THE STUDENTS OF TOURNEMIRE Claude ARRIEU 1903-1990 Joseph BONNET 1884-1944 Lucien CAPET 1873-1928 DANIEL-LESUR 1908-2002 Jean DOYEN 1907-1982 Maurice DURUFLÉ 1902-1986 ERMEND-BONNAL 1880-1944 André FLEURY 1903-1995 Monique HAAS 1909-1987 Georges HUGON 1904-1980 Jean LANGLAIS 1907-1991 Charles LETESTU Gaston LITAIZE 1909-1991 Douglas Stuart MOORE 1893-1969 Pierre MOREAU 1907-1991 Ludovic PANEL Raymond PETIT 1893- Henriette PUIG-ROGET 1910-1992 Pierre SANCAN 1916-2008 Henri TOMASI 1901-1971 Source
André Fleury's recollections on Charles Tournemire Reinen Dercksen On may 13th 1994, today exactly 26 years ago, I had the honour to have an interview with André Fleury in his house in Le Chesnay, near Versailles. The composer and organist spoke about his teachers Eugène Gigout and Louis Vierne, Marcel Dupré, the organ of Sainte Clotilde, Fleury’s own career and many other issues. I also asked him about the personality and the character of Charles Tournemire, of whom André Fleury was remplaçant in Sainte Clotilde. The interview was recorded on tape. A French translator first made a complete transcription in French and then a translation into Dutch. Here are some excerpts (in my best English) of this interview. After a question about the improvisations of Marcel Dupré, I asked André Fleury: So, Dupré’s improvisations were in a way the opposite of the improvisations by Charles Tournemire? André Fleury: ‘Charles Tournemire was an inexhaustable source of spontanity. His improvisations were a reflection of his mentality, fascinating, capricious, always different, but almost always magnificent.’ How would you describe and compare the personalities of Marcel Dupré and Charles Tournemire? ‘They were completely different, they had opposite personalities. Tournemire was fantasy in his own person, while Dupré was in his playing severity in his own person. Tournemire was spontanuous and very direct, but he was not a bon vivant. He could be very harsh and often I found him puzzling. When I had to choose between Tournemire’s improvisations and Dupré’s improvisation I rather would choose for Tournemire, the unexpected.’ Flor Peeters, who conducted an intensive correspondence with Charles Tournmire, until the very end of Tournemires life, sometimes revealed his presumption that Tournemire ended his own life. Were there rumours about that idea? ‘At the end of his life, Tournemire was very depressed and entangled. We were sure that he did not just had drown in the Gulf of Arcachon. That he had committed suicide, seemed logic to us. Somehow, it corresponded with our expectations.’ But what was the reason for Tournemire being depressed? ‘I don’t know. He had an inscrutable mind and I could not look into his soul. And what’s more, he hided what really was going on in his soul by playing a comediant. But his periods of depression were long and intense, that is also the reason I had to replace him so many times in Sainte Clotilde. Actually, he

TOURNEMIRE’S STUDENTS

Claude ARRIEU 1903-1990 Joseph BONNET 1884-1944 Lucien CAPET 1873-1928 DANIEL-LESUR 1908-2002 Jean DOYEN 1907-1982 Maurice DURUFLÉ 1902-1986 ERMEND-BONNAL 1880-1944 André FLEURY 1903-1995 Monique HAAS 1909-1987 Georges HUGON 1904-1980 Jean LANGLAIS 1907-1991 Charles LETESTU Gaston LITAIZE 1909-1991 Douglas Stuart MOORE 1893-1969 Pierre MOREAU 1907-1991 Ludovic PANEL Raymond PETIT 1893- Henriette PUIG-ROGET 1910-1992 Pierre SANCAN 1916-2008 Henri TOMASI 1901-1971 Source

Charles Tournemire January, 22, 1870 - November, 4, 1939

Charles Tournemire

January, 22, 1870 - November, 4, 1939