On Saturday, 7 December 2024, in Paris, Notre-Dame de Paris reopened after being restored following the fire of 2019. The piece accompanying Archbishop Laurent Ulrich’s ceremonial entry into the church was Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s moving Totus Tuus (written in 1987 on the occasion of the third pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Poland), performed by the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris choir.
An important and symbolic part of the ceremony was the awakening of the organ, which was also renovated. The history of this priceless instrument dates back to the 14th century, and since then, it has been transformed several times. In 1730–33, a complete reconstruction was carried out by François Thierry (5 manuals, 47 voices). The author of the next major modernisation (1864–1868) was Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. His instruments were played by, among others, Olivier Messiaen, Charles Widor and Marcel Dupré, who also got inspired by their monumental sound in their compositional work. After the completion of Coll’s work, in March 1868, a ceremonial inauguration of the instrument took place in the cathedral, immortalised in a woodcut by M. Pignard.
Woodcut by É. Thérond depicting Notre-Dame de Paris (1863).