Tag Archives: St. Sulpice

Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin

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Deventer - Jubileum Vox Humana. foto sjaak verboom / 15-4-2005Website:
http://caucheferchoplin.com/

Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin began organ studies at the age of 14 with Gérard Letellier. She went on to earn Premier Prix from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in organ and improvisation with Rolande Falcinelli, harmony with Jean Lemaire, fugue with Michel Merlet, and counterpoint with Jean-Claude Henry. She continued studies with Loïc Mallié, eventually winning the second improvisation prize in the Concours International d’Orgue de Chartres in 1990 when Pierre Pincemaille won first place. In 1985, she became titulaire adjointe with Daniel Roth at Saint-Sulpice in Paris. In 2008, she became professor of organ and improvisation at the Royal College of Music in London.

You can hear her on Spotify.

Recordings:

Sophie-Véronique Choplin au grand-orgue de Saint-Sulpice
Includes an improvised theme and variations


Saint-Sulpice Paris
Includes repertoire by J.S. Bach, Daniel Roth, Maurice Duruflé, F. Mendelssohn and an improvisation

Videos:
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin – Improvisation – Saint-Sulpice
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin – Improvisation über ‘Erschalle laut Triumphgesang! Triumph der Heiland ist erstanden!’ – St. Joseph, Bonn-Beuel
Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin – Offertoire improvisé – St Jean Baptiste de la Salle, Paris

Louis Vierne

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vierne[1]

Louis Vierne (1870 – 1937) is best known as a composer and organist at Notre Dame in Paris, France. He was born in Poitiers, nearly blind due to congenital cataracts, but was discoverd at an early age to have a gift for music: at age two, a pianist played him a Schubert lullaby and he promptly began to pick out the notes of the lullaby on the piano.
After completing school in the provinces, Louis Vierne entered the Paris Conservatory. From 1892, Vierne served as an assistant to the organist Charles-Marie Widor at the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. Vierne subsequently became principal organist at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, a post he held from 1900 until his death (while performing a concert) in 1937. Though he held one of the most prestigious organ posts in France, the Notre-Dame organ was in a state of disrepair throughout much of his tenure. To raise money for its restoration, he undertook a concert tour of North America including a performance on the famous Wanamaker Organ in Philadelphia. Some of his students include Augustin Barié, Edward Shippen Barnes, Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, Marcel Dupré, André Fleury, Gaston Litaize, Édouard Mignan, Alexander Schreiner, and Georges-Émile Tanguay.
Vierne made phonograph recordings of six works of Bach, three of his own compositions and three improvisations. Originally recorded by Odéon, they were reissued most recently by EMI in 1981 with two of the improvisations appearing again in 1994. Maurice Duruflé transcribed the improvisations as he had done with the recordings of Charles Tournemire.

Biography:

Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral
by Rollin Smith, Pendragon Press, 2009.

Vidoes:
Recorded in 1929, there is some noise in the audio on these video, but I believe they are worth sharing because it is Vierne himself improvising.

Louis Vierne – Marche Episcopale – Notre Dame, Paris
Louis Vierne – Meditation – Notre Dame, Paris
Louis Vierne – Cortege – Notre Dame, Paris

and while it isn’t an improvisation, there is a short video of Louis Vierne playing at Notre Dame here.

Victimae paschali laudes

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VictimaePaschaliLaudesVictimae paschali laudes is the Sequence chant for Easter Day. Charles Tournemire recorded an improvisation on the chant which was later transcribed be Maurice Duruflé. This transcription has become a popular piece of organ literature.

See a list of other popular chant themes here.


Videos:
Charles Tournemire (Philippe Lefebvre plays) – Victimae paschali laudes – Chartres Cathedral, France
Lorenzo Bonoldi – Versetti on Victimae Paschali Laudes – Basilica di San Carlo, Milano
Sergio Militello – Victimae paschali laudes
Daniel Roth with Eric Lebrun – Victimae paschali laudes – St. Sulpice, Paris, France

Marcel Dupré

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Marcel_DupréIn 1926, Marcel Dupré was appointed professor of organ performance and improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until 1954. In 1934, he succeeded Charles-Marie Widor as titular organist at St. Sulpice in Paris, a post he held until his death in 1971. He taught two generations of well-known organists such as Jehan Alain and Marie-Claire Alain, Jean-Marie Beaudet, Pierre Cochereau, Jeanne Demessieux, Rolande Falcinelli, Jean-Jacques Grunenwald, Jean Guillou, Jean Langlais, Carl Weinrich and Olivier Messiaen.

Full bio. You can hear him on Spotify.



Books:

Cours Complet D’improvisation a L’orgue/vol 1: French and English
Cours Complet D’improvisation a L’orgue/vol 2 English
Manuel d’Accompagnement du Plain-chant Grégorien

Recordings:

Organ Masterpieces: Marcel Dupré Recital (Live, 1953)
Includes and improvised symphony and other written compositions performed by Dupré.


Norbert Moret – Marcel Dupré – Guy Bovet: Les orgues de la collégiale de Neuchâtel
GALLO CD 943 1996
Includes: Norbert Moret- Premier concerto pour orgue et orchestre
Marcel Dupré- Improvisation sur des thèmes de Samuel Ducommun
Guy Bovet– Improvisation sur un thème de S. Ducommun à l’orgue de 1952 & Improvisation sur un thème de S. Ducommun à l’orgue de 1996

Audio:
Marcel Dupré – Improvisation on ‘Veni Creator Spiritus’ – St. Sulpice

Videos:
I have yet to see a video of Dupré improvising, but there are several audio recordings that have made their way on to YouTube here.
Marcel Dupré – Improvised Double Fugue on Kyrie XI ‘Orbis Factor – Recorded 1957
Marcel Dupré – Veni Creator – St. Sulpice, Paris

Daniel Roth

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daniel-rothIn 1963, Daniel Roth became Rolande Falcinelli‘s substitute at the great organ at Sacré-Coeur in Paris, where he succeeded his former teacher as titular organist in 1973, a position he held until 1985, when he was appointed titular organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, where his predecessors were Charles-Marie Widor, Marcel Dupré, and Jean-Jacques Grunenwald.

Full bio.


Recordings:

Fresques Symphoniques Sacrées


On a sunday afternoon: Live at the Washington Cathedral


Eight Improvisations: Cavaille-Coll Organ of Sacre-Coeur in Paris


Daniel Roth Plays the Cavaille-Coll at Saint-Ouen in Rouen, France


Louis Vierne: Messe Solennelle, Opus 16 (A recreation of a Traditional Latin Mass at Saint-Sulpice, Sunday of the Resurrection)
Includes improvised service music by Daniel Roth

Audio:
Daniel Roth – Variations and Fugue on a theme of Albert de Klerk – 15th Haarlem Improvisation Competition

Videos:
Sortie – 7 February 1999 – St. Sulpice
Daniel Roth with Eric Lebrun – Victimae paschali laudes – St. Sulpice, Paris, France

Fugue

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A fugue is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.

David Briggs – Fugue at St. Sulpice
Otto Maria Krämer – Suite Francaise – Fugue
William Porter – O dass ich tausend Zunge hätte – Fugue

David Briggs

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DavidBriggsDavid Briggs is organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Previously he served as Artist in Residence at St. James Cathedral, Toronto.
Complete bio.

David Briggs has a YouTube Channel. You can also hear him on Spotify.


Recordings:

Sounds French – David Briggs Plays the Organ of Blackburn Cathedral
Includes an improvised symphony by David Briggs as well as two improvisations by Pierre Cochereau transcribed and played by David Briggs.


Sounds Artistic
Includes an improvised suite of dances and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.


Organ Spectacular
Includes improvised Prelude, Adagio and Chorale Variations on Ein Feste Burg.


Briggs: Mass for Notre Dame
In addition to the choral music of David Briggs sung by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge under the direction of Stephen Layton, David Briggs improvised other parts of the traditional mass when the organ would play without the choir singing.


Hommage à Pierre Cochereau
Improvisations by George Baker, David Briggs, Thierry Escaich and Loïc Mallié.

Videos:
Fugue at St. Sulpice
Sortie at St. Sulpice
Offertoire at St. Sulpice
Sarabande Improvisée – St Wenzelkirche, Naumburg