Jean-Baptiste Carlen | 1786 | Restored in 1988

  1. Principal 16′
  2. Principal 8′
  3. Suavial 8′
  4. Flûte conique 8′
  5. Bourdon 8′
  6. Octave 4′
  7. Flûte ouverte 4′
  8. Grande Tierce
  9. Nazard 3′
  10. Superoctave 3′
  11. Flageolet 2′
  12. Tierce 1 3/5′
  13. Fourniture IV 2′
  14. Cymbale IV 1 1/3′
  15. Grand Cornet V 8′
  16. Trompette 8′
  17. Clairon 4′
  1. Bourdon 8′
  2. Prestant 4′
  3. Flûte à cheminée 4′
  4. Quinte 2 2/3′
  5. Doublette 2′
  6. Flûte 2′
  7. Tierce 1 3/5′
  8. Larigot 1 1/3
  9. Cymbale IV 1′
  10. Cromorne 8′
  11. Voix humaine 8′
  1. Bourdon 16′
  2. Principal 8′
  3. Bourdon 8′
  4. Salicional 8′
  5. Voix céleste 8′
  6. Octave 4′
  7. Flûte bouchée 4′
  8. Flûte 2′
  9. Plein-jeu IV
  10. Cornet III 2 2/3′
  11. Basson 16′
  12. Trompette harmonique 8′
  13. Hautbois 8′
  1. Contrebasse 16′
  2. Soubasse 16′
  3. Quinte 10 2/3′
  4. Flûte 8′
  5. Mixture 5 1/3′
  6. Prestant 4′
  7. Bombarde 16′

Description of the organ

THE GREAT ORGANS OF THE CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE-DAME DU GLARIER IN SION

During the restoration and reconstruction of the cathedral’s great organs, carried out in 1987, an inscription on an old pipe was found:

ANNO 1786 CASPER CARLEN

GOMESIA RECKIGEN

This is certainly the date of construction of the oldest sound equipment still present in the current organ. The buffet is probably from the same time.

Over the generations, the original instrument (GO/Pos de dos/Ped) had to undergo interventions, both from the technical point of view (traction and box springs) and from the point of view of sound.

In particular, one must mention the considerable work undertaken by Joseph Merklin (1819-1905) in 1874, in the sense of the Romantic aesthetics then in full swing. He kept the sliding bed frames, refitted the mechanical traction, the drawing of the games, the keyboards and the pedal. He emptied the Positive of the back and transferred the box spring from it into a new Expressive Account located behind the buffet of the Grand-Orgue, then actuated by the 2nd keyboard. The side of the original Positive Back Buffet was preserved with a mute façade for more than a century.

Merklin replaced seven old games in all. The instrument thus modified functioned for about forty years. In 1912, the chapter of canons of the cathedral gave organ builder Henri Carlen de Glis (VS) the mandate of a complete transformation of the organ (with the addition of a third keyboard), involving the adoption of tubular pneumatic traction and the installation of numerous games.

At the same time, the gallery was made more spacious and reinforced, and the buffet expanded.

The restoration and reconstruction work (completed in 1988) was entrusted to the Füglister House in Grimisuat and carried out in agreement with the Federal Commission for Historical Monuments: construction of three keyboards (GO, Positive Back, Expressive Narrative and Pedal), with re-establishment of the buffets in their original dimensions. All the recoverable material of the Carlen and Merklin was integrated into the new composition.