On April 15, 2019, the spire of Notre-Dame de Paris collapsed before the eyes of the entire world. In a matter of hours, what was believed to be eternal revealed itself to be terribly fragile, and Paris held its breath before the blaze threatening eight centuries of history.
For Notre-Dame has watched centuries go by without ever ceasing to watch over the city: coronations and revolutions, wars and reconstructions, joyful crowds as well as mourning ones. Through it all, the voice of the cathedral never stopped being heard, carried since the Middle Ages by its pipes rising with the vaults: the organ.
There is no instrument closer to a living being than the pipe organ. Its mechanisms breathe, its pipes vibrate like lungs of stone and metal, and its voice fills the entire nave with a power that seems to spring from the walls themselves. It is what animates the cathedral from within, giving it this continuous pulsation for centuries, this sonic presence without which Notre-Dame would be deeply silent.
In Memoriam was born from that April night: an attempt to give voice to the ancient memory held within the organ, the musical legacy of the Middle Ages that witnessed, in Notre-Dame itself, the first major steps of Western polyphony. In the end, what the fire threatened to silence forever has recovered its voice; a voice that will long continue to whisper its stories and legends to future generations.
