Marcel Jean-Jules Dupré (; 3 May 1886 – 30 May 1971) was a French
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 ...
,
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 ...
, and
pedagogue
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political, and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken ...
.
Early life and education
Born 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 ...
into a wealthy musical family, Marcel Dupré was a child prodigy. His father Aimable Albert Dupré was titular organist of
Saint-Ouen Abbey from 1911 till his death and a friend of
Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who built an organ in the family house when Marcel was 10 years old. His mother Marie-Alice (née Chauvière) was a
cellist who also gave music lessons, and his paternal uncle Henri Auguste Dupré was a violinist and violist. Both of his grandfathers, Étienne-Pierre Chauvière (
maître de chapelle at Saint-Patrice in Rouen and an operatic bass) and Aimable Auguste-Pompée Dupré (also a friend of Cavaillé-Coll) were also organists.
Having already taken lessons from
Alexandre Guilmant (due to his appealing to his father), Dupre entered the
Paris Conservatoire in 1904, where he studied with
Louis Diémer
Louis Joseph Diémer (14 February 1843 – 21 December 1919) was a French pianist and composer. He was the founder of the Société des Instruments Anciens in the 1890s, and also gave recitals on the harpsichord. His output as a composer was exten ...
and
Lazare Lévy (piano), Guilmant and
Louis Vierne (organ), and
Charles-Marie Widor (fugue and composition). In 1914, Dupré won the Grand
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...
for his
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...
''Psyché''.
Performances
Dupré became famous for performing more than 2,000 organ recitals throughout Australia, the United States, Canada and Europe, which included a recital series of 10 concerts of the complete works of
J. S. Bach in 1920 (
Paris Conservatoire) and 1921 (
Palais du Trocadéro
Palais () may refer to:
* Dance hall, popularly a ''palais de danse'', in the 1950s and 1960s in the UK
* ''Palais'', French for palace
**Grand Palais, the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées
**Petit Palais, an art museum in Paris
* Palais River in t ...
), both performed entirely from memory. The sponsorship of an American transcontinental tour by the
John Wanamaker Department Store interests rocketed his name into international prominence. Dupré's "Symphonie-Passion" began as an improvisation on
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
's
Wanamaker Organ.
Succeeding Widor in 1934 as titular organist at
St. Sulpice in Paris, Dupré retained this position for the rest of his life; thus it happened that, since Widor had been there for more than six decades, the position changed hands only once in a century. In 1937, he was engaged to perform at the wedding of the
Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his Abdication of Edward VIII, abdication on 11 December 1936. The Duchy, dukedom takes its name from ...
and
Wallis Simpson. The same year, Widor died.
Teaching
In 1926, he was appointed professor of organ performance and improvisation at the
Paris Conservatoire, a position he held until 1954. From 1947 to 1954, Dupré was director of the
American Conservatory, which occupies the
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
wing of the
Château de Fontainebleau near Paris. In 1954, after the death of
Claude Delvincourt in a traffic accident, Dupré became director of the
Paris Conservatoire; he held this post for only two years before the prevailing national laws forced him to retire at the age of 70.
He taught two generations of well-known organists such as
Jehan Alain and
Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Geneviève Alain-Gommier (10 August 1926 – 26 February 2013) was a French organist, scholar and teacher best known for her prolific recording career, with 260 recordings, making her the most-recorded classical organist in the worl ...
,
Jean-Marie Beaudet,
Pierre Cochereau,
Françoise Renet,
Jeanne Demessieux,
Rolande Ginabat-Falcinelli,
Jean-Jacques Grunenwald,
Odile Pierre,
Jean Guillou,
Jean Langlais,
Carl Weinrich,
Clarence Watters and, most famously,
Olivier Messiaen, to name only a few.
He prepared study editions of the organ works of
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 ...
,
Handel,
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
,
Liszt
Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...
,
Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include symphonie ...
,
Schumann,
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
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov ( – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental i ...
. He also wrote a method for organ
(1927), two treatises on organ improvisation (1926 and 1937), and books on harmonic analysis (1936), counterpoint (1938), fugue (1938), and accompaniment of Gregorian chant (1937), in addition to essays on organ building, acoustics, and philosophy of music.
Composing
As a composer, he produced a wide-ranging oeuvre of 65
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 (+1 "''bis''"). Aside from a few fine works for aspiring organists (such as the ''79 Chorales'' op. 28) most of Dupré's music for the organ ranges from moderately to extremely difficult, and some of it makes almost impossible technical demands on the performer (e.g., ''Évocation'' op. 37, ''Suite'', op. 39, ''Deux Esquisses'' op. 41, ''Vision'' op. 44).
Dupré's most often heard and recorded compositions tend to be from the earlier part of his career. During this time he wrote the ''Three Preludes and Fugues'', Op. 7 (1912), with the First and Third Preludes (in particular the G minor with its phenomenally fast tempo and its pedal chords) being pronounced unplayable by no less a figure than Widor. Such, indeed, is these preludes' level of complexity that Dupré was the only organist able to play them in public for years.
In many ways Dupré may be viewed as a
Paganini of the organ. Being a virtuoso of the highest order, he contributed extensively to the development of technique (both in his organ music and in his pedagogical works) although, like Paganini, his music is largely unknown to musicians other than those who play the instrument for which the music was written. A fair and objective critique of his output should take into account the fact that, occasionally, the emphasis on virtuosity and technique can be detrimental to the musical content and substance. Nevertheless, his more successful works combine this virtuosity with a high degree of musical integrity, qualities found in compositions such as the ''Symphonie-Passion'', the ''Chemin de la Croix'', the ''Preludes and Fugues'', the ''Esquisses'' and ''Évocation'', and the ''Cortège et Litanie''.
As an improviser, Dupré excelled as perhaps no other did during the 20th century, and he was able to take given themes and spontaneously weave whole symphonies around them, often with elaborate contrapuntal devices including fugues. The achievement of these feats was partially due to his native genius and partially due to his extremely hard work doing paper exercises when he was not busy practising or composing.
Although his emphasis as composer was the organ, Dupré's compositions also includes works for piano, orchestra and choir, as well as chamber music, and a number of transcriptions.
Death and legacy
Dupré died after suffering
cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...
in 1971 in
Meudon
Meudon () is a French Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, on the left bank of the Seine. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of P ...
(near Paris) at the age of 85, on
Pentecost Sunday; playing for two services shortly beforehand. His wife, Jeanne-Claire Marguerite Dupré-Pascouau (his nickname for her was 'Jeannette') lived until 1978. She donated all of her husband's
musical manuscripts to the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
. His daughter Marguerite (later Dupré-Tollet) was a concert pianist (a pupil of
Nikolai Medtner), and to a lesser extent, an organist.
The Association des amis de l'art de Marcel Dupré was founded in 1970 with the composer's own consent to help promote his work. They own his former house in Meudon.
Compositions
: See ''
List of compositions by Marcel Dupré''.
References
* Lynn Cavanagh. "The rise and fall of a famous collaboration: Marcel Dupré and Jeanne Demessieux." ''The Diapason'' (July 2005): 18–21.
* Lynn Cavanagh. "Marcel Dupré's “dark years”: unveiling his occupation-period concertizing." ''Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music'' 34, nos. 1-2 (2014): 33-57.
* Bruno Chaumet. ''Marcel Dupré, Souvenirs.'' Paris: Association des Amis de l'Art de Marcel Dupré, 2006.
* Robert Delestre. ''L'oeuvre de Marcel Dupré.'' Paris: Éditions "Musique Sacrée", 1952.
*
Jeanne Demessieux. "L'art de Marcel Dupré." ''Études'' (Paris, April 1950).
*
Rolande Falcinelli. ''Marcel Dupré, 1955: Quelques oeuvres.'' Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1955.
*
Bernard Gavoty. ''Marcel Dupré. Les grands Interprètes.'' Genève, Switzerland: Éditions René Kister, 1955.
* Michael Murray. ''French Masters of the Organ.'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.
* Michael Murray. ''Marcel Dupré: The Work of a Master Organist.'' Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1985.
* Graham Steed. "Dupré and Demessieux: The master and the pupil." ''The American Organist'' 13 (March 1979): 36–37.
* Graham Steed. ''The Organ Works of Marcel Dupré.'' Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 1999.
* Vincent Warnier. Marcel Dupré (1886-1971). In Renaud Machart and Vincent Warnier (ed.): Les grands organistes du XXe siècle. Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 2018, 73–80.
Notes
External links
L'Association des Amis de l'Art de Marcel Dupré
published the majority of Dupré's work.
Crescendo Music Publications*
*Performances of organ works by Marcel Dupré in MP3 format a
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupre, Marcel
20th-century French classical composers
Composers for pipe organ
French classical organists
Organ improvisers
French cathedral organists
French male classical composers
Musicians from Rouen
1886 births
1971 deaths
Prix de Rome for composition
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris
Directors of the Conservatoire de Paris
20th-century French organists
20th-century French male musicians
French male classical organists
Academic staff of the American Conservatory