CAVAILLE COLL Aristide(1811-1899) the man and his private life…
In speaking about Mr. Cavaillé-Coll's personality and private life we cannot dissociate his professional life, punctuated with success and adversity, and his private life as head of the family. Cécile Cavaillé-Coll relates: "In our minds' eye we see him in the study in the Avenue du Maine, as being in his true setting. Sitting in his old lacquer chair in front of the big table that served as a desk, wearing the black velvet toque he had designed himself he brought to mind a Holbein portrait. There was nothing around him that didn't evoke a memory: Here was the Poïkilorgue, invented when he was twenty, the reason for Rossini's visit to the Toulouse workshops in 1832, the determining factor in his career"... "Who could forget those intimate gatherings, full of charm, healthy gaiety and informality inspired by the prestigious master, Saint-Saëns? Cavaillé also met the artistic elite of the whole world. Although he was certainly not a composer or even a performer he could listen and understand. His natural talents, his unusual memory, an extremely sensitive ear, made up for the most rigorous musical education".(By Cécile Cavaillé-Coll, pages 142-144).
There were close ties, a complicity, between Aristide and his father Dominique and his brother, Vincent, the artist, who was a source of worry for them both. The idea of the Family ruled over everything. A carefully orchestrated combination of events led them to compete for the construction of a great organ for the royal church of St Denis in 1833. What audacity, what arrogance to suddenly appear from the provinces to conquer Paris and put themselves at the top of a list. This type of enterprising spirit is the characteristic of great destinies.
Marriage was used to consolidate friendly and social ties. On February 3 1854, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll pledged his faith to the Church and his wife, Miss Adèle Blanc in the ancient church of La Trinité. It was a love match and a business union with a nod in the direction of Marseilles.
Cécile, Emmanuel and Gabriel, the couple's three surviving children frequented artists from every discipline, scientists, architects, draughtsmen and painters. In addition there were the officials and representatives of the State, the clergy, and so on - a considerable support network.
But, as a father, he was also familiar with sorrow. He was grief stricken by the deaths in infancy, of Pierre and Isabelle, and by the tragic death of his son, Joseph.
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll had learned from his earliest projects that Art only paid if he used 57 flattery particularly on those in power. The seductive nature of the "machine orgue" was no doubt one of the keys to his success. Its mystery, its air of fantasy, its ingeniousness aroused curiosity. Jules Verne and Gustave Eiffel were not so far in the future and Victor Hugo was closer still. In 1853, in Sainte-Geneviève Church in Paris, which Napoleon III had just designated for religious services to demonstrate the marriage of reason between the State and the Empire, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built a choir organ and immediately offered his services to the Government to build a great organ. The little instrument, which had a strange destiny, was played at Victor Hugo's funeral "qui entre en Panthéon" in 1885. The instrument was placed in the chapelle du Val de Grâce having been rejected by the Temple dédié à la Mémoire des Grands Hommes (the Pantheon), which was incapable of seeing it for what it was, simply a neutral musical instrument, as it had been at the beginning, designed to thrill the crowds and stir the passions.
As a result of his marriage, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll had direct access to the administrative files his brother-in-law, Hippolyte Blanc worked on at the Administration de Cultes. The latter made him the favoured beneficiary of the government. The commission, drawn up two days before the wedding, for a great organ in the St Jean Cathedral in Perpignan is proof of the happy complicity of things set in motion from on High!
Whether it was a twist of fate or the result of his father (died 1862), Dominique's strong influence, at that moment "Cavaillé Fils was finally the leader. In 1856 the formation of the Société en Commandite par actions (Partnership limited by shares), "A. Cavaillé-Coll Fils & Cie" bore witness to this dependency and respect. His mother's Spanish blood ran in his veins and that of a father with a thoroughly military authority. The Family and its council formed an impenetrable block. This alliance was the strength of the XIXth Century Company. Aristide's beloved in-laws passed on an "esprit de negoce" (aptitude for business) to him, and Cavaillé-Coll approached his clients both as an artist and a businessman. He seized the opportunity to assert his interest in producing high quality work but also in the very legitimate desire to develop the family business, which was greatly admired but also in debt. Many contracts were accompanied by "augmentations" (increases) in the form of amendments, to the surprise of those paying. Professional ethics were intact. Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was- certainly a "Patron" who obeyed the laws of the marketplace during the industrial, financial and social changes of the great challenges of the XIXth Century. He had the same personality and temperament as his father, which he imposed on his son Gabriel who wanted to stand on his own two feet. The father broke the son and refused to understand his message about modernity. In rejecting his son, the "Patron" failed to grasp that one last hope. The Company was permeated with the strong paternal authority that he had, in the past, known and accepted. It was a sound value synonymous with success but was also the protagonist of a sudden, clear-cut end. The time for paying homage had arrived:
"He honoured art, for his only aim, his constant life's preoccupation was to achieve the ideal 58 and perfection. For him, the organ was an instrument in the service of God and he wanted it to be worthy of the God it served. He honoured science, because to it we owe the greatest improvements in a very complicated and difficult industry". (Le Monde Musicale' 30/10/1899) - "Cavaillé-Coll! What French name is more loved and respected than his! That name, synonymous with perfect art and consummate science, with creative genius and kindness, with selflessness and modesty, will be an honour to our beloved country through the centuries in the same way as that of Stradivarius does honour to Italy". Extract from Gustave Lyon's speech (president of the Chambre Syndical).