Organ directory

Légende

Légende

It is rather uncommon that an eight-foot organ, four meters high, can be dismantled and easily moved from place to place. However, this is the case with this instrument: when it is not travelling in Belgium or abroad, it is usually installed in the church of Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, in the heart of the historical centre of Brussels.

This instrument belongs to the Brussels organist Arnaud Van de Cauter. With its rich ornamented carved wood case and its fresh and colourful harmony, it is the work of the organ builder Rudi Jacques of Hastière, Belgium. Its specification (8 registers, most of them being divided stops), its mean-tone tuning and its short octave make it ideal for the performance of European organ music from the Renaissance to the beginning of the Baroque era. The dedication of the organ by Professor Harald Vogel took place in June 1997.

The original electro-mechanical wind supply was replaced by a blower with a wedge-bellows in 2010, and one year later, the owner of the instrument asked Pierre Decourcelle, organ builder in Tournai, Belgium, to set the pitch at 465 Hz at 23° C, equalize the Principal and Prestant and completely revoice the Gedackt.

The Jacques organ is managed by an independent non-profit association: Voce et organo and has been used for concerts and recordings both in Belgium and abroad. At home, in Brussels, the international early music festival L'orgue d'Août invites well-known organists with instrumental or vocal ensembles. Voce et organo is also active in the field of contemporary creation, most recently the commission of Tota pulchra es amica mea by the Belgian composer Jean-Pierre Deleuze, celebrating the 800th anniversary of the parish of Notre-Dame de la Chapelle parish. This composition for organ, men voices, cornetto and electronics (Centre Henry Pousseur, Liège) was premiered in October 2010 in Notre-Dame de la Chapelle, and its recording will be released in 2012 under the Paraty label.