Jehan Alain

Jehan Ariste Alain ( born February 3, 1911 in Saint- Germain -en- Laye, † June 20, 1940 in Petit -Puy in Saumur ) was a French organist and composer.

Life

Alain's father, Albert Alain (1880-1971) was an organist, composer and organ builder and had studied organ with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne. Jehan Alain's brother Olivier (1918-1994) and his two sisters, Marie- Odile (1914-1937) and Marie -Claire (1926-2013) were also musicians. Alain received his first piano lessons from Augustin Pierson, the organist at St. Louis in Versailles, and organ lessons from his father, who had built a four-manual organ in the living room of his family home. The age of 13 represented him Jehan Alain organist at the Catholic parish church in St. Germain -en- Laye.

From 1927 to 1939 studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur Alain in Paris, where he received first prizes in harmony, fugue, counterpoint, organ and improvisation. Among his teachers were André Bloch, Georges Caussade, Jean Roger- Ducasse, Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupré. In 1936 he won the first prize of the Amis de l' Orgue in Paris for his three-movement Suite for Organ.

1935 Alain was appointed organist at St. Nicolas de Maisons- Lafitte in Paris, where he worked for four years. In addition, he played regularly at the Temple Israélite in the Rue Notre -Dame-de -Nazareth in Paris, where the only known audio recording of him, a six-minute organ improvisation, was made in 1938.

After he was called up for military service in 1939, Jehan Alain fell on 20 June 1940 in a battle near Saumur, two days before the Armistice at Compiègne was signed. He left behind his wife Madeleine Payan (1912-1975), whom he married in 1935, and three children (Lisa, Agnès, and Denis ).

In memory of his fallen friend Alain Maurice Duruflé composed his Prelude et Fugue sur le nom d' Alain, that transforms its name in motivic material. Jean Langlais remembered with the phrase " Chant héroïque " from his Neuf pièces of 1942/1943 to Jehan Alain.

Work

Alain's compositional work was not only influenced by the musical language of Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen, but also by Far Eastern music, dance, and philosophy, revived interest in the music of the 16th to the 18th century and jazz.

The work directory Alain includes more than 140 compositions. He wrote music for piano and orchestra, and vocal and chamber music. But his fame he owes mainly to his works for organ.

List of Works

The term YES ( Jehan Alain ) with an associated number comes from Alain itself, it is not in chronological order and a similar order in opus numbers.

1920s

1930

  • Undated works YES 40 - Une scie, for piano
  • YES 41 - Il toute la journée pleuvra, for piano
  • YES 42 - Sur le mode ré, mi, fa ..., for piano
  • YES 43 - Adagio for cello and organ
  • YES 44 - Amen, for piano
  • YES 45 - Un très vieux motif, for piano
  • YES 46 - Post- scriptum, for two pianos
  • YES 48 - Théorie, for piano
  • YES 49 - Le gai liseron, for piano
  • YES 50 - Sonata, for piano
  • YES 51 - Mephisto, for piano
  • YES 52 - La peste, for piano
  • YES 53 - Exposure
  • YES 54 - Sujet
  • YES 55 - Comme quoi les projets les plus belliqueux ..., for piano
  • YES 56 - Le bon Roi Dagobert, for piano
  • YES 59 - Histoire d'un homme qui jouait de la forêt vierge dans la trompette, for piano

Bibliography

  • Marie -Claire Alain: Notes critiques sur l' oeuvre d' orgue de Jehan Alain. A. Leduc, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-85689-057-1.
  • Aurélie Decourt: Jehan Alain. Biography, correspondance, dessins, Essais. Éditions Comp'Act, Chambéry 2005, ISBN 2-87661-362- X.
  • Bernard Gavoty: Jehan Alain, musicien français ( 1911-1940 ). Avec un choix de lettres et de dessins inédits. Albin Michel, Paris, 1985, ISBN 2-7307-0261- X ( Nachdr d ed Paris 1945).
  • William Hafner: The organ works of Jehan Alain (1911-1940) and its relationship to French organ music of the 20th century. Publisher grains, Baden -Baden 2000, ISBN 3-87320-592-0 ( zugl. dissertation, University of Vienna, 1997).
  • Helga Schauerte: Jehan Alain (1911-1940), the organ work. A monographic study ( Cologne contributions to music research, Vol 137). G. Bosse, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7649-2289-3.
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