SUPPORT THE NEW TOURNEMIRE DOCUMENTARY
Produced by Fugue State Films.
Learn More Here
Tournemire Timeline
This site is a timeline dealing with Charles Tournemire, his musical and didactic works, and relevant contemporary events of that period.
1870
Tournemire’s Life
22 January 1870
Tournemire is born in Bordeaux (Gironde) to Dominique-François Tournemire (1841–1922) and Marguerite Renard (1845–1917). He would be the only son of their three children. His sisters were Jeanne (natus 1874) and Berthe (1877–1963). Tournemire’s father was a vintner of that famed wine region, while his paternal grandfather, Jean-Pierre Tournemire (natus 1796), was a hatter, and his maternal grandfather was an illiterate farmer. Neither of his grandmothers is recorded as having a profession, while, at the time of her marriage, Tournemire’s mother was listed simply as a “worker”.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871
Franco-Prussian War
26 September 1870
The birth of Alice Georgina Taylor (1870–1920), Tournemire’s future wife.
8 October 1870
The birth of Louis Victor Jules Vierne (1870–1937).
1871
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
18 March to 28 May 1871
Paris Commune
1872
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1 February 1872
César Franck (1822–1890) is appointed Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire.
1872
L’Homme: La vie, la science, l’art by Ernest Hello (1828–1885) is published.
1875
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
30 January 1875
Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875) dies. Begun in 1841, his fifteen-volume L’Année Liturgique is completed by the Benedictine monks of Solesmes Abbey that year.
24 February 1875 to 16 July 1875
The Constitutional Laws of 1875 formally establishes the Third Republic.
16 June 1875
The Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Guibert (1802–1886), laid the foundation stone of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur on the summit of Montmartre in Paris.
1880
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1 July 1880
The birth of Joseph-Ermend Bonnal (1880–1944).
1881
Tournemire’s Life
1881
Tournemire wins First Prize in Piano (cours élémentaire) at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and becomes titulaire de l’orgue d’accompagnement de l’Église Saint-Pierre.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
13 May 1881
The birth of Alice Thiboust (Lesur) (1881–1980).
1883
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1883
The Liber Gradualis is published.
1884
Tournemire’s Life
1884
Named organiste-accompagnateur de l’Église Saint-Seurin de Bordeaux, under the professeur de piano supérieur at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux, Camille Doney (1846–1929), who was titulaire du grand-orgue.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
17 March 1884
The birth of Joseph Bonnet (1884–1944).
1885
Tournemire’s Life
1885
Tournemire wins First Prize in Piano at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
14 July 1885
The death of Ernest Hello.
1886
Tournemire’s Life
1886
Tournemire moves to Paris, where he studies piano privately with Henri Fissot (1843–1896). Tournemire wrote of his departure to Paris:
“1886! Farewell to a mother in whom everything was tenderness—a superior intelligence of the heart—and then: Paris!!
Dazzlement, bewilderment, utter stupefaction!”
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
3 May 1886
The birth of Marcel Dupré (1886–1971).
18 September 1886
The poet Jean Moréas (1856–1910) published what would be known as the Symbolist Manifesto [Le Symbolisme] in Le Figaro, an essay that articulated and officially launched the movement.
1887
Tournemire’s Life
11 November 1887
Tournemire matriculated at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studies advanced piano with Charles de Bériot (1833–1914) and where he later studies harmony with Antoine Taudou (1846–1925). Of the event, Fissot wrote to Doney:
“You have learned, no doubt, that Tournemire was admitted as a student. I am happy for him, especially since he was in very good hands. I have the highest esteem for my colleague Bériot, who joins great talent with no less zeal. Your pupil will therefore certainly make great progress with his new teacher. I believe he has the means. In any case, he is hard-working—which, unfortunately, is the exception among male students—and this will facilitate his superiority over many of his fellow pupils. He did have a few emotions during the exam, and his performance was affected. I had heard him play his concerto better at my house. Everything went well, however, and the results proved it; and, as I warmly recommended him to Bériot, I had no worries about the future.”
Tournemire wrote of his initial year at the Conservatoire:
“First contact with the National Conservatory of Music. Admission to two classes: harmony and advanced piano.
The harmony professor was named A. Taudou; his teaching was ‘proper’, yet marked by excessive timidity: it consisted of nothing but hunting down parallel fifths—imitations that absolutely could not be missed, on pain of major excommunication—and harmonies that had to adhere as closely as possible to the author’s own conception (!) during the realisation of a melody or a bass line.
When one considers that, at that time (1887), the highly sought-after ‘hack writers’ of musical scores bore names such as Lenepveu (of the Institut), Barthe, and Duprato—to name but three—One remains aghast that such models were recommended to the apprentice composers of that era!
A. Taudou simply could not stomach me. How many times, while reading through my assignments—which I had ‘embellished’ with parallel fifths (for I loved their rich sonority)—did I hear him tell me: ‘You are not a musician! You never will be!!!’
Twenty-five years later, that poor old man—visibly moved—came to congratulate me on a psalm for orchestra and chorus of my own composition, performed under the deplorable direction of the composer of Les P’tites Michu—André Messager—at the Concert Society of the Paris Conservatory.
I shall, moreover, have occasion in these memoirs to revisit that momentous performance!
My piano teacher, Charles de Bériot—son of La Malibran—was intelligent, yet lacking in vision. He made excessive use of tempo rubato, which imparted to his style something disjointed and contorted. There was absolutely no calm in his teaching. The music of César Franck was odious to him. ‘This music,’ he would frequently remark, ’laments ceaselessly.’ I must add, in all fairness, that Charles de Bériot composed—and not without talent—some picturesque piano music. The pianists’ guild has shown itself to be forgetful towards this musician. Outside the Conservatory, I also had as a piano teacher the renowned Henri Fissot—an admirable technician and a composer of refined taste.
In the meantime—recalling that I had ‘shaken the chest of drawers’ (played the organ, and how!) at Saint-Pierre as well as at Saint-Seurin in Bordeaux—I resolved to find out, relying upon that peculiar blend of Bordelais folly and pride, whether the types of organists spoken of the world over truly possessed any ‘guts’.
I heard Guilmant at La Trinité, Gigout at Saint-Augustin, and Monsieur Charles-Marie Widor at Saint-Sulpice. The pretentious, talentless little boy from Bordeaux that I was declared himself satisfied!
I had forgotten but one: César Franck—who was subsequently to become my teacher, and whom I was to succeed at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde…
This oversight stemmed from the relative obscurity in which this great musician was held!”
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1887
Le Désespéré by Léon Bloy (1846–1917) is published.
26 January 1887 to 31 March 1889
Construction of the Eiffel Tower
1888
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
20 February 1888
A fourteen-stop electro-pneumatic orgue de chœur (located in the choir of the sanctuary), made by Joseph Merklin (1819–1905), is inaugurated at Sainte-Clotilde. The organists who examined and approved the instrument included Franck, Théodore Dubois (1837–1924), Samuel Rousseau (1853–1904), and Nicolas Verschneider (1818–1899).
May 1888
Joséphin Péladan (1858–1918) and Stanislas de Guïta (1861–1897) establish a chapter of the Rose ✠ Croix ✠ Kabbalistique.
1889
Tournemire’s Life
November 1889
Tournemire meets César Franck. He wrote of this first encounter:
“God was watching over me. On a Sunday in November, he mysteriously led me to Sainte-Clotilde. I walked into the basilica in the hour of Vespers. I neither knew of the church nor the name of the organist. God of heaven! When I heard the improvised verses of the Magnificat, I thought I saw the heavens open wide and a long procession of angels blue and roseate descending to earth.”
Tournemire later called upon Franck at his home:
“Disgusted with my two classes at the Conservatoire, I turned again to the great musician of Sainte-Clotilde. I had grown restless, having attended his church as a discreet listener. I decided to present myself to the Maître Séraphique. I went knocking at ninety-five Boulevard Saint-Michel, his home. ‘A kind of barracks house in a current state of absolute disrepair… and soon to disappear!’
An old woman wearing a lace bonnet opened the door. It was Madame César Franck herself. The maître was away.
I returned the next day. I was introduced to the one for whom I had a secret admiration. With the volubility peculiar to Bordeaux—stupid people—I expressed my enthusiasm for his ‘great talent’. (?!) His eyes widened—if I had the maturity, I would have immediately realised that Franck was a ‘Great’ whose contemporaries had organised terrible cruelty against and who experienced the emptiness primarily found at the end of their wonderful life: Cervantes, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, and many others!
With that banal compliment which I gave—words from the mouth of a young man, which he determined to be a reaction due to misfortune—he kissed me, hugged me, and said to me, ‘You love my improvisations?’
The word ‘defector’ was unknown to me. He explained. I answered, ‘I am so happy to work with you!’”
Shortly thereafter, Tournemire entered the organ and improvisation class of César Franck.
In 1894, responding to an article in La Gironde regarding César Franck’s notebook—in which the composer jotted down the themes he deemed his finest inspirations—Tournemire sent the following letter to the author:
“Dear Sir,
I have just read a few lines in the November fifth issue of La Gironde—under the heading Relics—calling for the recovery of an artistic treasure: the small notebook in which César Franck would hastily scribble the embryonic musical ideas that, under the Master’s fingers, spontaneously blossomed into monumental musical conceptions.
I cannot resist the urge to bring great joy to those who take a genuine interest in a man who ranks among the century’s greatest musicians. That famous notebook is shared among all those who attended his organ and improvisation course at the Paris Conservatory; as I had the honour of being one of his organ students, I possess this fascinating little collection in my own music library.
What spontaneity lies within those admirable melodic themes, distilled into just a few pages! Franck did not go looking for them. Whether during a conversation with friends—sometimes at his home, but more often up in the organ loft at Sainte-Clotilde—he would pause and withdraw into himself, his head always tilted slightly to the right, before jotting down a few notes in the little notebook. He would emerge from this meditation transformed, towering in stature, and would be unable to resume the conversation; he needed his keyboard. That was when he was truly magnificent, and those who—like myself—witnessed these displays of genius will never forget the artistic delight experienced in those moments.
And to think that this was the man who, throughout his life, was regarded as an exceedingly dry composer of fugues, incapable of creating a melody!” [L’Ouest-artiste, 17 November 1894]
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
January 1889
The Boulanger crisis, instigated by Georges Ernest Boulanger (1837–1891) (known by popularly moniker “Général Revanche”), threatens the fall of the Third Republic through a coup d’état and the establishment of a dictatorship. Known for his aggressive nationalism, he aimed to avenge the defeat of the French by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War.
4 February 1889
The Tribunal Civil de la Seine orders the end of the Panama Canal Company in Paris due to the company’s bankruptcy.
By 1892, some 800,000 French people had lost their investments in the stocks, bonds, and founder shares of the Panama Canal Company to the tune of 1.8 billion gold Francs. Governmental and other high-level corruption and bribery were revealed, and the Panama Canal Scandal became the largest financial scandal of the century. Among other issues, this scandal fomented the antisemitism that helped to set the stage for the Dreyfus Affair.
1890
Tournemire’s Life
Summer 1890 through 30 September 1890
César Franck composed the Trois Chorals in Nemours. Tournemire plays the pedal part on the piano with Franck playing the manuals.
1890
Tournemire is awarded First Accessit in organ, behind Marie Prestat (1862–1933), who won First Prize. No Second Prize is awarded.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
May [d’Indy] or July [Stove] 1890
Franck is struck by an omnibus.
4 October 1890
Louis Vierne is admitted to organ class under Franck.
8 November 1890
The death of César Franck:
“I lost not only a great maître but a father too! The day after his death, a Sunday, I accomplished my task as an organist. (I had been stowed away by my maître at Saint-Médard in Paris). What an Office! With eyes bathed in tears, I could not read the texts of the day! Groaning improvisations spread through the nave! It was extra-liturgical, of course. The gentlemen of the clergy were almost always unable to comprehend; the maître de chapelle, who, as a general rule, was willfully ignorant, noticed nothing abnormal. Thus, I could savour, if I may say so, the voluptuous distress of the heart, as one does at age twenty!”
13 December 1890
Charles-Marie Widor (1844–1937) is appointed organ professor at the Conservatoire:
“Two months after this catastrophic event, Ambroise Thomas, a musician on the sidelines of music, had the idea of preferring Charles-Marie Widor to Alexandre Guilmant as the successor of the ‘musician of the angels’. I will never forget arriving on tiptoe, like a dancer in a ‘tutu’, in expectation of the new teacher of the organ class. His cavalier air, his receding forehead, his long neck, the whole appearance approaching ‘an egg placed on an egg cup’, a jacket in the colours of the premier ‘faiseur’ of the time, hiding only a small part of the buttocks, a vest and pants ad hoc, immediately made him an intolerable character to me. The composer of Les Béatitudes had just been succeeded by the composer of the Korrigane, a ballet for the use of depraved subscribers of the Opéra.”
1891
Tournemire’s Life
July 1891
Tournemire is awarded First Prize in organ alongside Georges Berger (first runner-up) and Vierne and Jules Bouval (1867–1911) (second runner-up). No second prize is awarded. The jury is composed of: Ambroise Thomas (1811–1896), Ernest Guiraud (1837–1892), Théodore Dubois, Henri Fissot, Henri Dallier (1849–1934), Gabriel Pierné (1863–1937), Raoul Pugno (1852–1914), and Théodore Salomé (1834–1896). That same year, he also won a second accessit in harmony and served as Widor’s substitute at Saint-Sulpice.
“The hour of moral punishment having come to an end—the musical aspect allotted for me—in July 1891, I was freed from the organ class by obtaining the first prize for organ and improvisation, where I was awarded by ten out of eleven votes. The failing voice was the manifestation of a personal vendetta of a postulant ousted during the vacancy of the Chair of the Organ Class as an act of vengeance directed against Widor, the lucky competitor to the succession of Franck. This very ugly gesture raised the indignation of Ambroise Thomas, who, protesting energetically, decried the injustice. (Widor himself told me of that.)”
10 November 1891 to 19 September 1892
Tournemire’s mandatory conscription in Bordeaux (Class of 1890, recruitment serial number 165), with the 144th Infantry Regiment. This is followed by six years of employment as organist and piano teacher at the Jesuit College. Located at 16, rue de Madrid, the school’s buildings were acquired by the State in 1905 and subsequently converted in 1911 to house the Conservatoire de musique et de déclamation, which had previously been located at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs on rue Bergère. Tournemire would later return to these premises, this time as a professor of chamber music.
“Having returned to Paris after the last year in the barracks, I had to think about a living. An opportunity presented itself: the position of organist and piano teacher at the Jesuit College on the rue de Madrid. Five hundred gold francs per month. It was a fortune!
The work was rather painful: every morning at seven-thirty, I accompanied abominable hymns during Mass, and I conducted piano lessons from eleven o’clock in the morning to one-thirty in the afternoon. Hence, they were unable to sustain normal working hours. This, however, I could bear, for it was nothing compared to the moral suffering endured among the Jesuits. Authoritarians, they were contemptuous of those who depended upon them—cold and supple towards those upon whom they depended. These gentlemen did me great harm, and I confess that I felt a secret pleasure in reading and rereading the Lettres provinciales of Pascal. I found in them a kind of solace! What filled me with disgust with regard to these lamentable disciples of Loyola was the meeting of a newly arrived father in the holy house of the rue de Madrid.
He was a former secretary to the senate, smoking his pipe in an exaggerated manner, expectorating loudly. An imaginary researcher (!) of musical ideas, he used me. Believing himself inspired, despising the honest labour necessary for the development of technique, every day, more and more, he sank into the most degrading amateurism. Three or four measures of unbelievable themes came out of his smoky brain, and my mission was not only to continue them and develop them but also to harmonise, construct, and orchestrate them. It was for nothing more than to set up openings for dramas for the use of Jesuit colleges all over the world. For this purpose, I wrote hundreds of pages. To this work, I was required to add innumerable hymns and motets. Together, they were sent to a publisher in Paris named Pérégally. The profits of this publication totalled thousands of francs annually. It goes without saying that I never saw the colour of money from the reverend father! This arrangement of servitude—vis-à-vis being a pseudo-composer (an obligation done to protect me from a surprise dismissal, which was always possible in this milieu where the Christian spirit is only a vain word)—was genuinely odious.”
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1892
Tournemire’s Life
1892–1897
Tournemire is the titular organist at Saint-Médard, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1892–1893
Opus 1: Sonate pour piano et violon en 4 parties [violin and piano]
Historical Events
1892–1897
Six salons hosted by the Rose ✠ Croix whose subject matter dealt with religion and mysticism. Involving over two hundred visual, literary, and musical artists, these salons served as a popular promotional vehicle for the artistic endeavours of the Symbolists.
1892
Le Salut par les Juifs by Léon Bloy is published.
1893
Tournemire’s Life
12 April 1893
Recital at the Jardin zoologique d’Acclimatation, Paris.
25 April 1893
Recital at the Tracadéro, Paris.
3 May 1893
Recital at the Tracadéro, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1894
Tournemire’s Life
27 August to 23 September 1894
Training period with the Sixth Infantry Regiment.
Tournemire’s Works
1894
Opus 2: Andantino [organ]
Opus 3: Sortie en sol M [organ]
Opus 4: Trois pièces pour hautbois et piano (suite) [oboe and piano]
Opus 8: Pater noster, motet avec accompagnement d’orgue [soprano and organ]
Opus 8: La Salutation Angélique pour chant, violon et orgue [soprano, violin, and organ]
Opus 10: Sortie en mi♭ M [organ]
Sans Opus: Sonnerie (militare) [piano]
Historical Events
6 June 1894
At the Église Saint-Gervais in Paris, Charles Bordes (1863–1909), Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911), and Vincent d’Indy (1851–1931) announced the creation of La Société de propagande pour la divulgation des chefs d’œuvres religieux, later to be known as the Schola Cantorum.
September 1894–1906
The Dreyfus Affair
1895
Tournemire’s Life
1895
Tournemire moves to 126, Grande-rue-de-République à Saint-Mandé—Val-de-Marne.
January 1895
In January, under the patronage of Widor, a chamber music society was founded by a group of young composers—including Tournemire, Vierne, Henri Libert (1869–1937), and Henri Eymieu (1860–1931)—with performances held on the fifth of each month at the Salle Erard. The initial concerts featured works by Benjamin Godard (1849–1895), Widor, Charles-Édouard Lefebvre (1843–1917), Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921), Paul Hillemacher (1852–1933), Aimé Leborne (1797–1866), Henri-Marie Pierre Eymieu (1860–1931), Tournemire, and Vierne.
Tournemire’s Works
1895
Opus 5: Sonate pour violoncelle et piano [cello and piano]
Opus 9: Sérénade [piano]
Opus 20 & 26: Le Ménétrier (Petite pièces pour piano) [piano]
Sans Opus: Offertoire [organ]
Historical Events
1895
En Route by Joris-Karl Huysmans (1848–1907) is published.
1896
Tournemire’s Life
11 April 1896
Recital in Bordeaux?
25 June 1896
Recital at the Salle des fêtes de l’Exposition nationale coloniale.
1896
In October, the Schola Cantorum opened its doors with Vincent d’Indy as its composition teacher; Tournemire would go there to complete his training as a composer.
Later, in a letter dated 28 March 1934 to Felix Aprahamian (1914–2005), Tournemire commented upon his connection to d’Indy. In the letter, Tournemire is responding to programme notes from an Organ Music Society event, “Concert of Modern Organ Works”, which included Norman Greenwood’s performance of the Choral nº III from L’Orgue Mystique. The biographical note about Tournemire (which had been given to Aprahamian by Heugel in November 1933) stated that the composer was “a pupil of Franck and d’Indy”. To which Tournemire responded:
“Dear Mr Aprahamian,
A thousand thanks for sending me the program and the newspaper article regarding the organ concert on March twentieth. Just one small point: I am not a pupil of V. d’Indy.
That is a mistake—incorrect information.
I do not care much for that musician; he is very cold!!
I hope to meet you one day. With that hope, I send you my warmest regards. —Ch. Tournemire”
25 June 1896
Recital at the Salle des fêtes de l’Exposition nationale coloniale.
Tournemire’s Works
1896
Opus 6: Andante pour cor chromatique et piano [French horn and piano]
Opus 7: Trois mélodies [Allaÿdé, Le Charme des bois, L’Amant désespéré] [song]
Sans Opus: Viens-tu? [song]
1896–1900
Opus 20: Petites pièces [Mélancolie (feuillet d’album), Valse lente, Ballade triste, Ballade fantastique] [piano]
Historical Events
1896
The Liber Usualis is published.
1896
Sainte-Clotilde is made a minor basilica by Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903), marking the 1,400th anniversary of King Clovis’ (circa 466–511) baptism
15 October 1896
The Schola Cantorum opens.
1897
Tournemire’s Life
1897–1898
Tournemire is the titulaire organist at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, Paris.
April 1897
Recital at the Cathédrale Sainte-Croix, Rouen.
October 1897
Tournemire competes to succeed Léon Boëllmann (1862–1897) as organist at the Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul alongside twelve other candidates—including Vierne, Alexandre Georges (1850–1938), Guilmant, Charles Quef (1873–1931), and Henri Büsser (1872–1973)—but it was Albert Mahaut (1867–1943) who was selected.
December 1897
Tournemire moves to 19, rue de Naples in Paris’s eighth arrondissement.
Tournemire’s Works
1897
Opus 11: Suite en 3 parties (pour alto et piano) [viola and piano]
1897–1898
Opus 15: Quatuor pour piano et cordes [2 violins, viola, cello, and piano]
Historical Events
1898
Tournemire’s Life
10 April 1898 (Easter) through 4 November 1939 (Tournemire’s Death)
Appointment as organiste titulaire of Sainte-Clotilde upon the resignation of Gabriel Pierné. The jury included Samuel Rousseau (maître de chapelle of Sainte-Clotilde), Vincent d’Indy, and Charles-Marie Widor (who attempted to block the appointment). Monsignor Jean-Osmin Gardey (1836–1914) of Sainte-Clotilde did not approve of Widor’s assertions and approved Tournemire’s employment:
“An important event took place in April 1898: my appointment as organist of the grand orgue of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. After a brief and indirect passage to this tribune via Gabriel Pierné, I became the true successor of my maître César Franck. Thirty competitors opposed me—including Henri Libert and Henri Büsser—many of whom held first prize organ awards from the Conservatoire. Charles-Marie von Widor made a fierce campaign against me. In my heart, I maintained my stalwart attitude towards him, an attitude I mentioned earlier in our reports concerning the Conservatoire organ class. He even visited the pastor of the Basilica of Sainte-Clothilde, Monsignor Gardey—an eminent man of whom I have kept a fond memory—and informed him that if he took me as his organist, he would find me extremely difficult: I was afflicted with a bad character, an intolerable prospect, therefore. Monsignor Gardey found his approach unworthy and tendentious. He took no account of it. He called me without hesitation to the envied position. We lived for fifteen years in perfect harmony. The death of this great priest, a disciple of Bossuet, grieved me greatly.
It would be unfair not to mention here Samuel-Rousseau, maître de chapelle of Sainte-Clothilde at this time. I owe him a lively recognition for his support and touching confraternity. So I officially became ‘someone‘. What a tragedy it was when, on the morrow of this appointment, I was forced to abandon my situation among the Jesuits. From the five hundred francs that these ‘astonishing’ disciples of Christ paid me, I fell to a salary of one hundred and fifty francs a month, fixed and all-inclusive. Alas, Sainte-Clotilde did not feed this man. Desperate, I sought lessons to give. Two fell into place the day after the ‘disaster’…. Yet, the financial report was meagre: seventy francs per month!
A total of 150 + 70 = 220. It was necessary to be content with this sum to which—thanks to the generosity of my mother—I arrived at three hundred francs. For those two years, the organist of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde Paris was not seen rolling in gold!”
3 March 1898
Recital at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, Paris.
23 April 1898
Recital at Notre-Dame-de-Clignancourt, Paris.
May through June 1898
Three recitals at Sacro Cuore di Maria, Turin.
29 June 1898
Recital at the Tracadéro, Paris.
7 December 1898
Recital at the Schola Cantorum, Paris (15, rue Stanislas).
3 March 1898
Recital at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1898
La Cathédrale by Joris-Karl Huysmans is published.
13 January 1898
“J’Accuse…!”, written by Émile Zola (1840–1902) in response to the events of the Dreyfus affair, is published in L’Aurore, accusing the president of France, Félix Faure (1841–1899), and his government of antisemitism and the unlawful imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935).
1899
Tournemire’s Life
19 February 1899
Recital at Laon Cathédrale.
27 February 1899
Charles Tournemire is named Officier d’Académie.
4 August 1899
Recital at Saint-Pierre, Avignon (organised by the Schola Cantorum).
Tournemire’s Works
1899
Opus 16: Pièce symphonique [organ]
Opus 17: Sonate pour piano en 4 parties [piano]
Historical Events
1900
Tournemire’s Life
1900
Tournemire meets Alice Georgina Taylor. Alice Georgina Taylor was born on the twenty-sixth of September 1870 in Lisbon, Portugal, to James Taylor and Emilie Klingelhoefer. She was twice widowed—first to Edmond Juhel-Renoy (1855–1894), a doctor at Cochin Hospital, and second to Fernand Pierre Juhel-Renoy (1851–1900), a lawyer who was the first cousin of Edmond.
She will introduce Tournemire to the Île d’Ouessant, and together, the couple will purchase a house that they will name Tristan, where they will reside in the summer months. On the property is a small moulin (which Tournemire named the Le Joyeux Hidalgo after his Trilogie) where Tournemire would sketch out pieces to be rendered in Paris over the coming year.
“In the course of the year 1900, I became acquainted with an extremely superior woman who became my organ pupil. Through her, I had an apprentice musician! I found the infamous five hundred gold francs fairly easily! But what was much better than that, and of providential order, there was a growing sympathy between my ‘benefactress’ and myself—a sympathy that was subsequently transformed into a great love on both sides, a love which was to be blessed by God on the [fifth] of November 1903. I shall have the opportunity later to exalt the virtues of she, who, for seventeen years, was for me an ideal support… a torch!”
June 1900
Tournemire moves to 91, rue de Rome in the seventeenth arrondissement.
19 June 1900
Recital at the Tracadéro, Paris.
26 September 1900
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1900
Opus 18: Symphonie n° 1 “Romantique” (en la M) [Premiered at the Société Nationale et à Marseille on 10 March 1901]
Opus 19: Suite de morceaux [Adagio, Scherzetto, Toccata, (Cinq) Interludes] [organ]
1900–1901
Opus 21: Variae Preces 40 pièces pour harmonium [Cinq versets (1re série), Cinq versets (2e série), Cinq noël originaux, Trois entrées, Trois offertoires, Trois communions, Trois sorties, Trois amen, Dix pièces] [organ]
Opus 24: Suite de morceaux [Pastorale, Communion, Ite missa est-Sortie] [organ]
Historical Events
November 1900
Schola Cantorum moves to the former convent on rue Saint-Jacques in the Quartier Latin.
1901
Tournemire’s Life
2 March 1901
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
10 March 1901
Recital at the Théâtre des Nations, Marseille.
Tournemire’s Works
1901
Opus 22: Trio pour piano, violon et violoncelle [violin, cello, and piano]
Opus 23: Sarabande [piano]
1901–1902
Opus 25: Mélodies, poèmes d’Anatole Le Braz [Dans un coffret de vieux chêne, Tout au long de la nuit, Évocation, Le chant de ma mère] [song]
Opus 28: Mélodies, poèmes d’Anatole Le Braz [Berceuse d’Armorique, Cloches de Pâques] [song]
Historical Events
21 February 1901
Alice Taylor’s sister, Christine [Christiane] Taylor (natus 1864), becomes the second wife of Joséphin Péladan.
July 1901
The Law of Associations denies religious communities the right to form legal associations and, therefore, to own property. With that, the monks of Solesmes were exiled, initially staying at Appuldurcombe and later moving to the new Quarr Abbey, which they designed in 1908 on the British Isle of Wight. The evacuated buildings in France were entrusted to the Marquis de Juigné, Jacques Auguste Marie Le Clerc (1874–1951), and all rights of ownership for their publications were transferred to Desclée of Tournai in Belgium.
5 December 1901
The birth of Alice Espir (1901–1996), Tournemire’s future second wife.
1902
Tournemire’s Life
2 February 1902
Recital at Cours-la Reine, Paris.
March 1902
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
11 December 1902
Recital at the Église Saint-Martin, Maromme.
Tournemire’s Works
1902
Opus 25: Nuit d’étoiles, (duo pour mezzo-soprano & contralto) [song]
Opus 25: Séparation [song]
Opus 26: Petites pièces [Danse du Finistère, Chanson du Finistère, Improvisation, Petite rapsodie bretonne] [piano]
Opus 26: Trois petites pièces [Petite étude sans fin, Barcarolle, Récit] [piano]
Sans Opus: À la cathédrale de Chartres (pièce en fa M) [piano]
Sans Opus: Choral (en ré m) [piano]
Sans Opus Pensée musicale (en fa M) [piano]
Sans Opus: Petite étude sur la gamme de la majeur [piano]
Sans Opus: Pièce en mi♭ M [piano]
Sans Opus: Prière (en ut M) [piano]
Sans Opus: Étude (en ré m) [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude (en sol m) [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude (en ré m) [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude (en ré m) [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude pour le grand orgue (en fa M) [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude pour le pédalier [organ]
Sans Opus: Étude pour le pédalier (en si♭ M) [organ]
Sans Opus: 2 études pour les pieds [organ]
Sans Opus: Exercice de pédale doppio à 5 parties (en sol M) [organ]
Sans Opus: Exercice de double pédale en fa M [organ]
Sans Opus: Improvisation (en ré m) [organ]
Sans Opus: Petit andante (en fa M) [organ]
Sans Opus: Petite improvisation pour grand orgue (en fa M) [organ]
Sans Opus: 2e petite improvisation (en sol M) [organ]
Sans Opus: Pièce (en fa M) [organ]
Sans Opus: Solo de pédale double (en sol m) [organ]
1902–1903
Opus 27: Le Sang de la Sirène (légende musicale en 4 parties) [Prélude: vers Ouessant / Chœur “c’est une fille d’Ouessant” / La Légende, Symphonie: le sabbat des Sirènes, Un dimanche à Ouessant, Symphonie Le “Proella” de Jean Morvarch / Chant de l’ “In Paradisum”]
Historical Events
11 January 1902
The birth of Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986).
1903
Tournemire’s Life
4 April 1903
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
5 November 1903
Tournemire marries Alice Georgina Taylor. The marriage being of mixed religion, Monsignor Gardey, parish priest of Sainte-Clotilde, presided over the exchange of vows but did not give the nuptial blessing. Shortly thereafter, they move to 74, rue Milne-Edwards, located in the seventeenth arrondissement.
1903
Tournemire is teaching harmonium at the Institut Libre de Musique et de Déclamation, then located at 4, rue des Petits-Champs in the first arrondissement of Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1903
Sans Opus: Mélodie (sur un poème en prose du musicien?) [song]
Historical Events
4 July 1903
The birth of Flor Peeters (1903–1986).
25 July 1903
The birth of André Fleury (1903–1995).
22 November 1903
The Motu Proprio Tra le sollecitudini is promulgated by Pope Pius X (1835–1914), offering guidance on Sacred Music.
1903
L’Oblat by Joris-Karl Huysmans is published.
1904
Tournemire’s Life
1904
Tournemire wins the Concours musicale de la ville de Paris for Le Sang de la Sirène (10,000 francs), a musical legend for soloists, chorus, and orchestra in four parts, set to a poem by Marcel Brennure based on Anatole Le Braz (1859–1926). In the report presented on behalf of the eighteen-member jury—which included Albert Carré (1852–1938), Théodore Dubois, Gabriel Fauré, Vincent d’Indy, Xavier Leroux (1863–1919), André Messager (1853–1929), and Widor, and had met on 11 January 1904 at the Hôtel de Ville—the rapporteur Samuel Rousseau wrote:
“[…] More a tableau than a fable, Le Sang de la Sirène evokes melancholic Brittany and its superstitious traditions. The action is simple—a simplicity Mr Marcel Brennure sought to reinforce in his choice of words: the thought is clear, the phrasing concise—qualities that Mr Tournemire knew how to turn to good account. […] Mr Tournemire, though still unknown to the general public, is highly esteemed by his fellow musicians for the nobility and integrity of his art. Songs, instrumental pieces, a volume of organ music, and a symphony make up his musical body of work, in which every note bears witness to ardent striving toward Beauty. An inventive improviser, he is the successor to his teacher César Franck at the organ of Sainte-Clotilde. Today, Mr Tournemire—one of the City of Paris’s distinguished prize-winners—presents a work of extraordinarily alluring colour. Le Sang de la Sirène develops—most felicitously—three Breton themes that form the score’s structural backbone. Adorned with delicate arabesques and enlivened by ingenious timbres, these artless melodies play a part in every symphonic turn of events, adding the grace of their captivating archaism and the distinctive flavour of their unusual modality. It is to the composer’s great credit that he successfully created such a legendary mood—a mythical atmosphere so remarkably suited to his chosen subject. Mr Tournemire was already known for his skill in handling voices and instruments; Le Sang de la Sirène reveals that he also possesses, to a superlative degree, the most prized qualities of master symphonists: emotional sensitivity, originality of technique, and intensity of colour…”
Tournemire’s Works
1904
Opus 29: Rhapsodie [piano]
Historical Events
22 October 1904
Dedication of the Franck monument in the Square Samuel-Rousseau across from Sainte-Clotilde.
28 October 1904
Affaire des fiches broke out to the public.
1905
Tournemire’s Life
9 November 1905
Recital at the Église Saint-Louis.
Tournemire’s Works
1905–1907
Opus 30: Nittetis (tragédie lyrique en 3 actes et 7 tableaux)
Historical Events
1905
Vincent d’Indy’s book, César Franck, is published by Félix Alcan.
9 December 1905
The 1905 French law on the Separation of Church and State is enacted after it was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 3 July 1905.
1906
Tournemire’s Life
2 December 1906
Recital at the Théâtre des Nations, Marseille.
Tournemire’s Works
1906
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en ut M) [viola and piano]
Historical Events
1 February 1906
Riots outside the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris in protest at the inventories of French churches.
1906
La Résurrection de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam by Léon Bloy is published.
1907
Tournemire’s Life
6 February 1907
Recital at the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, Berlin.
11 May 1907
Recital at the Conservatoire grand salle, Lille.
Tournemire’s Works
1907
Opus 29: Rhapsodie pour piano et orchestre
Historical Events
15 February 1907
The birth of Jean Langlais (1907–1991).
12 May 1907
The death of Joris-Karl Huysmans.
1908
Tournemire’s Life
31 March 1908
Recital at Saint-Godard, Rouen.
26 April 1908
Recital at Oude Luthersche Kerk de Spul, Amsterdam.
29 April 1908
Recital at the Groote Kerk, Haarlem.
29, 30, and 31 May 1908
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Basilica).
24 June 1908
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
13 September 1908
Recital at the Catholic church in Vevey.
Tournemire’s Works
1908
Opus 32: Poème [Larmes, Réveil, Le repos Égypteypte] [song]
Opus 33: Poème mystique Paraphrase Évocation] [piano]
Opus 34: Sagesse [song]
Opus 35: Poème pour violoncelle et piano [cello and piano]
1908–1909
Opus 36: Symphonie n° 2 “Ouessant” (en si M) [“This work was inspired by the fantastical nature of Ouessant. It seeks to glorify the Eternal.”] [Premiered on 3 April 1909, at the Salle Gaveau in Paris during the sixth concert of the Hasselmans Symphonic Society.]
Opus 45: Psaume XLVI (Vulgate XLV) pour orchestre, solo et chœur
Historical Events
19 November 1908
The birth of Daniel Jean-Yves Lesur (1908–2002).
10 December 1908
The birth of Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992).
.
1909
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
1909
Opus 37: Psaume LVII (Vulgate LVI) pour chœur, grand orchestre et orgue
1909–1910
Opus 38: Poème pour grand orgue et orchestre
Historical Events
8 November 1909
The death of Charles Bordes.
1910
Tournemire’s Life
23 October 1910
Recital at the Salle Gaveau, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1910
Opus 39: Tryptique [Soir païen, Améthyste, Soir sur la plaine] [song]
Opus 40: Pour une épigramme de Théocrite pour 3 flûtes, 2 clarinettes et harpe [3 flutes, 2 clarinets, and harp]
Opus 41: Triple Choral (Sancta Trinitas) [organ]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en ré M) [cello and piano]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en la M) [contrabass and piano]
1910–1912
Opus 42: Les Dieux sont morts (Chryséis) (drame lyrique en 2 actes, poëme d’Eugène Berteaux)
Historical Events
1911
Tournemire’s Life
6 and 22 February 1911
Recital at the Salle Gaveau, Paris.
March 1911
Tournemire is among the candidates—alongside Vierne, Eugène Gigout (1844–1925), and Joseph Bonnet, notably—to succeed Guilmant in the Conservatoire’s organ class. Gigout won the position.
9 and 11 December 1911
Recital at the Conservatoire, Moscow.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
29 March 1911
The death of Alexandre Guilmant.
1912
Tournemire’s Life
14 January 1912
Recital at the home of the Marquis de Polignac, Reims.
30 April 1912
Recital at Chartres Cathédrale, Chartres.
20 December 1912
Recital at the Schola Cantorum grand salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1912
Opus 46: Trois Lieder, poèmes d’Albert Samain [Silence!, Il pleut des pétales de fleurs!, Poème inachevé] [song]
1912–1913
Opus 43: Symphonie n° 3 “Moscou” (en ré M)
Opus 44: Symphonie n° 4 “Pages symphoniques”
Historical Events
1913
Tournemire’s Life
5 March 1913
Recital at the Salle Gaveau, Paris.
15 May 1913
Recital at Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Wingts, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1913–1914
Opus 47: Symphonie n° 5 “de la Montagne” (en fa m)
Historical Events
1914
Tournemire’s Life
31 January 1914
Recital at the Salle Franklin, Bordeaux.
24 February 1914
Recital at the home of Jules Haëlling (1869–1926).
8 March 1914
Recital at the Casino in Nice.
Tournemire’s Works
1914
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en ré M) [violin and piano]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en mi M) [violin and piano]
Historical Events
28 June 1914
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863–1914), heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie (1868–1914) and the beginning of the July Crisis.
28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918
First World War
1915
Tournemire’s Life
31 January 1915
Recital at the Salle Franklin, Bordeaux.
9 March 1915 to 8 May 1916
Mobilised on the seventh March 1915, into the 137th Territorial Regiment, Tournemire was transferred on the sixteenth of August 1915, to the twenty-second Section of the C.O.A. (Administrative Clerks and Workers); subsequently, on the twenty-sixth of April 1916—acting upon the recommendation of the fifth Special Reform Board of the Seine—he was classified for auxiliary service due to “chronic gastroenteritis” and discharged home on the eighth of May 1916. Notably, he had been assigned to surveil railway lines in the Longjumeau area, in and around Épinay-sur-Orge, within the Paris region.
12 December 1915
Recital at Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Port, Nantes.
Tournemire’s Works
1915
Sans Opus: Chœur “Paroles et musique d’un ‘auteur inconnu’ (Pour enfants et grandes personnes)”
Sans Opus: Chœur rose, “Paroles et musique d’un ‘Tourlourou’ de 8e classe”
1915–1918
Opus 48: Symphonie n° 6 pour grand orchestre, chœurs, récit et grand orgue
Historical Events
1916
Tournemire’s Life
Tournemire’s Works
1916
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en mi M) [violin and piano]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en si♭ M) [cornet and piano]
Historical Events
1917
Tournemire’s Life
8 and 22 March 1917
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (with the choir).
15 April 1917
Recital at Salle Gaveau, Paris.
9 May 1917
Recital at the Église réformée de l’Étoile with Lucien Capet (1873–1928).
9 December 1917
Recital at the Théâtre des Nations, Marseille.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
3 November 1917
The death of Léon Bloy.
1918
Tournemire’s Life
27 January 1918
Recital at the Schola Cantorum, grande salle (rue Saint-Jacques), Paris.
8 September 1918
In a letter to Alice Lesur from Tournemire, we read of Tournemire’s curiously paternalistic interest in Daniel-Lesur’s future:
“This year, which I hope will not be disturbed by ‘Bertha’, should be a decisive year for Daniel. I mean, we will have to discuss—yes or no—whether he will embrace a difficult and thorny musical career.
I promise to examine it as seriously as I can. I will draw from him whatever he can impart. And if, as is my hope, it largely meets the expectations we have, then we will launch the art. A solemn moment!! And we will watch over him in order to avoid—as far as possible—the pains inherent in this career, the disappointments, et cetera.… Yes, et cetera… as he puts it so well, little Daniel.”
Tournemire’s Works
1918–1922
Opus 49: Symphonie n° 7 “Les Danses de la Vie”
Historical Events
Early 1918 to spring 1920
The Great Influenza or Spanish Flu pandemic.
27 June 1918
The death of Joséphin Péladan.
1919
Tournemire’s Life
1919
Maurice Duruflé is introduced to Tournemire through Maurice Emmanuel (1862–1938).
22 October 1919
Tournemire, after the Great War, was appointed Professor of the Ensemble Class.
Tournemire’s Works
1919
Opus 50: Dialogue sacré Petit poème d’Amour du Cantique des Cantiques [song]
Historical Events
28 June 1919
The Treaty of Versailles is signed in the Hall of Mirrors, officially ending the Great War between the Allied Powers and Germany.
16 October 1919
Although completed in 1914, the consecration of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur is delayed until this day due to the First World War.
1920
Tournemire’s Life
3 May 1920
Tournemire’s wife, Alice née Taylor, dies.
Summer 1920
Tournemire retreated to the Grande Chartreuse Abbey in Isère to mourn the death of his wife, and in August 1920, wrote:
For my wife, forever in the heights
“—I was in the valley… weeping endlessly… Towering mountains spoke to me of Heaven and invited thoughts of the World Above… I did not resist… And here I am, overlooking the valley—the valley of tears—grasping, from the mountaintop, the divine meaning of Suffering, forever denying death… I can finally read the life of her whom I no longer see, whom I no longer hear on earth! I gaze into her soul:
—You came to Earth—like an exquisite flower—a flower instinctively turned toward the Light… a fragrant flower of the high mountains…
—Your childhood dreams found their home beside the Child Jesus… You loved Him already, and were preparing yourself for Love—for the quest, here on earth, for a fellow lover of Christ. You grew… You sought to merge that great love with the other love—human love—a reflection of the Love from Above…
—And then we met!! Our souls united in a great surge of love and infinite tenderness for one another. We lived for many years, reaching out to each other within ourselves, within Christ. In you, the flower had fully blossomed; the sun’s rays bathed it in splendour. You touched my soul, too!! It was a life of the World Above already lived on earth—a prelude to the Hereafter: the joy of sharing everything in that beautiful realm of Love and Art. You glorified the Eternal. I glorified Him as well…
—Yet your earthly vessel was fading!! Then came the great physical suffering that demanded every ounce of our strength—of soul and heart… Powerless, I witnessed the “end”… of your beautiful preparation for the fullness of Life!!
—Then came the semblance of death… with all its dreadful train!!… And the anguish of my heart! Immense!!! Endless weeping—yet, through the tears, the clear transparency of Heaven…
—Today, there is the great silence… the solemn moment that reveals to us the ‘Beauty of death…’ It is the journey toward the wondrous understanding of the ‘Concert of Angels’—a concert in which your beautiful soul (pure as high-mountain water, fragrant as the sweetest blossom of the high peaks) participates and shares, in a vast outpouring of gratitude to God! It is also my own awestruck soul seeking its share of that Concert… while awaiting the fullness of those ineffable Joys that bathe the soul—your soul—in eternal light……”
Tournemire’s Works
1920–1924
Opus 51: Symphonie n° 8 “La Symphonie du Triomphe de la Mort”
Historical Events
16 May 1920
Joan of Arc (circa 1412–1431) was canonised by Pope Benedict XV (1854–1922) at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican
1921
Tournemire’s Life
11 May 1921
Tournemire is awarded the Légion d’honneur.
15 June 1921
Joseph Bonnet gifts Tournemire Dom Guéranger’s fifteen-volume L’Année liturgique, inscribing, “À mon cher maître et ami Ch. Tournemire—En hommage d’admiration et d’affection profonde. Jos. Bonnet.”
18 March 1921
Recital at Saint-Séverin, Paris.
21 April 1921
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (with the choir).
26 May 1921
Recital at Salle Gaveau, Paris.
1921
Tournemire is admitted into the Société Baudelaire, which was then located on rue de la Chaussée-d’Antin in the ninth arrondissement. Tournemire would go on to contribute to the Dictionnaire des mots, des idées et des hommes—known as the Dictionnaire de la Société Baudelaire.
Tournemire’s Works
1921–1929
Opus 52: Faust: La vie de Faust en Lucifer (1921–1929)
Opus 52: Don Quichotte [Prélude aux combats de l’Idéal, L’aventure des moulins à vent, L’aventure du théâtre des marionnettes, L’aventure du chevalier de la Blanche Lune, Postlude pour la mort de Don Quichotte] (1921–1926)
Opus 52: Saint François d’Assise en deux parties [Symphonie de la nature] (1921–1927)
Historical Events
1921
Alice Espir wins the First Prize at the Conservatoire.
1922
Tournemire’s Life
1922
Upon the death of Saint-Saëns, the Société Baudelaire passed over Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) to give Tournemire the music chair.
31 March 1922
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
19 November 1922
Recital at Le Mans Cathédrale (celebrating the Feast of Saint Cecilia).
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
September 1922
Solesmes’s exile (1901–1922) ends. In December 1922, a congress of Gregorian chant and sacred music was organised by l’Art Catholique. This conference was a huge success, thanks to the support of the new Archbishop of Paris since 1920, Louis-Ernest Dubois (1856–1929), and, above all, to the support of the monks of the Solesmes Abbey, who returned to France after their long exile at Quarr Abbey in England.
1923
Tournemire’s Life
1923
Tournemire becomes a critic for Le Courrier musical, reviewing the Conservatoire concerts.
10 November 1923
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde (celebrating the inscription of Franck’s name on the porch of the Basilica).
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1923
The Gregorian Institute of Paris was a pedagogical and religious establishment founded in Paris in 1923, having in view the musicianship of Gregorian chant. Just after the Institute was founded, the next congress was held. The Institute’s first conference was held on 24 January 1924.
18 January 1924
Pope Pius XI (1857–1939) issued the encyclical Maximam Gravissimamque, allowing French Catholics to establish diocesan associations affording them the ability to manage church assets. This is in response to the confusion arising from the 1905 Act of Separation.
1924
Tournemire’s Life
1924
Les Dieux sont morts, a two-act opera based upon a libretto by Eugène Berteaux (1876–1948), premiers at the Opéra de Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1924
Sans Opus: Plaintes [violin and piano]
Historical Events
1925
Tournemire’s Life
1925
He had a wooden house built at the locality known as L’Herbe, in Cap Ferret—near Arcachon, ted not far from his sister Berthe—which he christened Villa Iseut. He would spend his summer holidays there.
4 May 1925
Recital at Saint-Louis, Rochefort.
Tournemire’s Works
1925
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en ut M) [violin and piano]
1925–1926
Opus 53: La Légende de Tristan en 3 actes et 8 tableaux [Le Cheveu d’or, Le Philtre, Dans la grande salle de Tintagel, Le Grand Pin, Dans la forêt sauvage du Morois, Tristan au rocher de Douleur, Tristan fou, La Mort]
Historical Events
9 December 1925
Eugène Gigout, Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire, dies.
1926
Tournemire’s Life
7 March 1926
Tournemire fails to become Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire:
“Here can be placed [in these Mémoires] a very important event in my artistic career: my appointment as Professor of Music at the Paris Conservatoire (November 1919). I accepted this position without solicitation, with the almost certainty of obtaining, thereafter, the Organ Chair of the same Conservatoire.
Alas! I failed… I had against me his excellency Widor, Rabaud himself, and the Levantine Paul Léon.
After my failure, one could read in the Cri de Paris this kind of snippet as follows [dated the seventh of March 1926]:
‘Monsieur Marcel Dupré has been appointed Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire. The Minister has confirmed the appointment of the candidate, who had been made, according to the rule, by the Board of Education. Insinuating and vigorous pressure was exerted on the Minister to get him appointed to the Organ Chair, although the candidate was as yet the second in line…’
From all the evidence, Monsieur Marcel Dupré was the instigator of this disgraceful act, as well as Madame Dupré. Tournemire has never known intrigue. In this sad affair, it is only necessary to retain one thing: the lack of decency of my “rival” vis-à-vis with respect to an artist of my age, at the very least! So too, the lack of candour of Rabeau, who had long promised me this post….”
17 October 1926
Recital at Notre-Dame, Louviers.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
7 March 1926
It is announced in the Cri de Paris that Marcel Dupré is to become Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire.
1927
Tournemire’s Life
4 January 1927
Tournemire played for the marriage of his student Joseph Bonnet to Geneviève Turenne (1899–1972) and announced that he would begin writing L’Orgue Mystique.
6 May 1927
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (Beethoven Centennial).
28 May 1927
The plan for L’Orgue Mystique is completed. Tournemire wrote:
“I have finished the preparation of five Grandes fêtes de l’année.… I prepared them all in Paris from the point of view of the choice of plainchant.… I have established here [in Ouessant] the plan of each Office and determined the grand lines of the final pieces—which will be toccatas, postludes, paraphrases, et cetera. The plan, the registration—all is ready. I am superiorly armed. There is no more to do but compose.”
14 June 1927
Tournemire visits Solesmes and tests the format of L’Orgue Mystique, observing the liturgy for the Feast of Saint Basil.
Tournemire’s Works
11 November 1927
Opus 56, nº 17: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica Resurrectionis (Pâques), Paraphrase et double choral [organ]
13 December 1927
Opus 55, nº 3: L’Orgue Mystique: Nativitas D. N. Jesu Christi (Noël), Paraphrase [organ]
1927
Opus 55, nº 2: L’Orgue Mystique: Immaculata Conceptio B. Mariæ Virginis (L’Immaculée Conception), Postlude [organ]
1927
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en fa M) [oboe and piano]
Historical Events
1927
The Association des Amis de l’Orgue (which publishes the renowned music journal L’Orgue) is founded by Bérenger de Miramon Fitz-James (1875–1952) and Norbert Dufourcq.
1928
Tournemire’s Life
2 June 1928
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (Inaugural recital of the Amis de l’Orgue).
28 October 1928
Recital at the Saint-Nizier, Lyon.
Tournemire’s Works
9 January 1928
Opus 56, nº 25: L’Orgue Mystique: In Festo Pentecostes (Pentecôte), Fantaisie-choral [organ]
4 February 1928
Opus 57, nº 35: L’Orgue Mystique: In Assumptione B.M.V. (L’Assomption), Paraphrase-carillon [organ]
16 March 1928
Opus 57, nº 48: L’Orgue Mystique: Festum Omnium Sanctorum (La Toussaint), Choral [organ]
21 May 1928
Opus 57, nº 27: L’Orgue Mystique: In Festo corporis Christi (Le Trés Saint-Sacrement), Fantaisie-paraphrase [organ]
31 May 1928
Opus 56, nº 16: L’Orgue Mystique: Sabbato sancto (Le Samedi Saint), Postlude [organ]
7 November 1928
Opus 56, nº 23: L’Orgue Mystique: In Ascensione Domini (L’Ascension), Paraphrase sur un choral [organ]
27 November 1928
Opus 55, nº 7: L’Orgue Mystique: Epiphania Domini (L’Épiphanie), Fantaisie [organ]
15 December 1928
Opus 55, nº 11: L’Orgue Mystique: Purification B. Mariæ Virginis (La Purification de la Sainte-Vierge), Diptyque [organ]
Historical Events
18 December 1928
The death of Lucien Louis Capet.
1929
Tournemire’s Life
26 and 27 January 1929
Recital at the Cathédrale of Saint-Maurice, Angers.
16 and 17 May 1929
Recital at Saint-Pierre-du-Gros-Caillou, Paris (organised by the Association des Amis de l’Institut Grégorien).
17 June 1929
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (featuring movements of L’Orgue Mystique).
October 1929
Appointed by the Minister as a member of the Conseil supérieur du Conservatoire.
Tournemire’s Works
5 January 1929
Opus 57, nº 26: L’Orgue Mystique: In Festo Ss. Trinitatis (La Sainte Trinité), Triptyque [organ]
24 January 1929
Opus 55, nº 1: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica III Adventus (3° Dimanche de l’Avent), Toccata [organ]
18 February 1929
Opus 55, nº 4: L’Orgue Mystique: De Dominica infra Octavam Nativitatis (Dimanche dans l’Octave de Noël), Postlude-choral [organ]
21 March 1929
Opus 55, nº 5: L’Orgue Mystique: Circumcisio Domini (La Circoncision), Fantaisie-choral [organ]
2 April 1929
Opus 55, nº 6: L’Orgue Mystique: Ss. Nominis Jesu (Le Saint Nom de Jésus), Variations [organ]
15 May 1929
Opus 55, nº 8: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica I post Epiphanim (1° Dimanche après l’Épiphanie), Fantaisie-choral [organ]
10 June 1929
Opus 55, nº 9: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica II post Epiphaniam (2° Dimanche après l’Épiphanie), Fantaisie-paraphrase [organ]
26 October 1929
Opus 55, nº 10: Dominica III post Epiphaniam (3° Dimanche après l’Épiphanie), Postlude et fugue modale libre [organ]
16 November 1929
Opus 56, nº 12: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica in Septuagesima (La Septuagésime), Clameurs et choral [organ]
5 December 1929
Opus 56, nº 13: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica in Sexagesima (La Sexagésime), Fresque [organ]
31 December 1929
Opus 56, nº 14: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica in Quinquagesima (La Quinquagésime), Verrière [organ]
Historical Events
24 October 1929
Stock market crash.
1929
Maurice Duruflé is appointed organiste titulaire at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris. He will officially assume the post in 1930.
1930
Tournemire’s Life
29 January 1930
Recital at the Salle Rameau, Lyon.
15 March 1930
Recital at Rouen Cathédrale.
1 May 1930
Recital at Saint-Matthieu, Morlaix.
23 May 1930
Recital at Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux, Paris.
16 June 1930
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (featuring extracts from L’Orgue Mystique).
26 June 1930
Recital at Chapelle des Passionistes, Deusto (Bilbao).
4 July 1930
Recital at Palma de Majorca, Spain.
19 October 1930
Recital at Mácon Cathédrale, Mácon.
1930
Duruflé and Tournemire part ways:
“I left Tournemire about 1930. . . . Actually, I did not leave him; he let me go. [Laughs] Because Tournemire was a very changeable man. He could be charming, or he could bite your head off. He was like that. It was one or the other. So one day, he sent me away from his house… and I left. It was because I did not yield to his every wish. One day, I could not replace him at Sainte-Clotilde because I had a wedding to play at another church. At that time, I was also serving as organist at a parish in my native region. Tournemire played on Sunday, period… that was all. He did not play weddings, and so forth. He put all that on my back. So I went to Tournemire’s house to tell him, ‘Maître, I am sorry, but for once, I cannot replace you. I have another obligation to fulfil.’ He said, ‘Get out of here!’”
Tournemire’s Works
18 January 1930
Opus 56, nº 15: L’Orgue Mystique: Lætare, Postlude-fantaisie [organ]
14 February 1930
Opus 56, nº 18: L’Orgue Mystique: Quasimodo, Toccata sur un choral [organ]
13 March 1930
Opus 56, nº 19: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica II post Pascha (2° Dimanche après Pâques), Rapsodie sacrée [organ]
18 April 1930
Opus 56, nº 20: L’Orgue Mystique: S. Joseph Sponsi B.M.V. (Saint Joseph), Postlude-choral [organ]
30 April 1930
Sans Opus: Cinq improvisations pour grand orgue de Charles Tournemire reconstituées par Maurice Duruflé: Cantilène improvisée, Fantaisie-improvisation sur l’Ave Maris Stella, and Choral-improvisation sur le Victimæ Paschali [organ]
26 May 1930
Opus 57, nº 42: L’Orgue Mystique: Nativitas B.M.V. (La Nativité de la Vierge), Prélude et louanges [organ]
14 June 1930
Opus 56, nº 21: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica IV post Pascha (4° Dimanche après Pâques), Fresque alléluiatique [organ]
29 October 1930
Opus 56, nº 22: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica V post Pascha (5° Dimanche après Pâques), Grave, fugue libre et postlude [organ]
16 November 1930
Opus 56, nº 24: Dominica infra Oct. Ascensionis (dimanche dans l’Octave de l’Ascension), Postlude [organ]
29 November 1930
Opus 57, nº 28: L’Orgue Mystique: Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu (Le sacré-cœur de Jésus), Prélude et fresque [organ]
23 December 1930
Opus 57, nº 29: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica IV post Pentecosten (4° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Alléluia n° 1 [organ]
1930
Sans Opus: Légende pour trombone avec accompagnement de piano [Morceau de concours du Conservatoire de Paris] [trombone and piano]
Sans Opus: Vocalise-étude pour voix moyenne [song]
Historical Events
1930
Maurice Emmanuel’s book on César Franck, César Franck: étude critique, is published by Henri Laurens. It concludes with this quote that speaks of Tournemire:
“The parishioners of Sainte-Clotilde used to hurry away during the postludes when César Franck, the service concluded, would unveil treasures for them. Have times changed? Do parishioners listen to the artist who today (1926)—through a close union of liturgy and art, and with equal respect for his religious and musical duties—builds structures upon themes from the day’s service that are as noble and structurally disciplined as those of César Franck, of whom he was one of the last pupils? His master bequeathed to him the gift of these contemplative yet passionate improvisations—by turns serene and tumultuous—which are like mystical dramas conceived in the secret recesses of the soul. The successor to the master of Les Béatitudes also withdraws into the quietude of his labour, emerging from his reserve only to give voice to the thousand tones of his organ in a burst of lyrical joy—one in which the congregation seems to share but little.”
1931
Tournemire’s Life
30 April 1931
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
18 May 1931
Tournemire wins the Grand prix du disque for the Polydor recordings. In addition to the five improvisations, included among these recordings were excerpts from César Franck’s L’Organiste: Pastorale, Cantabile, Chant de la creuse, and Noël angevin; Choral nº III; and two movements from L’Orgue Mystique: the Communion from Dominica XII post Pentecosten (De fructu operum tuorum, Domine called Andantino on the liner) and the Pièce terminale from In Assumptione B.M.V. (otherwise known as Paraphrase-carillon).
15 June 1931
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris (featuring movements of L’Orgue Mystique).
July 1931
Recital at the Abbey of Clervaux, Luxembourg.
6 December 1931
Recital at Saint-Louis, Villemomble.
1931
In his monograph on César Franck, Tournemire writes his manifesto concerning L’Orgue Mystique:
“For more than two hundred years, the richness of these different [Gregorian] modes, each one having very distinct traits, has really not been exploited. Buxtehude, Bach’s master, is the last great musician using them scientifically as well as artistically. If one dreams about the extraordinary mixture of ‘scales’ found in a rather large number of Gregorian-inspired pieces (sometimes three modes), one can have an idea, a priori, of the liberty and of the special nature which characterises a work built upon foundations of this kind. Adding to this valuable artifice, the incomparable suppleness of plainsong’s waves of sound, miraculously intertwining, containing in themselves the basis of an intense musical existence, being able to give birth to all forms of composition—chorales, paraphrases, fantasias, sacred symphonies, oratorios, sacred dramas—it is easy to grasp the immense extent of the field of investigation which is presented to us.
Limitless possibilities able to create an unexpected art—always of lofty sentiment, attaining complete lyricism, a synthesis with a higher existence; infallible means to hold fast within the sublime realm of pure thought and to give, thus, full satisfaction to the religious and philosophical ideal of the Great Cantor: ‘All music which has goals other than the glorification of God and the rejoicing of the soul is only talk and devilish chatter.’ Abundant nourishment, always renewed, constantly breathing life into the supernal movements necessary to the flights of the soul—sacred art, you are all that.
At the hour when the thirst for changing the language and the forms become imperative, when anxiety takes hold of the spirit, when one would break—not without brutality—the glass palace in which one fears imprisonment, how can one not rejoice at the priceless freedom to construct something which is made of complex rhythmic schemes, enchanting modalities, genuine and ingenious polytonality? Synthesis of several centuries of musical art brought together. When art is concerned, the conception of the generative lofty idea is absolute. The particular ‘flavour’ of a Schubert cannot be diluted; and, something quite mysterious, a truly original and emotive harmonic progression cannot grow old!
It bears, nevertheless, the mark of its time. However, like a handsome face unmarked by time, it contains in itself an indefinable charm. This does not mean that it is not necessary to greet joyfully the contribution by new generations that is based upon the past. Is it not thus that everything which comes from man’s imagination and sensitivity is enriched?
César Franck recommended that we should not imitate him but seek our own solutions. In this spirit, may I say that attempts to achieve, especially in some area dear to our maître, would probably have satisfied the requirements of his essentially liberal teaching: possibilities of being oneself within the limits where one is able to aspire to it. In short, why should I hide my emotion while thinking that the Dispenser of Grace, indeed, wished to grant me that power to praise Him with simple musical prayers: L’Orgue Mystique? And why not add that I found therein the path which leads to the prayerful contemplation of unfathomable depths!
Let us contemplate the ocean! Does not its voice—great, deep, and sometimes terrifying—announce to us the majesty of the One who gives it life? Does one not see therein the image of life: the unleashing of the waves, the quelling, the infinite calm? Does it not sing—and with what loftiness—ceaseless and ever-changing hymns? When the wave breaks, how magnificent, and when it reaches the summit of a high rock, bursting forth its spray, let us give wonder and sing:
‘O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.’” (Psalm xciv/xcv)
Tournemire’s Works
10 January 1931
Opus 57, nº 30: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica V post Pentecosten (5° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Alléluia n° 2 [organ]
29 January 1931
Opus 57, nº 31: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica VI post Pentecosten (6° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Alléluia n° 3 [organ]
13 February 1931
Opus 57, nº 32: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica VII post Pentecosten (7° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Alléluia n° 4 [organ]
28 February 1931
Opus 57, nº 33: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica VIII post Pentecosten (8° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Alléluia n° 5 [organ]
16 March 1931
Opus 57, nº 34: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica IX post Pentecosten (9° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Supplications et fugue modale [organ]
March 1931
Sans Opus: Cinq improvisations pour grand orgue de Charles Tournemire reconstituées par Maurice Duruflé: Improvisation sur le Te Deum [organ]
1 April 1931
Opus 57, nº 36: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica X post Pentecosten (10° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral n° 1 [organ]
18 April 1931
Opus 57, nº 37: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XI post Pentecosten (11° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral n° 2 [organ]
2 May 1931
Opus 57, nº 38: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XII post Pentecosten (12° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral n° 3 [organ]
16 May 1931
Opus 57, nº 39: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XIII post Pentecosten (13° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral n° 4 [organ]
29 May 1931
Opus 57, nº 40: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XIV post Pentecosten (14° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral n° 5 [organ]
19 October 1931
Opus 57, nº 41: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XV post Pentecosten (15° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Prélude et fugue [organ]
4 November 1931
Opus 57, nº 43: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XVI post Pentecosten (16° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral alléluiatique n° 1 [organ]
18 November 1931
Opus 57, nº 44: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XVII post Pentecosten (17° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral alléluiatique n° 2 [organ]
November 1931
Sans Opus: Cinq improvisations pour grand orgue de Charles Tournemire reconstituées par Maurice Duruflé: Petite rapsodie improvisée [organ]
2 December 1931
Opus 57, nº 45: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XVIII post Pentecosten (18° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral alléluiatique n° 3 [organ]
16 December 1931
Opus 57, nº 46: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XIX post Pentecosten (19° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral alléluiatique n° 4 [organ]
30 December 1931
Opus 57, nº 47: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XX post Pentecosten (20° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Choral alléluiatique n° 5 [organ]
1931
César Franck [didactic book]
Sans Opus: Fantaisie pour cor en fa (et piano) [Morceau de concours du Conservatoire national de musique de Paris] [French horn and piano]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en si♭ M) [clarinet and piano]
Historical Events
1931
The effects of the Great Depression begin to affect the French economy.
1931
Messiaen is appointed to La Trinité in Paris with Tournemire’s recommendation. On the fifteenth of July 1931, Tournemire wrote the Curé of Sainte-Trinité, Abbé Hippolyte Hemmer (1864–1945), this letter of recommendation:
“I had hoped to meet you this morning to tell you some of my thoughts about the candidature of Olivier Messiaen.
Unfortunately, you were out. The young artist in whom I am particularly interested won first prizes at the Paris Conservatoire in piano accompaniment, fugue, organ, composition, and music history. Moreover, he was awarded a diploma by the Conservatoire for this truly remarkable collection of prizes. Olivier Messiaen is an extremely devout Catholic of magnificent fervour.
I know the following story about him: before participating in a concours at six a.m. one Sunday, he advised the Director of the Conservatoire that it was impossible for him to miss Mass and that he could not use the concours as a valid reason. Secretly, special dispensation was obtained for him from Monsignor Dubois. It was not without sorrow that this young and true artist then consented to do battle with his friends. I mention this to demonstrate the quality of his faith and his renunciation of worldly things. This is something quite rare in the rather wretched world of artists.…
The musical value and the future of this Christian organist are of the highest order: a transcendent improviser, an astonishing performer, and a biblical composer.
My protégé is growing very clearly into someone well above the majority of artists of whom too much is said, in my opinion. With Messiaen, all is prayer.”
1932
Tournemire’s Life
5 February 1932
L’Orgue Mystique is finished. Tournemire wrote to Bonnet:
“I just finished the last Office of L’Orgue Mystique. Fifteen hours of organ music.… More than five years of very unremitting work—and a work that, although it was but a feeble effort to the glorification of Xrist, broke my body.… No matter, I thank the One who overwhelmed me with joy. Thank you for your moral support. And now, for the greater part of a month, I think I have the right to completely rest because I am sixty-two years old… un vieux de la vieille, already!!”
24 April 1932
With the completion of L’Orgue Mystique in 1932, Daniel-Lesur organised a recital featuring the eminent organists of the next generation: Maurice Duruflé, André Fleury, Jean Langlais, Noëlie Pierront (1899–1988), Gaston Litaize (1909–1991), Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Olivier Messiaen. Together, they performed fourteen movements of L’Orgue Mystique in concert on the mechanically ailing organ of Sainte-Clotilde that was broadcast nationally on the radio.
12 May 1932
Recital at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris (organised by the Amis de l’Orgue).
Tournemire’s Works
13 January 1932
Opus 57, nº 49: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XXI post Pentecosten (21° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Fugue [organ]
30 January 1932
Opus 57, nº 50: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XXII post Pentecosten (22° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Postlude alléluiatique [organ]
5 February 1932
Opus 57, nº 51: L’Orgue Mystique: Dominica XXIII post Pentecosten (23° Dimanche après la Pentecôte), Fantaisie sur le Te Deum et Guirlandes alléluiatiques [organ]
26 October 1932 through 25 November 1932
Opus 59: Trois Poèmes pour orgue [organ]
8 December 1932 through 30 December 1932
Opus 60: Sei Fioretti [organ]
1932
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en fa M) [French horn and piano]
1932–1936
Opus 63: Apocalypse de Saint Jean trilogie sacrée en 3 parties [Les 7 lettres, Les 7 sceaux, Les 7 trompettes, Les 7 coupes, La grande Babylone, Postlude symphonique (et choral)]
Historical Events
1933
Tournemire’s Life
1933
Tournemire begins writing his Mémoires:
“My mémoires are more specific about the dates that have marked my life beginning in my sixty-third year. I prefer to jump to the sixth of April 1933… and continue to recount things from that date up to the ‘end’, the major events of my life.”
22 June 1933
The restoration of the organ at Sainte-Clotilde, executed by the Beuchet-Debierre company under the direction of Joseph Beuchet (1904–1970), is completed. Of the moment, Tournemire wrote:
“My organ, so to speak, is complete. Some improvements are needed yet—but at this point, it is very beautiful and harmonious, to say the least. My dear faithful companion—confidant of my sorrows and my joys—I will, to the great terror of the parishioners of Sainte-Clothilde, find you and forget this terrestrial life. . . . This is what you give me, as if by magic. What a potion!”
27 June 1933
The organ received its first inspection on the twenty-seventh of June 1933 in the presence of Albert Alain (1880–1971), Joseph Bonnet, Paul Brunold (1875–1948), Alexandre Cellier (1883–1968), André Marchal (1894–1980), and Félix Raugel (1881–1975).
30 June 1933
Tournemire performs the inauguration of the new organ, with the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean Verdier (1864–1940), in attendance.
25 November to 11 December 1933
Financial worries due to the Great Depression mount:
“Nothing particular [of interest happened today], except that the conditions of life are becoming worse every day and that the commerce of men is becoming more and more disappointing, a consequent, no doubt, from the difficulties inherent in material things—difficulties that diminish the morals of the soul and the heart….”
19 December 1933
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
1933
Opus 61: Musique orante pour quatuor à cordes [2 violins, viola, and cello]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue [bassoon and piano]
1933–1934
Opus 64: Fantaisie symphonique pour orgue [organ]
Opus 66: Petites Fleurs musicales 40 pièces trés faciles pour orgue sans pédale ou harmonium [organ]
Historical Events
30 January 1933
Adolph Hitler (1889–1945) becomes chancellor of Germany.
1934
Tournemire’s Life
27 April 1934
Tournemire attends the inauguration of Dupré’s orgue-de-salon:
“In Meudon, I attended the inauguration of Monsieur Marcel Dupré’s organ. This organ belonged to Alexander Guilmant.
Monsieur Marcel Dupré increased it by six to seven ranks of “high fantasy” to charm the ears of the Americans with the evil sounds of his barbaric organ! These miserable stops are distributed on a fourth keyboard.
In addition, the range of the four manuals of this instrument, which comprises only thirty and a few ranks (!!), is seventy-three notes. It is, a priori, very useless.
Monsieur Marcel Dupré, an organist who is very familiar with the trade, is only an ‘artisan‘.
A craftsman without taste, aiming only for dishonest, corrupting success. Notably: tremolo abuse. Shortly ago, a great danger was inflicted upon the future of the French Organ “School” because the musical youths devoting themselves to the study of the King of Instruments are in the hands (and feet!) of this cabotin… the Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire de Paris!”
The inauguration was a scandal. Let us judge! There was a poor performance, without accent, of a work of J. S. Bach (Toccata and Fugue in C Major). Paul Léon (1874–1962) was the Director General of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts from 1919 to 1933.
There was a serious derangement [sic erat scriptum] of a concerto by Mozart for orchestra and piano (the orchestral part being entrusted to the organ, feeling like ‘plein nez‘ of the fair at Neuilly).
There was an organ transcription of the Franck Rédemption symphony! Yes, what a monstrosity! et cetera, et cetera.
Ah! What an unconscionable Dupré! Perhaps he is suffering from a fresh and dangerous bout of madness?”
7 June 1934
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
18 July 1934
The civil marriage of Tournemire and Alice Espir takes place at the town hall of the seventeenth arrondissement, followed by the nuptial blessing performed at Sainte-Clotilde on the twenty-first of July, officiated by Canon Verdrie. Alice Espir—born on the fifth of December 1901, in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine)—was a violinist and a former student in his instrumental ensemble class at the Paris Conservatory. She was the daughter of Lucien Espir (1867–1926), Managing Director of General Electric of France and the Société Générale d’Électrométrie, and Ada Enthoven (1871–1944).
Tournemire’s Works
1934–1935
Opus 65: Sonate-poème pour piano et violon [violin and piano]
Historical Events
19 May 1934
Formerly of the Jewish faith, Alice Espir is baptised by Tournemire’s friend, the Reverend Father Gratien Badin, in the chapel of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Sion.
1935
Tournemire’s Life
8 February 1935
The Tournemires visit Beauvais:
“Accompanied by my wife, we travelled to Beauvais. The extraordinary choir of the famous cathedral—which was the very reason for my visit—inspired in me a work that I intend to compose immediately: Sept Chorals-Poëmes d’Orgue pour les sept paroles du Xrist.”
21 February and 6 June 1935
Recitals at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
16 June 1935
Recital at La Pierre-qui-Vire Abbey.
17 July 1935
Recital at Strasbourg Cathédrale.
1935
Through the influence of Father Gratien (1873–1943), who was a Franciscan historian of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Tournemire and his new wife become a part of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi (the Order of Penance of Saint Francis):
“I must pay tribute here to an old friend: Father Gratien Capuchin. Not only pay tribute to him, but also acclaim all the moral good that my wife and I owe him. By his tact, his conduct of soul, we belong from henceforth to the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi. Let sceptics smile, but let us say that such men of quality as Dante, Galileo, Michelangelo, Palestrina, and (very close to us) Branly have all honoured this order as members.”
15 December 1935
Recital at Institut de France, Paris.
Tournemire’s Works
22 February 1935 through 29 March 1935
Opus 67: Sept Chorals-Poëmes d’Orgue pour les sept paroles du Xrist [Pater, dimite illis; nesciunt enim quid faciunt (Père, pardonnez-leur, parce qu’ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font), Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso (Aujourd’hui tu seras avec moi dans le Paradis), Mulier, ecce filius tuus. Ecce Mater tua (Mère, voilà ton fils… Voilà ta mère), Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani (Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, pourquoi m’as-tu abandonné?), Sitio (J’ai soif), Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum (Père, je remets mon esprit en tes mains), Consummatum est (C’est accompli)] [organ]
1935
Opus 68: Postludes libres pour des Antiennes de Magnificat [organ]
22 November 1935
Opus 69: Symphonie-Choral d’Orgue en 6 parties enchaînées [organ]
1935
Précis d’exécution, de registration et d’improvisation [didactic book]
Sans Opus: Morceau de lecture à vue (en si m) [contrabass and piano]
Sans Opus: Fantaisie pour trompette chromatique en ut avec accompagnement de piano [Morceau de concours du Conservatoire de Paris] [trumpet and piano]
Sans Opus: Récit et Allegro pour contrebasse avec accompagnement de piano contrebasse and piano [contrebasse and piano]
Historical Events
1936
Tournemire’s Life
1 January 1936
A short trip to Amiens in preparation for the Symphonie sacrée for organ.
22 February 1936
Recital at Saint Alban’s, Holborn, London.
24 February 1936
Recital at Concert Hall, Broadcasting House [BBC], London.
26 March 1936
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde with a radio broadcast the following day.
12 May, 17 May, 28 May, 11 June 1936
Recitals at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
22 September 1936
Tournemire writes that the final volumes of L’Orgue Mystique are published. In gratitude and with heartfelt hope coloured with a touch of sadness, Tournemire wrote a letter to Paul Bertrand (1890–1947), of the Heugel publishing firm:
“Dear Sir,
The last fascicles of L’Orgue Mystique have just been published! A monument of this magnitude—delivered, and in its entirety, to the puissance of diffusion through engraving—could not leave the one who had its paternity cold; and in the eyes of contemporaries—especially among generations to come—the composer and the publisher will be, as we are sure, confounded with the same feeling of gratitude, emanating from those who love these religious and soothing meditations!
Nobody, then, will suspect your anxieties or my bitterness.
Perhaps neither you nor I, as an actual consequence of the social upheavals in this world, will witness the true triumph of my work; but be convinced, like myself, that one day they will arise, and these ‘Great Cycles of Love’ will illuminate with a singular light, with brilliant rays.”
Tournemire’s Works
15 February 1936
Opus 71: Symphonie sacrée pour orgue en 4 parties enchaînées [organ]
(1916–1932) 1936–1937
Opus 72: La Douloureuse Passion du Xrist oratorio
Historical Events
1936
The founding of La Jeune France by Olivier Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur, Pierre Schaeffer (1910–1995), and Yves Baudrier (1906–1988).
1936
An orgue d’accompagnement, built by the Cavaillé-Coll-Pleyel firm and located in the lower tribune of Sainte-Clotilde, is dedicated.
6 February 1934
Riots by far-right leagues (including Action Française, the Jeunesses Patriotes, Francisme, the Croix-de-Feu, Veterans’ associations, and the French Communist Party), also known as the Veterans’ Riot, take place.
1937
Tournemire’s Life
March–April 1937
Trip to Italy: Venice, Florence, Assisi, Rome. (My wife accompanied me.) The purpose of the trip was Assisi—and, while in Assisi, the preparation of my work Il Poverello di Assisi.
13 May and 10 June 1937
Recitals at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
22 July 1937
Congrès international de musique sacrée recital.
3 October 1937
Recital at the Pavillon pontifical de l’Exposition internationale, Paris.
October 1937
Age mandated retirement of Tournemire from the Conservatoire:
“Winter flows with great concern surrounding political events and the road to war. . . . It will eventually explode! It seems inevitable!
Six thousand years of civilisation, including nearly two thousand of Christianity, have not improved the lot of men. It is hopeless!
In March, the public exercise of my pupils at the Conservatoire—probably the last one—took place, since I must take advantage of retirement in October 1937… a painful deadline that will considerably reduce the quality of life for my wife and me!”
28 November 1937
Recital at Saint-Martin, Carvin.
Tournemire’s Works
1937
Petite méthode d’orgue [didactic book]
1937–1939
Opus 73: Il Poverello di Assisi (Le petit pauvre d’Assise) cinq épisodes Lyriques en 7 tableaux [Jeux, Le Chevalier, La vocation de Claire, Les Stigmates, La Mort]
Historical Events
12 March 1937
The death of Widor:
“In him, I had lost my ever-constant enemy of forty-five years. His burial, very official, occurred at Saint-Sulpice, naturally. In twenty minutes, at most, all the Institut de France, all the musical world, the press, and an unnumbered crowd filed past with unbelievable speed.… He had decided that his body should ‘repose’ in the same church of Saint-Sulpice, where for sixty years, he lavished his poor worldly harmonies.”
2 June 1937
The death of Vierne:
“The organist Louis Vierne, in an organ concert on the instrument of Notre-Dame de Paris, fell dead of heart disease. We did part of our organ studies together in Widor’s class. He was always an extremely mediocre fellow, without righteousness, very suspicious. He flooded the market with six shabby organ symphonies where banality is displayed without shame, and the notion of God is always absent. This is perhaps why the young virtuosos are attracted by this music that will soon sink like Guilmant (perhaps we might make an exception for him because he never offended God in his miserable music…), Widor et Compagnie.”
17 July 1937
The death of Gabriel Pierné.
28 December 1937
The death of Maurice Ravel:
“Maurice Ravel has just died. It seems that all one needs is a highly elegant craftsmanship—to admirably toy with small, rather unhealthy ideas: ideas devoid of horizon, and, above all, devoid of ‘God’—in order to earn the admiration of men. Evidently, these second-rate qualities lie within the reach of mediocre minds and withered hearts… And they are legion…This composer departs from us like a ‘dog’; his remains were transported via the swiftest routes—from his home to the cemetery.”
1938
Tournemire’s Life
1938
Financial troubles mount:
“The year 1938 opened financially sadly! My retirement that I have to take at the Conservatoire is imminent. [The woes of] ‘Life’ [are] compounding day by day. Rents have reached alarming proportions! Probably, I will be forced to give up my apartment on the delightful rue Milne-Edwards, where I have lived for thirty-four years and where I wrote my greatest works.”
28 January 1938
Les Amis de l’Orgue recital.
27 February 1938
Charity sermon, featuring the Cantoria, under the direction of Jules Meunier (1868–1947).
12 May 1938
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris.
15 May 1938
Recital at the Institut Lemmens, Malines, Belgium.
16 May 1938
Radio recital with Flor Peeters, Malines, Belgium.
18 June 1938
Fortieth anniversary celebration of Tournemire’s appointment to Sainte-Clotilde.
25 October 1938
Tournemire receives a letter from Hugh Giles (1911–1963), organist at Central Presbyterian Church located on Park Avenue in New York. He had studied with Tournemire in Paris during the summer of 1938 and proposed to organise a recital tour for Tournemire in America.
12 November 1938
Tournemire’s prostate cancer surgery:
“I wish I had been merely unwell! I must tell you that I underwent one of the most severe operations that there is, that I remained forty days in a convalescent home, and that I am still not very healthy today!! It is a question of months!! I have suffered atrociously physically—and morally even more so!!”
“Here I must give an account of a very painful time in my life: the twelfth of November 1938! That day, I went to a convalescent home on rue Georges Bizet. I had to stay there for forty days due to a severe operation. After nine months, I still feel myself to be in the throes of ‘surgical shock’. God grant that I again find the physical and mental balance so essential to normal life.”
8 November 1938
Recital at Séminaire des Missions franciscaines, Bernay.
Tournemire’s Works
25 June 1938
Opus 74: Suite évocatrice pour grand orgue en 5 parties [organ]
1938–1939 (Completed 22 February 1939)
Opus 75 & 76: Deux Fresques Symphoniques Sacrées [organ]
Historical Events
30 September 1938
The Munich Agreement is reached by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, providing for the German annexation of the Sudetenland.
1 October 1938
The German army begins the occupation of the Sudetenland.
9–10 November 1938
Kristallnacht
1939
Tournemire’s Life
5 March 1939
Recital at Saint-Marcel, Paris.
28 April 1939
Suite évocatrice pour grand orgue premieres at Saint-Gervais:
“I cannot ignore here the organ concert I gave in April 1939 on the historic organ of Saint-Gervais. This is the concert that was to have taken place in November 1938 (the month of my surgery).”
23 May 1939
Recital at Sainte-Clotilde, Paris. Deux Fresques Symphoniques Sacrées premieres:
“Two new organ works were composed by me, the first a few days before my major operation and the second in February 1939. They are entitled Deux Fresques Symphoniques Sacrées pour orgue. I gave the first performance of these two works in June 1939, heard on my organ of Sainte-Clothilde in a concert organised by Les Amis de l’Orgue.
These two frescoes glorify first the Nativity of Xrist, the other Pentecost. The publisher, Max Eschig, undertook the editing of those works.”
14 June 1939
Tournemire, feeling his death to be imminent, expresses to Jean Langlais his desire that Langlais should succeed him at Sainte-Clotilde:
“You know that I had an operation recently. I looked death in the face, and I realised that the one thing that really matters to me is my successor at Sainte-Clotilde. I offer it to you.”
22 June 1939
Concert celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of Franck’s Béatitudes. Tournemire plays the A minor chorale and the Pièce héroïque.
October 1939
With the fomenting menace of hostilities and the immediate threat of bombardment due to Sainte-Clotilde’s proximity to the French War Ministry, the parish moved to a small chapel on rue La Cases, where there was no organ, so Tournemire and his wife retreated to his lake home, Iseut, at the village of L’Herbe outside of Arcachon:
“—My health is very poor. Undoubtedly, this suffering is the result of the severe operation of November 1938!
God grant that the suffering from this strange disorder dissipates.…
My compositional output has come to a complete halt.…
Nevertheless, Il Poverello di Assisi is finished thanks to Divine intervention.
—Hitler, the monster, has put Europe to fire and blood.… May God not fail to punish him.… Let us wait!
Meanwhile, every day, thousands of dead attest to his cruelty.
—We are refugees with my sister in Arcachon. We presumably will be here for a long time because this cursed war threatens to make considerable developments.”
31 October 1939
Tournemire goes missing.
3–4 November 1939
The mysterious death of Tournemire in Arcachon. Pierre Lataillade of the municipal archives in Bordeaux relayed the following information on the twenty-third of April 1987:
“Charles Tournemire, coroner’s report, Mayor’s Office, Arcachon nº 206. The fourth of November 1939, at five o’clock p.m., we witnessed the death approximately twenty-four hours ago, of Charles-Arnould Tournemire, living in Paris (Seine), rue Milne-Edwards, born in Bordeaux (Gironde), on the twenty-second of January 1870, composer of music, Officer of the Legion of Honour, son of Dominique-François Tournemire and Marguerite Renard, parents deceased. Husband of Alice Espir. The body was found in the territory of our Commune.”
The proceedings also recorded the testimony of a police officer who, four days prior, had been notified by the deceased’s sister or wife of his disappearance; he had been told that Tournemire “was suffering from mild cerebral amnesia,” leading to the assumption “that he was lost in the forest.”
The circumstances surrounding Tournemire’s death remain a mystery. Raoul Moreau, a student and friend of the composer, reported to Ermend Bonnal that Tournemire “was prone to fainting spells.” Symptoms of cerebral amnesia or fainting might suggest a stroke.
The dissatisfying lack of clarity regarding Tournemire’s death has resulted in persistent and pervasive mutterings suggesting suicide, allegations that widely have been condemned by many of Tournemire’s devotées because such an act would have been incongruous with Tournemire’s famed piety. In an interview with André Fleury, Reinen Dercksen queried Fleury:
“Flor Peeters, who conducted an intensive correspondence with Charles Tournemire until the very end of Tournemire’s life, sometimes revealed his presumption that Tournemire ended his own life. Were there rumours about that idea?”
To which Fleury replied:
“At the end of his life, Tournemire was very depressed and entangled. We were sure that he did not just drown in the Gulf of Arcachon. That he had committed suicide seemed logical to us. Somehow, it corresponded with our expectations.”
When asked the reason for Tournemire’s depression, Fleury further remarked:
“I do not know. He had an inscrutable mind, and I could not look into his soul. And what is more, he hid what really was going on in his soul by playing the comedian. But his periods of depression were long and intense; that is also the reason I had to replace him so many times at Sainte-Clotilde. Actually, he did not like to play during the Mass. He only played for feast days, when he was obliged to play, but never for weddings or funerals. Just the idea that he had to consult the families was horrific to him. Also, in his improvisations, you could hear that he had found no balance in his life. Often they were whimsical and ill-balanced, as if he were looking for something he could not find. But to be honest, I cannot point to the real reason. He did not feel at home in modern times with all the changes in society and in the Roman Catholic Church; he struggled with all of that.”
8 November 1939
The funeral takes place at the Church of Saint-Ferdinand in Arcachon. The parish priest entered the notation “died in an accident at sea” in the burial register. The death was announced in the press the following week.
Tournemire’s Works
Historical Events
1 September 1939
German invasion of Poland.
3 September 1939
War is declared.
7 September to 16 October 1939
The Saar Offensive (the French invasion of the Saarland, conducted in response to the German invasion of Poland) ends in defeat.
Support the Tournemire Film Documentary
Learn how you can support the film documentary on Charles Tournemire produced by the award-winning Fugue State Films. This landmark project will feature scholars and performers from around the world as they delve into the fascinating life and times of Charles Tournemire and his musical masterpieces.