Jean Langlais

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Langlais

Jean Langlais (15 February 1907 – 8 May 1991) was a French composer of modern classical music, organist, and improviser.

Biography

Jean Langlais was born in La Fontenelle (Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany), a small village near Mont Saint-Michel, France. Langlais became blind due to glaucoma when he was only two years old, and was sent to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Children) in Paris, where he began to study the organ, with André Marchal. From there, he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ, which he studied with Marcel Dupré, composition, which he studied with Paul Dukas. He also studied improvisation with Charles Tournemire.

After graduating, he returned to the National Institute for Blind Children to teach, and also taught at the Schola Cantorum in Paris from 1961 to 1976. Many of his students went on to become important musicians, including organist and composer Naji Hakim.

However, it was as an organist that Langlais made his name, following in the steps of César Franck and Charles Tournemire as organiste titulaire at the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris in 1945, a post in which he remained until 1988. He was much in demand as a concert organist, and toured widely across Europe and the United States.

Outside music, Langlais was a colorful and charismatic character. He died in Paris aged 84, and was survived by his second wife Marie-Louise Jaquet-Langlais and three children, Janine, Claude and Caroline.

Music

Langlais was a prolific composer, composing 254 works with opus numbers, the first of which was his Prelude and Fugue for organ (1927), and the last his Trio (1990), another organ piece. Although best known as a composer of organ music and sacred choral music, he also composed a number of instrumental, orchestral and chamber works and some secular song settings.

Langlais's music is written in a late, free tonal style, representative of mid-twentieth-century French music, with rich and complex harmonies and overlapping modes, more tonal than his contemporary, friend and countryman Olivier Messiaen, but related to his two predecessors at Sainte-Clotilde, César Franck and Charles Tournemire.

His best-known works include his four-part masses, Messe solennelle, and Missa Salve Regina, his Missa in simplicitate for unison voice and organ, and his many organ compositions, including:

Hymne d'actions de grâces from Three Gregorian Paraphrases
La nativité and Les rameaux (The Palms)(Poèmes Evangeliques)
Chant héroïque, Chant de paix, and De profundis from Nine Pieces
Kyrie "Orbis factor" from Livre œcuménique
Incantation pour un jour saint (Incantation for Easter)
Cantilene (Suite brève)
Suite médiévale
Folkloric Suite
Trois méditations sur la Sainte Trinité
Fête, Op. 51
24 Pieces for harmonium or organ, Op. 6

Discography

DVD, Life and Music of Jean Langlais, 2007, Los Angeles chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

Bibliography

Jean Langlais: The Man and His Music, by Ann Labounsky, Amadeus Press, 2000. ISBN 1-57467-054-9
Ombre et Lumière : Jean Langlais 1907-1991, by Marie-Louise Jaquet-Langlais, Paris: Éditions Combre, 1995. ISBN 2-9506073-2-2

References

External links

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 105134777 LCCN: n79072641 ISNI: 0000 0000 8078 3551 GND: 118993666 BNF: cb14785135q MusicBrainz: 86ace466-fe3d-469d-810f-42cbb98faacf NDL: 01038685

Persondata
Name	Langlais, Jean
Alternative names
Short description	French composer of modern classical music, organist, and improviser
Date of birth	15 February 1907
Place of birth	La Fontenelle Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany
Date of death	8 May 1991
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.