Louis Vierne

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Synopsis

French organist and composer

  • 1870 born in Poitiers, France
  • 1892-1900 served as assistant to Charles-Marie Widor at Sainte-Sulpice in Paris
  • 1900-1937 served as organist at Notre-Dame de Paris
  • ?year of event? ?city of event? ?short description of event?
  • 1937 died in Paris

For details, see the Wikipedia article on Louis Vierne.

List of Pieces

Vingt-quatre Pièces en style libre

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Background and General Perspectives on Performing Vierne Organ Works

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Registration and Organs

Climaxes

Crescendos should be gradual, so that the audience is not startled with a sudden full organ. Climaxes should be "subtly prepared."[1]

Tonal build-up on a French organ was easy, "with manuals coupled, one moved from Récit to Positif to Grand-Orgue and successfully adds the anches in the same order." This is harder to do on non-French organs because toe studs have to be used at inconvenient places, which makes some chromatic phrases difficult to execute. "American organs are richer in mixtures than in ensemble reeds at 16', 8', and 4', which "further complicates a polished crescendo from mezzo-forte to full organ."[2]


Registration

Vierne understood that organs are different and performers may have to make adjustments to the printed registration. "In his introduction to the Piѐces de fantaisie he wrote that 'The registration is by no means inflexible. It is rather an indication for the general coloring. It can be modified according to the possibilities offered by the instruments on which they are to be performed.'"[3]


See the footnote in the "Notes" section at the bottom of the page. [4]

Fingering and Pedaling

Vierne did not indicate fingering in his compositions, nor did he include it in his own scores. "Inner voices are frequently distributed between the hands, regardless of their layout on the page."[5]

Articulation and Phrasing

Touch

"Legato playing is best suited to the organ for, by the very nature of the instrument, the evenness of all notes in the same register quite naturally calls for precisely connecting these notes one after the other."[6]

Vierne stressed to make certain that the inner voices are legato and that the pedal be played legato as well. He advised "playing the black keys 'on the very edge to facilitate, when practical, sliding onto the naturals.'"[7]


Repeated Notes

According to Henri Doyen, Vierne's student, Vierne taught the practice of Widor and Guilmant of "repeated notes losing one half of their value in moderate tempi and one fourth or one eighth in slower tempos. In ternary rhythms, cut by one one third, one sixth, or any fraction divisible by three."[8]

As for the treatment of chords, they should be "struck and released absolutely together. 'The great conductor brings in and cuts off his instrumentalists sharply; the great organist should do the same.'"[9]


Common Notes

Any common notes must be held, except when clarity dictates otherwise. [10]


Ritards

In Vierne's recordings the pieces generally end in "long, drawn-out ritards."[11]


Rubato

Vierne taught that "real music is never mechanical. It is...rubber!"[12]


Fermata Over A Rest

Movements are often separated with pauses which not only indicate a new section, but also allow for the room reverberation to subside.[13]

The rests should be counted metronomically, but in drier accoustics, the amount of silence may need to be reduced.[14]


Expression Pedal

Vierne used the expression for shading even when playing the works of Bach. He taught that when using the expression pedal there should be no jerky movements or wheezes like the accordion.[15]

Ornamentation

Trills


Generally, use upper note trills. However, if the previous note is an upper neighbor, then the trill should begin on the main note.[16]

"When the trill is over a dotted note, it should be stopped exactly on the dot."[17]

"When a trill is over a note without a dot, it should end exactly on the beginning of the second half of that value."[18]

Tempo and Meter

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Scores and Editions

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Recordings

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Free Online

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Pay to Listen

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Other Resources

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Notes

  1. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 580. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  2. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 580. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  3. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 580. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  4. ↑ This footnote was entered in the "Registration and Organs" article
  5. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 578. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  6. ↑ Louis Vierne,"Renseignements Généraux pour l'Interpretation de l'CEuvre d'Orgue de J.S. Bach," CEuvres pour Orgue de Bach (Paris: Éditions Maurice Senart, 1924) v.
  7. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 571. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  8. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 571-72. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  9. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 572. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  10. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 572-73. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  11. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 574. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  12. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 574. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  13. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 578. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  14. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 578. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  15. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 579. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  16. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 576. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  17. ↑ Rollin Smith, Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, 577. The Complete Organ No. 3. Hillsdale, New York: Pendragon Press, 1999.
  18. ↑ Vierne, "Renseignements Généraux," p. xx.

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