10-06-2016, 06:27 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-06-2016, 08:23 PM by Eric the Green.)
Don't miss this one. The world-famous French organist Marie-Claire Alain (died february 26th, 2013 at the age of 86) plays Litanies by her brother Jehan Alain (1911-1940):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehan_Alain
http://www.jehanalain.com/contrib.jsp?ta...es&lang=en
Jehan Alain specialized in dance-like, semi-jazzy, semi-modernist, neo-baroque works. One of the greatest organ compositions ever, especially among those pieces not by J.S.Bach, "Litanies" (1937) has a great story behind it, and some personal meaning for me too. Jehan Alain was a great young composer of great promise. Amid all the existential angst of his time, personally and historically, he wrote this piece based on an old Gregorian plain chant, and gave this explanation a few weeks later:
When in its extremity the Christian soul can find no new word to implore God's mercy, it tiredlessly repeats the same plea with vehement faith. The limits of reason are reached, and only faith can pursue its ascension.
He was an accomplished motorcycle rider. Three years later, Jehan volunteered to help hold back the German invasion of his country, and he was cut down in battle. "Always interested in mechanics, Alain was a skilled motorcyclist and became a dispatch rider in the Eighth 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. Coming around a curve, and hearing the approaching tread of the Germans, he abandoned his motorcycle and engaged the enemy troops with his carbine, killing 16 of them before being killed himself. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery,[2] and according to Nicolas Slonimsky was buried, by the Germans, with full military honours" (wikipedia)
The piece does rise to lofty heights and transcends its time. I was able to learn this piece and play it in a local concert. I also got to hear his sister, organist and teacher and Bach expert/interpreter Marie-Claire Alain, play it at one of my favorite church venues, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, on its wonderful Aeolian-Skinner/Harrison organ; I had also been named after one of the ministers there, and was baptized there (yes even I was baptized!). At the concert she also played Vierne's great finale to be posted later. Another time, I went to Grace Cathedral on new years eve 1985-1986 to hear Vierne's "Carillon of Westminster" (1927) ring in the new year, but my new car was "christened" by getting its tail light cracked while trying to get out of my parking place on Nob Hill!
Here's other great performances of "Litanies"
https://youtu.be/rVoLxmtgnsk
https://youtu.be/8jyNogNXMUc
Three Dances (1937/1940)
https://youtu.be/DgxeaWDNd3I
A few years later, Jehan Alain's friend and colleague Maurice Durufle wrote this reknowned tribute piece, loosely based on (and including) the theme of Litanies:
https://youtu.be/Or147RQSBOM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Durufl%C3%A9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehan_Alain
http://www.jehanalain.com/contrib.jsp?ta...es&lang=en
Jehan Alain specialized in dance-like, semi-jazzy, semi-modernist, neo-baroque works. One of the greatest organ compositions ever, especially among those pieces not by J.S.Bach, "Litanies" (1937) has a great story behind it, and some personal meaning for me too. Jehan Alain was a great young composer of great promise. Amid all the existential angst of his time, personally and historically, he wrote this piece based on an old Gregorian plain chant, and gave this explanation a few weeks later:
When in its extremity the Christian soul can find no new word to implore God's mercy, it tiredlessly repeats the same plea with vehement faith. The limits of reason are reached, and only faith can pursue its ascension.
He was an accomplished motorcycle rider. Three years later, Jehan volunteered to help hold back the German invasion of his country, and he was cut down in battle. "Always interested in mechanics, Alain was a skilled motorcyclist and became a dispatch rider in the Eighth 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. Coming around a curve, and hearing the approaching tread of the Germans, he abandoned his motorcycle and engaged the enemy troops with his carbine, killing 16 of them before being killed himself. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre for his bravery,[2] and according to Nicolas Slonimsky was buried, by the Germans, with full military honours" (wikipedia)
The piece does rise to lofty heights and transcends its time. I was able to learn this piece and play it in a local concert. I also got to hear his sister, organist and teacher and Bach expert/interpreter Marie-Claire Alain, play it at one of my favorite church venues, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, on its wonderful Aeolian-Skinner/Harrison organ; I had also been named after one of the ministers there, and was baptized there (yes even I was baptized!). At the concert she also played Vierne's great finale to be posted later. Another time, I went to Grace Cathedral on new years eve 1985-1986 to hear Vierne's "Carillon of Westminster" (1927) ring in the new year, but my new car was "christened" by getting its tail light cracked while trying to get out of my parking place on Nob Hill!
Here's other great performances of "Litanies"
https://youtu.be/rVoLxmtgnsk
https://youtu.be/8jyNogNXMUc
Three Dances (1937/1940)
https://youtu.be/DgxeaWDNd3I
A few years later, Jehan Alain's friend and colleague Maurice Durufle wrote this reknowned tribute piece, loosely based on (and including) the theme of Litanies:
https://youtu.be/Or147RQSBOM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Durufl%C3%A9
