My new C.D.s arrived - YAYS

[tjwmason]

Earlier this week I was bored at work and so got a tiny bit of retail therapy with a couple of C.D.s and they arrived this morning - so I'm now playing them after getting in from work.

C.D. 1

The Choir and Organs of Westminster Cathedral

Messe solennelle by Louis Vierne
Tantum ergo - Vierne
Ave Maria - Vierne

O Salutaris hostia - Marcel Dupré
Tantum ergo - Dupré
Ave Maria - Dupré
Laudate Dominum - Dupré

Messe à deux chœurs et deux orgues - Charles-Marie Widor
Tu es Petrus - Widor
Tantum ergo - Widor
Surrexit a mortuis - Widor

C.D. 2

The Organ of Westminster Cathedral

Symphony No.5 - Charles-Marie Widor
Mystique - Widor
Marche pontificale - Widor.

I'm therefore in a rather overly splendid mood.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[FuzzySlippers]

1. I'm not familiar with those composers,

but I'm sure they are good if you like them. Enjoy!!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[tjwmason]

2. They're part of the modern French organ school

Which I absolutely love to bits.

Widor is the earliest being born in 1844 (died 1937), the school still lives on with Naji Hakim (the organist of La Sainte Trinité in Paris) among others, still composing and performing. It's greatest flowering (to my mind) was during the interwar years of the early 20th century.

Perhaps its greatest figure is Olivier Messiaen - I regard him as the greatest composer of the 20th century, in many ways he is only partly within the school as he reaches far beyond it as well.

Edit fingers went a bid mad

[Squeech]

3. Dupre was Messiaen's organ teacher

and the guy who told Messiaen "Listen to the birds! They are great masters!"

But you probably knew that already.

Me, I'm feeling a Debussy jones coming on...

[tjwmason]

4. It was an incredibly close-knit group

X taught Y taught Z &c.

What I find most astonishing is that several of the most famous were blind!!!

The bird-song transcriptions of Messiaen are stunning (in a philosophical sense) - at the time most music was become more divorced from the natural-world, yet his belief in the naturalness of music drove him almost not to compose but simply to reflect the natural world and its music.