(b Caux, nr Béziers, 24 Jan 1709; d St Denis, Paris, 25 Nov 1779). French organ builder and writer on organs and organ construction. He entered the Benedictine Congregation of St Maur at La Daurade, Toulouse, on 7 June 1726. On 30 October 1745 he became secretary of Sainte-Croix abbey at Bordeaux, where in 1748 he built an organ in the monastery church; after the Revolution it was transferred to St André, Bordeaux, and much original pipework survives. In 1759 he was elected a member of the Académie des Sciences, Bordeaux, and was subsequently elected a corresponding member of that of Paris. In 1761–2 he built an organ at St Vincent, Le Mans; he was also consultant for many other new organs. Bédos de Celles is best known for his writings, particularly his L'art du facteur d'orgues. This work is among the earliest to describe in detail the design and physical construction of the pipe organ and provides a valuable description of classical French organ building. His extensive and highly detailed plates, charts and diagrams deal with aspects of organ design, mixture compositions, pipe scales, pipes and pipe making, and tools and their use. Working from the writings of Marie Dominique Joseph Engramelle, he gave exhaustive instructions on the transfer of musical scores to organ barrels for mechanical playing and provided two complete pieces in the form of pinning charts. This aspect of his work inspired the makers of mechanical organs from his time forward. Bédos de Celles also described a mechanism for a square piano combined with an organ, a claviorgan and a vielle organisée and included a detailed discussion of ornamentation, articulation and principles of organ registration. He contributed reports on new organs to the Mercure de France.
La gnomonique pratique, ou L'art de tracer les cadrans solaires avec la plus grande précision (Paris, 1760/R, 2/1774)
‘Lettre à l'auteur du Mercure, sur les nouvelles orgues de Saint Martin de Tours’, Mercure de France, i (1762), 133
L'art du facteur d'orgues (Paris, 1766–78/R; Eng. trans., 1977); ed. C. Mahrenholz (Kassel, 1934–6, 2/1963–6)
J.S. Halle: ‘Orgelbau’, Werkstätte der heutigen Künste, vi (Brandenburg and Leipzig, 1779)
C. Vollbeding: Kurzgefasste Geschichte der Orgel aus dem Französischen des Dom Bédos de Celles (Berlin, 1793)
M.-P. Hamel: Nouveau manuel complet du facteur d'orgues (Paris, 1849, 2/1903)
J.G. Töpfer: Lehrbuch der Orgelbaukunst (Weimar, 1855, rev. 2/1888 by M. Allihn as Die Theorie und Praxis des Orgelbaus, rev. 3/1936 by P. Smets)
F. Raugel: Les Lépine et Dom François Bédos de Celles (Paris, 1917)
F. Raugel: Recherches sur quelques maîtres de l'ancienne facture d'orgue françaises (Paris, 1924)
C. Mahrenholz: Die Orgelregister: ihre Geschichte und ihr Bau (Kassel, 1930, 2/1944/R)
H. Klotz: Über die Orgelkunst der Gotik, der Renaissance und des Barock (Kassel, 1934, 3/1986)
C. Mahrenholz: Die Berechnung der Orgelpfeifenmensuren vom Mittelalter bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Kassel, 1938/R)
W.L. Sumner: The Organ: its Evolution, Principles of Construction and Use (London, 1952, rev., enlarged, 4/1973/R)
A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume: The Mechanics of Mechanical Music (London, 1973)
A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume: Barrel Organ (London, 1978)
GUY OLDHAM/ARTHUR W.J.G. ORD-HUME