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Marie-Claire Alain—80th birthday tribute (continued)

August 4, 2006
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During the two years I spent with her she frequently took me along to pull stops when she traveled to play recitals. Helping with registration on various organs in France and Holland and observing her perform were additional valuable learning experiences.
Going to Paris to study with Marie-Claire Alain was the best thing I ever did for myself. Not only did I learn so much from her, but we formed a close friendship which I cherish to this day. Bon anniversaire à ma chère amie!

The book

When Marie-Claire Alain compiled the 1971 edition of Jehan Alain’s organ music she asked me to translate the new preface. Then during the 1980s I spent several summers housesitting for her in France, and while there I began some preliminary comparisons of the Jehan Alain manuscript photocopies she had to the three editions of his organ works. We spoke about the possibility of her doing a new edition and perhaps a similar but thorough study of the music. At the Atlanta AGO convention, she approached me about translating such a book on Jehan Alain’s organ music that she had decided to do, along with a new edition based on all the manuscripts.
With that began a project that lasted nearly a dozen years. We struggled at first to find a format that would be clear to the reader, yet be easy to lay out for publication. Leduc took on the publication of the book in both French and English. All the known manuscripts, including many found in 1975 after the death of Jehan Alain’s wife, were compared side by side, measure by measure. Many of the pieces exist in multiple autograph manuscripts, because Jehan Alain would make copies for friends. Thus a piece might include the comparison of its several manuscripts plus the three Leduc editions. Throughout we found few note changes from one manuscript to another, although rhythms might be rewritten in some cases. On the other hand, registrations could be very different among manuscripts.
This book of critical studies of Alain’s organ music, along with the new edition, will provide organists with all the information they need to play this beautiful and timeless music, written by a young man of genius. It is thanks to the tireless efforts of his sister that this music has been disseminated and has become beloved by organists worldwide.

Alain as a performer

Marie-Claire Alain’s playing style has constantly evolved, as does that of any first-rate performing artist. She was never a proponent of the strict legato style of playing in Bach and other Baroque composers’ music. While the prevailing style of organ playing in France (and here as well) was very much the Dupré school with its grand legato, ties of common notes between chords, and exact half-value repeated notes, Marie-Claire Alain had different ideas for touch and did not use legato as much as most performers of her generation. Her earliest recordings reveal her use of a variety of touches as befit the music.
She has continually studied and learned, never relying on her reputation to carry her forward in her career. In more recent times she has studied early fingerings as they relate to touch and phrasing. While not necessarily using early fingering, she has based her ideas of touch and phrasing on them. She has always been interested in the historical aspects of performance. She has not, however, followed every new trend. She studies new ideas and adopts only those that are befitting the music. The music comes first, not virtuosity.
Her sense of style has also evolved along with the kinds of organs she has played. That is to say, she has learned from the organs. Being able to study and play early French music on early French organs brought her to the absolute apex of performance practice of that style. Playing Franck, Widor, and others on Cavaillé-Coll organs taught her that music—not to mention hearing her father and brother play at home and hearing her brother play his own music. Working with organs of every type and every size around the world has also given her insights into registration that few organists have.
Add to this her compelling sense of joy in the music, her infectious rhythm and her exquisite taste and style, and you have one of the finest organists of all time, Marie-Claire Alain.
—Norma Stevlingson
Professor of Organ and Harpsichord
University of Wisconsin-Superior
 

It began at an airport. Nearly 40 years ago I met Marie-Claire Alain at the airport in Syracuse, New York, where, as the most junior member of the organ faculty, it was my job to pick up the visiting artists who were performing at the University. It was a job I did gladly. In looking back, I think we talked non-stop during her entire visit. I knew I had made a friend for life. At that time, I introduced Marie-Claire to a young soprano, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, in whom I had a special interest. Marie-Claire said it was no surprise when word of our marriage crossed the Atlantic the following year. A year or so later, Phyllis was performing in a concert at Hamilton College with the Paul Kuentz Chamber Ensemble, with organist Olivier Alain. Wanting to surprise everyone, I picked Marie-Claire up at the airport and we made a hurried drive to the concert, arriving during intermission, where no one recognized her. It was great fun to see the reactions on everyone’s faces when they finally noticed she was there. A dinner with Olivier and Marie-Claire followed the performance, one of the first of many such occasions.
Following our move to Bethesda, Maryland, Marie-Claire played one of the dedicatory recitals on the new Holtkamp organ at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church. One of my fondest memories of that occasion was watching our then four-year-old son, David, walking hand in hand into Dulles Airport, “helping Marie-Claire with her bags.” We had just had lunch together at a Roy Rogers, which was David’s choice. Marie-Claire looked elegant in her full-length fur, and loved the idea of having an American hamburger. (She said no one ever took her for hamburgers.)
That was the beginning of what can only be described as a love affair between our son and Marie-Claire, one that is going strong to this day. In 1977, with a daughter added to our family, we met Jacques for the first time, in Paris. As expected, Kaaren fell madly in love with Jacques, and he with her. Our family ties were growing stronger. As woman musicians often traveling and staying in hotel rooms alone, leaving husbands and children behind, Marie-Claire and Phyllis had a special bond, and many stories to share.
Fast forward to the present. As a member of the Peabody Conservatory faculty, I had the opportunity to nominate Marie-Claire for an Honorary Degree from Johns Hopkins University. It took almost three years for her schedule to be clear enough to attend a Hopkins commencement, but it finally happened this year. Her citation read as follows:
“Your brilliant performances and hundreds of masterful recordings emerge not only from virtuoso talent but also from superb scholarship. You study the music, of course. But you also investigate the text on which it is based; the composer’s life, work, and theology; the organ you are playing; and even the historically accurate fingering and position of the hand on the keyboard. “This unyielding pursuit of the ultimate interpretation has led you to three magnificent recordings of Bach’s complete organ works. The first, you said, was ‘instinctive’, the second ‘considered’, and the last the beneficiary of ‘a long life of work and . . . research.’
“You also have recorded definitive integrales of more than a dozen other composers. Though known especially for your work on the 17th- and 18th-century masters, you have brought new life and spirit to the Romantic repertoire. And you champion contemporary organ works, including the magnificent œuvre of your beloved brother, Jehan.
“Admired worldwide for your musicianship, acclaimed for your teaching, you are not just one of the great organists but one of the great musical artists of our time. “Marie-Claire Alain, daughter of France’s premier musical family, metaphorical mother to generations of performers, and venerated member of the extended clan of our own Peabody Conservatory, the Johns Hopkins University is proud to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.” That, of course, is the Marie-Claire Alain that the world knows and loves. But the Marie-Claire that we know and love is the one who is a “member of our family.”
This tribute ends as it began. On the Sunday following commencement, after a wonderful visit in our home, I took Marie-Claire to the airport for her return flight to Paris, and once again watched her disappear down the long corridor toward the gate, alone.
—Donald S. Sutherland
Coordinator of the Organ
Department, Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University

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