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.

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.

Noted organist and scholar Anthony Hammond tells the full story, for the first time, of one of the great organists of the twentieth century. Described by his teacher Marcel Dupré as "a phenomenon without equal in the history of the contemporary organ," Pierre Cochereau is considered one of the twentieth century's greatest French organists.This book tells, for the firsttime, the full story of of his extraordinary life and glittering, worldwide career. In 1955 Cochereau was appointed Organiste Titulaire at Notre-Dame de Paris, where he restored the cathedral's musical glory and oversawa far-reaching and controversial transformation of its organ. As a recitalist, he toured South America, Australia, Asia, Canada, and Europe in addition to twenty-five tours of the United States. He was the first western organist to perform in the former Soviet Union., played with many major orchestras under the batons of distinguished conductors, participated in numerous music festivals in Europe, made over eighty recordings, and was one of the founders of the Chartres International Organ Competition. He was honored several times for his achievements, including being named an Officer of the Legion of Honor (1978). A tireless campaigner for standards in music education, Cochereau also served as director at many of France's prominent conservatories, including Le Mans, Lyons, and Nice, which under his directorhsip became one of the leading music schools in France. Biographer AnthonyHammond draws from a variety of of prominent primary sources, notably Marcel Dupré's papers in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, but also from Cochereau's surviving family and friends, and uses recordings and previously overlooked archive films in the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, France to construct this definitive account and critical appraisal of one of France's most distinguished organists. Anthony Hammond is an English concert organist, improviser, and musicologist who specializes in French Romantic and twentieth-century organ music.

Since it was first published in 1993, the Sourcebook for Research in Music has become an invaluable resource in musical scholarship. The balance between depth of content and brevity of format makes it ideal for use as a textbook for students, a reference work for faculty and professional musicians, and as an aid for librarians. The introductory chapter includes a comprehensive list of bibliographical terms with definitions; bibliographic terms in German, French, and Italian; and the plan of the Library of Congress and the Dewey Decimal music classification systems. Integrating helpful commentary to instruct the reader on the scope and usefulness of specific items, this updated and expanded edition accounts for the rapid growth in new editions of standard works, in fields such as ethnomusicology, performance practice, women in music, popular music, education, business, and music technology. These enhancements to its already extensive bibliographies ensures that the Sourcebook will continue to be an indispensable reference for years to come.

Now in paperback! Cloth edition 0-8108-2964-9 originally published in 1995.

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.