In 1844, La Fabrique (the parish administration) paid for a massive porch for the Church of Notre-Dame la Dalbade and decided to acquire a new instrument to have installed above the entrance; it commissioned the organ builder Prosper Moitessier (1805 – c.1869), who was based in Montpellier. However, the finished instrument was never satisfactory, which led La Fabrique to ask Eugène Puget to rebuild it completely. Eugène Puget reused a considerable part of Moitessier’s instrument, including the great enclosed case of its Positive, with the agreement of the architect, Henry Bach. The instrument he finally delivered possessed every possible improvement, with 3 Barker levers, a pneumatic system for combining the stops giving double registration, an electro-pneumatic pedal and two vast expression boxes containing 24 stops, or almost half of the instrument!
The organ was blessed by the Archbishop of Toulouse and inaugurated by Charles-Marie Widor on 22 November 1888.
The organ was damaged by the collapse of the church’s steeple on 11 April 1926, but was restored by Maurice Puget, who introduced a few modifications. It was inaugurated anew by the official organist, on 30 March 1927. The organ was restored by Gérard Bancells between 1982 and 1986. It has now been returned to its original condition by the organ builders Gérard Bancells and Denis Lacorre (only the electro-pneumatic transmission of the pedal was discarded, with 2 Barker levers being installed in its place).
Although he reused much of Moitessier’s original instrument, the changes introduced by Eugène Puget made his version a genuine creation: the foundation notes are quite as beautiful as anyone could imagine, while Moitessier’s “streams” of reed pipes, that Puget preserved, give a particular colouring to the Grand Chœur. This will remain one of the instruments that the Puget family valued most highly.
The instrumental part of the Grand Orgue was listed as a Historic Monument on 20 February 1979.
The organ of Notre-Dame de la Dalbade is a French symphonic organ, ideal for performing the French repertoire of the 19th and early 20th Centuries.