https://richspotts.com/tournemire/10-a-musical-monument-lost-to-history/ 2026-07-19T18:30:29+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Charles-Tournemire-at-organ-01-crop.webp Charles-Tournemire at organ 01 crop https://youtu.be/XZRP9difVho https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Charles-Tournemire-at-organ-01-crop.webp 10: A Musical Monument Lost to History | Richard C Spotts, Author History has been grievously neglectful of Tournemire’s music and obdurate to his Ideals, and understandably so: His music’s intimidating intellectual content, the chaos enveloping the world at that time, the ever-burgeoning myopic apostasy of the secular postwar period where Faith is held as a pejorative state of https://www.youtube.com/embed/XZRP9difVho https://img.youtube.com/vi/XZRP9difVho/hqdefault.jpg 10: A Musical Monument Lost to History | Richard C Spotts, Author History has been grievously neglectful of Tournemire’s music and obdurate to his Ideals, and understandably so: His music’s intimidating intellectual content, the chaos enveloping the world at that time, the ever-burgeoning myopic apostasy of the secular postwar period where Faith is held as a pejorative state of https://richspotts.com/tournemire/9-lorgue-mystique/ 2026-07-19T18:13:46+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Fantaisie-Epiphany-Score.webp Fantaisie Epiphany Score https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/LOrgue-Mystique-Manuscript-79.webp L'Orgue Mystique (Manuscript) page https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vax0nwuG7KQ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Vax0nwuG7KQ/hqdefault.jpg 9: L’Orgue Mystique | Richard C Spotts, Author On the fourth of January 1927, Tournemire played for the marriage of his student, Joseph Bonnet, and at the wedding, he announced in the presence of Dom Joseph Gajard (choirmaster at the Solesmes Abbey) and Louis Vierne that he would begin work on what was then termed L’Orgue Glorieux, something Bonnet had long been https://www.youtube.com/embed/l9veomops5k\u0026list=PLDcUYWfF15hnspyXxDNEA5__SMfcw7Xq_\u0026index=1\u0026t=153s https://img.youtube.com/vi/l9veomops5k\u0026list=PLDcUYWfF15hnspyXxDNEA5__SMfcw7Xq_\u0026index=1\u0026t=153s/hqdefault.jpg 9: L’Orgue Mystique | Richard C Spotts, Author On the fourth of January 1927, Tournemire played for the marriage of his student, Joseph Bonnet, and at the wedding, he announced in the presence of Dom Joseph Gajard (choirmaster at the Solesmes Abbey) and Louis Vierne that he would begin work on what was then termed L’Orgue Glorieux, something Bonnet had long been https://www.youtube.com/embed/l9veomops5k https://img.youtube.com/vi/l9veomops5k/hqdefault.jpg 9: L’Orgue Mystique | Richard C Spotts, Author On the fourth of January 1927, Tournemire played for the marriage of his student, Joseph Bonnet, and at the wedding, he announced in the presence of Dom Joseph Gajard (choirmaster at the Solesmes Abbey) and Louis Vierne that he would begin work on what was then termed L’Orgue Glorieux, something Bonnet had long been https://richspotts.com/tournemire/8-an-improviser-of-genius/ 2026-07-19T18:13:14+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Charles-Tournemire-36.jpg Charles Tournemire 36 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Polydore-01.jpg packaging sheet from audio recording of a Tournemire concert https://www.youtube.com/embed/IZU8yQj6aa0 https://img.youtube.com/vi/IZU8yQj6aa0/hqdefault.jpg 8: An Improviser of Genius | Richard C Spotts, Author His musical works were legion; yet despite Tournemire’s enormous and incredibly profound compositional output, he is still most famously known as an improviser extraordinaire. In fact, most organists fail to know him beyond his Cinq improvisations. Recorded on cylinder at Sainte-Clotilde in 1930, they were https://richspotts.com/tournemire/7-the-ageing-tournemire/ 2026-07-19T18:12:44+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Charles-Tournemire-portrait-42.webp Charles Tournemire portrait 42 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Alice-Taylor-01.webp Alice Tournemire née Espir https://www.youtube.com/embed/rZzQ9teRPHo https://img.youtube.com/vi/rZzQ9teRPHo/hqdefault.jpg 7: The Ageing Tournemire | Richard C Spotts, Author After this period of personal tragedy, Tournemire voraciously busied himself with some of his most profound musical output, climaxing in 1927 when he began perhaps his greatest work, the landmark L’Orgue Mystique. Written in the context of the interbellum renouveau catholique, this colossal cycle, consisting of https://richspotts.com/tournemire/6-a-period-of-losses/ 2026-08-22T00:27:28+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tournemire-26.webp Tournemire 26 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Alice-Espir-01.webp Tournemire and His First Wife, Alice Taylor https://www.youtube.com/embed/AYt_iFfMMPE https://img.youtube.com/vi/AYt_iFfMMPE/hqdefault.jpg 6: A Period of Losses | Richard C Spotts, Author Tournemire’s antebellum period (1898–1914) was a happy one fecund with success. In addition to acquiring the post at Sainte-Clotilde and his marriage to Alice Taylor, his musical output included his first five orchestral symphonies, and his cantata Le Sang de la Sirène, which won the Concours musicale de las Ville https://richspotts.com/tournemire/5-josephin-sar-peladan/ 2026-07-19T18:11:00+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Peladan-02.webp Josephin Sar Peladan https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Rose-Croix.webp Rose Croix Salon poster https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yc6IrYvkoVI https://img.youtube.com/vi/Yc6IrYvkoVI/hqdefault.jpg 5: Josephin “Sâr” Péladan | Richard C Spotts, Author The vicissitudes endured by the Church and the appeals within the institution for musical integrity proved highly formative upon Tournemire, but then, in 1903, he married Alice Taylor, through whom he would have his initial foray into mysticism. Her sister was the wife of Josephin “Sâr” Péladan, a French mystic https://richspotts.com/tournemire/4-laicism-and-the-religious-response/ 2026-07-19T18:10:31+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Charles-Tournemire-at-desk-Ianco-07.webp Charles Tournemire at desk Ianco 07 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Schola.webp Bordes, Guilmant, and D’Indy https://www.youtube.com/embed/T31B_h8FKOo https://img.youtube.com/vi/T31B_h8FKOo/hqdefault.jpg 4: Laïcism and the Religious Response | Richard C Spotts, Author In 1894, inspired by the work of Solesmes, Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant, and Vincent d’Indy founded the Schola Cantorum, a society established to rival the Conservatoire devoted to the performance of plainchant according to the Gregorian tradition and that enjoined the creation of modern liturgical music. Born https://richspotts.com/tournemire/3-cesar-frank/ 2026-07-19T18:10:00+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Dom-Prosper-Gueranger-abbe-de-Soleames.webp Dom Prosper Gueranger abbe de Soleames https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y0eYSEZdwJQ https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y0eYSEZdwJQ/hqdefault.jpg 3: Solesmes and Gregorian Chant | Richard C Spotts, Author While the organ world was embroiled with its own philosophical imbroglios, what was to be a seminal musical influence in France was established in 1832 by Pope Gregory XVI in the form of the Benedictine monastery of Solesmes. Under the guidance of Dom Prosper Guéranger, this abbey—which was partially destroyed https://richspotts.com/tournemire/2-the-rise-of-franckianism/ 2026-07-19T18:09:27+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Franck-01.jpg https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Franck-02.jpg Cesar Frank https://www.youtube.com/embed/DSjk9r72Owc https://img.youtube.com/vi/DSjk9r72Owc/hqdefault.jpg 2: The Rise of Franckianism | Richard C Spotts, Author The music of Tournemire and the mysticism expressed through his art did not manifest itself ex nihilo but is part of a greater metanarrative that begins with the theodicy of the Gallican Church as secular society grappled with dramatic political upheaval and as the Church struggled for survival and integrity within a https://richspotts.com/tournemire/lorgue-mystique-part-1/ 2026-07-19T18:08:41+00:00 weekly 0.8 https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tournemire-51.webp Charles Tournemire 51 https://youtu.be/tmDAKh4egLY https://richspotts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Tournemire-51.webp 1: Tournemire, the Early Years | Richard C Spotts, Author Charles Tournemire was a brilliant but now largely forgotten musical Titan who, through his genius, created a seminal corpus of works for organ of supernal mystical transcendence that rightly ought to be lauded by each passing generation. Born in Bordeaux on the twenty-second of January 1870, Tournemire began his https://www.youtube.com/embed/tmDAKh4egLY https://img.youtube.com/vi/tmDAKh4egLY/hqdefault.jpg 1: Tournemire, the Early Years | Richard C Spotts, Author Charles Tournemire was a brilliant but now largely forgotten musical Titan who, through his genius, created a seminal corpus of works for organ of supernal mystical transcendence that rightly ought to be lauded by each passing generation. Born in Bordeaux on the twenty-second of January 1870, Tournemire began his