Alain Trois Danses: Lippincott CD1199; Marie Claire CD 2820; Trotter CD 7147v

Dupr improvises; also John Scott

Durufl: Ken Cowan, John Scott, Durufl

MARCEL DUPR was born in Rouen (Normandy). Born into a musical family, he was a
child prodigy. Dupr entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1904, where he studied with
Charles-Marie Widor, Alexandre Guilmant, Louis Vierne, and Louis Dimer. In 1914,
Dupr won the Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata, "Psych". In 1936, he was
appointed professor of organ performance and improvisation at the Paris
Conservatoire.
Dupr became famous for performing more than 2,000 organ recitals throughout
Europe, the United States, and Australia, which included a recital series of 10 concerts of
the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach in 1920 (Paris Conservatoire) and
1921 (Palais du Trocadro), both performed entirely from memory. The sponsorship
of an American transcontinental tour by the John Wanamaker department store
interests rocketed his name into international prominence.
In 1934, Dupr succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as titular organist at St. Sulpice in
Paris, a post he held until his death in 1971.
From 1947-1954, he was director of the American Conservatory, which occupies the
Louis XV wing of the Chteau de Fontainebleau near Paris. In 1954, Dupr succeeded
Claude Delvincourt as director of the Paris Conservatoire, where he remained until
1956. He died in 1971 in Meudon (near Paris).
WORKS
As a composer, he produced a wide-ranging oeuvre of 65 opus numbers, and also taught
two generations of well-known organists such as Jehan Alain and Marie-Claire Alain,
Pierre Cochereau, Jeanne Demessieux, Rolande Falcinelli, Jean Guillou, Jean Langlais,
and Olivier Messiaen, to name only a few. Aside from a few fine works for aspiring
organists (such as the 79 Chorales op. 28) most of Dupr's music for the organ ranges
from moderately to extremely difficult, and some of it makes almost impossible
technical demands on the performer (e.g., vocation op. 37, Suite, op. 39, Deux
Esquisses op. 41, Vision op. 44).
His most often heard and recorded compositions tend to be from the earlier years of his
career. During this time he wrote the Three Preludes and Fugues, Op. 7 (1914), with
the First and Third Preludes (in particular the G minor with its phenomenally fast
tempo/figuarations and pedal chords) being pronounced unplayable by no less a figure
than Widor. Indeed, such is their difficulty that Dupr was the only organist able to play
them until several years later.
In many ways Dupr may be viewed as a 'Paganini' of the organ - being a virtuoso of the
highest order, he contributed extensively to the development of technique (both in his
organ music and in his pedagogical works) although, like Paganini, his music is
relatively unknown to musicians other than those who play the instrument for which the

music was written. A fair and objective critique of his music should take into account the
fact that, occasionally, the emphasis on virtuosity and technique can be detrimental to the
musical content and substance. However, his more successful works combine this
virtuosity with high degree of musical integrity, qualities found in works such as the
Symphonie-Passion, the Preludes and Fugues, the Esquisses and Evocation, and the
Cortege et Litanie.
As well as composing prolifically, Dupr prepared editions of the organ works of Bach,
Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Csar Franck, and Alexander
Glazunov. He also wrote treatises on organ improvisation in two volumes (1925 and
1937), harmonic analysis (1936), counterpoint (1938), fugue (1938), and
accompaniment of Gregorian chant (1937), in addition to essays on organ building,
acoustics, and philosophy of music. As an improviser, Dupr excelled as perhaps no
other did during the 20th century, and he was able to take given themes and
spontaneously weave whole symphonies around them, often with elaborate contrapuntal
devices including fugues. The achievement of these feats was partially due to his
unsurpassed genius and partially due to his hard work doing paper exercises when he was
not busy practicing or composing.
Although his emphasis as composer was the organ, Dupr's catalog of musical
compositions also includes works for piano, orchestra and choir, as well as chamber
music, and a number of transcriptions.
COMPOSITIONS
Organ solo
Elevation op. 2
Trois Prludes et Fugues op. 7 (1914)
Scherzo op. 16 (1919)
Fifteen Pieces op. 18 (1919)
Cortge et Litanie op. 19 No. 2 (Transcription of the piano version, 1921)
Variations sur un Nol op. 20 (1922)
Suite Bretonne op. 21 (1923)
Symphonie-Passion op. 23 (1924)
Lamento op. 24 (1926)
Deuxime Symphonie op. 26 (1929)
Sept Pices op. 27 (1931)
Seventy-Nine Chorales op. 28 (1931)
Le Chemin de la croix op. 29 (1931)
Trois levations op. 32 (1935)
Anglus op. 34 No. 1 (1936)
Trois Prludes et Fugues op. 36 (1938)
vocation op. 37 (1941)
Le Tombeau de Titelouze op. 38 (1942)
Suite op. 39 (1944)
Offrande la Vierge op. 40 (1944)
Deux Esquisses op. 41 (1945)
Paraphrase on the Te Deum op. 43 (1945)
Vision op. 44 (1947)
Eight Short Preludes on Gregorian Themes op. 45 (1948)
pithalame without opus (1948)
Variations sur 'Il est n le divin enfant' without opus (1948)
Miserere Mei op. 46 (1948)
Psaume XVIII op. 47 (1949)
Six Antiennes pour le Temps de Nol op. 48 (1952)
Vingt-Quatre Inventions op. 50 (1956)
Triptyque op. 51 (1957)
Nymphas op. 54 (1959)
Annonciation op. 56 (1961)
Choral et Fugue op. 57 (1962)
Trois Hymnes op. 58 (1963)
Two Chorales op. 59 (1963)
In Memoriam op. 61 (1965)
Mditation without opus (1966)

Entre, Canzona et Sortie op. 62 (1967)

Quatre Fugues Modales op. 63 (1968)
Regina Coeli op. 64 (1969)
Vitrail op. 65 (1969)
Souvenir op. 65bis (1965)
Organ with other instruments
Cortge et Litanie op. 19 for organ and orchestra (Transcription of the
piano version, 1921)
Symphonie G minor op. 25 for organ and orchestra (1927)
Ballade op. 30 for organ and piano (1932)
Concerto E minor op. 31 for organ and orchestra (1934)
Pome hroque op. 33 for organ, brass and field drum (1935)
Variations on two themes op. 35 for organ and piano (1937)
Sinfonia op. 42 for organ and piano (1946)
Quartet op. 52 for violin, viola, cello and organ (1958)
Trio op. 55 for violin, cello and organ (1960)
Sonata A minor op. 60 for cello and organ (1964)
Choral Music
Les Normands op. 1 for choir and orchestra (1911)
Psych op. 4 for voices and orchestra (1914)
Quatre Motets op. 9 for voices and two organs (1916)
De Profundis op. 17 for soli, choir, organ and orchestra (1917)
Ave Verum op. 34 Nr. 2 for voices and strings (1936)
La France au Calvaire op. 49 for soli, choir, organ and orchestra (1953)
Deux Motets op. 53 for soprano and choir (1958)
Piano solo
Six Prludes op. 12 (1916)
Marche militaire op. 14 (1915)
Quatre Pices op. 19 (1921)
Variations C# minor op. 22 (1924)
Chamber Music
Sonate G minor op. 5 for violin and piano (1909)
Quatre Mlodies op. 6 for voice and piano (1913)
Deux Pices op. 10 for clarinet and piano (1917)
l'amie perdue op. 11 for voice and piano (1911)
Trois Pices op. 13 for cello and piano (1916)

JEHAN ALAIN was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris. His
father, Albert Alain (1880-1971) was an enthusiastic organist, composer and organbuilder who had studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne. Jehan received his
initial training in the piano from Augustin Pierson, the organist of Saint-Louis at Versailles,
and in the organ from his father, who had built a four-manual instrument in the family
sitting room. By the age of eleven, Jehan was substituting at St. Germain-en-Laye.
Between 1927 and 1939, he attended the Paris Conservatiore and achieved First Prize in
Harmony under Andr Bloch and First Prize in Fugue with Georges Caussade. He studied
the organ with Marcel Dupr, under whose direction he took first prize for Organ and
Improvisation in 1939. His studies in composition with Paul Dukas and Jean RogerDucasse won him the Prix des Amis de l'Orgue in 1936 for his Suite for Organ Op. 48,
Introduction, Variations, Scherzo and Choral. He was appointed organist of Saint-Nicholas
de Maisons Lafitte in Paris in 1935, and remained there for four years. He also played
regularly at the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth synagogue, where the only known
recording of his playing a six-minute improvisation was made in 1938.
His short career as a composer began in 1929, when Alain was 18, and lasted until the
outbreak of the Second World War ten years later. His output was influenced not only by
the musical language of the earlier Claude Debussy and his contemporary Olivier Messiaen
(seen in Le jardin suspendu, 1934), but also by an interest in the music, dance and
philosophies of the far east (acquired at the Exposition coloniale internationale of 1931
and seen in Deux Danses Agni Yavishta, 1932 and Deuxime Fantaisie, 1936), a
renaissance of baroque music (seen in Variations sur un thme de Clment Janequin,
1937), and in jazz (seen in Trois Danses of 1939).
He wrote choral music, including a Requiem mass, chamber music, songs and three volumes
of piano music. But it is for his organ music for which he is best known. His most famous
work, Litanies, was initially composed as a humorous piece, and appears in its earliest
manuscript form in mid-August 1937 with the subtitle "Story of a man who is pushing a
little three-wheeled cart. Behind him are twenty policemen who are throwing bricks at
him." However, the death in the Alps some weeks later of his 23-year old sister Odile, while
protecting her brother Olivier, shattered the cheerful mood and Alain then named the piece
Litanies and prefaced it with the text: "When, in its distress, the Christian soul can find no
more words to implore the mercy of God, it repeats, times without end, the same fiercefaithed prayer. Reason reaches its limits and only belief can chase its flight". Deuils
('mourning'), the second of the Trois Danses, is dedicated to Odile as a Funeral Dance to an
heroic memory.
Always interested in mechanics, Alain was a skilled motorcyclist and became a dispatch
rider in the 8th motorised armour division of the French Army. On 20 June 1940, he
was assigned to reconnoitre the German advance on the eastern side of Saumur and
encountered a group of German soldiers at Le Petit-Puy. He attacked, but was killed
following his refusal to surrender. He left behind his wife, Madeleine Payan whom he
had married in 1935, their three children, and a musical output viewed by many to have
been amongst the most original of the twentieth century.

MAURICE DURUFL (January 11, 1902 June 16, 1986) was a French composer,
organist, and pedagogue.Contents
LIFE
Durufl was born in Louviers, Haute-Normandie.
In 1912, he became chorister at the Rouen Cathedral Choir School, where he studied
piano and organ with Jules Haelling. At age 17, upon moving to Paris, he took private
organ lessons with Charles Tournemire, whom he assisted at Ste-Clotilde until 1927.
In 1920 Durufl entered the Conservatoire de Paris, eventually graduating with first
prizes in organ [with Gigout], harmony, piano accompaniment, and composition.
Also private lessons with Vierne
In 1927, Louis Vierne nominated him as his assistant at Notre-Dame. Durufl
became titular organist of St. tienne-du-Mont in Paris in 1929, a position he held
for the rest of his life. In 1939, he premiered Francis Poulenc's Organ Concerto (the
Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor); he had advised Poulenc on the
registrations of the organ part. In 1943 he became professor of harmony at the
Conservatoire de Paris, where he worked until 1970. In 1947, Durufl wrote what is
probably the most famous of his few pieces: the Requiem op. 9, for soloists, choir, organ
and orchestra. The same year, Marie-Madeleine Chevalier became his assistant at Sttienne-du-Mont. They married in 1953. The couple became a famous and popular
organ duo, going on tour together several times throughout the sixties and early seventies.
Durufl suffered severe injuries in a car accident in 1975, and as a result he gave up
performing; indeed he was largely confined to his apartment, leaving the service at Sttienne-du-Mont to his wife Marie-Madeleine (who was also injured in the accident).
He died in Louveciennes (near Paris) in 1986, aged 84.
As a composer, Durufl was extremely self-critical. He only published a handful of
works and often continued to edit and change pieces after publication. For instance, the
Toccata from Suite, op. 5 has a completely different ending in the first edition than in
the more recent version, and the score to the Fugue sur le nom d'Alain originally
indicated accelerando throughout. The result of this perfectionism is that his music,
especially his organ music, holds a very high position in the repertoire.

COMPOSITIONS
Organ solo
Scherzo op. 2 (1926)
Prlude, Adagio et Choral vari sur le theme du 'Veni Creator' op. 4
(1930)
Suite op. 5 (1932):
Prlude
Sicilienne
Toccata
Prlude et Fuge sur le nom d'Alain op. 7 (1942)
Prlude sur l'Introt de l'Epiphanie op. 13 (1961)
Fugue sur le carillon des heures de la Cathdrale de Soissons op. 12
(1962)
Mditation op. posth. (1964)
Lecture vue (unpublished)
Fugue (unpublished)
Lux aeterna (unpublished)
Chamber music
Prlude, Rcitatif et Variations op. 3 for flute, viola, and piano (1928)
Piano solo
Triptyque op. 1: Fantaisie sur des thmes grgoriens (1927/1943,
unpublished)
Trois Danses op. 6 (1932, piano version by the composer):
Divertissement
Danse lente
Tambourin
Piano for 4 hands
Trois Danses op. 6 (1932, transcribed by the composer):
Divertissement
Danse lente
Tambourin

Two pianos
Trois Danses op. 6 (1932, transcribed by the composer):
Divertissement
Danse lente
Tambourin
Orchestra works
Trois Danses op. 6 (1932):
Divertissement
Danse lente
Tambourin
Andante et Scherzo op. 8 (1940)
Choral works
Requiem op. 9 for soloists, choir, orchestra, and organ (1947)
Version with Orchestra (1947)
Version with Organ (1948)
Version with small Orchestra (1961)
Quatre Motets sur des Thmes Grgoriens op. 10 for choir a capella
(1960):
Ubi caritas et amor
Tota pulchra es
Tu es Petrus
Tantum ergo
Messe Cum Jubilo op. 11 for baritone solo, male choir, and orchestra
(1966):
Version with Organ (1967)
Version with Orchestra (1970)
Version with small Orchestra (1972)
Notre Pre op. 14 for unison male choir and organ (1977)
Version for 4-part mixed choir a capella (1978)

Transcriptions
Johann Sebastian Bach: 4 Chorale Preludes for Organ , orchestrated by Maurice Durufl (1942/1945):
Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (18 Chorales)
Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein BWV 734
O Lamm Gottes unschuldig BWV 656 (18 Chorales)
In dir ist Freude BWV 615 (Orgelbchlein)
Louis Vierne: Soirs trangers op. 56, for violoncello and piano, orchestrated by Maurice Durufl (1943)
Louis Vierne: Ballade du dsespr op. 61, pome lyrique for tenor solo and piano, orchestrated by Maurice Durufl (1943)
Maurice Durufl: Requiem op. 9, for voice and piano (1947)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Two Chorales from Cantatas BWV 22 und 147 , arranged for organ solo by Maurice Durufl (1952)
Louis Vierne: Trois Improvisations for organ (Notre-Dame-de-Paris, November 1928), transcribed by Maurice Durufl (1954):
Charles Tournemire: Cinq Improvisations for organ (Ste. Clotilde, Paris, 1930/1931), transcribed by Maurice Durufl (1956-1958):
Gabriel Faur: Prlude de Pellas et Mlisande , transcribed for organ solo by Maurice Durufl
Robert Schumann: Lamentation , transcribed for organ solo by Maurice Durufl