Jean François-Hyacinthe Langlais III (15 February 1907 – 8 May 1991) was a French
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
of
modern classical music
Contemporary classical music is Western art music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, elect ...
,
organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...
, and improviser. He described himself as "" ("Breton, of Catholic faith").
Ille-et-Vilaine
Ille-et-Vilaine (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Ill-e-Vilaenn'', ) is a departments of France, department of France, located in the regions of France, region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named a ...
,
Brittany
Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...
), a small village near
Mont Saint-Michel
Mont-Saint-Michel (; Norman: ''Mont Saint Miché''; ) is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy, France.
The island lies approximately off France's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and is i ...
, France to Jean-Marie-Joseph Langlais II, a blacksmith and Flavie Canto, a seamstress. Langlais became blind due to
glaucoma
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can lead to damage of the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits visual information from the eye to the brain. Glaucoma may cause vision loss if left untreated. It has been called the "silent thief of ...
when he was only two years old and was sent to the
Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles
The Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (''National Institute for Blind Youth'') is a Special education, special school for Visual impairment, blind students in Paris, France. It is considered the first Blindness and education, school for the b ...
(National Institute for Blind Children) in Paris, where he began to study the organ, with
André Marchal
André Louis Marchal (6 February 1894 – 27 August 1980) was a French organist and organ teacher. He was one of the great initiators of the twentieth-century organ revival in France and one of the cofounders of the ''Association des amis de l'org ...
. From there he progressed to the
Paris Conservatoire
The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...
, obtaining prizes in
organ
Organ and organs may refer to:
Biology
* Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function
* Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body.
Musical instruments
...
and studying
composition
Composition or Compositions may refer to:
Arts and literature
*Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography
* Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
with
Marcel Dupré
Marcel Jean-Jules Dupré (; 3 May 1886 – 30 May 1971) was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue.
Early life and education
Born in Rouen into a wealthy musical family, Marcel Dupré was a child prodigy. His father Aimable Albert Dupré ...
and
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...
. He also studied improvisation with
Charles Tournemire
Charles Arnould Tournemire (22 January 1870 – 3 or 4 November 1939) was a French composer and organist, notable partly for his improvisations, which were often rooted in the music of Gregorian chant. His compositions include eight symphon ...
.
After graduating, Langlais returned to the National Institute for Blind Children to teach, and also taught at the
Schola Cantorum
The Schola Cantorum de Paris ( being ) is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera.
History
The Schol ...
in Paris from 1961 to 1976. Many of his students went on to become important musicians, including organists and composers; among them was the American
Kathleen Thomerson
Kathleen Armstrong Thomerson (February 18, 1934 – April 7, 2025) was an American organist and hymnwriter.
Biography
A native of Jackson, Tennessee,Margreeth Chr. de Jong, a Dutch organist, composer and music educator.
His first wife Jeannette asked his former student, personal recital liaison and friend Ann Labounsky in 1972 to write Langlais' biography ''Jean Langlais the Man and His Music'', though it was not published until 2000; nine years after Langlais' death. Labounsky did her doctoral paper in 1991 on the life and works of Langlais and fortunately she was able to share some of it with Langlais before he died. However Langlais was displeased as Labounsky was truthful in what she saw as Langlais wanted to be painted as the way he saw his truth. Labounsky admitted that at times Langlais could be a complex person but Langlais did not see himself this way. This was partly due to the region of Brittany in which he grew up as the Bretons considered themselves to be a proud people who loved to tell folklore.
It was as an organist that Langlais made his name, following in the footsteps of
César Franck
César Auguste Jean Guillaume Hubert Franck (; 10 December 1822 – 8 November 1890) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher born in present-day Belgium.
He was born in Liège (which at the time of h ...
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 widely toured across Europe and the United States. His 3rd North American tour lasted from January through March 1956, and saw him play on both coasts.
Langlais died in the
15th arrondissement
The 15th arrondissement of Paris () is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ('the fifteenth').
The 15th arrondissement, called , is situated on the left bank of the River Seine. ...
of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
at the age of 84, and was survived by his second wife Marie-Louise Jaquet-Langlais and three children, Janine, Claude and Caroline. The position of organist at Sainte-Clotilde was succeeded to by Jacques Taddei.
Music
Langlais was a prolific composer, composing
254
Year 254 ( CCLIV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valerianus and Gallienus (or, less frequently, year 1007 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 254 for th ...
works with
opus number
In music, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among ...
s, 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' music is written in a highly individual eclectic style, venturing well beyond what might be expected of mid-twentieth-century French music, with rich and complex harmonies and overlapping modes, sometimes more tonal than his contemporary, friend and countryman
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...
, sometimes related to his two predecessors at Sainte-Clotilde, Franck and Tournemire, but sometimes also employing serial techniques and often exhibiting an earthy, Celtic folkiness which owes not a little to Bartók: "" as one early reviewer wrote.
Owing to his blindness, Langlais's method of composition involved him thinking about the work in every detail over a long period, and only then writing it down in shorthand
Braille
Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...
. He would then dictate each note and its rhythmic value to an
amanuensis
An amanuensis ( ) ( ) or scribe is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another. It may also be a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority.
In some aca ...
(often his first wife Jeannette) to produce the full score.
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)
*''Cantilène (Suite brève)''
*''Suite médiévale''
*''Folkloric Suite''
*''Trois méditations sur la Sainte Trinité''
*''Fête'', Op. 51
*''24 Pieces for harmonium or organ'', Op. 6
*''Hommage à Frescobaldi''
Discography
Albums
* ''Langlais joue Langlais'', 1976
* ''Missa Salve Regina; Messe solennelle'', (English Chamber Orchestra Brass Ensemble; The Choir of Westminster Cathedral/David Hill), 1988
* ''Jean Langlais Live'', St. Augustin, Wien, 1993
* ''Organ works (Kevin Bowyer)'', 1994
* ''Messe solennelle - Missa in Simplicitate - Missa Misericordiae Domini'' - Ensemble Vocal Jean Sourisse, dir. Jean Sourisse, 1996
* ''Suite Médiévale / Cinq Méditations sur l'Apocalypse'', 1996
* '' The complete organ works of César Franck on the organ of the Basilica of Sainte Clotilde, Paris'' (1963) CD 1996
* ''Chants de Bretagne'' ndréa Ar Gouilh voix - Jacques Kauffmann, orgue, Orgue Cavaillé-Coll de Saint-Servan 1997
* ''Musique de chambre avec piano'', 2001
* ''Un centenaire'' (George Baker, organ), 2007
DVDs
* ''Life and Music of Jean Langlais'', 2007, Los Angeles chapter of the
American Guild of Organists
The American Guild of Organists (AGO) is an international organization of academic, church, and concert organists in the US, headquartered in New York City with its administrative offices in the Interchurch Center. Founded as a professional educa ...
.
Bibliography
* Langlais Marie-Louise (2016), Jean Langlais remembered ', free online, ml-langlais.com and agohq.org
*
* Jaquet-Langlais, M-L. (1995), ''Ombre et Lumière : Jean Langlais 1907-1991'', Paris: Éditions Combre,
* Thomerson, K. (1988), ''Jean Langlais: A Bio-Bibliography'', Greenwood (Bio-Bibliographies in Music: Book 10),