Louis Vierne (1870-1937), a student of C�sar Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, was organist of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris for 37 years, until his death at the console during a recital. Widor's successor as the organ's great French symphonist - an assessment the passage of time has proved correct - Vierne's music has remained in the repertoire of organists throughout the world, never undergoing the periodic eclipses experienced by his contemporaries. Vierne's autobiography, Mes Souvenirs, originally published serially in the 1930s, is here available in a profusely illustrated, extensively annotated English translation. Rollin Smith's Louis Vierne: Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral is the first major study of the great organist of Notre-Dame and includes chapters on his American tour, recordings, contemporary reminiscences, definitive textual corrections, the organ symphonies, his death and succession, and a thematic catalogue of his organ works.

This study draws portraits of the French romantic organist-composers including Aristide Cavaille-Coll, Cesar Franck, Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupre, Jean Langlais and Olivier Messiaen. The author details the lives, times, styles, and techniques of these composers.

Drawing on the accounts of those who knew Duruflé personally as well as on Frazier's own detailed research, this new biography offers a broad sketch of this modest and elusive man, widely recognized today for having created some of the greatest works in the organ repertory - and the masterful Requiem. Frazier also examines the career and contributions of Duruflé's wife, the formidable organist Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier.

Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986) is best known as composer of the hauntingly beautiful and moving Requiem of 1947, and as organist during his long tenure at the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont in Paris. He studied composition and organ with Tournemire, Vierne, Gigout, and Dukas among others, and became well known outside France through tours and conferences, often attended with his wife, the late Marie-Madeleine Chevalier. Ebrecht has brought together in this centenary tribute a fine collection of articles on Duruflé's life and work that will enthrall all those who have come under the spell of this great master of French Impressionism. About the contributors: Marie-Claire Alain the renowned French organist, recording artist, and teacher was one of Duruflés first harmony students at the Paris Conservatoire. James Frazier has studied liturgy and music at several universities, and was a Fulbright scholar in France, where he studied privately with Madame Duruflé. Maria Rubis Bauer concluded her doctoral dissertation on Duruflé at the University of Kansas. Jeffrey Reynolds is Associate Professor of Humanities and chair of the music department at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Herndon Spillman's landmark recording of the complete works of Duruflé won him a Grand Prix du Disque in 1973. He is Professor of Music at Louisiana State University. Eliane Chevalier was the sister of Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, with whom she shared a passion for music. Ned Tipton is Director of Music of the American Cathedral in Paris.

sions of Eternity is the companion volume to Prophets without Honour (Matador, 2011) which explored the forgotten mélodies of Charles-Marie Widor, Louis Vierne and Charles Tournemire. The present work continues that study but with regard to the largely unknown choral works and operas by these same composers: it also expands upon the mores of Parisian Musical society, 1870-1939, and discusses in greater detail than before the prevalent influences and restrictions, which might have had a bearing on a young composer. Widor’s printed and unpublished works are discussed, as are those of his pupil Louis Vierne alongside a more detailed, and possibly provocative, discussion of the latter’s life and loves, and their relevance to that composer’s compositions. His completely unknown ‘cantate lyrique’ Praxinoë is also revealed. The greater part of Visions of Eternity is given over to a discussion of the influences that affected another of Widor’s pupils, Charles Tournemire, in both temporal and theological terms. His individual musical language, discussing both his use of traditional Latin and Indian chants, quixotic character and amours are also investigated. This is a book of great musical relevance, for it deals with composers and issues which greatly influenced later French musicians, particularly Maurice Duruflé, Jean Yves Daniel-Lesur, Jean Langlais and Olivier Messiaen: these, in turn, passed their knowledge to more contemporary composers. Whilst this book has been researched in great depth, its content is delivered with a light, occasionally humorous touch. This is not a dry, academic work, but one for both the cognoscenti and enthusiast alike.