Maurice Duruflé, 1902-1986


Book Description

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.




Maurice Duruflé


Book Description

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.




Duruflé's Music Considered


Book Description

In this book, Ronald Ebrecht has meticulously studied each of Duruflé’s works and put together the first book to discuss in detail all of Duruflé’s music. With encouragement from Duruflé’s editor and the foundation established in his name, Ebrecht has compiled copious examples from manuscript sources to be published for the first time along with the little-known contextualizing works of Messiaen and Barraine. Most widely known for his masterpiece Requiem, the composer’s orchestral gems are analyzed alongside his delightful miniature: the orchestration of the Sicilienne. The organ works which set the standard for virtuosity at conservatories around the world are given new insightful and thorough evaluation by Ebrecht, whose long association with late 19th and early 20th century France and French music affords illuminating connections between Duruflé and his predecessors and successors with sweeping insight and minute detail.







School of Music Programs


Book Description




The Christian Experience


Book Description

How do we study Christian life and thought? How have political and cultural events influenced the experiences of Christians in different places, at different times? How has the world's largest religion been lived in varied parts of the world? The Christian Experience is the first textbook to unite traditional approaches to Christianity with special attention to art, music, architecture, and lived experiences. The material, individual, and personal sides of Christianity are brought to the fore throughout this chronological survey. Every chapter begins with a "first encounter" in order to bring the subject matter to life for students, mirroring the author's approach in his successful book Experiencing the World's Religions. This book on Christianity features over 100 color images, maps, and diagrams, and each chapter ends by pointing to additional print and electronic resources. Michael Molloy considers practices, insights, and artistic creations of Christians across the centuries. The book shows how Christian belief is being practiced in our own time, and it invites readers to imagine how Christianity might evolve in the future.




Choral Music in the Twentieth Century


Book Description

(Amadeus). Nick Strimple's all-encompassing survey ranges from 19th-century masters, such as Elgar, to contemporary composers, such as Tan Dun and Paul McCartney. Repertory of every style and level of complexity is critically surveyed and described. This book is an essential resource for choral conductors and a valuable guide for choral singers and other music lovers.




The Benedictine Gift to Music


Book Description

"The Benedictine Gift to Music illustrates how Gregorian chant, faithfully practiced each day for centuries by the Benedictines in monasteries and convents across Europe, developed into the complex polyphonic music we enjoy today. It details the outstanding contributions of the Benedictine musicians from the sixth-century Abbey of St. Benedict to the modern French Abbey of Solesmes." "For contemporary performers composers of sacred music, and those interested in singing Gregorian chant, The Benedictine Gift to Music explains the opportunity that chant provides to still the mind and enter in a meaningful way into the contemplative tradition of the Church."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music


Book Description

Sacred music is a universal phenomenon of humanity. Where there is faith, there is music to express it. Every major religious tradition and most minor ones have music and have it in abundance and variety. There is music to accompany ritual and music purely for devotion, music for large congregations and music for trained soloists, music that sets holy words and music without words at all. In some traditions—Islamic and many Native American, to name just two--the relation between music and religious ritual is so intimate that it is inaccurate to speak of the music accompanying the ritual. Rather, to perform the ritual is to sing, and to sing the ritual is to perform it. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 800 cross-referenced entries on major types of music, composers, key religious figures, specialized positions, genres of composition, technical terms, instruments, fundamental documents and sources, significant places, and important musical compositions. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about sacred music.




The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural Perspectives


Book Description

Nigeria has been blessed with a few well-trained organist-composers since the arrival of Christianity in the most populous African country around the 1840s. The institutions established by European missionaries and the colonial administration had a great impact on the emergence of the 'Nigerian organ school'. The musicians had their formative periods at the mission schools, church choirs, and under organ playing apprenticeships. This book focuses on selected organ works by the most celebrated African art musician, Fela Sowande, a Nigerian organist-composer. Fela Sowande is the first African to popularize organ works by natives of Africa in Europe and the United States. He was one of the pioneer composers to incorporate indigenous African elements such as folksongs, rhythms and other types of traditional source materials in solo works for organ. He is considered the most prolific Nigerian composer for solo organ in Nigeria. The discussion of Sowande's music enunciates the relationship between traditional and contemporary musical processes in postcolonial Nigeria. A cultural and/or ethnomusicological analysis of Sowande's selected pieces for organ solo involves an examination of specific indigenous source materials such as rhythmic organization, melodic constructs/thematic materials (music communication), interrelations of music and dance, and elements of musical conception.