Trilogies
Marcel Dupré: Trois Préludes et Fugues op. 7 (1912), Trois
Esquisses op. 41 (1946)
Jehan Alain: Trois Danses JA 120 (1940)
Gunther Rost, Schuke organ in the new church at the Julius-
Maximilians University in Würzburg
Marcel Dupré and Jehan Alain are among the most
important 20th century French composers of organ
music. Historically, they are at the end of the great
symphonic-romantic organ tradition that developed
in France during the second half of the 19th century.
The Trois Préludes et Fugues op. 7 are among
Dupré’s earliest works, and they are also his most
famous. When he wrote hisTrois Esquisses, on the
other hand, he was already thinking about his
legacy. He dedicated this work to his pupil Jeanne
Demessieux, whom he viewed as his best student
and hoped that she would become his artistic heir.
Unfortunately, a rift developed between Dupré and
Demessieux in 1945.
Jehan Alain’s unorthodox, exceptionally versatile
talent was apparent early on. In addition to music,
he also expressed himself through poetry and art. His
Trois Danses are the epitome of his compositional
work. He completed them at the front in World War
II, which he would not survive.
There are a number of links between Alain and
Gunther Rost: for one, Gunther Rost studied for
many years with Marie-Claire Alain, Jehan Alain’s
sister. She, in turn, was a pupil of Marcel Dupré.
During his studies in Paris, Gunther Rost was
appointed docent at the Würzburg Academy of Music
before taking over the Institute for Organ at the
University for Music and Theater in Graz, Austria in
2008 at age 27.
Marcel Dupré (1886 – 1971) and Jehan
Alain (1911 – 1940) are among the
most significant French 20th century
composers who wrote for the organ.
They were composing towards the end
of the great symphonic Romantic era
for organ, which had developed in
France during the second half of the
19th century. The ingenious instruments
of organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-
Coll (1811 – 1899), who expanded
the possibilities of the instrument by
introducing technical innovations, inspired
many composers, giving rise to
a superb flowering of organ music.
Cavaillé-
Coll’s most important instruments
include the organs of Nôtre-
Dame Cathedral and Saint-Sulpice in
Paris.
As a child, Dupré even got to know
the organ builder Cavaillé-Coll personally.
He came from a musical family
and showed extraordinary musical talent
from an early age. His teachers at
the Paris Conservatoire were the most
famous organists of the day: Alexandre
Guilmant, Charles-Marie Widor
and Louis Vierne. Dupré played the
organ
with superb technical virtuosity.
He was also an exceptionally gifted
improviser and teacher. For decades
he was acknowledged as being one of
the best-known and talented organists
in the world, undertaking extended
concert tours, particularly in the USA.
In 1926 he was appointed a tutor of
organ at the Paris Conservatoire. His
numerous students included Jehan
Alain and Olivier Messiaen. It is impossible
to underestimate his influence
on organ music in the 20th
century, both as a teacher and as a
composer.
Dupré composed an extensive
repertoire
for the organ including the
Trois
Préludes et Fugues opus 7, which
are among his earliest compositions.
They were composed as early as 1912.
During this time, Dupré was preparing
for the Prix de Rome composition
competition which he finally won in
1914 after two unsuccessful attempts.
The Trois Préludes et Fugues are not
only the most outstanding work of his
early compositional period but also
one of his most famous compositions.
When his organ colleagues first
played the pieces, they regarded them
to be so difficult that publishing the
work would be unthinkable. In 1920
Dupré gained great attention in Paris
by performing the complete works
of J. S. Bach for organ. He played all
Bach’s compositions from memory
during a series of ten concerts at one
week intervals – the first organist in
the world to achieve this feat. In the
same year he undertook a concert
tour to London. Here and at concerts
in other locations, his Trois Préludes et
Fugues were received so enthusiastically
by the public that the Leduc
publishing
house decided to publish
them. Dupré continued to play the
work throughout his entire concert
career,
offering the third piece in particular
as an encore.
Prélude et Fugue in B major opens
the trilogy with a brilliant toccata in
carillon style with the main subject
first introduced by the pedals. During
the softer central section, developments
of the subject can be heard,
followed
by a substantial crescendo,
after which the subject resounds in
canon between the descant and the
pedal as a reprise. A short coda with
pedal solos leads to the Fugue whose
subject, almost entirely made up of
continuous semiquavers, borrows motifs
from the Prélude. The recapitulation
of the carillon motif at the end of
the Fugue makes it clear that both
movements should be regarded as an
indivisible entity.
The second composition, Prélude
et Fugue in F minor represents a total
contrast to the first piece, not only in
terms of key: a serenely flowing, elegiac
melody is accompanied by broken
semiquavers in an elegant registration
(gamba and octavin). The Fugue subject
is derived from this melody. The
austere, seemingly endless Fugue, registered
in restrained 8´ tones, fades
away into nothingness with the final
chord.
The silence is soon broken by the
swirling semiquavers of the third
Prélude in G minor. The broad, wistful
melody which drifts from the pedals
into the descant, is expanded into an
eight-part phrase in which the pedals
must play four of the parts! A grandiose
Fugue rounds off the trilogy. In
6/8 time, the music charges ahead,
filled with energy and magnificent
sound. The subject from the Prélude
is developed further. It appears again
at the end, in powerful chords on the
manual, whilst the pedal plays the
Fugue subject.
During the years 1941 to 1943, Dupré
composed a total of twelve very
technically demanding Etudes for his
pupil Jeanne Demessieux. He first
heard her play when she was 15 years
old and was impressed by her talent.
She initially received private tuition
from Dupré and then completed studies
at the Conservatoire as a member
of his organ class, receiving a “Premier
Prix” in 1941. Dupré continued to
work with her for five further years,
regarding her as his master student,
able to continue his work as he intended.
He praised her pedal skills in
particular: he had never heard a woman
who could play so well! But soon,
in 1945, Dupré und Demessieux fell
out with one another.
After 1943 Dupré reordered the
twelve Etudes into numerous works,
including the Esquisses (Sketches)
opus 41 completed in 1945. Although
a manuscript survives incorporating
all three pieces under the title Trois
Esquisses,
Dupré initially performed
only two of them, publishing them
during the same year. The third Esquisse
in C Major (performed as No. 1
in this recording) was not published
until 1975, four years after Dupré’s
death. It is not clear why Dupré withheld
this work.
All three Esquisses contain extremely
difficult and rapid pedal parts.
Among other things, No. 1 requires
ascending and descending scales; in
No. 2 the organist has to negotiate
semiquaver figures in the pedal during
the voix céleste passages on the
manual, shortly before the end of the
composition together with semiquavers
in the right hand; in No. 3 both
feet must play parallel octave scale figures
whilst the hands perform octave
trills on the manual. But even that is
not enough: even the manual parts
place great demands on the performer.
In the second Esquisse, the urgent
semiquavers (with striking bourdon
8´ + tierce 1 3/5´ registration) form
combinations of double stops with repeated
tones; the third Esquisse is a
tour de force with octaves and full-fisted
chords. As well as focusing on
technical
virtuosity, Dupré manages to
create musically appealing compositions,
which speak to the listener in a
very immediate way: The sparkling
semiquavers in the second Esquisse
and the powerfully rhythmic chords in
the third piece cannot fail to move the
listener.
Like Dupré, Jehan Alain also discovered
music at an early age: His father
Albert was an organist who had studied
with Guilmant. Even Jehan’s siblings
Marie-Odile (1914 – 1937), Olivier
(1918 – 1994) and Maire-Claire (*1926)
followed careers as professional musicians.
Although Jehan Alain successfully
completed studies at the Paris
Conservatoire, he had a strong aversion
against all forms of academic music
training. Whereas Dupré’s works
are tightly structured with complex
contrapuntal elements, Alain allowed
his creative talents – in painting and
poetry as well as composition – to unfold
free from any rules and precepts.
His compositions are highly original
and immensely creative.
Alain’s compositions were highly
influenced
by his family’s home organ
which, as well as traditional Romantic
registers such as the salicional, viola
da gamba or harmonic flute, also contained
numerous overtone registers –
early indications for the waning influence
of the Romantic period and the
rise of the neo-baroque organ aesthetic.
An interest in Gregorian chant
and early music as well as in non-European
sounds, Impressionism and
Jazz, clearly left their mark on Alain’s
music. In the 1930s, Alain developed
new tonalities and scales, but he incorporated
them into his compositions
less systematically than Olivier Messiaen,
for example.
The Trois Danses JA 120 represent
the highpoint of Alain’s works for organ.
They were composed during the
three years preceding his death and
were initially planned to be orchestral
works. Initially he composed a sketch
for piano: he was able to complete
the organ version while stationed at
the Front as a solider during Second
World War, and sent it to Paris a few
days before his early death. The orchestral
version, which he was carrying
with him at the time, was lost.
Trois Danses focuses on three fundamentals
of human existence: joy, grief
and combat. Both extremes: the untroubled
joy of childhood (joies) and a
mature person’s tragic experiences of
grief and pain (deulis) are united following
a long struggle, creating a life
embracing all facets and emotions
(luttes). This combination is also made
clear in the thematic structure: In Joies
two subjects are introduced and developed:
the movement opens with
the fanfare subject. Soon afterwards
the second, energetic dance-like subject
is introduced in a low register.
Deuils is based upon a single subject
which Alain clothes in ever-changing
tone colours by layering parallel
chords to form a mixture of sounds.
Luttes has no subjects of its own, the
three earlier subjects are taken up
again and merged together at the end
of the movement. Deuils is transcribed
with the words “Pour honorer une
mémoire héroïque” (“In honor of a heroic
memory”). Alain indicated that it was
possible to perform this movement as
an individual piece, under the titel
Danse funèbre pour honorer une mémoire
héroïque. He dedicated Deuils to
his sister Marie-Odile, who died in a
mountain climbing accident in 1937,
an experience which deeply affected
him and awakened in him premonitions
of his own early death.
Dr. Katharina Larissa Paech,
Graz 2010
Translation: tolingo translations