AN ORGAN BY JORGE DE SESMA FOR MEXICO CITY CATHEDRAL

Abstract

An important pipe organ that served Mexico City Cathedral from 1695 until 1735 was built in Madrid from 1689-90 by the Saragossan builder, Jorge de Sesma, son of the famous Jos? de Sesma. Likewise involved in the project in some manner were the builders Tiburcio Sanz (also from Arag?n but trained in organbuilding by a Catalonian builder while living in M?laga) and Joseph de Ma?eru (from Ler?n). Consisting of approximately 31 regis ters on two manuals (Great and Chair organs) and Contras, the organ's disposition reflects many of the progressive trends in Spanish building then circulating in Madrid. Extensive doc umentation from the Archivo del Cabildo Catedral Metropolitano de M?xico related to the organ not only greatly expands our knowledge of how this particular instrument came to be built and the circumstances which surrounded its construction, but also sheds light generally on the process of ordering organs from Spain for the New World, and on the nature of the rela tionship between organbuilding in New Spain and in Spain ca. 1690. In addition, having for the first time the disposition and physical description of the de Sesma organ makes it finally possible to outline the differences between it and the organ which replaced it?an instrument built 1735-36 by Joseph Nassarre (also from Arag?n). The Nassarre organ, which still sur vives, is sometimes erroneously identified as the organ built by de Sesma.