I hunger for culture that exists with or without tourism. When I’m in Scotland, it seems like the folk music and the kilts and the haggis are there, at least in part, for the tourists. Paris, however, feels like more of a cultural powerhouse. When traveling in Paris, I always feel that tourism is like a bug — it bounces off the windshield, with the city barely noticing. But sometimes Paris leaves its window open…and we can slip on through and really be inside.
One way to get inside, culturally, is to be at the back of St. Sulpice Church between the Masses on Sunday and climb up into the organ loft. It was my dream to return to that loft with our TV camera and enjoy perhaps Europe’s greatest active pipe organist, Daniel Roth, at work.
Here’s a snippet of our script (with a good example of a hardworking transition, as we needed the script to lead us into the Bastille Day section) and a video clip attempting to catch the wonder of being in the loft of St. Sulpice with Daniel Roth:
On Sunday mornings when I’m in Paris, you’ll likely find me here…in St. Sulpice Church, enjoying its magnificent pipe organ — arguably the greatest in Europe.
For organ-lovers, a visit here is a pilgrimage. After Mass, enthusiasts from around the world scamper like sixteenth notes up the spiral stairs into a world of 7,000 pipes.
Before electricity, it took three men, working out on these 18th-century Stairmasters, to fill the bellows, which powered the organ. The current organist, Daniel Roth, carries on the tradition of welcoming guests into the loft to see the organ in action.
As his apprentices pull and push the many stops that engage the symphony of pipes, a commotion of music-lovers crowd around a tower of keyboards and watch the master at work.
St. Sulpice has a rich history, with a line of 12 world-class organists going back over 200 years. Like kings or presidents, the lineage is charted on the wall. And overseeing all this: Johann Sebastian Bach.
This music continues to fill the spiritual sails of St. Sulpice as it has for centuries.
The good life in Paris — music, culture, an appreciation of its rich heritage and fine architecture — is easy to take for granted. But today’s freedoms and a government that seems passionate about its people’s needs didn’t come to France without a struggle. And the pinnacle of that struggle — an epic event that reverberates in the spirit of its people to this day — was the French Revolution.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Rick, love the Paris culture. And I loved St. Sulpice and the organ on Sunday morning,. But, you’re not getting to the right places if you want to hear Scottish folk music and see men in kilts that are not put on for tourists. There’s a music festival that is held in September in Tarbert in Argyle. I was there just after 9/11 and the men were wearing kilts, but not with fancy jackets, they were with T-shirts and with work boots. And then there was the music. It was mostly bands from Glasgow and they were taking the well known folk tunes and bringing them right up to the 21st century. At least one of the bands did it with a lime green violin! I’ve also heard local folk music in Dunkeld at the Music Bar. There is huge music festival in Glasgow in January. I don’t think that there are too many traditional tourists attending. I can hardly wait to go.
Always nice to hear some soothing music. Nice reprieve from doom and gloom and anxiety. Parisians and the French in general are vocal and action oriented when it comes to their own needs. Maybe it’s those cabbage-throwing farmers that block the roads who keep the government on their side. But then again maybe French leaders remember the guillotine.
Yes, Nick, you are right, genuine culture exists outside and beyond tourism. But surely this sort of organ music is connected with the religious feeling behind it all? Even if you don’t understand it all, it would be a more genuine experience to visit St Sulpice or Notre Dame DURING the Mass as well as between Masses. You would not only hear wonderful liturgical music played for the purpose it was written for, you would perhaps also feel some of the force that has been directing people over the centuries to build such edifices, to compose such music, to construct such organs, to become a proficient organist. Sorry, I hope this doesn’t sound “preachy”, I’m an agnostic myself. It’s a question of getting back to the roots of a culture. For the same reason I like visiting graveyards in big cities and tiny villages.
One of my most memorable holidays was a fortnight on Madeira as a package tourist. Everything was laid on for us and was interesting and exciting, but the only really genuine thing I did was to spend Good Friday afternoon in the cathedral. Seeing hundreds of locals of all ages in somber clothes commemorating the Crucifixion made me feel I was getting under their skin and not just using them as cooks, waiters and guides.
Claire, Rick’s book actually does recommend attending Mass at St. Sulpice to hear the organ music. And I took his advice. It was interesting because it was not only the wonderful music, but also the local people worshiping in their own church. I am not Catholic so for me it was the peace and the music.
Yes, it is imporant to remember the roots of European culture — and Catholicism has contributed much to art, music, science, literature. Be it in preserving and translating ancient Greek literature, to forming the first hospital, to creating the concept of free markets among the monasterues, to creating beautiful architecture and music to glorify God. There is nothing wrong in acknowleding that in today’s PC world.
That was just marvelous!
Great post Rick, so good I feel compelled to respond for the first time on your blog. The music and singing I’ve heard in Europe’s cathedrals has been one of the most memorable experiences I’ve had there. Admittedly I’ve never practiced any religion and never want to but on many occasions the music I heard has brought tears to my eyes. Your timing in the video is perfect.