There is an absence of critical writing on the organ music of Marcel Dupre (1886- 1971), despite its significance for the evolution of the organ and its music in the twentieth century. Fundamental to this thesis is an exploration of the historical context of this music and poietic analysis which attempts to reveal its stylistic features. That Dupre's organ music reflects contemporaneous influences from outside and beyond the organ loft has been hitherto unacknowledged and so there is an attempt to identify the more cosmopolitan influences exerted on his music by the wider artistic culture of his time. An overall aim within the study is to consider whether Dupre's stylistically diverse music, in its embodiment of both a nineteenthcentury linguistic conventionality and a more contemporary style in the twentieth, was in any sense stylistically paradoxical and indeed, whether the organ as instrumental resource played a role in this stylistic plurality. Dupre's self-confessed aim was to raise the organ's status in artistic terms and his music exemplifies important developments in both organ design and pedagogy over the course of the twentieth century. Thus, in light of the contextual and analytical investigations, an attempt is made to ascertain the extent to which Dupre influenced a succeeding generation and whether his pedagogical, playing and creative legacy holds important implications for musicians today. There is also an intent to address issues regarding the performance and recording of Dupre's works in esthesic terms, for it is hoped that the recordings forming an integral part of this thesis endorse, in their representation of analytical discovery in sonic form, certain thoughts and conclusions contained herein. Part 1 forms an appraisal of Dupre's musical and artistic milieu. After the Introduction in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 elucidates the stylistic antecedents of his music and Chapter 3 identifies a specifically organ-based aesthetic. Chapter 4 examines the pedagogical methods that reflected Dupre's high artistic purpose and which formed the backbone to his creative idiom. In Part 2, Chapter 5 elucidates an analytical method before Chapters 6,7,8 and 9 discuss the primary characteristics of his compositional language with musical examples drawn from across the oeuvre. Chapter 10 presents four Case-studies by examining in analytical detail, four of the six Symphonic works. These I have deemed to be of seminal importance for in them is the Dupre aesthetic arguably best exposed. In Part 3, chapter 11 engages with interpretative and esthesic matters in performance and recording before the interpretative issues in Dupre's works are considered in Chapter 12. Chapter 13 forms a Conclusion. Appendix A is a biographical timeline, Appendix B contains organ specifications referred to in Chapter 3 and Appendix C cites a lecture given by Dupre to Paris Conservatoire students in 1954. It is a document which expounds elegantly, and in Dupre's own words, the kernel of his artistry. Appendix D is a discography, Appendix E catalogues the complete Dupre oeuvre and Appendix F comprises miscellaneous and supporting documents.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:478903 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Filsell, Jeremy D. |
| Publisher | Birmingham City University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.002 seconds