Alfred Lefébure-Wély
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Louis-James Alfred Lefébure-Wély (13 November 1817 – 31 December 1869) was a French organist and composer. He played a major role in the development of the French symphonic organ style and was closely associated with the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, inaugurating many new Cavaillé-Coll organs.
His playing was virtuosic, and as a performer, he was rated above eminent contemporaries including César Franck. His compositions, less substantial than those of Franck and others, have not held such a prominent place in the repertory.
Biography
Lefébure-Wély was born in Paris, son of an organist.[1] He studied with his father, Isaac-François-Antoine Lefebvre (1756–1831), who had changed his name to Antoine Lefébure-Wely after being appointed organist of the fashionable church of Saint-Roch in the 1st arrondissement.[2] The boy was musically precocious. In the manuscript of an unpublished Mass by his father is a note:
This Mass was played on Easter Tuesday 1826 by my little boy Alfrede, age eight years and four months, on the organ of Saint-Roch to the satisfaction of everyone present. He retained throughout the Mass an extraordinary presence that surprised the people who were near him at the organ.[2]
Within two years of that occasion, Antoine Lefébure-Wely suffered a stroke, paralysing his left side. For the next five years, his son deputised for him. When Alfred was fourteen Antoine died, and the son succeeded the father as official organist of Saint-Roch.
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A French government website about Cavaillé-Coll calls Lefébure-Wely an "exceptionally talented dandy who, better than anyone, had grasped the musical potential of the new tones and combinations to create music that was thrilling, renewing, impressive and at times heartrending". The site says of the composer, "A protégé of the aristocracy, he frequented the bourgeois salons where he often performed with his wife, a singer … and his two daughters who were pianists. He was the incarnation of the organ of the
In 1847 Lefébure-Wely moved to the
Lefébure-Wely was awarded the
Lefébure-Wely resigned his post at the Madeleine in 1858 to devote himself to composing a three-act
Compositions
Lefébure-Wely's first published composition was announced in the weekly journal Bibliographie de la France in their issue of 27 August 1831 so: Rondo composé pour le piano-forte par Alfred-Lefebure Wely, âgé de 13 ans, œuv. 1. (It was published by/available from both Lemoine and the composer's family, according to the next line.)[11]
Among 200 compositions Lefébure-Wely wrote works for choir, piano, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra and an
The French government website says of Lefébure-Wely's music, "His admirers called on him many times to adopt the 'religious style' …. However, he had his habits and his preferences, and, above all his 'clientele'. Also, even though his contemporaries were unanimous in their admiration for his improvisations, he often seems to have taken the easier alternative, the immediately accessible option, music that doesn't ask any questions."[7]
Lefébure-Wely's compositions include:
- Boléro de concert, op. 166. Régnier-Canaux, s.d. (1865)
- Meditaciones religiosas op. 122. À sa majesté la reine Doña Isabel II. (1858)
- Les Cloches du Monastère, op. 54. Hofmeister's Monatsbericht (1853 or earlier)
- L’Office catholique. 120 Morceaux divisés en dix suites composés pour l'harmonium ou l'orgue à tuyaux, op. 148. Hommage à Monseigneur de la Bouillerie, Évêque de Carcassonne. Régnier-Canaux, s.d. (1861)
- L’organiste moderne. Collection de morceaux d'orgue dans tous les genres. En 12 livraisons. Hommage à Mr. l'Abbé Hamon, Curé de St. Sulpice. Ces Morceaux ont été écrits sur les Motifs improvisés aux Offices de St. Sulpice. (1867–69)
- Six offertoires op. 34. (ca. 1857)
- Six grands offertoires op. 35. (ca. 1857)
- Six morceaux pour l'orgue, contenant 3 marches et 3 élévations op. 36. Graff (1863)
- Six grands offertoires, composé pour son fils
- Vade-mecum de l'Organiste, op. 187. Entrées et Sorties de Chœur, Versets, Préludes pour Amen, Élévations et Communions, Offertoires, Marches brillantes pour Processions composés pour l'harmonium ou l'orgue à tuyaux (1869)
Selected recordings
- Vincent Genvrin, La Lyre Séraphique: Cantique et Pièces d'orgue, Motet à la Sainte Vierge (Éditions Hortus, HORT004).
Notes
- ^ a b c d Sanger, David. "Lefébure-Wély, Louis", Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed 27 January 2013 (subscription required).
- ^ a b c d e f g Smith, Rollin. "Lefébure-Wély: 'Prince of Organists'," The American Organist, September 2012, pp. 62–70.
- ^ Ochse, pp. 32–33
- ^ ISSN 0030-4883– via ResearchGate.
- ^ Ochse, p. 33
- ^ Ochse, p. 37
- ^ a b "Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, Organ Builder" Ministère de la culture et de la communication, Direction de l'architecture et du patrimoine, accessed 27 January 2013
- ^ Ochse, p. 43
- ^ Ochse, p. 47
- ^ Ochse, pp. 49 and 51
- ^ Bibliographie de la France, 27 August 1831, p. 504, at Google Books
References
- Ochse, Orpha (2001). Organists and organ playing in nineteenth-century France and Belgium. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253214238.
External links
- Sortie in E flat major (mp3)
- Bolero de Concert in g minor (mp3)
- Louis J. A. Lefébure-Wely. Andante: choeur de voix humaines (1858). Andrew Pink (2022) Exordia ad missam.
Free Scores
- Free scores by Lefébure-Wély at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
- e-Partitions Many newly edited and typeset organ scores.