French Bombardes roaring away cannot be beaten in terms of majesty!

You actually heard the 16' pedal bombarde's "ravalement". In french baroque organs, the 1st C# on manuals and pedal are usually not implemented (the key does not play any note, when it exists on the keyboard at all). On big baroque organs, builders used the pedalboard's 1st C# to play the A below the lowest C, which they called "ravalement". The same exists in Bordeaux and Poitiers organs. It sounds like the A of a 32' stop (or rather like a G, because this organ is tuned at 392Hz).

i love it when the bombardes come in. that roar gives this organ a very majestic and regal look

Now those are reeds! HOLY COW!

The Albi organ has what is called a 'ravalement' (extension) in the pedal. Here, the bottom C# pedal plays a contra A (ie 32' A). This was a very useful note in the old literature: it was the dominant of the 1st tone or the tonic of the 3rd tone and added considerable gravitas. Some organs like the Clicquot in Poitiers have a ravalement which has the A, A# (Bb) and B below the normal bottom C.

A glorious instrument in an equally glorious cathedral, the largest brick building in the world and a magnificent 13th Century building like no other.

I've not heard reeds like this outside of Spain before. Incredible.

And here in America we think a guitar and tambourine does the Lord justice.

i think you're in the perfect spot to hear the majesty of this organ. i never like it when the camera is at the console because one can hear all the mechanics of the organ which are unpleasant. bravo to this great organ music!

i like the pure sound of the trumpets and bombard. truely a very great organ!

Can't get enough of this video! I keep coming back to it. Must have a CD of this intrument.

This brings tears to my eyes. It's so beautiful.

Simply incredible! Would love to hear this in person.

I bet the sound is awesome in person!! Very regal sound!!

Euphoric, cathartic and powerful. Love it !

Stunning. Breathtaking. To hear in person I would cry.

This organ is incredible

"Te Deum", Charpentier; This is the name of the piece, and it's composer.

Imagine the feels and the winds you'd get standing in person hearing this!

We should stop destroying our history - these monument masterpieces!

welcome back and thanks. grazie

I think otherwise, you musn't forget that Charpentier was a Frenchman, and French organs are always like this. It's mostly not about how it has to be played, but about what does the organist likes. This organist certainly likes a lot of sound. And by the way, if you never heard of the composer, you also must admit that it is incredible to listen to this

The classical French reed chorus: nothing like it for making one feel on top of the world...wonderful sound...

Wonderful and nicely played. Yes the instrument is magnificient...splendid ....Thanks to have placed this super music.

WOW, that sounds so massive!! I love it!

this organ was playing the Te Deum Marc-Antoine Charpentier

WOW! I have just looked up the spec - what a truly exciting instrument! I hope you'll be posting some KZfaq videos of it in due course!

Wow!! That organ has some really powerful reed stops. Very exciting!

all i can say is WOW there are no other words for this

Yes, specifically, the Prelude to the Te Deum: Marche en Rondeau composed about 1792. . It should be noted that this Te Deum existed only in manucript until it was re-discovered in 1953.

What a performance!!

This pipe organ sounds gloriously grand. I'll bet this sounds a lot better in person.

Can't believe what I hear.. Need to go there! Grtz from Holland

wow!!!!!!! The casework is amazing toO!

Sometimes, mostly to distinguish between foundation stops such as Montres which can be either 16' or 8'. But for the most part, the French classical organ is so standardized that the name itself is sufficient.

wow it's very impressive,magnificent...beautiful!!!!

Hi! Yes - thanks for this! I had similar luck at St Maximin - search "St Maximin Bach" for an amazing performance of the Bach D Minor - and "St Maximin camera cannot cope" for an example of how a recording at the console can be overpowered. In fact when playing my first chord at St Maximin on Grand Jeu it was such a shock I nearly jumped off the organ bench!

@Thomas Koelfgen, the piece is Te Deum by Marc-Antoine Charpentier..

German Organ = Posaune French Organ = Bombarde 💥💥

Bombardes are usually deep Trumpet stops for the pedal department of the organ. I can't actually see them on this particular organ but they will be behind the pipes you can see. Actually the pipes you see may well be just for show as they are in many organs. The longest bombarde pipes are usually 16' or 32'.

Fantastic!

In appearance the organ looks like a Cavaille-Coll, definitely seems like it power wise. If it's not, it still sounds absolutely beautiful and gives me chills every time I hear it :)

@EccentricRichard Actually this organ is most beautifully voiced with really refined and beautiful solo and chorus flues which play with great sublety and excitement. Similarly the organ at St Maximin and a later instrument at Lorgue near Carces. In the tradition of Dom Bedos, the father of modern organ building, Moucherel and Isnard were masters of their craft.

Fantastic!!

L'utilisation de l'effet de résonance grâce à l'immense volume de la nef de la cathédrale est très bien compris et perçu ; pour un jeux en bombarde, vu l'effort d'appui qui doit être fourni sur le clavier en plein jeux, le détachement sonore est excellent, cela doit être assez physique dans la console pour jouer ainsi! En tout cas, d'en bas, on est vraiment pris comme écrasé par la puissance de l'instrument. Cela devait être impressionnant en direct ce jour-là, j'aurais bien aimé être présent pour assister à cette performance. C'est grand, l'interprétation est juste, et correspond à l'esprit du morceau, c'est comme cela qu'on pouvait le concevoir... le jeux était rythmique : tout était pensé pour rendre la composition toujours plus imposante. Cet orgue est un des seuls restaurés afin de restituer justement de tels effets. Bon parti prix donc d'user sans modération du potentiel de l'instrument d'Albi, on ne peut vraiment pas avoir un tel rendu de ce type sur d'autres instruments. Belle restitution et courageuse interprétation de ce morceau si connu donc que l'on redécouvre, un retour aux origines! Bravo et merci.

@GoPatriots100 Yes aren't they wonderful! It was the first time I had been introduced to this genre of organ and St Maximin is the other instrument to keep an eye on. But excitingly a new organ has been built in Italy at Rieti in this style by the organ builder who restored the Albi instrument. I would love to hear it one day!

There are some ferocious buzzing sounds going on!

Magnificent!!!!!

@latribe You confuse the two composers: 1°) Marc Antoine Charpentier (ca 1645-1704) who wrote the "Te Deum" C Major H.146 including this Prelude 2°) Jean Jacques Beauvarlet Charpentier (1734-1794) Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral organist until the revolution period. 3°) There is a third famous french composer named Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956). He composed a popular opera "Louise"

Wahnsinn! Das brummt ordentlich!

Fabulous.

Merci à latribe de nous faire partager ce splendide moment, le nombre de "vues" est impressionnant; il faudrait demander à M Chapuis de jouer à son tour ce morceau.sur cet instrument : Royal!!

@latribe III- Zeiger was school master and pianist in Rouffach, the same alsatian village than François Callinet. He migrated to Lyon where first he teached piano and was a musical instruments retailer. Then he employed a shop foreman from François Callinet factory to build organs in Lyon where organs were prohibited in the liturgy during the ancient monarchical regim. Lorgues organ was the first organ his workshop built the year of his wedding.

RIP headphone users...my ears just bleeded but i couldn't stop listening at this beauty

to musicbox63: yes I have heard the organ at St. John the Divine. It was a nice experience.

@octavebasse8 The pitch of the organ at St Maximin is a tone lower than standard, so this instrument is likely to be the same - somewhere around 390Hz.

Telluric Bombardes !!!

MARAVILHOSO, FENOMENAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@brigadeir998 The quality and heritage of Moucherel's work at Albi is demonstrated by its capability to have been "preserved" by incorporation into successively romanticised instruments seperated in the 1980s work into two instruments in the two neighbouring buildings, one wholly romantic and this, a restoration of the classical instrument. However St Maximin remained unincorporated into later developments and unaltered since 1776. It's the "unrefinement" of reeds giving real excitement

@juaniluco888 I think that the pedal compass goes down to A below bottom C so although the spec is 16ft it goes some way lower. Bottom pedals are arranged in a strange way as on short compass harpsichords.

@trombonewesman 'Te Deum' Prelude by Charpentier?

Spine tingling!!!

Yes - I thought it was a 32ft and it is . . .! The bottom C# on the pedals sounds the A below rather than a C# . . .

@Bachlives2 Hi! It's because the pedals go down to bottom A below C.

@fordtruxdad What a thought! Yes!

I both love and fear it...

Ayant entendu cela, j'étais persuadé que cet orgue disposait d'une bombarde de 32', mais à la vue de sa composition, on n'en trouve que de 16', au Grand-Orgue, au clavier de Bombarde et au Pédalier. C'est fou ce que les anches de l'orgue classique puissent être aussi rondes et franches à la fois, sans vrombir et discorder comme le font la plupart des orgues romantiques. Bravo pour cette interprétation !

@orgaman 1- Pour ma part, je suis organiste depuis presque 40 ans et je connais aussi très bien le patrimoine des orgues classiques français. Le grand ravalement même à l'époque baroque de leur construction était une disposition rare car il n'était implanté que sur certains grands instruments, en général égal ou supérieur aux 16' en Montre (Saint Maximin, Poitiers, Albi, Saint Quentin,...) mais jamais sur les orgues ordinaires des paroisses.

It's not a CD - I filmed it during a concert in August 2008 and it introduced me to the French Baroque Grand Jeu. Search "French Baroque masterclass Grand Jeu" to hear what I have done in England to bring this sound across the English Channel

Splendid

Isnt it Te Deum by Charpentier?

@MegaDani141 Thank You

Amazing, blazing reeds !! It's almost a Spanish, rather than a French, sound.

@orgaman Oui si on veut. En fait il y a un grand ravalement sur la seule note du La0 grave en place du Do#1 et uniquement pour les anches de pédale. Le jeu de Bombarde 16' sur le Do1 se retrouve bien à 20' sur le La0 et de même pour les autres jeux du grand ravalement (6/5 * 16') = 19.2'. Cependant il me semble que ces jeux sont notés en Bombarde 16', Trompette 8' et Clairon 4' sur les étiquettes.

@dulcjan3 Construit par Moucherel en 1736, restauré par Formentelli en 1981.

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!

Ottima interpretazione!

Sorry, if I do not misunderstand you. The whole point is to hear the extraordinary sound of this organ. One cannot do a more exciting video without the camera being at the console. With regard to my camera work, what else does one look at whilst listening to a concert?

Hi! Yes - that's why I'm trying to create some excitement for the instrument in concert. See "Hugh Potton Reubke" for a recording that I keep returning to . . .

Can you upload the complete execution of Charpentier? It Would be perfect

Try searching "St Maximin Bach" for the Bach D minor played in an equivalently fantastic way on the other of the famous French organs

I really wish this video was uploaded with better audio.

Hi! Do you mean St Maxime on the way to Grimaud? Thanks for pointing us in another direction! Such instruments are an opening into such a different soundscape. I'm finding it difficult to find the sheet music to this sort of material and Mary Pratt Molinier plays it so regally. The Beauvarlet Charpentier prelude to Te Deum comes over so tritely in modern arrangements with a twee little trumpet bleating out the tune against harmony split between left hand and pedals.

Bon travail avec les quintes là au pedal, on dirait qu'il y a une bombarde 32' Super

I can’t help wondering if that single horn at the top right is a speaking pipe!

@latribe I believe that lower pitch is called "Chorton"

MUSIC / SONG: Marc-Antoine Carpentier - Prélude pour le Te Deum

Mi pasión de instrumentos el REY ORGANO.

grandioso!

wow amazing what 16' bombarde can do

Belle Organe annciene.

I think it is the"Te Deum" of Marc Antoine Charpentier,a french composer born in 1643.isen't it? this piece is the hymn of Eurovision organisation

:-) The other place you _have_ to go is St Maximin - search "St Maximin Bach" for an outrageously wonderful performance of the D minor

@orgaman 2- De plus, je vous fais remarquer qu'on notait les hauteurs des jeux pour éviter des confusions dans les compositions où le même type de jeux était employé plusieurs fois (Montre 16' ou 8', ou 4' au positif, flûte 8' ou 4', bourdon 32' ou 16' ou 8', Gros nasard 5' 1/3 ou nasard 2' 2/3, Grosse tierce 3' 1/5 ou Tierce 1' 3/5, Trompette 16' ou 8', etc...).

well i´ve only listed the reed voices there are many others, and for me, i wouldn´t add some more stops. this organ is very very historic and unique, i would keep it as original as possible... but a deeper reed sound would be "interesting", whether the organ at albi has power enough :)

What is that great Masterpiece of music called?

O_O WOW!!!!!

Can you really compare these reeds with the ones on the Hammerwood Park organ???

With such extravagant use of the Bombardes the organist exhibited little compassion for the bellows operators.

Charpentier!