Dupré's Carillon

[Sathrandur]

Today I made some musical discoveries and one of them was Marcel Dupré's Carillon from his Sept Pièces. I have had a look online and cannot find much about it.

I found YouTube videos with, most notably, Michael Murray and Dupré himself playing the work (Dupré at Saint-Sulpice). I found the music absolutely fascinating and exciting. Can anyone give me any details on the piece and its history. More importantly, can anyone provide any insights related to the difficulties in learning it (I've heard it's difficult) and what sort of effort it will take should I take on the challenge? I imagine at least a few members will have played this before.

[Ryan the organist]

I use it as an encore often, it's not terribly difficult (though you need to study it carefully, and make sure your limbs are working in coordination from the start so you can have some flexibility in articulation later on). It was dedicated to Frederick C. Mayer, who was organist at West Point (it sounds pretty good at West Point, but it's more oriented towards a more traditional French organ), and someone else might know more about the history.
Make sure you listen to the articulation of the "bell-like" half notes, so they are consistently very powerful. After sufficient practice, the opening left hand motif becomes fairly comfortable; though he writes staccato, you need to phrase these notes somewhat while still leaving them detached, or else the sound becomes really frantic. The hardest part is the bit in E minor right before the recapitulation, because there aren't enough limbs to make a real crescendo. If the acoustic allows, I leave off a couple notes here and there in the right foot to open the boxes, then a divisional with the left thumb to bring on some reeds and mixtures, and then a divisional with the right thumb to bring on the bigger reeds for those four rolled chords. The next bit demands articulative ingenuity so everything is audible, especially in a big acoustic. The detached chords at the end shouldn't be too detached, and if you're not memorizing the piece to begin with, you should memorize at least that page because you don't want to need to look up and down and up and down and maybe lose your place. Have fun!

[myorgan]

Today I made some musical discoveries and one of them was Marcel Dupré's Carillon from his Sept Pièces. I have had a look online and cannot find much about it.

I just checked IMSLP.org and was surprised that Marcel Dupré is NOT listed there! Hmmmm. I guess it has to do with copyright.

Does anyone know what collections (other than Sept Pièces) this piece would be found in? It sounds like a piece I'd be interested in playing.

Michael

[Ryan the organist]

Here it is! http://imslp.org/wiki/7_Pieces,_Op.27_(Dupré,_Marcel)

[Sathrandur]

Thanks Ryan. I have the necessary pistons to do what you suggested and will keep that in mind. I have an acoustic that has about 3.5 seconds of reverberation, so I've had practice with the potential problems that come with that (but it's worth it to have that sort of reverberation:->). I played those opening fourths in the left hand about an hour ago and I guess it will just take time for it to feel natural. The key signature makes it more interesting too trying to comfortably hit the F#s and G#s.

Does anyone use the fingerings that are in the Bornemann edition (the one on IMSLP)?

As another curiosity, does anyone know how Dupré played this at Saint-Sulpice? It goes up to an A, but at Saint-Sulpice the manuals only go up to G.

[Ryan the organist]

My fingerings for the opening passage is 12 13 24 35 12 13 24 etc. The lower part is fingered whereas the upper part is dependent on a hopping thumb. In measure 3, I play 35 24 12 13. When the theme enters in the RH on page 27, I use 53 42 31 21 53 42 31. The fingerings in the Bornemann edition are worse than useless, in my opinion, because they're both challenging and hard to play evenly. In order to pull off mine, though, you're going to need to attack each fourth separately with the wrist; that way all the releases will be accurate and the sound will be crisp. In a huge acoustic, the articulation will be less discernible on its own, but inconsistencies in touch will be audibly manifested as lapses in clarity.
The piece goes up to a B on page 31 (very American; Demessieux occasionally writes high Cs, which wouldn't be possible on any old French organ), but Dupré seems to just leave off notes outside of the range in his recording. Do you have that issue on the instrument upon which you'll be performing? It doesn't damage the piece whatsoever.

[Sathrandur]

Thanks for the information Ryan. It's very helpful. I will have a look at the fingering suggested. It's an interesting piece technically as our hands can become very accustomed to sequences of thirds and to play sequences of fourths feels strange (they are a little further apart to which makes it slightly less comfortable also).

Here in Australia almost all instruments go up to a high C, so it's not a problem, just a curiosity. In fact after a close listening to the Dupré recording I realised that he did simply omitted the high notes.