Renaissance inspiration in Valdoie
L'inspiration Renaissance à l'église Saint-Joseph - atelier Didier Chanon - restauration Peter Meier
Organ built in 1973 for the Belfort Conservatory. It was entirely crafted in the workshops of organ builder Didier Chanon, with a focus on excellence and high standards for the students’ work. After a restoration in 2016 by Peter Meier, it was installed in the Saint-Joseph Church in Valdoie.
This instrument was designed for the Belfort Conservatory of Music and built in 1973 by Didier Chanon, an organ builder in Saint-Didier-Sur-Chalaronne in the Ain region. Constructed according to criteria inherited from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, everything was made in the workshop, without any subcontracting, except for the blower used to produce the wind.
The windchests are made of lead, and the pipes are fashioned from sheets of tin. To reflect a Renaissance style, the façade pipes have been guilloché (engraved), following sixteenth-century designs. The tuning, carried out in meantone temperament, provides the necessary colour for interpreting music from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
In 2016, the municipality of Valdoie acquired the instrument for placement in Saint Joseph’s Church. A thorough restoration was carried out by Peter Meier that same year.
The organ has two 56-note manuals and a 30-note pedalboard. These specifications were chosen to suit the instrument’s pedagogical purpose when it was located in the conservatory. It is tuned to A 440 Hz, in meantone temperament with eight pure thirds, and features a soft tremulant.
