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.

"All these aspects of his life and art, including the rigorous training and arduous practice that transformed a blind peasant boy into a superb musician, his lifelong friendship with Olivier Messiaen, his sometimes turbulent family life, and the body of works he left - only J. S. Bach wrote more compositions for the organ - are narrated and analyzed by Ann Labounsky, who is uniquely qualified to write this definitive biography. A favorite Langlais pupil, she was asked by Langlais himself to write it and had his full cooperation for numerous long interviews over many years."--BOOK JACKET.

This new volume incorporates all entries from the previous editions by Arthur Wenk, expanding to cover writings drawn from periodicals, theses, dissertations, books, and Festschriften from 1940 to 2000. Over 9,000 references to analyses of works by over 1,000 composers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are included.

A thick and informative guide to the world of classical music and its stunning recordings, complete with images from CD cases, concert halls, and of the musicians themselves.

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 Widor’s printed and unpublished works are discussed, as are those of his pupil Louis Vierne alongside a more detailed, and possibly provocative, discussion of the latter’s life and loves, and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.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the pipe organ was a major source of music for live audience consumption. As the century unfolded the organ had to yield a portion of the stage to upstart symphony orchestras, but despite rapidly changing musical tastes it remained a major player. The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, however, had become a challenging period for both organists and their booking agents. This is the story of one of the two agencies which dominated the American scene during that period, as told by the man who ventured from a Lutheran pulpit in New York City into the highly competitive and somewhat rarified world of performance musicians, with a stop along the way in the city room of a major American daily newspaper. Were these organists and their agents a bickering mostly gay tribe defined by jealousies, or a self-protective band of loyalists defined by mutual love of and sacrifice for the King of Instruments? This book is part memoir, part historical account, and part commentary. It is also a peek behind the scenes of how the art of organ performance survived into the 21st century.