Louis Henry Nicolas Thiry (15 February 1935Précis analytique des travaux de l'Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen
(in French) – 27 June 2019) was a French concert organist, composer and pedagogue. He was professor of organ at the Regional Conservatoire in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

and played in concerts internationally. His many recordings include the complete organ works of

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 ...

in 1972, which received several awards and led the composer to describe him as "an extraordinary organist". Thiry was blind.

Biography

Born in Fléville-devant-Nancy, Thiry, who was blind, studied music first at the , where he received a first prize in organ (organ class of Jeanne Demessieux) in 1952, followed by studies with André Marchal at

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 ...

in Paris. From 1956, he studied at 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 ...

with

Rolande Falcinelli Rolande Roberte Ginabat-Falcinelli (18 February 1920 – 11 June 2006) was a French organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. Biography Rolande Falcinelli (born Ginabat), the grandniece of Marcel Falcinelli and granddaughter of Louis N ...

, graduating in 1958 with a first prize in organ playing and improvisation. He was titular organist of the 1732 Lefebvre organ at the chapel of the Charles Nicole Hospital, part of the University Hospital in

. He was professor of organ in

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

where one of his students was

Bernard-Marie Koltès Bernard-Marie Koltès (; ; 9 April 1948 – 15 April 1989) was a French playwright and theatre director best known for his plays ''La Nuit juste avant les Forêts'' (''The Night Just Before the Forests'', 1976), ''Sallinger'' (1977) and ''Dans ...

, and held the same position at the where his students included Alain Mabit, Céline Frisch and Benjamin Alard. He took part in many international festivals, including Lille, the Besançon Festival, the Festival of Paris, Haarlem, Venice and the 1982 Messiaen Festival in Moscow. Thiry died on 27 June 2019 in

Mont-Saint-Aignan Mont-Saint-Aignan () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, northwestern France. The inhabitants of the town of Mont-Saint-Aignan are called ''Mont-Saint-Aignanais'' in French. Due to the presence of higher edu ...

Recordings

Thiry recorded the complete organ works of

in 1972 at St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva for

Calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; ) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses". Mythology Calliope had two famous sons, OrpheusH ...

. The composer

wrote about him: The recording was awarded the Prize of the Président of the Republic, the ''Shock'' of ''

Le Monde de la musique ''Le Monde de la musique'' was a French monthly musical magazine published from 1978 to 2009 with a circulation of 20,000 copies in 2008. It was founded in 1978 by ''Le Monde'' and ''Télérama'' at the initiative of Jean-Michel Croissandeau, in c ...

'' and the

Grand Prix du Disque Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), ...

of l'Académie Charles Cros). It was reissued in 2018. In Thiry's obituary in ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'', Marie-Aude Roux described the recording as "still considered one of the great achievements in the history of records" ("''toujours considéré comme l'une des grandes réalisations de l'histoire du disque''"). OrgueSaintThomasStrasbourg

Thiry also recorded works by

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...

, the ''

Well Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time ''clavier'' referred to a variety of keyboard instruments, ...

'' at the Église Réformée d’ Auteuil in 1975, and in 1993 ''

The Art of Fugue ''The Art of Fugue'', or ''The Art of the Fugue'' (), BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, ''The Art of Fugue'' is the culmination of Bach's e ...

'' at the organ of the Église Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg, built by

Johann Andreas Silbermann Johann Andreas Silbermann, also known as Jean-André Silbermann (26 June 1712, in Strasbourg – 11 February 1783, in Strasbourg) was an 18th-century organ-builder, as were his father Andreas Silbermann and his paternal uncle Gottfried Silberman ...

in 1741. In 2004, he recorded arrangements for organ of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; – April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474) was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of h ...

and Josquin Des Pres on the Lefebvre organ in Rouen. A reviewer noted that it was successful due to "the quality of the instrument on one hand, and Thiry's intelligent use of it."

References

External links

Louis Thiry (Organ)
Bach Cantatas Website 2008
Louis Thiry's discography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thiry, Louis 1935 births 2019 deaths People from Meurthe-et-Moselle Organ improvisers French classical organists Blind classical musicians 21st-century French organists 21st-century French male musicians Conservatoire de Paris alumni French blind people 20th-century French classical musicians 20th-century French male musicians French male classical organists Scholars and academics with disabilities