Saint-Saens - Hymne à Victor Hugo - Organ at St Ouen, Rouen - Gerard Brooks

[@klemensbrumann3952]

Es ist eine Freude,diese Orgel zu hören da sie sehr schöne Klangfarben hat, Auch die verschiedenen Register kommen gut zur Geltung Auch der warme Klang fasziniert. Man kann schon sagen,das diese Orgel ein Meisterwerk der französischen Orgelbaukunst ist Auch die Kirche selbst besticht auch mit den schönen Fenstern und der herrlichen Architektur.

[@bobmartin9018]

Well what can one say about a Masterpiece.One word for it is Marvelous.!

[@stephendohnalek462]

Bravissimo to both the beauty of the music and the magnificence of the architecture.

[@ВладимирОкоренко]

Божественная музыка органная ! ! !😋🙂😎😀

[@simonsteam]

Stunning. Such beauty in the building the detail the music and the organ. A true Monument to Art in the greatest sense.

[@klemensbrumann3952]

Diese Orgel verdient es das die sehr gut für die Nachwelt erhalten bleibt. In meinen Augen ist das mit das schönste Instrument, das von cavaille coll erschaffen wurde. Auch die Abteikirche besticht durch ihre Architektur und den sehr schönen Fenstern. möchte sie auch mal gern besuchen, und auch ein Orgelkonzert dort erleben.👍👍👍😀😀😀

[@notredameswarrior1]

truely great! glad to here a transcription on this organ. truely it is the greatest in the world.

[@FredMellink55]

One of the finest organs, if not the very finest, in the world.

[@Steff2929again]

You are most probably right.

[@peteacher52]

Granted, one of them. But any such statement excluding (here we go!) St Bavo Haarlem, Truro cathedral, St Paul's cathedral, Beverley Minster, Riverside NY, CoralRidge FLA, Sydney Town Hall, Dunedin Town Hall ... and many others, is fraught with difficulties as each is majestic in its own right.

[@eisenbahner95]

Eine grandiose orgel, sehr eindrucksvolles Stück,hervorragend gespielt, besser geht es nicht

[@mmbmbmbmb]

Very pleasant for a change to hear ~ at least in the beginning ~ a rather 'simple' piece on this magnificent organ. It sheds a totally different light on it. Of course there is this excellent and powerful finale! Thank you for this ~ and also for the great images, as well as the interesting extended information)

[@ChrissysVideokids]

The sound is perfect. Cavaille-Coll is the best..

[@maylisvandekamp8911]

Merci pour cette pièce d'orgue. Quand on sait ce que la municipalité de Rouen a fait et envisage de faire de cette magnifique abbaye, c'est d'une tristesse à mourir.

[@scronx]

Quoi svp?

[@sierracanon]

Nicely done, and very enjoyable to listen to. I believe the organ transcription was by Alexandre Guilmant.

[@jaminvincent5690]

Cavaille-coll le meilleur, il savait ce que le son avait besoin pour se fondre dans le sans faute comme Stradivarius l'avait immagine'. La perfection de Saint Ouen est une richesse sans aucun doute.

[@oliveirap63]

Le grand Cavaillé-Coll...unique

[@Steff2929again]

It is indeed a magnificent building. The Victorian English art critic John Ruskin once said St Ouen is the most perfect example of pure Gothic architecture. I believe that's true. I has never been a cathedral, it used to be an abbey church. The last monks left the building in 1790. It now belongs to the city of Rouen.

[@maylisvandekamp8911]

Unfortunately it belongs to the city of Rouen. And you are completely right concerning the most perfect example of pure Gothic architecture. I am born in Rouen and I am continuously fascinated by this abbey church. And also terrified by the very poor interest of the city to its restauration. It's a pity !

[@1963mathetes]

@@maylisvandekamp8911 I wonder if crowdfunded campaign to restore the church and organ would work.

[@gerardbedecarter]

Beautiful.

[@ninou76530]

ma Normandie mon pays d'adoption

[@MegaCirse]

La musique est salutaire quand elle suscite une émotion ou une humeur en vous. il ne s'agit pas nécessairement d'être mélodique ou ouvertement musical, mais plutôt de transporter l'auditeur quelque part où il n'était pas avant. Dans ce cas précis, j'ai l'impression d'être assis sur un banc de parc par une tiède soirée. le vent me caresse doucement le visage, et tout est silencieux à part la nature qui m'entoure. Il est intéressant que je mentionne que cela évoque le silence, quand je parle de cette musique.

[@klemensbrumann3952]

Diese grandiose Orgel, auch die sehr schöne Architektur der Kirche st oen ist Einfach sehr beeindruckemd. Ich finde das dieses Orgelstück vonVictor Hugo hervorragend wiedergegeben wird👍👍👍👍

[@ds1868]

It isn't a cathedral. Originally an Abbey church, it is now de-consecrated and is used for the performing arts, and occasional organ recitals.

[@bordone32]

Veramente Stupendo!

[@martinhubert3722]

fantastique

[@verifsol4077]

Belle sonorité que cet orgue Cavaillé-Coll qui me rappelle celle de l'instrument de l'église Notre Dame du Rosaire à Paris 14ème

[@glockenlandschaftoldenburg3349]

Sehr merkwürdig, aber ist passend zu den Brocken von Victor, einzigartig gut gespielt :)

[@bastiendelaniau5751]

porte votre imagination tout en haut dans les cieux !

[@klemensbrumann3952]

Wenn Ich dieses hervorragendes Orgelstück höre,vebinde Ich,wenn Ich meinen 10 Meter breiten Codydrachen ins Himmelbau auf steigen lasse Der hebt sich auch majestätisch vom Boden ab

[@oliveirap63]

D'accord avec toi. Congratulations

[@briansmith5895]

why would the grave stones be missing?

[@ds1868]

St Ouen has never been a cathedral. The word 'cathedra' means Bishop's throne, from whence the term 'cathedral' is derived. The throne of the Archbishop of Rouen has always resided in the equally huge and beautiful Rouen Cathedral, which is only 20 minutes walk from St Ouen. I've made that walk many times, and so should you. It would broaden your horizons.

[@MegaCirse]

It does'nt matter ........... ;-)

[@elgar57]

@@MegaCirse it does

[@fluteharmonique8]

is this a Priory records CD you've uploaded?

[@richardwilliamjohnson8566]

I'm pretty sure it is

[@zachlafleur6651]

Too bad that Aristide Cavaille-Coll has been long since dead, because the organs he designed and built are so smooth with very little chiff that it is hard to recognize it as a real pipe organ! I suppose that in this day and age it would be very easy to set up an electronic organ to sound as good as this, but this one is the real thing! What type of instrumentation did they have in these cathedrals back when the pipe organ was first becoming commonplace (and much smaller about 700 to 1000 years ago)? Also, to fill these huge tall buildings with a sound that could be heard and sung to?

[@Steff2929again]

The art of organ building constantly evolves and changes. Most builders comply to standards and fashion and copy the masters. But every now through history an innovative builder find new artistic expressions set new standards. ACC and his team of highly skilled workers was one of them. His style changed throughout his career. This instrument is no exception. It was in many ways very different from earlier ones. Many of the artistic and technical details were quite unexpected. I could go on for ages about details like the high wind pressures and the clever voicing, or about the sophisticated reeds, but that would lead to far. He was invited to build an organ in this church early on in his career, but he turned it down. But when he came back as an old man, after doing his usual tapping of his walking stick on the floor, he knew exactly what to do, and it turned out to be some quite spectacular. It's difficult to know in what way the instruments would have evolved if he'd been able to continue, I'm not so sure that he'd be able to adopt to the technical development that came on during the early 1900's. The firm lost it's leading position when ACC left, partly because the man himself weren't around any more, but just as much because the taste changed. Later examples, when C. Mutin took over, still show reasonably high quality, but the style just didn't fit into the new ideals. The financial aspect was another important factor. ACC did deliver outstanding artworks of the highest artistic level, but they were very expensive compared to his competitors. He was good, but not competitive from a modern financial point of view. Many ACC organs were eventually altered or completely destroyed simply because they didn't fit into the new ideals. It's not until recently we've realised what a mistake that was. The organ business is very trend-sensitive. Any new whim reduces the efforts of previous generations to nothing. All sorts of excuses are given, from practical matters to more fuzzy elaborations about good taste, morals or even theology. The great European organ slaughter during the 60's and 70's was done during that kind of pretences. But the present trend, of making "authentic" copies, by making old instruments seem older than they are by removing later additions, no matter how good they happen to be, isn't much better. Electronic organs are still very easy to spot. They are digital simulations and imitations. All I need is a few seconds to hear that it's canned sound. I'm not unique in that sense. Most people can do that with very little practice. They are getting better, but electronic instruments are still just imitations, not independent, individual artworks. The can still only mimic, not create something new. I guess that's their problem. The moment an electronic organ isn't imitating a pipe organ any more, it becomes something else, and then the magic is lost. The creative process still takes place in the workshops of real organ builders. No electronic equipment can substitute the real sound made by the huge, breathing monster of a machine that is the pipe organ. Liturgy was very different back in the medieval era. Gregorian chant was the backbone. Congregational singing wasn't common at all. The mass was a performance, the visitors were more of spectators than participants. The few organs that did exist didn't have the function we assume it would have today. The organ didn't take on for real until the reformation, where Luther and Co came to the conclusion that it could be a good idea to involve ordinary people.

[@zachlafleur6651]

John Davies Apparently, in some churches in the 21st century, we are seeing that trend again (as in praise bands in American churches), and this is alright, for if you have a decent pipe (or even electronic) organ, it can be incorporated into the band of musicians really well! Ensembles are really not a replacement for the organ, but a really good supplement to it!

[@organbuilder272]

+Zach LaFleur A. C-C was certainly one of the greatest builders. Fortunately most of his organs are intact today. The one at Notre Dame has been modified and not for the better. The oldest playing organ was built in 1395. Before than they did chanting and plain-song. Possibly accompanied by flutes. At first organs were prohibited from churches - Devils whistles on a box of wind. Then it became a race to see whose cathedral had the best and biggest organ. (Just like the boys locker room.)

[@zachlafleur6651]

+robert shaw In fact, sporting organs were the first use of the pipe organ in history. They were first used in ancient Greece over 300 years BC after being invented by Cestibius Of Alexandria (which was and still is in Egypt on Africa's Mediterranean Coast) and possibly used at the original Olympic Games at that time and later (since the games date back to 776 BC), among many other events. As for not using them in the Roman Catholic Church, this was because they were used in the arenas of the Roman Empire where the sport eventually degenerated into homicide of many early Christians (so it was a rather dubious choice of instrumentation for the church which was started by Pope Vitalian during his reign in the 600s AD). This is why I can see that they were considered Devil's whistles on a box of wind, when in fact, the instrument was invented by an ancient flute player that grew tired of having to blow air into his flute and devised something better (water displacing air into his flute pipe instead of having to blow it himself). So really, bands of musicians as well as the organ had their start in sports, then church, then both as far as the present time (where the bands have always been there in one form or another, as well as orchestras with stringed instruments, and the organ making a comeback in sports arenas everywhere when it was in decline here). When churches have a good organ, they need to keep it in decent shape and play it as often as possible (and yes, pipe instruments do last much longer than electronics provided they are maintained, played often, and repaired when something doesn't sound quite right, and they do indeed last many lifetimes over if this is done).

[@zachlafleur6651]

+robert shaw Haha, I like that, the biggest organ in a cathedral compared to the biggest organ in a boy's locker room (hence the lengthy reference to the truth about where organs first got their start, at sporting arenas and not in churches)!

[@1234567832212]

Ich frag mich ob das mit einem Laienorchester spielen kann zusammen mit Orgel?

[@toryven419]

Stefan Hempel

[@frmattos]

Where can I hear the piece for orchestra?

[@Steff2929again]

I don't know of any recording of the full setting. I have been looking for it. There is a CD with an arrangement for military band, but that's of course not the same thing.

[@frmattos]

Thanks!

[@AntoineErnestS]

@@Steff2929again I am looking for an other interpretation of this piece to illustrate a video on Victor Hugo's funerals. Do you have more information about this military band arrangement or another interpretation ?

[@Steff2929again]

@@AntoineErnestS "SAINT-SAËNS AND THE WIND BAND" Performer: Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides, Conductor: Yves Segers. Publisher: World Wind Music CD No: 500.177 WVM

[@AntoineErnestS]

@@Steff2929again Thank you !!

[@giuseppepucci9258]

Eccezionale...!

[@charlesdavis7087]

What a strange and pompous work.... Breaks rules of harmonic development left right and center, lacked an interesting melody, piled on cliché after cliche ad nausea. Makes me wonder what S-Saens would compose if disliked ya. ?? And... make sure its loud at the end so you can't hear all the screaming presently going on in the world. A strange hymn. Hope Victor liked it? I didn't.

[@richardwilliamjohnson8566]

I've heard that a lot of people aren't that impressed with a lot of Saint Saen's music but why is it exactly? To my ear this is a fairly "simple?" piece, but I still enjoy listening to it.

[@Airy59]

Pretty cheesy indeed. Must have been composed for some official ceremony with state representatives, I guess. Saint-Saëns could produce much better music, e.g. "Cyprès" for which there are orchestral and organ versions too. His genuine organ works are generally speaking much better.

[@billobpb]

I enjoyed the piece very much. It breaks up the monotony of the so slow and quiet pieces that never end. I don't know what the arrogant people are moaning about.

[@tom7601]

Bill O'Brien: Apparently they think someone values their opinion.

[@stylusfantasticus]

@@richardwilliamjohnson8566 there is no soul in the music of Saint Saens. Perfectly done without a soul.