Built as the 20th Century began, the Church of St-Antoine des Quinze-Vingts in Paris contains two fascinating organs. The large organ in the West Gallery was built in 1894 for the large Paris residence of a musical amateur who ordered from Aristide Cavaillé-Coll a powerful organ upon which he could play orchestral works of Richard Wagner. Upon his death, the organ was acquired by another private party who gave it to the new church, where it was installed with a new case and adapted by Merklin, the successor to Cavaillé-Coll, who had died in 1899. The donor was named the first titulaire of the church! Merklin also provided a new Choir organ of 13 ranks on tubular action. This book discloses the history in great detail, with facsimiles of documents and photographs that are otherwise unpublished, and also chronicles the restoration of the organs by Yves Fossaert. The *committee which prepared the book includes Jean-Claude Castagneyrol (curator of a musical instrument museum), Jean-Louis Coignet (Paris organ expert and builder), Yves Fossaert (organ historian), Eric Lebrun (titulaire of the church), Nicole Lemaitre (historian), Yves de Mallmann (curator of the organs), Yves Rousseau (organist and historian), and Carolyn Shuster Fournier (American organist and musicologist). The book includes 40 photographs and text in English and in French. 150 pages |