CHARLES TOURNEMIRE’S L’Orgue Mystique represents a pivotal point in the history of liturgical organ music. This recondite magnum opus, composed 1927-1932, comprises two-hundred-fifty-three movements written for the Mass. Fifteen hours in duration, this epic work employs over three-hundred chants both as an act of devotion and as musical exegesis based upon the chant libretto with the goal of celebrating fifty-one Sundays and Liturgical Feasts throughout the Church Calendar.
Although today shrouded in popular obscurity, Tournemire was a seminal musical influence of the twentieth century, particularly in the realm of sacred music. Born in Bordeaux in 1870, Tournemire, who was a student of César Franck and Charles Marie Widor, was organist of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris from 1898 until his death in 1939 where he was known as an improviser extraordinaire. He produced an enormous compositional output of incredible profundity. His greatest work, the magnum opus L’Orgue Mystique, transformed the sound of the organ world, hearkening to the past with its use of Gregorian Chant and yet welcoming it into modernity with its innovative mystical sonorities.
PROGRAM:
XXVIII. Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu Op. 57, No. 28
Pièce terminale: Prélude et fresque Date of Completion: 29 November 1930
A son ami et confrère le R.P. Dom Alphonse Pinell O.S.B., organiste de l’abbaye de Montserrat, Espagne
XVII. Dominica Resurrectionis
Pièce terminale: Paraphrase et double choral Date of Completion: 11 November 1927
A l’ami, au maître, à Joseph Bonnet, organiste de Saint-Eustache
VI. Sanctissimi Nominis Jesu
Pièce terminale: Variations Date of Completion: 22 April, 1929
A son confrère le R.P.N. Otano, S.J., directeur del Circulo de San Ignacio
XXII. Dominica V Post Pascha
Offertoire, Benedicite Gentes: Date of Completion: 29 October, 1930
A son éminent confrère et ami M. le chanoine Van Nuffel,
en sympathie, directeur de l’institut Lemmens, à Malines
XXXIV. Dominica IX Post Pentecosten
Pièce terminale: Supplications et Fugue Modale Date of Completion: 16 April, 1931
A son cher confrère et ami Dr Fritz Morel, organiste de St Luc, à Bâle
XLII. Nativitas Beatae Mariae Virginis
Pièce terminale: Prélude et Louanges, Date of Completion: 26 May, 1930
A M. Jacques Heugel, en sympathie reconnaissante
XLVIII. Festum Omnium Sanctorum
Pièce terminale: Choral, Date of Completion: 16 March, 1928
A l’ami, au maître, à Joseph Bonnet, organiste de Saint-Eustache
Epilogue (Encore) LI. Dominica XXIII Post Pentecosten
Communion: Amen Dico Vobis, Date of Completion: 5 February, 1932
A Norbert Dufourcq, Originally dedicated to Olivier Messiaen, Tournemire inexplicably scratched out the original dedication on the manuscript.