Charles Tournemire
Born: January 22, 1870
Died: November 4, 1939
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A precocious child, Charles Tournemire was appointed organist of the church of St. Pierre in Bordeaux at the age of 11. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, winning in 1891 the first prize in organ; he also studied with d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum. In 1898, Tournemire succeeded Gabriel Pierné as organist in St. Clotilde, a post he held for the rest of his life. As organist, Tournemire toured
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Works
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Cantilene improvisée (3)
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Cantilène improvisée for organ (2)
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Choral-Improvisation sur le "Victimae Paschali" (6)
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Choral-Improvisation sur le Victimae Paschali (1)
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Chorale Improvisation on "Victimae Paschali," for organ (2)
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Chorale Improvisation on "Victimae Paschali," for organ: [Excerpt] (2)
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Chorals-poèmes (7) for Organ, Op. 67 "Seven last words" (1)
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Chorals-poèmes (7) for Organ, Op. 67 "Seven last words": no 7, Consummatum est (1)
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Deux improvisations reconstituées par Maurice Duruflé (1)
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Dialogue sacre, Op. 50 (1)
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Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani, for organ (1)
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Fantaisie-Improvisation sur "l'Ave maris stella" (1)
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Fresque symphonique sacrée, Op. 75 (1)
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Improvisation sur le "Te Deum" (9)
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Improvisation sur le "Te Deum," for organ (3)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: Choral "Victimae Paschali" (2)
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Improvisations (5) for organ: Choral-Improvisation sur le "Victimae Paschali" (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: no 1, Petite rapsodie improvisée (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: no 2, Cantilène improvisée (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: no 3, Improvisation sur le "Te Deum" (2)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: no 4, Fantaisie-Improvisation sur "l'Ave maris stella" (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: no 5, Choral-Improvisation sur le "Victimae paschali" (1)
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Improvisations (5) for Organ: Petite rapsodie improvisee (2)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Communion (1)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Elévation (1)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Fantaisie (1)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Offertoire (1)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Paraphrase (1)
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L' Orgue Mystique, 51 suites for organ, Opp. 55-57: Prélude à l'introit (1)
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L'Ascension, suite for organ (L'orgue mystique No. 23), Op. 56/12 (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 55: Suite no 3, Christmas (3)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 55: Suite no 7, Epiphanie (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 55: Suite no 8, 1st Sunday after Epiphany (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 55: Suite no 9, 2nd after Epiphany (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Excerpt(s) (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 12, Ascension (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 15, Easter (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 20, Saint Joseph (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 21, 4th Sunday after Easter (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 22, 5th Sunday after Easter (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 56: Suite no 24, 2nd after Ascension (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Guirlandes alleluiatiques (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 10 - Paraphrase-carillon (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 10, Assumption (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 11, 10th Sunday after Pentecost (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 12, 11th Sunday after Pentecost (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 26 - Fantaisie sur le Te Deum de Guirlandes (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 26, 23rd Sunday after Pentecost (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 3 - Prelude and Fresque (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary": 1st movement, Prélude (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary": 2nd movement, Offerto (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary": 3rd movement, Elévati (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary": 4th movement, Communi (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary": 5th movement, Paraphr (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 35 - In Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 38, 12th Sunday after Pentecost (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 44, 17th Sunday after Pentecost (2)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 49, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost (1)
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L'orgue mystique, Op. 57: Suite no 5, 5th after Pentecost (1)
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L'Orgue Mystique, suite for organ (L'orgue mystique No. 24) ("Dominica infra Octave Ascensionis") (1)
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L'orgue mystique, vol 8: Fantaisie-Chorale (2)
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L'orgue mystique: Excerpt(s) (4)
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L'Orgue Mystique: Suite No. 51: Communion (1)
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L'Orgue Mystique: Suite No. 51: Fantaisie sur le Te Deum et Guirlandes Alleluiatiques (1)
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Le Desir qui Palpite… (1)
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Lieder (3), Op. 46 (1)
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Offertoire du Samedi-Saint, for organ (1)
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Offertoire, Op. 10 (1)
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Pâques (Dominica Resurrectionis), suite for organ (L'orgue mystique No. 17), Op. 56/6 (1)
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Petite rapsodie improvisée (3)
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Petites fleurs musicales, Op. 66: Office (2)
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Pièce symphonique, Op. 16 (2)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Adagietto (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Allegretto (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Andantino (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Choral (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Final (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Intermezzo (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Larghetto (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Romances sans paroles (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Scherzetto (1)
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Pieces (10) for Organ "dans le style libre": Toccatina (1)
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Poème for Cello and Piano, Op. 35 (1)
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Poeme III for Organ, Op. 59 (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68 (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68: Amen no 2 "Nativitas D.N. Jesu Christi" (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68: Postlude no 26 "In Festo St. Trinitatis" (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68: Postlude no 3 "Hodie Christus natus est" (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68: Postlude no 44, "17th Sunday after Pentecost" (1)
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Postludes libres, Op. 68: Postlude no 8, "In Festo St. Trinitatis" (1)
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Préludes-poèmes (12) for Piano, Op. 58 (1)
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Sagesse, Op. 34 (1)
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Solitude (1)
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Sortie, Op. 3 (3)
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Suite de morceaux, Op. 19 (2)
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Suite de morceaux, Op. 19: no 1, Adagio (1)
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Suite de morceaux, Op. 24 (1)
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Suite évocatrice, Op. 74 (2)
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Symphony no 1 in A major, Op. 18 "Romantique" (1)
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Symphony no 2 in B flat major, Op. 36 "Ouessant" (1)
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Symphony no 3, Op. 43 "Moscou" (1)
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Symphony no 4, Op. 44 "Pages symphoniques" (1)
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Symphony no 5 in F minor, Op. 47 (1)
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Symphony no 7, Op. 49 "Les danses de la vie" (1)
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Symphony no 8, Op. 51 "La symphonie du triomphe de la mort" (1)
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Symphony No. 6 for tenor, chorus, organ & orchestra, Op. 48 (1)
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Triple choral, Op. 41 (1)
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Triptyque, Op. 39 (1)
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Variae preces, Op. 21: Noëls (5) originaux en forme de Versets (1)
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Work(s): Choral: "Te lucis ante terminum" (Hymnus zur Komplet) (2)
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| More Featured Charles Tournemire CDs & DVDs: |
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Biography |
by All Music Guide
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A precocious child, Charles Tournemire was appointed organist of the church of St. Pierre in Bordeaux at the age of 11. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, winning in 1891 the first prize in organ; he also studied with d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum. In 1898, Tournemire succeeded Gabriel Pierné as organist in St. Clotilde, a post he held for the rest of his life. As organist, Tournemire toured Germany, Holland, and Russia before the Great War. Between 1900 and 1914 he composed his first five symphonies , all of which were performed at the time. In 1904, Tournemire's cantata Le sang de la sirène won the concours musicale de las ville de Paris.
The Franck-inspired idiom that had sustained Tournemire to that time began to give way to a more complex harmonic texture that incorporated some degree of impressionistic harmony. This style began to deepen in 1908 after Tournemire married the sister of the wife of Josephin "Sâr" Péladan, a French mystic who was the founder of the Ordre de Rose-Croix in Paris. Tournemire also began to read the works of Joris-Karl Huysmans, and through Péladan, took an interest in Madame Blavatsky. Tournemire's music reflected these discoveries through his arrival at a distinct "mystical" organ style, which had a decisive impact on the French organ school exemplified by such figures as Messaien, Jehan Alain, Duruflé and Jean Langlais. As he got older, Tournemire became more inflexible in his views about spiritual matters and later found reason to repudiate every one of his colleagues who expressed admiration for him or depended on his counsel.
The First World War caused a break in Tournemire's creative life. He was mobilized and, although he had projected a Sixth Symphony in 1915, he could only start to work on it in 1917. This symphony, in addition to two more that followed it, were never performed in his lifetime. In 1919, he was appointed a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, but the Great War had brought about a cultural and musical change of ambience; Tournemire found himself out of step with the times of Les Six and Stravinsky.
From 1921 he devoted his best compositional efforts to the church. His great oratorios came after the last of his symphonies: La Quête du Saint-Graal (1926-1927), l'Apocalypse de Saint-Jean (1932-1936), and La douloureuse Passion du Christ (1936-1937). Between 1927 and 1932 he worked on the colossal L'orgue mystique. This work comprises 51 Offices, sets of five pieces for the Holy Mass, for every Sunday of the year. The complete work would last about 15 hours of music, longer than the complete organ works of J.S. Bach. Tournemire was highly valued as an improviser on the organ, and in 1930 recorded five improvisations at St. Clotilde on phonograph records that were later painstakingly transcribed by Maurice Duruflé; these pieces are among Tournemire's best known works. Tournemire's last composition was the opera Il poverello di Assisi (1937-1938), based on a text by Sar Péladan.
The circumstances of Tournemire's death are among the most mysterious and controversial to be found for any classical composer. He left his home to take a walk on October 31, 1939 and never returned; four days later his body was found in a bog outside of Archachon, quite some distance from where he started out. The suggestion that he may have committed suicide seemed impossible for such a staunchly Catholic mystic, and the latest information suggests that Tournemire may have become disoriented, lost his way and drowned by accident. A series of documents that are expected to clear up this matter are sealed until 2015; the long held story that Tournemire's body was found in the street is nothing more than an urban legend. |
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