Most have jeans on, some wear work boots and one sings with a white construction helmet tucked under his arm. Nonetheless, they all gather in the church hall before the altar; their song begins low and soft, surges and then sweeps through the Gothic-style church and up to its soaring stone ceiling.
The 80-strong choir has come together to do more than sing, though. The crew of architects, stonemasons, archaeologists, art historians, art conservators, and others helped rebuild Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral after a fire ripped through the iconic French Gothic masterpiece nearly five years ago.
In May, Wood Central revealed that 500 carpenters, stonemasons, scaffolders, sculptures, gliders, and glassmakers worldwide finished work on the cathedral roof, appropriately known as “la forêt,” or “the forest.” The roof was constructed using timber from 35 French sawmills sourced from 175 local forests—all fully certified under the world’s largest forest certification scheme, PEFC International.
Now, after finishing work on the interiors—including the cathedral’s 1500 wooden chairs (also certified by PEFC) —a large portion of the workers have started a choir, the Notre Dame Compagnons Choir, or Notre Dame Companions, which has been two years in the making: “Everyone has to do his part to make the music sound good,” said Stephanie Duchêne, the chief archaeologist and conservation scientist for the Laboratory of Research for Historical Monuments, who spoke to US-based NBC News.
Five years after the blaze destroyed much of the cathedral’s roof and brought down its spire, the Notre-Dame Compagnons Choir is preparing to perform in the building they helped save. It will be part of a weeks-long celebration marking the long-awaited reopening. On Dec. 11, the choir will perform a rendition of French composer Gabriel Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine,” or “Chant by Jean Racine.”
Like many others, Duchêne remembers exactly where she was when she heard about the fire. “My brother sent me a picture of the fire,” Duchêne, 46, told NBC News ahead of rehearsal in the Saint-Séverin Church, known for its musical performances and the oldest church in Paris’ Left Bank. Just weeks before, she and her husband had taken their children to visit the cathedral—and now, she remembers, it was at risk of being reduced to rubble and ashes.
“Everyone was very sad and very anxious about the potential collapse of the cathedral overnight,” she said. “We were very relieved in the morning when we saw that it was — that she was — still standing.”
Stephanie Duchêne, the chief archaeologist and conservation scientist for the Laboratory of Research for Historical Monuments.
In the aftermath of the fire, Agnes Poirier, a French author who published the book ” Notre-Dame: The Soul of France,” echoes the pervasive feeling that the cathedral is much more than simply a building: “She’s been here for 850 years. You think she will never disappear, so the very idea of her demise and possible disappearance was just inconceivable — unbearable and inconceivable,” she said while looking out at the cathedral across the Seine. While part of the cathedral, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991, was undamaged by the fire, much of the building’s roof and signature spire were destroyed.”
Whether the choir will carry on or disband once the cathedral reopens has yet to be decided, Duchêne said — but for now, the group is looking forward to performing in the space it helped restore to its former glory.“I think it will be very emotional,” she said. “We feel very privileged to have been able to work on this.”
How acoustic engineers recaptured Notre-Dame’s unique sound
Earlier this year, Wood Central revealed that the world’s best acoustic engineers were working around the clock to restore Notre-Dame’s internal sound, “mapping out the cathedral’s acoustics, calculating how sound reverberates against each interior feature of the building.”
This includes using a recorded concert, the “Ghost Orchestra Project,” and a computer model to determine how acoustics vary between sections of the cathedral: “We are painting audio frescos,” said acoustic engineer Brian Katz. The team also used “a medieval castle from the same period and the same tools to recapture the original sounds of Notre-Dame’s construction.”
According to Mt Katz, the sound inside the cathedral evolved as construction materials changed:
“In the Middle Ages, before there was all this seating, the floor would have probably been covered with straw or hay to absorb water and mud from people. Then there was the transformation from a religious to a mass tourist site,” he said, adding that “carpeting was added in the ’90s to reduce footfall.”
Brian Katz on the changes to Notre-Dame Cathedral’s accoustis over the centuries.
The restoration of the UNESCO-listed building, slated to reopen on December 8, 2024, will see a huge influx of tourists return to one of Paris’s great landmarks. The French Government forecasts that more than 14 million tourists will attend the cathedral in 2025.
- For more information about the Notre-Dame restoration, visit Wood Central’s special features on the certification of the Notre-Dame de Paris roof, the construction of the wooden spire, the installation of the trusses over the cathedral roof, guidelines for carpenters working in the cathedral, and the Golden Rooster, which now stands atop the cathedral spire.
