Marcel Dupré
(1886-1971)
Works for Organ, Vol.
12
Marcel Dupré was born on 3rd May, 1886 in Rouen. His father, Albert, was
an organist and his mother, Marie Alice Chauviére, was a cellist. In 1888 he
began organ studies with Alexandre Guilmant and gave his first public
performance in 1894. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire in 1902,
receiving first prize for piano in 1905, organ and improvisation in 1907, and
fugue in 1909. In 1906 he was appointed as Widor's assistant at the church of
St Sulpice, in Paris, and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1914 for his cantata Psyché.
In 1920 occurred an event without equal in the musical world of the time;
the performance, from memory, in a series of ten recitals at the Paris
Conservatoire, of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach. This
achievement brought Dupré world recognition, and led to his American début in
1921, and the first transcontinental tour of America in 1922. In 1926 he was
appointed Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, succeeding Eugène
Gigout, and later served from 1954 to 1956 as Director of the Conservatoire. In
1934 he succeeded his long time friend and mentor, Charles-Marie Widor, as
organist of the Church of St Sulpice in Paris, a post he held until the last
day of his life. After along and successful career as a teacher, performer,
composer, and one of the greatest improvisers who ever lived, Marcel Dupré died
quietly at his home in Meudon on 30th May, 1971.
The Suite Bretonne, Op. 21, dates from 1923, and is dedicated to
Mademoiselle Hilda Gelis-Didot. She was a close friend of the Dupré family, and
was related to the Firmin-Didot family, who have been responsible for many
years for the publications of the Institute of France. The suite consists of
three, short programmatic pieces inspired by a visit Dupré made to Brittany. Berceuse
is a cradle-song, which describes the gentle rocking by a mother of her
baby's cradle. It uses a folk-like melody which, when it returns, appears in
canon at the octave between the soprano and a 4' flute in the pedals. Fileuse
(Spinning) portrays a Breton woman at the spinning-wheel. The whirling of
the wheel is portrayed through the use of a running semi quaver (sixteenth
note) ostinato in the left-hand, played on the Voix Céleste stop, which
continues throughout the piece. Les Cloches de Perros-Guirec (The Bells
of Perros-Guirec), a small coastal town near Brest in Brittany, depicts a
procession of Breton peasants, jauntily on their way to church on a Sunday
morning.
In Memoriam, Op. 61, is the largest of the composer's last works. It dates from
1965, and is dedicated to the memory of his daughter Marguerite Tollet, née
Dupré, who was born in 1909 and died on 26th October, 1963, after a long
illness. It is the last in a series of commemorative works which Dupré composed
throughout his career in memory of friends and relatives. In the case of his
daughter the grief was intense, and Norbert Dufourcq described the work as
"…a votive stone offered in memory of his child." She was an accomplished
pianist, and accompanied him on several tours of the United States, performing
works for piano and organ with her father. The six pieces are in two volumes,
framed by an elegiac Prélude and a brilliant Postlude. In the
intervening movements the composer remembers aspects of his daughter's life,
from her childhood to her death. Allegretto is perhaps a game of
"hide-and-seek", and the Méditation a "bedtime
story". The Quod Libet is a series of eight variations on a
twelve-note theme, which the composer subjects to a number of slightly humorous
turns of phrase. The Ricercare is a sublime piece of six-part
counterpoint. Its restrained beauty represents the type of piece that Dupré
would often improvise during communion at St Sulpice.
The Suite, Op. 39, was published in 1945 and is dedicated
to Marguerite Pascouau-Laborde, Dupré's mother-in-law. Its four movements are
part of a series of twelve études, which Dupré wrote for his prize pupil Jeanne
Demessieux. These pieces were meant as vehicles for the perfection of a
virtuoso technique, much in the manner of the transcendental studies Liszt
wrote for the piano. Of the twelve studies, nine survive, which include,
together with Op. 39, Offrande à la Vierge, Op. 40, (Naxos 8.554026),
and Trois Esquisses, Op. 41. Allegro agitato uses chromatic
thirds, sixths, and scales to achieve a rapid shimmer of sound. In her diary,
Demessieux wrote of this remarkable movement "… one has to hear the noise
of millions of agitated molecules in a forest to be able to assimilate the independence
of the writing…" Cantabile consists of rich, chromatic
harmony in six parts, including a canon between the upper part and the right
foot. The Scherzando is a playful, burbling movement, requiring
dexterity of both hands and feet as octaves, thirds and sixths are continually
present. The Final begins as a gruff, marcato movement of an ominous
nature. This gradually gives way to a sense of joie-de-vivre, which grows in
intensity to a conclusion of triumph, splendour and brilliance.
Trois E,quisses Op. 41, (‘Three Sketches’) concludes the series of
studies Dupré wrote for Jeanne Demessieux. The C major Sketch, excluded by the
composer from publication in 1946, was brought into print in 1975 under the
editorial supervision of the composer's student, Rolande Falcinelli. It is a
brooding, turbulent work that rises to an intense climax and ends quietly. The
E minor and B flat minor Sketches were published as Deux Esquissess Op.
41, in 1946, and first performed by the composer on 11th February, 1946, at the
Salle Pleyel. They are dedicated to Madame Stéphanie Borneman, wife of the
publisher of much of Dupré's music. The first is a scherzo which features
repeated notes played on a Bourdon and Tierce. The second is a diabolical
toccata for full organ, which uses octaves continually in both the hands and
feet.
Robert Delcamp
Robert Delcamp
Robert Delcamp was awarded the Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Organ
Performance at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of
Cincinnati and took his doctorate at Northwestern University. His teachers
included Wayne Fisher, Richard Enright, and Louis Robilliard. Currently he is
Professor of Music, Department Chair, and University Organist and Choirmaster
at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where, in addition to his
teaching duties, he directs an active music programme in the school's All
Saint's Chapel (Episcopal). As a solo recitalist, Robert Delcamp has
specialised in the music of Marcel Dupré, presenting lecture-recitals,
workshops and solo recitals for American Guild of Organists Chapters throughout
the United States. His earlier contributions to the present series in the Naxos
Organ Encyclopedia can be heard on Naxos 8.553918 and Naxos 8.554026.