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Paris Notre Dame pipe organ
Main points
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Romantic organ
by
Cavaille Coll
now fully controlled
by computers and
3 local area networks
(LAN)
7800 pipes
(900 classified as historic)
109 stops
five 56-key manuals
and a 32-key pedalboard
overall area:
4 levels each of
100 square meters
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History
- 1402
- an old organ is moved to the present
location and inserted into a gothic organ-case
- 1730
- the organ'case is replaced by
the present LOUIS XVI one
the organ is enhanced to 5 manuals
and 46 stops
many pipes kept from earlier centuries
of which 12 in use today have been salvaged from previous centuries
- 1830
- back to 4 manuals
including an "expression" manual
- 1864 - 1867
- enhanced and rebuilt by Cavaille-Coll
5 manuals
and 86 stops
among other players:
Saint-Saens and Cesar Franck
pneumatic assistance:
'Barker lever'
- 1900 - 1937
- Louis Vierne was the organist
1932: partly electric/partly pneumatic action installed
- 1959
- fully electrified:
manuals and relays
(excluding the Barker lever)
but this old architecture was consisted of ...
700 kilometers of cables
(yes, you are reading correctly !)
problems of oxydation
and ... unpredictable breakdowns
- April 1990 - December 1992 (closeup)
- computers and local area networks controlled
(see below)
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The new architecture
available since 1993
- full restoration of the instrument (requiring 28,000 hours)
pipes, pressures tuning, ...
- an innovative computer and local area network (LAN) system:
computers ... everywhere but hidden,
you can just see 2 color displays inserted in the console
- key commands by 300 magnetic switches
contactless (Hall-effect).
No more problem of dust, candle-smoke or oxydation caused by
the breathing of 12 millions visitors a year
- controls of manuals and stops are digitalized
by a synchronous LAN
in less than 1 ms
- controls flow from the LAN console to LAN pipes by a twin 16 MBPS LAN optical fiber token ring,
on 500 meters of cable (not kilometers this time !)
- to ... 800 valves opening engines controlled
by a synchronous LAN
- the air is blown by
bellows made of sheep leather,
needing 1000 (!) new sheep skins
- and ... besides all that
a MIDI gateway !!!
with a midi input plug (I give it a try)
and a midi output plug.
(The internal architecture is not midi)
The ENCORE © score software
could be used to have a copy of the improvisations
- all this was designed and created by
SYNAPTEL ®,
a French engineering company
controlled under the direction of the
Ministere
de l'Education Nationale et de la Culture
- Each player of the Notre Dame de Paris organ has his own "credit card-
size" player's card
that when swiped through a reader restores his
personal configuration of options and presets
for the organ,
saving many hours each year since there are multiple "titulaires."
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