Charles Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique: La haute mission

Charles Tournemire was the quintessential church musician; yet, despite his formidable contribution to the art form, his works are woefully understudied, and the perception of the man himself perdures as an enigmatic legend. As one of the final students of Franck and as his eventual heritor to the organist-titulaire position at Sainte-Clotilde, Tournemire became the embodiment of Franckianism. Therefore, in honour of Franck’s bicentenary, we will take a moment to shed some light upon this mysterious and controversial genius.

This two-part lecture-recital will endeavour to introduce the man and his music and to explore Tournemire’s life and times. It will delve into Tournemire’s Franckian roots, his connection to the Symbolist Movement, the political tumult of the Third Republic, his professional and intimate struggles, his musical philosophy and aesthetic, and his rivalries with the Widor-Dupré tradition. These seemingly disparately ramified influences coalesced during the World War’s interbellum period— a time when Tournemire engaged in the most fecund chapter of his organ-composition output, climaxing with his musical Summa Theologicæ, L’Orgue Mystique.