No further information is known until 1464. At that time, the Board of Works requested the services of a German friar and organ builder, Frater Leonardus, to undertake some form of repair. By 1484, the organ had become unusable, and the construction of a new instrument was agreed upon. From the outset, the intention of the churchwardens was to provide themselves with an organ befitting the grandeur and prestige of the church. Thus, the organ builders known as “the Marturians”—the brothers Antoni, a monk of Poblet, and Marturià, who had belonged to the royal chapel and alternated the craft of organ building with that of singer-composer—competed with Johann Spin von Noyern. After much deliberation, the German’s project—representing a more innovative option—was chosen, and he completed the instrument in 1486. The examiners’ words express their approval and admiration: “…declaring that, having seen, touched and heard the said organ, the said organ was good, good and good.” It appears that at the same time the same builder constructed a smaller organ as well.

It is recorded that in 1514 the “Marturians” built new fixed organs. These were likely minor organs; it seems improbable that the great organ would have been replaced after so few years. Following this date, a series of minor interventions are documented, culminating in the works carried out in 1547 by Pere Bordons and, between 1560 and 1576, by Pere Rabassa, Josep Bordons and Salvador Estada. Unfortunately, reliable information does not reappear until 1677. We know that the prestigious Aragonese organ builder José de Sesma carried out important work, although the details remain unknown.

At the close of the seventeenth century, when a complete reform of the organ became necessary, the churchwardens of Santa Maria del Mar once again turned to a northern builder. This time it was the Flemish Andreu Bargere who, in 1691, was entrusted with rebuilding the organ from top to bottom. The surviving documentation, however, does not allow us to determine the full extent of this reform. A few years later, in 1719, the Majorcan Josep Bosch also carried out certain repairs. It was in 1741, however, that Antoni Boscà—who had been responsible for maintaining the organs of Santa Maria since 1734—constructed an almost entirely new instrument. His work represents one of the great achievements of the Boscà lineage and a magnificent synthesis of the Catalan and Castilian organ traditions. Broadly speaking, this involved maintaining the three sound bodies, incorporating divided stops and horizontal trumpet pipes, and abandoning the short octave in the great organ.

Around 1790, this organ appears to have suffered from serious deterioration. Consequently, in 1794 Jean-Pierre and Dominique Cavaillé—father and son—began work on a new organ, which was inaugurated on Christmas Day 1797. After restoration by Joan Puig in 1854, this was the instrument that remained in use until 1936. In the words of Mossèn Frederic Muset, titular organist from 1925 until the early 1970s, it was described as follows: “…I counted up to 31 stops. The pleno stops formed one of its most characteristic features, some comprising up to 17 ranks. They possessed a sublime sonority. The trumpets and cornets had a brilliant richness…” Nothing remained of this magnificent organ after the fire of 20 July 1936.

In 1943, following the demolition of the Palau de Belles Arts in Barcelona, it was decided to transfer its organ—built by Aquilino Amézua—to Santa Maria del Mar. Although the transfer, entrusted to the organ builder Antonio Alberdi, appears to have been carried out, the installation was never completed, and the last remaining parts disappeared with the demolition of the bridge over the Fossar de les Moreres.

Bernat Cabré