It took five years to restore Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire.
The cathedral's 8,000-pipe organ played a leading role in the reopening ceremony, showcasing the cathedral's art, history, and religious rituals.
Olivier Latry is Notre Dame's longest-serving organist, having held the position for 40 years.
The organ was filled with lead dust but remained intact and did not melt or sustain water damage.
The organ was dismounted piece by piece, removed from the cathedral, cleaned, refurbished, and then reinstalled. It took six months to harmonize the organ in a noisy work site.
The acoustics have improved, with the sound now lasting a full eight seconds due to the clean stone and absence of dust.
The organ is a key part of the cathedral's liturgy and serves as a sound mirror of its architecture, reflecting the soul of the cathedral.
A special organ blessing and wake-up ritual was performed, involving the archbishop saying eight different commands, to which the organist improvised responses.
Notre Dame's longest serving organist Olivier Latry tells of the cathedral's transformed acoustics. After a horrific fire in 2019, craftspeople resurrected the cathedral in just five years. The organist says the thorough cleaning of the instrument and the structure's stone makes the cathedral even more reverberant. Sign up for State of the World+ to listen sponsor-free and support the work of NPR journalists. Visit plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices)NPR Privacy Policy)