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 Twenty - Duruflé as Organist and Teacher
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
With his wife, Marie-Madeleine, Maurice Duruflé was arguably the last great proponent of the French romantic school of organ playing. An uncompromising artist, he performed with impeccable virtuosity, and with the same eloquent lyricism, the same poetry, and the same sense of nobility and grandeur for which his predecessors were renowned. Moreover, his supple playing exhibited a controlled sensitivity and an apollonian personality that neither intruded upon the works he played, nor distracted attention from their composers’ purposes.
Despite his early technical prowess, it took a longer time for Duruflé to achieve the personality for which his playing would later be known. One of his earliest recitals in Paris to be reviewed, if not the first, was the one he shared with Jenny Joly on April 20, 1928, under the auspices of Les Amis de l’Orgue. He was twenty-six years old. The reviewer [M. P.] wrote that Duruflé
certainly can be counted among the good organists who possess a technique that is as sure as it is impeccable. It appears, however, that to become a perfect performer he will have to acquire still other qualities, especially in the area of sensitivity. Translating too literally the pages he performs, which leads him to leave his personality aside, M. Duruflé does not always draw sufficiently from the musical phrase the elasticity inherent in it, which gives it its true meaning: too often, and especially in the Cantabile, as well as in the Troisième Choral of Franck, the melodic line seems fixed in an inflexible stiffness under his fingers, at the same time that its articulation proved to have an unfortunate dryness.
As he matured, Duruflé objected to such rigid performances and believed that the interpreter's personality should be evident in the playing. He also acknowledged that at some point every student must wean himself from his teacher and develop his own interpretive style. He said, “I think that the student, at a certain time in his life, is no longer a student. He is his own teacher, if you will, and his personality develops. At that moment, he has only to listen to his own instincts. He has no need to study with this one or that one who will influence him in the matter of style.”
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- Maurice DurufléThe Man and His Music, pp. 200 - 211Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2007