The monumental Organ of the Milan Duomo is the work of the Italian organ builders Mascioni and Tamburini, who in 1938 created what is today the largest instrument in Italy, second largest in Europe and seventh largest in the world. [1] From 1938 to the present day, the Veneranda Fabbrica Del Duomo di Milano has constantly subjected this precious instrument to various interventions aimed at increasingly improving its artistic qualities, equipping it with state-of-the-art technical features. [2]

The characteristics of this great organ are remarkable:

· 15,800 pipes, the tallest of which measures over nine metres while the smallest measures a few centimetres

· Four monumental wooden caskets (two caskets made in the 16th century for previous Duomo organs and two modern caskets made in 1986)

· Two twin consoles with 5 keyboards

· 211 sound registers

But it is not only the figures that qualify the Duomo organ as a work of art, but rather its nobility of sound, which makes it a versatile instrument for the performance of ancient, romantic and modern literature.

The current phonic arrangement of the instrument can be viewed below.

The history of the Duomo has always been linked to that of its organ, or rather of its organs, since there have always been two instruments in the Duomo since the mid-15th century.

The first organ dates back to 1394, when only seven years had passed since the foundation stone of the Cathedral was laid; the task of building it was entrusted to Fra’ Martino de Stremidi, who first placed the instrument in the northern sacristy and then moved it to the northern transept in the mid-15th century. The second organ was built in 1464 by Bernardo d’Alemagna and placed in the south transept. In the following decades, these first two instruments underwent restorations and modifications until they were replaced with two new instruments by Gian Giacomo Antegnati and Cristoforo Valvassori, placed respectively in 1580 and 1590 in the two monumental gilded cases that still enrich the presbytery today. History saw the alternation of skilled Italian organ builders [3] in the restoration and reform of the two 16th-century organs until 1938, when Benito Mussolini decided to donate a new organ to the Duomo, the largest ever built in Italy.

Also of particular value are the doors of the two 16th-century chests, consisting of sixteen large canvases depicting episodes from the Old and New Testaments; the pictorial decoration was initiated by the Veneranda Fabbrica in 1559. Various artists took turns for this task, including Giuseppe Meda, Ambrogio Figino and Camillo Procaccini.

[1] MICHAL SZOSTAK, The largest pipe organs in the world (2018), Vox Humana online Journal.

[2] The instrument was dismantled in 1965 due to consolidation work on the pillars of the tiburium and reassembled between 1984 and 1986 by the firm Tamburini, which modified the phonic according to the neoclassical tastes of those years. In 2019, a new restoration began by the firm Colzani e Bastici, which is still in progress, aimed at recovering the original 1938 phonic and expanding the instrument’s phonic palette.

[3] Of particular importance are the organ builders Prati, Serassi, Bossi, Biroldi, Bernasconi and Mascioni.

The sound of the Organ of the Duomo accompanies all festive and vigil celebrations, as well as the 8 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. weekday services.

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From December to July, the ‘Sonorità Organistiche’ festival allows you to listen to a short thirty-minute concert every Saturday at 4.45 pm.

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The organist of the Milan Duomo is Maestro Alessandro La Ciacera.