Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword, by Jesse Eschbach
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note to the Reader on Terminology
- Introduction
- Chapter One Duruflé's Childhood and Early Education
- Chapter Two Life at the Cathedral Choir School
- Chapter Three Lessons with Charles Tournemire
- Chapter Four Lessons with Louis Vierne
- Chapter Five The Conservatoire Student
- Chapter Six Duruflé's Distinctions
- Chapter Seven The Contested Successions at Notre-Dame and Sainte Clotilde
- Chapter Eight Duruflé's Performing Career
- Chapter Nine The Orchestral Musician
- Chapter Ten The Orchestral Musician
- Chapter Eleven Professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatoire
- Chapter Twelve Marie-Madeleine Chevalier
- Chapter Thirteen Marie-Madeleine Chevalier
- Chapter Fourteen Duruflé's Compositions: Their Genesis and First Performances
- Chapter Fifteen Duruflé's Role in the Plainsong Revival
- Chapter Sixteen The Vichy Commissions
- Chapter Seventeen The Requiem
- Chapter Eighteen The Musical History of Saint Étienne-du-Mont
- Chapter Nineteen The Organs at Saint Étienne-du-Mont
- Chapter Twenty Duruflé as Organist and Teacher
- Chapter Twenty-One Duruflé and Organ Design
- Chapter Twenty-Two The Church in Transition
- Chapter Twenty-Three The North American Tours
- Chapter Twenty-Four The Man Duruflé
- Appendix A Maurice Duruflé
- Appendix B Discography
- Appendix C Stoplists of Organs Important to the Careers of Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Chapter Four - Lessons with Louis Vierne
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword, by Jesse Eschbach
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note to the Reader on Terminology
- Introduction
- Chapter One Duruflé's Childhood and Early Education
- Chapter Two Life at the Cathedral Choir School
- Chapter Three Lessons with Charles Tournemire
- Chapter Four Lessons with Louis Vierne
- Chapter Five The Conservatoire Student
- Chapter Six Duruflé's Distinctions
- Chapter Seven The Contested Successions at Notre-Dame and Sainte Clotilde
- Chapter Eight Duruflé's Performing Career
- Chapter Nine The Orchestral Musician
- Chapter Ten The Orchestral Musician
- Chapter Eleven Professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatoire
- Chapter Twelve Marie-Madeleine Chevalier
- Chapter Thirteen Marie-Madeleine Chevalier
- Chapter Fourteen Duruflé's Compositions: Their Genesis and First Performances
- Chapter Fifteen Duruflé's Role in the Plainsong Revival
- Chapter Sixteen The Vichy Commissions
- Chapter Seventeen The Requiem
- Chapter Eighteen The Musical History of Saint Étienne-du-Mont
- Chapter Nineteen The Organs at Saint Étienne-du-Mont
- Chapter Twenty Duruflé as Organist and Teacher
- Chapter Twenty-One Duruflé and Organ Design
- Chapter Twenty-Two The Church in Transition
- Chapter Twenty-Three The North American Tours
- Chapter Twenty-Four The Man Duruflé
- Appendix A Maurice Duruflé
- Appendix B Discography
- Appendix C Stoplists of Organs Important to the Careers of Maurice and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
When Duruflé moved to Paris, around the time he began studying with Louis Vierne, he took an apartment at 50bis, rue de Douai, on the right bank, not far from the Paris Conservatoire. It was a famously musical neighborhood. In fact, Duruflé's flat was a mere two blocks north of the apartment on rue Ballu where Nadia Boulanger (1887–1979), one of the greatest musical pedagogues of the century, had lived since 1904. Her beloved sister and composer Lili died in 1918, but Nadia remained there until her death in 1979, hosting her Wednesday musical salons for countless French and American students, including Aaron Copland, Melville Smith, and Virgil Thomson.
Boulanger certainly knew of Duruflé by 1930, and from as early as 1935 he played the organ for the memorial masses that Nadia arranged to be said for her sister at the Boulangers’ parish church, La Trinité, for the annual remembrance of her death on March 15. Apart from a cessation of the services during the war, they continued for nearly sixty years.
Duruflé began playing for these services probably as a consequence of Boulanger's falling out with Olivier Messiaen, who had previously played for them as the organist at Trinité. For the service in 1934, Messiaen played a Bach choral at the beginning, but otherwise improvised from start to finish, for which Boulanger sharply reproached him. He defended himself in a letter to her, adding with insolence: “I remain sorry about your disappointment and understand very well that a program—even super magnificent—will always seem to you unworthy of the memory of your sister!” There was always “a kind of muted but courteous antagonism between them, established on a certain mutual regard.” One year, after Duruflé had married Marie-Madeleine Chevalier, he sent his wife in his place. Boulanger was at first uneasy about the substitution, but was reportedly pleased with Mme Duruflé's playing.
Now settled into his first Paris apartment, Duruflé could more easily pursue his studies with Louis Vierne (1870–1937), arguably one of the greatest organists of his generation. A native of Poitiers, Vierne was born with a congenital cataract condition. “He could see very little. He had to hold the page an inch or so in front of his face, and even then it was difficult.
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- Maurice DurufléThe Man and His Music, pp. 29 - 35Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007