THE PIPE ORGAN is universally recognized for its ability to fill vast halls, naves, and theatres with immense, amplified, vibrating sound. The pipe organ is most recognized in religious music where organs grace most of the great cathedrals and thousands of smaller Christian churches around the world. Indeed, the pipe organ became as crucial an addition to church interiors as stained-glass windows. The organ represents a continuing tradition of sacred music in the church and symphonic music elsewhere. Casavant Freres Limitee of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, is a world leader in organ making: more than 3,700 of its organs constructed since 1880 can be found in churches, opera houses, and music halls in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.
 

1.  The largest Casavant organ in the world is installed at the Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas.  With 10,615 pipes it is one of the world's largest organs.  It was installed at a cost of almost four million dollars in 1996.  2.  The first Canadian organ maker of note, Jospeh Casavant (1807-1874), created the foundations for Casavant Freres Ltée, one of the world's largest organ-making firms, founded in 1879 by sons Claver and Samuel.

While attending a college to study Latin in 1834, Joseph Casavant (1807-1874), a blacksmith by trade, by completing a half-built organ to widespread satisfaction, became the first Canadian-born organ builder of note. By his retirement in 1866, he had built 17 organs including major ones at the Roman Catholic cathedrals of Ottawa and Kingston in 18SO and 1854 respectively. Some of his original pipes still survive at the church of Mont-Ste.Hilaire, Quebec. Joseph passed on his passion for organ making to sons Samuel-Marie (1850-1929) and Joseph-Claver (1855-1933) who were the founders of the great tradition of Casavant Freres Limitee.

The Casavant brothers learned their art from Eusebe Brodeur, who took over their father's establishment, and from John Abbey in Versailles, France, as well as from experiences gained from visits to organ builders in Europe in 1878-79. They established themselves on the site of their father's original workshop at St. Hyacinthe in 1880 and the business continues to date.

The reputation of Casavant organs was based on ingenuity and craftsmanship. The brothers experimented in the 1890s with adjustable-combination pedals, electro-pneumatic traction, all-electric systems and installed the first of these kinds of organs. Claver became known for his voicing and Samuel for his mechanics. Like string instruments, pipe organs could not be mass-produced in factories but required a level of craftsmanship that involved workshops, master builders, and the voicing of instruments before shipping and after installation.

Late-Victorian and Edwardian Canada witnessed an explosion in the number of churches erected in expanding rural and urban areas. Several manufacturers of pianos — attempted to keep up with the demand by also building organs. However, the Casavant tradition grew and Casavant Freres built their first organ in Ontario in 1887, exported their first organ to the U.S. in 1895, and built an organ in the Yukon during the 1898 Gold Rush. They had built 100 organs by 1899, 200 by 1904, and 500 by 1912. The company experimented with manufacturing organs at South Haven, Michigan, from 1912 to 1918, even diversifying into furniture and cabinet making in Quebec.
 

1.  In this view, Claver Casavant is seated at the five-manual console of the Casavant organ installed at Toronto's Royal York Hotel in 1929.  2.  From the small town of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Casavant Freres Ltée was customizing organs and shipping them worldwide by the 1920s.  This 1927 photograph demonstrates an organ shipment being prepared for Salisbury, Rhodesia.

In 1930 the Casavant brothers were awarded the Grand Prix in Antwerp, Belgium, at an international exhibition where European firms traditionally dominated the competition. After the deaths of the brothers in 1929 and 1933, the company continued operations, but its quality was revived only in the late fifties when a team of managers and technicians re-introduced tracker-action organs and built some of the finest and largest organ works around the world.

The Casavant name continues to define excellence in the building and maintenance of organs. The largest organ in the firm's illustrious career was completed in 1996 at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas; the construction utilized a pioneering method of combining different mechanisms into a replication of a French romantic organ. Called the Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn organ, its 10,615 pipes, 129 independent stops, and 191 ranks make it larger than the great Casavant organs at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia; the Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh; and the Basilica de Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Mexico City.

In the 1930s, Casavant Societies were formed in Montreal and Toronto to celebrate and promote "the organ as an instrument in its own right, not necessarily associated with religious services; to make known its rich repertoire from all periods by means of performances of the highest calibre; and to grant bursaries to young organists." The Casavant name literally defines the organ-building tradition in Canada, a continuing art form that pipes music in all ten provinces, all 50 states in the United States, and in many countries around the world.

Larry Tumer