Gaston Bélier

A student of Eugène Gigout at the Conservatoire de Paris, he was titular organist at the Saint-Maclou of Pontoise Cathedral from 1892 to his death in 1938, and substitute organist at the église Saint-Ferdinand-des-Ternes in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.[1] From 1927 he was involved in the renovation and extension of the organ of La Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement.[2] In 1930 he participated in Victor Gonzalez's reconstruction of the organ of the Carmelite monastery of St. Joseph of Pontoise.

Like his colleagues Albert Renaud and Marcel Lanquetuit, Bélier is mostly known today for his Toccata pour grand orgue in D minor published by M. Senart in Paris in 1912. He also composed a Elevation for Organ, available on IMSLP.

Philippe Bardon[3] (on the organ of Saint-Maclou): Un récital d'orgue à Pontoise (EMA 9509), with works by J. S. Bach, Nicolas de Grigny, Michel Corrette, W. A. Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, César Franck, Gaston Bélier, Jehan Alain and Olivier Messiaen.

• YouTube Marko Hakanpää plays Bélier's Toccata at the Grönlunds organ (III/52, 2002) of the Saint-Michel church at Turku, Finland (audio only).
• YouTube Diane Bish plays Bélier's Toccata at the Rieger organ (III/58, 1992) of the St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• France Orgue G. Bélier's discography by Alain Carteyrade.
• Free scores by Gaston Bélier at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) La Toccata pour orgue en ré mineur. (revised version, 17 March 2012.)