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Claude Balbastre (1724-1799) is known primarily as one of the most famous organists and harpsichord players of his time, but his contribution to the rise of the pianoforte in France is often neglected. A careful study of his works (his Noëls dedicated to the Duchesse de Choiseul, notably, but also various other pieces in manuscript sources) reveals that he was not hostile to the new instrument. Drawn to innovation, he adopted on his harpsichord the jeu de buffle invented by Pascal Taskin to improve “expression”, and then designed, with the organ-builder François-Henri Clicquot, a new hybrid instrument, the “organised pianoforte”, which combined the string instrument with organ-pipes. Balbastre readily blurred the generic frontiers between repertoires and would adapt his pieces from one instrument to another. The short-lived organised pianoforte represented a much dreamed-of sound and an ideal of stylistic synthesis and expressive polyvalence which were characteristic of the very spirit of the Enlightenment.