Rolande Falcinelli entered the Paris Conservatory in 1932, where her teachers were noted pianist and pedagogue Isidor Philipp and Abel Estyle (piano), Marcel Samuel-Rousseau (harmony), Simone Plé Caussade (counterpoint), Henri Büsser (composition), and Marcel Dupré (organ and improvisation). In 1942, she received the second Grand Prix de Rome in composition. From 1946-1973, she was titular organist at Sacré-Coeur in Paris. Additionally, she taught organ at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau from 1948–1955, and at the École Normale de Musique in Paris from 1948–1955.
In 1948, at Salle Pleyel in Paris, Rolande Falcinelli performed from memory the (then) complete organ works of Marcel Dupré, whose music was in the center of her interests throughout her career as a performer and teacher. In 1955, she succeeded Dupré as professor of organ and improvisation at the Paris Conservatory, where she taught until 1987. Among her numerous students were many brilliant organists of our time, such as Odile Pierre, Pierre Gazin, Xavier Darasse, Louis Thiry, Yves Devernay, Francis Chapelet, André Isoir, Daniel Roth, Jean-Pierre Leguay, Sophie-Veronique Cauchefer-Choplin, Louis Robillard, Philippe Lefèbvre, Maurice Clerc, Patrice Caire, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, and Naji Hakim.
In addition to her numerous organ compositions, she wrote works for piano, harpsichord, solo instruments, orchestra, choir and songs. She also made numerous recordings, including several LPs with compositions of Marcel Dupré at the Auditorium Marcel Dupré in Meudon.
Rolande Falcinelli died on 11 June 2006, at age 86, in Pau, France. From her marriage with Felix Otto, a producer from Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg, Germany, she had a daughter, Sylviane (b. 1956), a French musicologist.
Missa Brevissima op. 69 (composed 1956-1985. Paris: Editions de la Schola Cantorum):
Prélude à l'Introït
Offertoire
Élévation
Communion
Deo Gratias (unpublished)
Sonatina per Scherzare op. 73 (composed 1988. Éditions Lisset):
Tempo di Valser
Tempo di Marcia
Tempo di Barcarola
Tempo di Rondo
Organ with other instruments or voice
Choral et Variation sur le Kyrie de la Messe "Orbis Factor" for organ and orchestra op. 12 (composed 1942, unpublished)
Nocturne féérique for organ, 2 pianos, 2 harps, celesta, and percussion op. 23 (composed 1946, unpublished)
4 Motets à la Vierge for voice and organ op. 37 (composed 1959):
Ego lilium convallium for soprano, baryton, mixed choir SATB and organ (Rome: AISC)
Regina Cæli Lætare for soprano, female choir (three voices) and organ (Rome: AICS)
Tota Pulchra es for soprano or tenor and organ (manuscript lost)
Virgo Mater Filia for medium voice and organ (manuscript lost)
Mausolée "à la gloire de Marcel Dupré" for organ and orchestra op. 47 (composed 1971-72, orchestration 1973, Debuted 3/25/2011 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rochester,NY for the Eastman School of Music "Women in Music Festival" Organist: Timothy Tikker Accompanied by: University of Rochester Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Dr. David Harman):
Prélude
Fugue
Choral
Chant de peine et de lutte for violin and organ op. 53 (composed 1974. Sampzon: Éditions Delatour France)
3 Chants profanes for voice and organ op. 55 (1974–75, unpublished):
Aurore d'hiver (G. Apollinaire)
Ronsard à son âme (P. Ronsard)
Lumière, ma Lumière! (R. Tagore)
Canzon per sonar for 2 violas and organ op. 57 (composed 1975, unpublished)
Le Mystère de la Sainte-Messe for two organs op. 59 (composed 1976-82, unpublished):
Introïtus, Kyrie eleison, Gloria, Evangelio
Credo, Offertorium, Sanctus, Elevatio
Pater Noster, Agnus Dei, Communio, Ite missa est
Tétrade for viola and organ op. 60 (composed 1976, unpublished)
Azân for flute and organ op. 61 (composed 1977. Éditions Hortus, 2008)
Quand sonnera le glas for voice and organ op. 62 (composed 1978, unpublished)
Psaume XIII for baritone and organ op. 63 (composed 1978, unpublished)
Aphorismes for piano and organ op. 64 (composed 1979-80, unpublished)
Kénose for cello and organ op. 68 (composed 1983. Sampzon: Éditions Delatour France, 2006)
Piano solo
D'une âme...: poème varié en dix chants enchaînes op. 15 (composed 1942. Éditions Lisset):
Indécise
...Triste
Insouciante
Ardente...
Tendre...
Inquiète...
Moqueuse...
Rêveuse...
Orageuse...
Apaisée...
Jeu d'un Biquet op. 30 (composed 1953, unpublished)
Ophelia (after a poem by Arthur Rimbaud) for female voices and orchestra op. 16 (composed 1943, unpublished)
Icare: scène lyrique (after a text by Jules Supervielle) for soprano, tenor, bariton and orchestra op. 17 (composed 1943, unpublished)
Danse de Nymphes (after a poem by Tristan Derème) for female voices and orchestra op. 19 (composed 1944, unpublished)
Louise de la Miséricorde: scène lyrique (cantate) (after a text by Charles Clerc) for soprano, mezzo-soprano, bariton and orchestra op. 20 (composed 1944, unpublished)
Psautier for soprano and orchestra op. 65 (composed 1980, unpublished)
Symphonic Orchestra
Marana Thâ op. 74 (composed 1989, unpublished):
Invocation
Fulgurances et clairs-obscurs
Amen
Ballet
Cecca, la Bohémienne ensorcelée. Ballet in 1 act and 3 scenes op. 22 (composed 1943-45)
Transcriptions for organ solo
Johann Sebastian Bach: Musical Offering. Brussels, Belgium: Schott Frères, 1963.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Variations Goldberg. Unpublished.
Pedagogical Works
Initiation à l'orgue. Paris: Bornemann/Leduc, 1971.
École de la Technique Moderne de l'Orgue (unpublished):
1ère partie: Théorie de la Technique
2ème partie: Pratique de la Technique de pédale (Tome A: Gammes - Tome B: Arpèges)
Selected discography
Marcel Dupré: Intégrale de l'oeuvre.
Disque 1. Oeuvres d'orgue: Les nymphéas, op. 54. Scherzo, op. 16. Angélus, op. 34. Deux esquisses, op. 41.
Disque 2. OEuvres d'orgue: Trois préludes et fugues, op. 7. Trois préludes et fugues, op. 36.
Disque 3. OEuvres d'orgue: Trois hymnes, op. 58. Annonciation, op. 56. Six antiennes, op. 48. Variations sur un vieux noël, op. 20.
Rolande Falcinelli, organ. Recorded at the Auditorium Marcel Dupré, Meudon. France: Disque Edici, 1968. ED 001 101. 3 LPs.
Marcel Dupré: Oeuvres pour piano et orgue.
Variations sur deux themes, op. 35 - Ballade, op. 30 - Sinfonia, op. 42 - Variations en ut diese mineur, op. 22, pour piano.
Rolande Falcinelli, piano. Marie-José Chasseguet, organ. Recorded at the Auditorium Marcel Dupré, Meudon. Lyon, France: REM, 1977. 1 LP.
Marcel Dupré: Le chemin de la croix, op. 29.
Rolande Falcinelli, organ. Grandes Orgues de Notre-Dame de Paris, June 1981. Sigéan, France: Disques du Solstice, 2001. SOCD 193/4. 1 CD.
The Art of Rolande Falcinelli: Interpreter, Composer, Improviser.
César Franck (Choral No. 1), Marcel Dupré (Esquisses op. 41, Carillon op. 27), Rolande Falcinelli (Sonatina per Scherzare op. 73, Offertoire from Messe op. 38), and two improvisations.
Rolande Falcinelli, organ. Orgues de la Cathédrale de Dijon et du Münster de Basel (Switzerland). Netherlands: Festivo, 2006. Festivo 6962.062. 1 CD.
Rolande Falcinelli interprète du XXe siècle.
Œuvres de Marcel Dupré, César Franck, Louis Vierne.
Rolande Falcinelli, organ. Orgue de la Cathédrale de Belley. France: Éditions Hortus, 2006. Hortus 038. 1 CD.
Rolande Falcinelli joue Rolande Falcinelli.
Esquisses Symphoniques en forme de Variations op. 45, Miniatures persanes op. 52, Prophétie d’après Ezéchiel op. 42.
Rolande Falcinelli, organ. Orgue de la Cathédrale St. Pierre d’Angoulême, 1984. Festivo, 2007. Festivo 6962.112. 1 CD.