THE ORGAN OF NOTRE-DAME DES VICTOIRES AU SABLON IN BRUSSELS, REBUILT BY GEORG WESTENFELDER, 1989
AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE BERNABÉ GOYNAUT, 1763

With his 1436 choir, Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon is one of the most beautiful flamboyant gothic churches in Belgium. Its 1684 Tuscan style tribune supports an instrument built in 1763 by Jean-Baptiste Bernabé Goynaut but the contract of this construction has never been found. In 1893, Brussels organ-builder Pierre Schyven presented the project for a new instrument to be installed behind the organ-cases "which are not lacking artistic value, and will be kept without modification". This organ was dedicated on November 19, 1894.
After a preliminary study in 1986, it was decided to "rebuild" the Goynaut organ, on the bases of the organs cases, and of the few specifications know of other instruments by the same builder. One of the main arguments for this decision was that Brussels had lost all instruments dating from before the nineteenth century, and this was the only eighteenth century original organ-case in the city. It would therefore be the only organ on which one could play the organ music of the great Brussels organists Peeter Cornet and Abraham Van den Kerckhoven accordingly to the instruments they knew.
Georg Westenfelder, organ-builder in Luxembourg was given the task to build this new instrument and to place it within what was kept of the 1764 Goynaut case (the front of both cases, the superstructures, the decor, and a small part of the sides), reconstituting the other elements with the techniques and materials used by eighteenth century organ-builders. At the request of the sponsor, and to give organists a chance to somewhat enlarge the repertory playable on the instrument, a pedal department has been placed behind the organ, in a sober and discreet case, which one cannot see from the nave.
The reconstruction oft he organ of Notre-Dame des Victoires au Sablon was made possible thanks to the sponsoring of J. P. Morgan Belgium, and Euro-clear Clearance System, whose general-director, Peter Culver, himself an organist, started the process in 1986. His unexpected death, one year later, did not allow him to be present at the dedication concerts, played in October 1989 by Jean Boyer, James David Christie and Jean Ferrard…