Maurice Duruflé

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Maurice Duruflé
Louveciennes, Yvelines
, France
Occupations
  • Composer
  • Organist
  • Academic teacher

Maurice Gustave Duruflé

musicologist
, and teacher.

Life and career

Duruflé was born in

Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Paris[3] until 1927. In 1920 Duruflé entered the Conservatoire de Paris, eventually graduating with first prizes in organ with Eugène Gigout (1922), harmony with Jean Gallon (1924), fugue with Georges Caussade (1924), piano accompaniment with César Abel Estyle (1926) and composition with Paul Dukas (1928).[2]

In 1927,

Organ Concerto (the Concerto for Organ, Strings and Timpani in G minor); he had advised Poulenc on the registrations of the organ part. In 1943 he became Professor of Harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris,[3] where he worked until 1970; among his pupils were the revered organists Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou and Marie-Claire Alain.[2]

In 1947 he completed probably the most famous of his few pieces: the Requiem op. 9, for soloists, choir, organ, and orchestra. He had begun composing the work in 1941, following a commission[5] from the Vichy regime. Also in 1947, Marie-Madeleine Chevalier became his assistant at St-Étienne-du-Mont. They married on 15 September 1953.[6] (Duruflé's first marriage to Lucette Bousquet, in 1932, ended in civil divorce in 1947 and was declared null by the Vatican on 23 June 1953.) The couple became a famous and popular organ duo, going on tour together several times throughout the sixties and early seventies.[citation needed]

He was made a Chevalier de la

Legion d'honneur
in 1954. He was promoted to an Officier de la Legion d'honneur in 1966.

Perfectionism

Duruflé was highly critical of his own compositions. He particularly disparaged the third and final movement 'Toccata' from his Suite, op. 5, and never recorded it. He never programmed the Toccata, his Sicilienne or the Prelude or Adagio from Veni Creator.[7]

He published only a handful of works and often continued to edit and change pieces after publication. For instance, the Toccata from Suite has a completely different ending in the first edition than in the more recent version, and the score to the Fugue sur le nom d'Alain originally indicated accelerando throughout. The result of this perfectionism is that his music, especially his organ music, tends to be well polished, and is still frequently performed in concerts by organists around the world.

Duruflé and his wife were musically conservative. In 1969 they attended a "jazz mass" at St-Étienne-du-Mont. Marie-Madeleine was visibly upset by the experience, and Duruflé called it a scandalous travesty.[8]

Later life and death

Duruflé suffered severe injuries in a car crash on 29 May 1975,[6] and as a result he gave up performing; indeed he was largely confined to his apartment, leaving the service at St-Étienne-du-Mont to his wife Marie-Madeleine (who was also injured in the crash). He died in a clinic at Louveciennes (near Paris) in 1986, aged 84, having never fully recovered from the crash.[9]

Compositions

Organ solo

  • Scherzo op. 2 (1926)
  • Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le theme du '
    Veni Creator' op. 4 (1926/1930)[10]
  • Suite op. 5 (1932):
  • Prélude et fugue sur le nom d'Alain op. 7 (1942)
  • Prélude sur l'introït de l'epiphanie op. 13 (1961)
  • Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heuresⓘ de la Cathédrale de Soissons op. 12 (1962)
  • Méditation op. posth. (1964)
  • Lecture à vue (unpublished)
  • Fugue (unpublished)
  • Lux aeterna (unpublished)

Chamber music

  • Prélude, récitatif et variations op. 3 for flute, viola, and piano (1928)

Piano solo

  • Triptyque op. 1: Fantaisie sur des thèmes grégoriens (1927/1943, unpublished)
  • Trois danses op. 6 (1932, piano version by the composer):
    • Divertissement
    • Danse lente
    • Tambourin

Piano for 4 hands

  • Trois danses op. 6 (1932, transcribed by the composer):
    • Divertissement
    • Danse lente
    • Tambourin

Two pianos

  • Trois danses op. 6 (1932, transcribed by the composer):
    • Divertissement
    • Danse lente
    • Tambourin

Orchestral works

  • Trois danses op. 6 (1932):
    • Divertissement
    • Danse lente
    • Tambourin
  • Andante et scherzo op. 8 (1940)

Choral works

  • Requiem Op. 9:[12]
    • For vocal soloists, choir and (large) orchestra (normally including organ, but can be performed without one): commissioned as a symphonic poem in 1941; completed in September 1947; first performed on 2 November 1947; published in 1950
    • For the same vocal forces and organ ("organ reduction" version; cello ad libitum in one movement): published in 1948
    • For the same vocal forces, organ and (reduced) orchestra (several instruments ad libitum, but one or more string instruments in every movement): published in 1961
    • For the same vocal forces and piano (unpublished)
  • Quatre Motets sur des thèmes grégoriens op. 10 for choir a cappella (1960):
    • Ubi caritas et amor
    • Tota pulchra es
    • Tu es Petrus
    • Tantum ergo
  • Messe "Cum jubilo" op. 11 for baritone solo, male choir, and orchestra (1966):
    • Version with organ (1967)
    • Version with orchestra (1970)
    • Version with small orchestra (1972)
  • Notre Père op. 14 for unison male choir and organ (1977)
    • Version for 4-part mixed choir a capella (1978)

Miscellaneous works

  • Chant Donné: Hommage à Jean Gallon (1953)
  • Sicilienne from Suite op. 5 for small orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and string quintet, unpublished)

Transcriptions

  • Johann Sebastian Bach
    • Two
      147
      , arranged for organ solo, 1952
    • 4 chorales preludes for organ, orchestrated 1942-45:
      • Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland (Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes)
      • Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein, BWV 734
      • O Lamm Gottes unschuldig, BWV 656 (Great Eighteen Chorale Preludes)
      • In dir ist Freude, BWV 615 (Orgelbüchlein)
  • Louis Vierne
    • Soirs étrangers, op. 56, for violoncello and piano, orchestrated 1943:
      • Grenade
      • Sur le Léman
      • Venise
      • Steppe Canadien
      • Poisson chinois
    • Ballade du désespéré, op. 61, lyrical poem for tenor solo and piano, orchestrated 1943
    • Three improvisations for organ (Notre-Dame-de-Paris, November 1928), transcribed 1954:
      • Marche épiscopale
      • Méditation
      • Cortège
  • Maurice Duruflé: Requiem, op. 9, for voices and piano (1947)
  • Charles Tournemire
    • Five improvisations for organ (Ste Clotilde, Paris, 1930/1931), transcribed 1956–58:
      • Petite rapsodie improvisée
      • Cantilène improvisée
      • Improvisation sur le Te Deum
      • Fantaisie-Improvisation sur l'Ave maris stella
      • Choral-Improvisation sur le Victimae paschali
  • Gabriel Fauré: Prelude of Pelléas et Mélisande, transcribed for organ solo
  • Robert Schumann: Lamentation, transcribed for organ solo

References

  1. JSTOR 10.7722/j.ctt14brtzv
    . Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d Nicholas Kaye. "Duruflé, Maurice". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d "Maurice Durufle". Obituaries. The Times. No. 62493. London. 26 June 1986. p. 22. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Maurice Duruflé". Answers.com. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Excerpts - Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music". Mauricedurufle.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Marie-Madeleine DURUFLÉ, biographie". France-orgue.fr. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  7. ^ Ebrecht (2002, pgs vi and 58)
  8. ^ Ebrecht 2002, pg 48.
  9. ^ Ebrecht (2002, pg 63)
  10. ISBN 978-1-58046-227-3
    .
  11. ^ Ebrecht has restored a recapitulative transition from the manuscript Durufle used to perform the premier in 1932 that is not in the published version. "Ebrecht Sicilienne" on SoundCloud.
  12. ISBN 1-58046-227-8

Sources
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