Jan Van Mol: Cyriel Van den Abeele en het orgel van de Sint-Niklaaskerk in Gent

The Cavaillé-Coll organ of Sint-Niklaas Church in Ghent (1853-1856), with 40 stops and three manuals, belongs to the most important instruments that were built in Belgium in the nineteenth century.
Since 1964 it has been packed up as a protection against the lasting restoration works on the church. There isn’t even a satisfactory picture of the organ available.
The inducement to write this article was a recently discovered photograph of the organist Cyriel Van den Abeele (1875-1946) at the console. Van den Abeele was organist of Sint-Niklaas Church from 1900 until his death. As a student of Jos. Tilborghs at the Conservatorium of Ghent he represented a “conservative” tendency within the Belgian organ world, which was oriented to Germany rather than to France.
Van den Abeele was to abandon playing organ literature soon and to confine himself to improvising. The 11 o’clock organ mass on Sundays in Sint-Niklaas Church acquired a certain reputation. It was an almost continuous improvisation for which the liturgical acts served as a background. Van den Abeele composed especially in his younger days. He didn’t manage to succeed his teacher Tilborghs and the sustenance of his large family soon prevented him from producing creative work. Unfortunately his improvisations were never put to paper and only two small organ pieces are known that bear his name. He enjoyed his last success at the Liberation when he gave a concert for the allied forces with as a conclusion an improvisation on God save the King.
Two conflicts reached the press. In 1932 he was accused of modernism at the creation of a mass. In 1935 he was supposed to have refused to play the national hymn after the memorial service for Queen Astrid, who had died a tragical death a short time before.
The organ that he played for almost half a century has always had a great reputation. In course of time, the Sint-Niklaas Church fell into serious decay. Propositions to remove or modernize the organ were not carried out. That is why one of Belgium’s most important organs has remained intact. On the other hand, it hasn’t been heard or seen for almost half a century now.