Charles Tournemire

* 22 January 1870 in Bordeaux, died 1939 in Arcachon; French organist, composer and improviser; he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, piano with Charles-Wilfrid Bériot and harmony with Antoine Taudou, attended César Franck’s organ class in 1889/90 and in 1891 won the first prize for organ in the class of Charles-Marie Widor. In 1898 he became organist of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris, where Franck and Gabriel Pierné had held the post before him; he kept it until his death. In 1903 his cantata “Le sang de la sirène” won the Concours musical de la Ville de Paris; in 1921 he took over the ensemble class at the Conservatoire. He left eight symphonies, four operas – only “Les dieux sont morts” (1912) was performed during his lifetime –, chamber music and organ works. His principal work is “L’Orgue mystique” (1927–1932), fifty-one Offices on plainsong melodies for the Sundays and feast days of the church year. In the Cybele catalogue his music is represented on fourteen albums. Between 1994 and 2014 Sandro R. Müller recorded “L’Orgue mystique” complete – fourteen volumes on six organs: the Alexander Schuke organ of the Alte Reformierte Kirche Wuppertal-Elberfeld, the large Rieger organ of the Cistercian abbey of Marienstatt in the Westerwald, the Seifert-Weyland organ of the Liebfrauenkirche Bottrop-Eigen, the Rieger organ of the collegiate and provostry church of St. Mariä Himmelfahrt in Kleve, the Rieger organ of the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Zweibrücken and the Jann organ of the collegiate basilica of Waldsassen. The first eight volumes were recorded between 1994 and 1997 and appeared on CD; volume 14, released in 2006, is a hybrid SACD.