French Music
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Though it appears as I write (8 April 2026) that a cease-fire in Iran may have allowed for some deferral of escalation in that part of the world, I have been reflecting on power and threat in the same week that the Church has been celebrating the resurrection. Doing so reminded me that the composer… Read more
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This weeks post concerns a piece by a composer once described as ‘half monk half naughty boy’ – Francis Poulenc. Presented as the first of his ‘four motets for a time of penitence’, though composed last, in early 1939 (I will leave it to readers to decide whether I’m thinking of it in March 2026… Read more
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Yesterday was Armistice day, and although there are a number of pieces of music that could be selected to mark that occasion. For me, inevitably, the first to come to mind is the work commissioned by André Malraux, Minister of Cultural Affairs in France, from Olivier Messiaen in 1963 as a sacred work to commemorate… Read more
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In 1892 the director of the Paris Conservatoire is supposed to have said of a dangerously modern candidate for that institution’s professorship of composition ‘Never! If he’s appointed, I resign.’ In 1896 that same candidate took up the professorship under a different director, and in 1905 became director himself in turn. Many years before, while… Read more
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This week saw Michaelmas, not only the start of a traditional academic year (in at least some ancient universities), but the feast of St Michael and All Angels. It seemed obvious to me, therefore, that this instalment of the blog should consider some musical evocation of angels. Though there are several one might have chosen,… Read more
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In the nineteenth century one, and only one, woman was made a professor of the Paris Conservatoire. Professor of piano, Louise Farrenc – née Jeanne-Louise Dumont (her husband had been a flautist, but settled down to become a music publisher, and Éditions Farrenc had significant success). She, herself, developed from a child prodigy of an… Read more
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In 2003 the French and Lebanese organist and composer Naji Hakim wrote, to a commission of Leo Abbott of Boston, a former student of his, a piece in memoriam Theodore Marier, noted teacher and advocate for Gregorian plainchant. That inspiration, together with Hakim’s extensive practice as a liturgical improviser, leads to no surprise that the… Read more
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Back to the theologically rich sound-world of the organ in twentieth-century Paris, but not straight back to Messiaen – some readers may be glad to know – but rather to another protégée of Marcel Dupré, the brilliant and virtuosic organist Jeanne Demessieux, introduced to the world by Dupré only for a personal rift of some… Read more
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It would be inconceivable that this blog finishes with the music of Messiaen, but I do assure those of you who have stuck through my posts for the last few weeks that next week will feature music by a different composer. While doing Messiaen season, however, it would seem remiss for a post on the… Read more
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Messiaen season continues in this blog as we head towards Trinity Sunday. Messiaen was organist of a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and those who know his organ music will think immediately of the Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, a cycle of meditations that originated in an event alternating organ improvisations… Read more
Theology in Music 