Caen - St. Etienne, 1885 [Hauptwerk]

In 1882, the parish commissions the construction of a new instrument, for 70,000 Frs, to the most famous French organ builder, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who promises to build a high quality instrument with first grade materials and with the latest refinements, most of them devised by himself. It is a 50-stop organ fed by a powerful blower (in that time, it was operated by four men) serving a dozen of regulating secondary reservoirs and winkers. This organ is equipped with double pallet box wind chests, two pneumatic Barker machines intended to soften the touch of keyboards, numerous combination pedals and some famous harmonic stops which are the builder's speciality. Thiémann, the company's best mechanic, designs the plans and Félix Reinburg, highly praised voicer and true artist in the field, executes the first voicing in the workshop which is taken back by Joseph Koenig after reassembly in the ancient Lefebvre's organ case. The instrument is inaugurated on March 2nd, 1885 by Alexandre Guilmant, organist at Trinité church, in Paris.