Louis Henry Nicolas Thiry (15 February 1935Précis analytique des travaux de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen
(in French) – 27 June 2019) was a French

concert organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

, composer and pedagogue. He was professor of organ at the Regional Conservatoire in Rouen and played in concerts internationally. His many recordings include the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in 1972, which received several awards and led the composer to describe him as "an extraordinary organist". Thiry was blind.

Biography

Born in Fléville-devant-Nancy, Thiry, who was blind, studied music first at the , where he received a first prize in organ (organ class of Jeanne Demessieux) in 1952, followed by studies with André Marchal at

Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (''National Institute for Blind Children'' or ''Royal Institution for Blind Youth''), in Paris, was the first special school for blind students in the world, and served as a model for many subsequent schools ...

in Paris. From 1956, he studied at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

with

Rolande Falcinelli Rolande Roberte Ginabat-Falcinelli (18 February 1920 – 11 June 2006) was a French organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. Biography Rolande Falcinelli (born Ginabat), the grandniece of Marcel Falcinelli and granddaughter of Louis N ...

, graduating in 1958 with a first prize in organ playing and improvisation. He was titular organist of the 1732 Lefebvre organ at the chapel of the Charles Nicole Hospital, part of the University Hospital in Rouen. He was professor of organ in

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

where one of his students was

Bernard-Marie Koltès Bernard-Marie Koltès (; 9 April 1948 – 15 April 1989) was a French playwright and theatre director best known for his plays ''La Nuit juste avant les Forêts'' (''The Night Just Before the Forests'', 1976), ''Sallinger'' (1977) and ''Dans la ...

, and held the same position at the where his students included Alain Mabit, Céline Frisch and Benjamin Alard. He took part in many international festivals, including Lille, the Besançon Festival, the Festival of Paris, Haarlem, Venice and the 1982 Messiaen Festival in Moscow. Thiry died on 27 June 2019 in

Mont-Saint-Aignan Mont-Saint-Aignan () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, northwestern France. The inhabitants of the town of Mont-Saint-Aignan are called ''Mont-Saint-Aignanais'' in French. Due to the presence of higher educ ...

Recordings

Thiry recorded the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in 1972 at St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva for

Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muse ...

. The composer Olivier Messiaen wrote about him: The recording was awarded the Prize of the Président of the Republic, the ''Shock'' of ''

Le Monde de la musique ''Le Monde de la musique'' was a French monthly musical magazine published from 1978 to 2009 with a circulation of 20,000 copies in 2008. It was founded in 1978 by ''Le Monde'' and ''Télérama ''Télérama'' is a weekly French cultural and tel ...

'' and the

Grand Prix du Disque Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and co ...

of l'Académie Charles Cros). It was reissued in 2018. In Thiry's obituary in ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'', Marie-Aude Roux described the recording as "still considered one of the great achievements in the history of records" ("''toujours considéré comme l'une des grandes réalisations de l'histoire du disque''"). OrgueSaintThomasStrasbourg

Thiry also recorded works by

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

, the ''

Well Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...

'' at the Église Réformée d’ Auteuil in 1975, and in 1993 ''

The Art of Fugue ''The Art of Fugue'', or ''The Art of the Fugue'' (german: Die Kunst der Fuge, links=no), BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, ''The Art of Fug ...

'' at the organ of the Église Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg, built by

Johann Andreas Silbermann Johann Andreas Silbermann, also known as Jean-André Silbermann (26 June 1712, in Strasbourg – 11 February 1783, in Strasbourg) was an 18th-century organ-builder, as were his father Andreas Silbermann and his paternal uncle Gottfried Silberman ...

in 1741. In 2004, he recorded arrangements for organ of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and Renaissance music by Guillaume de Machaut,

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397(?) – 27 November 1474) was a French composer and music theorist of the early Renaissance. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and repr ...

and Josquin Des Pres on the Lefebvre organ in Rouen. A reviewer noted that it was successful due to "the quality of the instrument on one hand, and Thiry's intelligent use of it."

References

External links

Louis Thiry (Organ)
Bach Cantatas Website 2008
Louis Thiry's discography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thiry, Louis 1935 births 2019 deaths People from Meurthe-et-Moselle Organ improvisers French classical organists French male organists Blind classical musicians 21st-century organists 21st-century French male musicians Conservatoire de Paris alumni Blind people from France 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century French male musicians Male classical organists