Organ Recital: Richard Spotts

Charles Tournemire (22 Jan 1970 - 3 Nov 1939)
from L'Orgue mystique (1927-1932)

     XII. Dominica in Ssptuagesima • Pièce terminale: Clameurs et choral

     XIV. Dominica in Quinquagesima • Offertoire: Benedictus es Domine

     XI. Purification beatæ Mariæ virginis • Pièce Terminale: Diptyque

     XIV. Dominica in Quinquagesima • Pièce terminale: Verrière


Charles Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique represents a pivotal point in the history of liturgical organ music. This recondite magnum opus, composed 1927-1932, comprises two hundred fifty-three movements written for the Mass. Fifteen hours in duration, this epic work employs over three-hundred chants both as an act of devotion and as musical exegesis based upon the chant libretto with the goal of celebrating fifty-one Sundays and Liturgical Feasts throughout the Church Calendar.

Although today shrouded in popular obscurity, Tournemire was a seminal musical influence of the 20th century, particularly in the realm of sacred music. Born in Bordeaux in 1870, Tournemire, who was a student of César Franck and Charles-Marie Widor, was organist of the Basilica of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris (from 1898 until his death in 1939), where he was known as an improviser extraordinaire. He produced an enormous compositional output of incredible profundity. His greatest work, the magnum opus L’Orgue Mystique, transformed the sound of the organ world, hearkening to the past with its use of Gregorian Chant and yet welcoming it into modernity with its innovative mystical sonorities.

Organist Richard Spotts, a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, over the past decade has set out to perform and educate the public of this seminal work, having given recitals at cathedrals, universities, and parishes throughout the United States and Canada. This past autumn he gave a complete performance of L’Orgue mystique in a concert spanning ten days at churches throughout Pittsburgh hosted by Duquesne University and the Pittsburgh and Duquesne chapters of the American Guild of Organists. The next performance of the complete L’Orgue mystique will be taking place during Lent hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists at Saint Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia on its historic G. Donald Harrison Aeolian-Skinner organ. This instrument, which is the sister instrument to the former organ at Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, constitutes Harrison's final work and is a superb, living example of the American-Classic style of organ-building. In addition, plans are underway for the publication of his book on the subject in celebration of Tournemire’s sesquicentennial this year.