The Casavant Company and their heritage

During my last recital tour on the East Coast of the United States and Canada (April-May 2022), I was astonished by many excellent instruments built by one of the finest Canadian organ companies – Casavant Frères. In this article, I am going to describe the 143-year history and magnificent heritage of this company and present the ranking of the ten largest Canadian organs in which the instruments from this finest workshop held almost all ranks. The 19th century was a milestone period in the organ-building industry. Esthetic changes leading to treating the organ as an orchestral instrument uncovered many technical and sound inventions that spread worldwide quickly. Joseph Casavant (1807-1874) was the first organ builder born in Canada. His sons, Joseph-Claver (1855-1933) and Samuel-Marie (1859-1929) started organ building in their father’s shop under Eusèbe Brodeur, the father’s successor. Claver worked with Brodeur from 1874 to 1878, then went to France for a 14-month apprenticeship with the firm of John Abbey in Versailles. He and Samuel then visited many organs and workshops in western Europe before establishing their factory in 1879 on the site of their father’s workshop at rue Girouard in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada . In May 1891, Frederick Archer (1838-1931), a British-American composer, conductor and organist, dedicated an organ that established the company’s international reputation. It was the first four-manual 82-stop organ (opus 26) of the Casavant company installed at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal. The instrument was then the second-largest pipe organ in North America. It featured 32’-principal pipes in the façade and introduced an electro-pneumatic system to operate the adjustable combinations. One year later, in 1892, Casavant installed their first organ successfully using electro-pneumatic action at Notre-Dame Basilica in Ottawa (opus 34, three manuals, 52 stops).