Maurice Duruflé

Maurice Gustave Duruflé (; 11 January 1902 – 16 June 1986) was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher.

Life and career

Duruflé was born in Louviers, Eure Choir School from 1912 to 1918, where he studied piano and organ with Jules Haelling, a pupil of Alexandre Guilmant. The choral plainsong tradition at Rouen became a strong and lasting influence. At age 17, upon moving to Paris, he took private organ lessons with Charles Tournemire, whom he assisted at Basilique Ste-Clotilde, Paris until 1927. In 1920 Duruflé entered the Conservatoire de Paris, 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).

In 1927, Louis Vierne nominated him as his assistant at Notre-Dame. Duruflé and Vierne remained lifelong friends, and Duruflé was at Vierne's side acting as assistant when Vierne died at the console of the Notre-Dame organ on 2 June 1937, even though Duruflé had become titular organist of St-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris in 1929, a position he held for the rest of his life. In 1930 he won a prize for his ''Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le "Veni Creator"'', and in 1936 he won the Prix Blumenthal. In 1939, he premiered Francis Poulenc's 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, where he worked until 1970; among his pupils were the revered organists Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou and Marie-Claire Alain.

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 from the Vichy regime. Also in 1947, Marie-Madeleine Chevalier became his assistant at St-Étienne-du-Mont. They married on 15 September 1953. (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.

He was made Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1954 and was promoted to 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''.

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.

Later life and death

Duruflé suffered severe injuries in a car crash on 29 May 1975, 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) on 16 June 1986, aged 84, having never fully recovered from the crash.

Compositions

Organ solo

* ''Scherzo'' op. 2 (1926)
* ''Prélude, adagio et choral varié sur le theme du ' Veni Creator op. 4 (1926/1930)
* ''Suite'' op. 5 (1932):
** Prélude
** Sicilienne
** Toccata
* ''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 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:James E. Frazier
Chapter Sixteen: ''The Vichy Commissions''", pp. 156–165
an
"Chapter Seventeen: ''The'' Requiem", pp. 166–180
i
''Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music''.
University Rochester Press, 2007.
** 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 cappella (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 chorales from cantatas BWV 22 and 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

Sources

* Darasse, Xavier. "Maurice Duruflé", in ''Guide de la musique d'orgue'', edited by Gilles Cantagrel. Paris: Fayard, 1991: 335–337.
* James E. Frazier
''Maurice Duruflé: The Man & His Music''
(The Boydell Press 2007)
* Ronald Ebrecht, ed. ''Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986): The Last Impressionist.'' Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. .
* Jörg Abbing. ''Maurice Duruflé. Aspekte zu Leben und Werk''. Verlag Peter Ewers, 2002. .
* Frédéric Blanc. ''Maurice Duruflé. Souvenirs et autres écrits''. Éditions Atlantica-Séguier, 2005. .

External links

Association de Maurice et Marie-Madeleine Duruflé

Maurice Duruflé
at ''Requiem Survey''

Pseudo-poseidonios.net

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durufle, Maurice
1902 births
1986 deaths
People from Louviers
Musicians from Normandy
20th-century French classical composers
Classical composers of church music
Composers for pipe organ
French male classical composers
French classical organists
French Roman Catholics
Organ improvisers
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris
Prix Blumenthal
20th-century French male musicians
French male classical organists