Secrets of Organ Playing Week 51 – Noël en Grand Chœur –Antoine Lefébure-Wély
The Noël is a classical French genre and is best described as a Christmas carol, often in theme and variation form. Antoine Lefébure-Wély (1756 – 1831) was the father and teacher of the more famous Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély whose outlandish works and playing gave him fame. He was originally organist on the Clicquot organ at St Jacques du Haut-Pas in Paris and then organist at St Roch in 1805 Antoine’s name was originally Isaac-François Lefébure which he decided to change when he started playing at the prestigious St Sulpice.
The full title of this work is Noël, en Grand Chœur (Noël Bourgignon “A cei-ci la maître de tô l’univar”). It is no 32 in the anthology “Recueil de tous les airs consacré pour le temps de Noël et arrangés pour l’orgue (1823). The translation is “Anthology of all the tunes devoted to Christmas and arranged for organ”. The work comprises a theme and two variations. In each of these sections there are dialogues between the large reeds and smaller reeds with the occasion echo. In effect, a three manual organ is required. French classical organs usually had between three and four manuals and, occasionally five. The lowest two manuals were the Positif and Grand Orgue and comprised the majority of the stops. Above these were the Récit and Echo, or Bombarde, Récit and Echo. The Positif, Grand Orgue and Bombarde would often have a compass from C1 –D5’ (or E5’), the Récit from C3 and the Echo from G2. The Bombarde would have a large battery of reeds including the 16. The Positif and Grand Orgue would couple UP to this manual. The half manual Récit would always have a Cornet V and occasionally a Trompette and an Hautbois (in later years). The pipes of these were mounted in the front centre of the case and the Echo, slightly longer in compass than the Récit would also have a Cornet V but the pipes were placed behind the music desk. Although this was quite audible to the organist, it sounded considerably quiet in the nave, and was used for Echo effects. The final variation has a coda.
The organ I am playing is a French Canadian instrument by Létourneau op 22 and built in 1989. It is currently located in my old Jesuit school chapel, St Aloysius College. The organ was originally located in St Joseph’s Basilica, Edmonton, Canada before it was sold to St Aloysius. It was a perfect fit, with only 6 inches from the top of the instrument to the chapel ceiling. In style, it is technically German but especially serves classical French music well as can be seen by the very prominent reeds.
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