Originally built as a (comparatively) small hunting lodge by Louis XIII in 1624, the Palace of Versailles was transformed and greatly enlarged by his son Louis XIV to become what is one of the largest royal palace complexes in the world. Today, on this chilly and wet January day, we joined the nearly three million tourists who come to the palace every year to file past bed chambers and dining rooms, reception halls and fountains to view the most extravagant symbol of the now extinct French monarchy.
We began our day with a discussion, led by Sam Simataa, of François Couperin (1668-1733), a French baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. Known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically inclined Couperin family, François became organist at Saint-Gervais in Paris in 1685. The Couperin dynasty at Saint-Gervais would last for 173 years, from his uncle Louis Couperin’s appointment in 1653 until Gervais-François Couperin’s death in 1826. Couperin le Grand also has ties to Versailles, as he auditioned to become Organiste du Roi at the Chapelle Royale in 1693 and was personally chosen for the position by King Louis XIV who apparently declared that Couperin was the “most experienced” of anyone who auditioned. Other organists at Versailles include Nicholas Lebègue (c.1631-1702), Louis Marchand (a contemporary of Bach, 1669-1732) and Claude Balbastre (who taught harpsichord to Queen Marie-Antoinette, 1724-1799). Mozart also played the organ at Versailles on his trip to Paris in March 1778, and he even hinted in a letter that there was an opening for him at the console, but as the history books tell us, he wasn’t really interested in the post and returned to Germany and Austria in September 1778.
Though the crowds were considerably smaller on this January morning than one would expect to see during the peak tourist season in the summer, it was still hard to imagine the Kings and Queens of France wandering the halls of this vast Château with people snapping photos of every statue, painting, and Royal knick-knack. Maybe it was the time difference between January 2012 and the French Revolution of 1789, or it may have been all the signs leading tourists around rooms that were open for viewing and those that were not, but there was definitely a very large disconnect, even for me as a history major, between what I was seeing and the tremendous history that has occurred in this palace. Not that I didn’t enjoy my visit to Versailles, because it was a very beautiful palace and the gardens were spectacular, even in the dead of winter in the cold rain, but it was incredibly difficult for me to imagine Marie-Antoinette running out of her bedroom to flee the mobs marching on the Palace (just one example) and I didn’t really expect that when I left this morning.
But of course, the main purpose of our visit was not to see just the palace, but to view the organ in the Royal Chapel. We met with organiste co-titulaire François Espinasse (who is also organist at Église Saint-Séverin in Paris, and professor at the Conservatoire in Lyon) who showed us the second French Classical organ we have seen on this trip, after the one at Saint-Gervais. The original organ case was created by Philippe Bertrand in 1708 but the original instrument itself wasn’t completed until 1711 under the direction of Robert Clicquot. The instrument was inaugurated the same year by François Couperin. Additions were made to the organ by Robert’s son Louis-Alexandre Clicquot in 1736, and his grandson François-Henri Clicquot (famous for building the original organ at Saint-Sulpice) in 1762 and Pierre- François Dallery in 1817. A major transformation was carried out by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll in 1873. This original organ was sold to the Séminaire de Châteaugiron in 1936. Victor Gonzalez, a well-known Spanish-born French organ builder responsible for leading French organ building back to the classical principles of the eighteenth century, made a reconstruction of the Clicquot instrument. In 1995, a completely new instrument was created by Jean-Loup Boisseau and Bertrand Cattiaux, aiming to reconstruct the creation of Robert Clicquot with the additions of Louis-Alexandre and François-Henri Clicquot. François Espinasse played a quick improvisation and selections from the Couperin Parish Mass and then set us loose to try out the organ.
The organ was definitely an interesting experience. First, it is tuned to A 415 instead of the usual A 440, and the temperament is a modified Mean Tone, meaning it is based on pure thirds. The pedal board was also very interesting. All the pedals were considerably shorter than a modern pedal board, and the pedals were all straight as compared to the concave pedal boards we are all used to in the United States (the organs we have been playing on in Paris thus far have also had straight pedal boards). Overall the experience at Versailles was incredibly eye opening as we have been so used to American organs or the Romantic organs of Cavaillé-Coll in Paris. The sound differences in the pieces of Couperin or any other classical or baroque composer are stunning when played on the instruments they are meant to be played on.
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