PROGRAMME NOTES

Maurice Duruflé

Maurice Duruflé (1902 – 1986)

Requiem

INTROIT                                         SANCTUS & BENEDICTUS    LUX AETERNA

KYRIE                                              PIE JESU                                  LIBERA ME

DOMINE JESU CHRISTE                 AGNUS DEI                             IN PARADISUM

Duruflé produced some of the most distinctive music to appear in France in the mid-20th century. While he was in no way an innovator, his individual synthesis of compositional elements has proved enduringly popular and the Requiem, his most frequently performed work, is a fine example of his style. Most of his work is based on plainchant - the repertory of melodies tied to specific liturgical texts, much of which dates back to the first centuries of Christianity and earlier.

While at the choir school in Rouen he began his illustrious career as an organist by deputizing for his teacher at the city's cathedral. His remarkable talent was noticed by the composer Maurice Emmanuel, who recommended him to audition for the Paris Conservatoire. He was prepared for the entrance examination by the organist-composer Charles Tournemire, and once at the Conservatoire he studied the organ with the blind Louis Vierne and composition with Paul Dukas. He won the First Prize in five academic and practical subjects.

Though Vierne had hoped that his pupil would succeed him in the organist's post at Notre Dame, this was not to be. Duruflé soon found a post to his liking, at the church of St Etienne-du-Mont, and remained there for the 56 years until his death. His skills as a virtuoso organist were much in demand, and in this capacity he made a number of tours around Europe, the Soviet Union and the USA.

Unlike his friend Olivier Messiaen, with whom he taught at the Conservatoire, Duruflé was not interested in new compositional techniques. Indeed in basing much of his music on chant he was following one of the oldest traditions in Western music: plainchant formed the hub around which almost all sacred music was composed from its earliest appearance in the Medieval period until the Baroque era in the 18th century.

Two of his teachers vitally influenced his compositional style, but in strikingly different ways. While Tournemire encouraged Duruflé to release the melodic and harmonic potential of plainchant, Vierne inspired in him a feeling for form and structure, and encouraged him to explore the sonorous capabilities of the organ. For Duruflé the music of Debussy, Ravel and Dukas proved particularly influential for its sensuous harmonies and the clarity and beauty of its instrumentation.