard for such a publication. This particular care for the visual presentation of the book reflects the fact that it has been issued by a museum (the museological complex of the Musée de la civilisation de Québec) as opposed to a traditional publisher of scholarly works.
The book begins with a brief history of the first church in Quebec City, built in 1633 and destroyed by fire in 1640. Ten years later a mass was celebrated in the new church on the exact site of the future cathedral. In 1657 the first organ heard in New France (paid for in cash and beavers!) was installed in this church, named Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix. (In comparison, the first organ in New England was installed in Boston forty years later.) A second organ was brought from France in 1663 by the Most Reverend François de Laval, Bishop of Quebec. In 1674 the church became a cathedral, and ten years later a chapter was founded. Because the population had increased, a new cathedral became necessary, and its construction was completed in 1697. The French organ brought by Bishop de Laval was, however, not powerful enough for the proportions of the new building, so in 1723 the chapter ordered a seven-stop organ from Paul Jourdain, an organ builder from Montreal. By the 1740s the population had reached nearly five thousand inhabitants and the cathedral needed major repairs, so it was decided in 1744 that a new cathedral, twice the size, would be built on the same location.
For the new cathedral, Bishop Henri-Marie Dubreil de Pontbriand wanted to replace the Jourdain organ. In spite of opposition from the canons, who had paid for this instrument, it was eventually decided that a replacement would be installed. Jean-Marie de La Corne de Chaptes, a canon who had little knowledge of organs, was delegated to purchase the new instrument in France. Relying on specifications sent from Quebec and advice received in France (including advice from one of the four organists of Louis XV), La Corne ordered an organ from Robert Richard in 1753. Approximately ten to twelve workers constructed the ten-stop organ over the course of two months. The Parisian instrument was sent by ship and installed in the cathedral in 1753. In one of his letters, La Corne shared his dream that the organ builder would come to Quebec City the following year to enlarge the organ, which would then have been comparable to those at St Eustache and St Médéric in Paris. Unfortunately, on the night of 22 July 1759 a total of two hundred British bombs hit the cathedral and the Richard organ was destroyed.
The idea of rebuilding the Richard organ originated with Kenneth Gilbert, professor emeritus of harpsichord at the Paris Conservatory. In the summer of 1998 he attended the exhibition ‘The Musical Life in New France’ at the chapel of the Musée de l'Amérique française (which has been a component of the Musée de la civilisation since 1995). When he entered the chapel, he was surprised to hear his own recording of the famous ‘Livre d'orgue de Montréal’ and he thought that the chapel, which is next to the cathedral, would be the perfect location in which to house a real French classical organ. A committee for the reconstitution of the Richard organ, mainly composed of eminent organists of Quebec, was formed in September of the same year. For ten years the committee met regularly for fundraising and other activities. The museum accepted the gift of the organ and committed itself to its maintenance and improvement. In 2008 the committee unanimously selected the Montreal firm Juget-Sinclair to rebuild the 1753 instrument. The organ was inaugurated in 2009, two hundred and fifty years after the destruction of the original Richard instrument.
Besides Gallat-Morin's research, the present book contains a testimony from the organ builder Denis Juget, in which he discusses some of the decisions made in the reconstruction of the organ, and an account by Hélène Dionne explaining the study, by the engineering firm Genivar, of the balcony in which the organ has been installed. There is also a description of twenty-four concerts and other events involving the new Juget-Sinclair organ between 12 May 2009 and 2 August 2012, and a transcription of eleven historical documents relating to the original Richard organ, written between 1751 and 1753.
Juget's discussion of divided registers is particularly interesting. In the documentation gathered by Gallat-Morin there is no indication of the number of divided stops. Moreover, it is not documented where the division began. Juget-Sinclair decided to divide all of the registers (except the mixtures), which allows the organist to choose either the bass or treble of each stop. The organ builder also decided to divide the registers between c1 and c♯1, to allow the execution not only of French classical pieces, naturally, but also of the Iberian repertoire.
Juget also gives the full stop list of his Opus 35 organ: montre 4′, bourdon 8′, doublette 2′, fourniture III, cymbale III, flûte à cheminée 4′, nazard 2⅔′, tierce 1⅗′, trompette 8′ and cromorne 8′. The organ, which has a suspended-action keyboard and a pedal board for which pull-down stops are available, is tuned in a meantone temperament with eight pure thirds, and the bellows can be pumped manually or by means of an automated pumping system.
The author of the book is one of very few musicologists to specialize in the musical life of New France. In 2003 Gallat-Morin published, with Jean-Pierre Pinson, La vie musicale en Nouvelle-France (Sillery: Septentrion, 2003), which is the authoritative publication on the subject. She is mainly known, however, for her extensive research on the ‘Livre d'orgue de Montréal’, the most voluminous extant manuscript of French organ music from the period of Louis XIV (‘Le Livre d'orgue de Montréal: un manuscrit inédit de musique d'orgue française en Nouvelle-France au XVIIIe siècle’ (PhD dissertation, Université de Montréal, 1986)); this research later led to a book, Un manuscrit de musique française classique: le livre d'orgue de Montréal, étude critique et historique (Paris: Aux Amateurs de Livres and Montreal: Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1988), and a critical edition of the manuscript, edited with Kenneth Gilbert, Livre d'orgue de Montréal: édition critique (Saint-Hyacinthe: Éditions Jacques Ostiguy, 1985–1988). There is also her biography of the owner of the ‘Livre d'orgue de Montréal’, Jean Girard: musicien en Nouvelle-France, Bourges, 1696-Montréal, 1765 (Sillery: Septentrion, 1993).
Research into the early history of the organs at the cathedral of Quebec City began in the early twentieth century with an article by Henri Têtu (‘Le Chapitre de la Cathédrale de Québec et ses délégués en France: lettres des chanoines Pierre Hazeur de L'Orme et Jean-Marie de La Corne, 1723–1773 (suite)’, Bulletin de recherches historiques 14/12 (1908), 359–361). In 1984 Gallat-Morin wrote a more detailed account of the subject (‘Petites et grandes misères de l'installation d'un orgue à Québec en 1753’, Journal de musique ancienne, Le Tic-Toc-Choc 6/2 (1984), 38–43) in light of new information, such as the December 1980 discovery by Pierre Hardouin of Canon La Corne's 1753 contract with the organ builder Richard. An extract from this document had already been reproduced in a 1981 book accompanying the Montreal exhibition ‘L'orgue à notre époque’ (Antoine Bouchard and Élisabeth Gallat-Morin, Témoins de la vie musicale en Nouvelle-France (Quebec: Ministère des affaires culturelles, Archives nationales du Québec, 1981)). The historical part of L'orgue de 1753 renaît de ses cendres thus draws on and expands previous research.
One of the strengths of L'orgue de 1753 renaît de ses cendres is that it includes, for the first time, complete transcriptions of the surviving historical documents concerning the 1753 organ; the immediacy of these documents is considerably enhanced by the welcome editorial decision to keep the original orthography. As already noted, the layout and design of the book are exceptional, and this is enhanced by wonderful photographs of the construction and installation of the Juget-Sinclair organ taken by Nicola-Frank Vachon (Perspective) and Robin Côté. Unfortunately, the two pictures of the organ rebuilding committee (pages 44 and 46) do not exhibit the same level of professionalism.
Although the book now provides the best summary of the story of the organs at the Catholic cathedral in Quebec City during the era of New France, it would have been interesting to know what happened musically at the cathedral after the Siege of Quebec. It would also have been interesting to find out more about how the company Juget-Sinclair was chosen by the committee to rebuild the organ. Finally, Gallat-Morin should have mentioned the cost of the instrument. Nevertheless, this short volume is well written and is a pleasant book to read, explore or consult.
