organ

Charles-Marie Widor was a powerhouse writer for the organ, writing many symphonies for organ alone that took advantage of the varied voices to give a full symphonic form. It was in 1880, however, that he was approached by the future King Edward VII of the United Kingdom to create a work for Organ & Orchestra. Out of that request came...

Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (Aug. 21, 1893 - March 15, 1918) was a French composer, and  the younger sister of the famed composition teacher/composer Nadia Boulanger. Born in Paris, Lili Boulanger was a child prodigy; at the age of two, it was discovered that she had perfect pitch. Her parents, both musicians, encouraged her musical education, and she accompanied her sister Nadia...

Rued Langgaard (July 28, 1893 - July 10, 1952) was a Danish composer and organist, born to musical parents. He began piano lessons at five years old, with his parents as his first teachers, and was playing Chopin mazurkas at age seven. Not long after, he started composing for the piano and began taking organ and violin lessons. Langgaard started studying...

Florence Beatrice Price (April 9, 1887 - June 3, 1953) was an African-American pianist and composer, and the first African-American woman to have a piece played by a major symphony orchestra. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price's first piano teacher was her mother, a music educator, and Price's first recital was at the age of 4. After high school (which she graduated top of her class), she studied piano and organ at the New England Conservatory, and pretended to be Mexican, due to the stigma that African-Americans faced during that era. She also studied composition and counterpoint with George Chadwick and Frederick Converse, and graduated in 1906 with honors. Continue reading →

Felix-Alexandre Guilmant (March 12, 1837 - March 29, 1911) was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and was quite the virtuosic organist. Not exactly a household name, he nevertheless was a prolific composer, writing almost entirely  for the organ. Guilmant began his organ studies with his father, and eventually went on to teach in Paris for thirty years, before embarking as a virtuoso soloist. He toured in both North America and Europe, where he was especially popular; his concerts in England attracted upwards of 10,000 people. Continue reading →

As those of us in the United States honor the fallen on this Memorial Day, we take a look at a more somber work, the Elegy by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. This short work for organ (not to be confused with Parry's Elegy for Brahms, which was written for orchestra) is a stately, refined work, written to honor Sidney, 14th Earl of Pembroke, at his funeral on April 7, 1913. Continue reading →