Tournemire A History

6: A Period of Losses

Charles Tournemire

      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…

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7: The Ageing Tournemire

Charles Tournemire portrait

      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…

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8: An Improviser of Genius

Charles Tournemire portrait

      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…

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9: L’Orgue Mystique

L'Orgue Mystique Fantaisie Epiphany Score

      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…

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