Name Edouard Commette | Role Composer | |
 | ||
Similar People Eugene Gigout, Pierre Cochereau, Marcel Dupre, Alexandre Tharaud, Charles‑Marie Widor | ||
Toccata en ré mineur
Edouard Commette (12 April 1883 in Lyon – 21 April 1967) was an organist from Lyon in France of international fame who served the Archdiocese of Lyon and was organist at Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere for over 50 years.
Contents
- Toccata en r mineur
- Jsus que ma joie demeure
- Biography
- Critical reception
- Compositions
- Known recordings
- References
Place Edouard Commette at the foot of the hill on which the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourviere is built is named in his honour. A student of Charles-Marie Widor and Victor Neuville, his recordings were known worldwide, and he was also known as a composer of accessible and tuneful organ music in his own right.
Jésus, que ma joie demeure
Biography
Born in Lyon in the center of the silk manufacturing district where his father was an exporter, Edouard studied piano at the lycee of Bourg-en-Bresse, after which he returned to Lyon and turned his attention to organ and harmony. A pupil of Charles Marie Widor, in 1900 he made his debut as organist in Lyon at the Church of the Good Shepherd (Eglise du Bon-Pasteur). Four years later he spent six months at the Church of Saint Polycarpe (Eglise Saint-Polycarpe), which owns one of the loveliest organs in the city.
He took up his post at Lyon Cathedral in 1904 and was a professor at the Conservatoire de Lyon. Called "the best French organist" by the well-known music critic Emile Vuillermoz, Commette earned similar tributes from his students and listeners from all parts of the world and is responsible for some of the earliest organ recordings. "These – 78s, of course – were intended for a local market: their world-wide success amazed the modest M. Commette."
The organ of Lyon Cathedral was built by fr:Daublaine Callinet and was installed in 1841 at the end of the apse and had 15 stops. It was rebuilt in 1875 by Merklin-Schutze and given 30 stops, three keyboards of 54 notes and pedals for 27.
Critical reception
Gramophone once opined "Edouard Commette is a notable performer of the old school. He does not keep as steady a beat as I would like in the B minor and D minor Fugues, and not everyone will approve of his tendency to slow up slightly in order to point a fugal entry... ...I find M. Commette's rubato convincing enough in the non-fugal movements, and he gives a noble account of the B minor and Dorian preludes."
Compositions
Known recordings
Leon Boellmann : Menuet et Toccata de la Suite gothique Eugene Gigout : Toccata Gabriel Pierne : Prelude Felix Mendelssohn : Allegro Molto de la 6° Sonate J. S. Bach : Pieces BWV 543, 625, 614 Louis Vierne : Carillon de Longpont Louis-Nicolas Clerambault : Caprice sur les grands jeux - Lyon St-Jean - Disque EMI; Columbia, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1938 CD-EMI partiel (491)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia-FCX 498, 1955 (dq 88)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia-FCX 497, 1955 (dq 85)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia, 1956 (dq 92)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia, 1957 (dq 103)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia, 1958 (dq 113) (42)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia, 1961 (68)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia, 1962 (77)
- Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia-FCX 496, 1955 (dq 88)
- Transcriptions de E. Commette. - Lyon St-Jean - Disque Columbia-ESBF 176, 1957