11 Jeanne Demessieux’s Diaries and Letters from the North American Recital Tours (1953, 1955, and 1958) in Translation
Jeanne Demessieux’s North American recital tours are chronicled below by multiple materials. The 1953 tour is not described in a diary but in letters from which Trieu-Colleney quoted excerpts. These are framed by my own narrative derived from other sources—principally a Doctor of Musical Arts thesis by American organist Laura Ellis, and a scrapbook of Demessieux’s press cuttings that I inherited from Goosen Van Tuijl.1
These same sources, cited in endnotes, supplement the travel diary Demessieux kept during her 1955 tour. Beginning February 15, 1955, diary entries reproduced below are interspersed with excerpts from letters quoted by Trieu-Colleney to further portray Demessieux’s second visit to North America.
Finally, Demessieux’s third North American tour is the subject of her 1958 travel diary, again supplemented by other sources, which include the tour itinerary that specifies cities and venues.2
Each of the records mentioned above is incomplete. As a result, for some recitals known to have been performed the venue and the program content are unknown.
As much as possible, primary source materials are arranged in chronological order. Each piece of correspondence is headed by its date at the left margin and is in a shaded textbox. Centred dates signal diary entries, which are in unshaded textboxes. Explanatory comments on the content of letters and diaries occur in endnotes, as does information from other sources that is supplementary to a diary or letter.
First Transcontinental Tour of North America: February–March 1953
Travelling alone by ocean liner, Demessieux arrived in New York City shortly before January 31, 1953. The first evidence of this arrival is a February 1 New York Herald Tribune headline:
Organist Plays 1,000 to 2,000 Works by Heart: Frenchwoman, Here for a 25-Recital Tour, Left All of Her Scores at Home3
The accompanying write-up is based on an interview with Demessieux. The organist of New York’s Central Presbyterian Church—Hugh Giles—served as interpreter and was himself drawn out to talk about Demessieux’s extraordinary memory and pedal virtuosity.4 The rest of the newspaper article is devoted to Demessieux’s credentials. It also mentions that the day before she had performed a radio recital, heard over WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Station, on the organ of Temple Emanu-El, Fifth Avenue and 65th Street.
The recital tour officially opened on Monday, February 2, at New York’s Central Presbyterian Church, with the following program (hereafter called “Program No. 1”):
- Purcell, Trumpet Tune5
- Bach, Prelude and Fugue in A minor [BWV 543], “Das alte Jahr vergangen ist” [Orgelbüchlein], and Fugue in G major (“Gigue”)
- Franck, Pastorale
- Widor, Variations (Symphonie–Gothique)
- Messiaen, La Banquet céleste
- Demessieux, “Notes répétées” [Six Études] and “Dogme” [Sept Méditations sur le Saint Esprit]
- Jean Berveiller, Cadence6
- Improvisations on submitted themes7
Demessieux described the recital at Central Presbyterian Church, and some of her other experiences in Philadelphia and New York City, in a letter to her parents:8
New York, 5 February 1953
The recital created a huge effect. Given in a central location, at the Presbyterian Church on a beautiful organ.9 At the intermission, extraordinary, bubbling excitement. The two journals that publish reviews appear monthly; without waiting, one of them, The American Organist, sent me a letter terrible for my modesty...10
Yesterday [Wed., Feb. 4], played the Philadelphia Wanamaker organ (six manuals), was hosted, for the entire day, by the publishers Elkan and Vogel, distributors for Durand (my works in the display window).11
Welcomed in charming fashion by Patelson and Gray12 and especially by the executives at Decca.13 They [Patelson’s] have all my recordings, up to the most recent… This establishment compares very well with those of London, and Olof spoke of me to them, notably telling them how I had had the blowers [turbines et port-vents] of the Victoria Hall organ in Geneva swaddled… and saved the day…14
My train tickets are a curiosity. They are connected to each other like the perforated rolls of carousel music; the result: [they are] two metres long…15
The visit to Philadelphia, where Demessieux had opportunity to play the organ in the Wanamaker Department store, did not include a recital, as far as can be determined. Neither is there readily available evidence of concerts performed in the days immediately following February 4, 1953. According to a retrospective article published in a Belgian newspaper, Demessieux’s initial New York recital was followed by recitals in Baltimore; Exeter, N.H.; and Pittsburgh, each city reached by train.16 Ellis documents the Pittsburgh event as a February 10 recital at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania College for Women sponsored by the Möller Organ Company. The program (hereafter called “Program No. 2”) consisted of:
- Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor and a chorale prelude that was likely “Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein” [Orgelbüchlein]
- Handel, Concerto No. 1 in G minor17
- Franck, Pastorale
- Dupré, Symphonie-Passion: [“The World Awaiting the Savior”]
- Berveiller, Épitaphe
- Langlais, “Les Rameaux” [Trois poèmes évangéliques, Op. 7]
- Demessieux, “Ubi caritas” [Twelve Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes] and “Octaves” [Six Études]
- An improvisation on a given theme18
Following Pittsburgh, the Belgian newspaper article lists Canton, Ohio and Peoria, Illinois as cities in which Demessieux performed.19 According to Demessieux’s scrapbook of press cuttings, the Peoria recital occurred on the afternoon of Sunday, February 15, 1953 at First Methodist Church, where she repeated her “Program No. 1,” but with Franck’s Choral No. 3 in place of his Pastorale. As the last item on the program—an improvisation on a submitted theme—Demessieux extemporized a prelude and fugue based on the Lutheran chorale melody that sets “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”20
Then there is another gap in records of Demessieux’s 1953 tour. But according to a letter to her parents, sometime shortly before February 19, 1953, Demessieux played the organ at the University of Chicago. From that primary source it is not clear whether the visit included a recital or simply a promise of a recital engagement.
From a letter not quoted by Trieu-Colleney21
Chicago, 19 February 1953
A few words before leaving Chicago. . . It’s here that I played the organ of the much-vaunted university where Dupré was so triumphant22 and where Rolande [Falcinelli] gave classes [faire des cours].23 Dupré’s friend Marriott didn’t want to be compromised, but he assigned someone else to me who, after hearing me, wants to arrange a recital. It’s all a struggle of conflicting sympathies, but I have the impression that people [here] feel that D[upré] was exaggerating about me.[1]
I’m writing hurriedly at the station. I leave at 5:00 PM for New Orleans, where I’ll arrive tomorrow morning at 9:30. First class, sleeping car.
On February 22, 1953, Demessieux could be found in New Orleans where the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) presented her at St. Louis Cathedral. There she performed her “Program No. 2” again, concluding with an improvisation, this time on themes submitted by Ferdinand Dunkley, Henry S. Jacobs, and Walter Jenkins.24
Next it was on to Texas where, on February 24, 1953, Demessieux performed for the Texas chapter of the AGO at University Park Methodist Church in Dallas. Her repertoire was that of “Program No. 2” with inclusion of Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor instead of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, and omission of Berveiller’s Épitaphe. She concluded with an improvisation on a theme submitted by Henry Sanderson and then played two encores: Clérambault, “Basse et dessus de trompette” and Purcell, Trumpet Tune.25 According to the Belgian newspaper article, Demessieux also played a recital in Austin.26
From a letter to her parents:27
25 February 1953
. . . Yes, I have passed through some magnificent regions. In Louisiana, it was hot and humid, with such a scent of magnolias and flowers as to make one queasy. And the endless forests conceal cabins on stilts where one sees Black women surrounded by a flock of kids [volée de mioches], all splashing around in the water.28
In Texas it’s wilder, drier, with livestock farms for horses and little steers (cows, too, of course); people there are called “Marseillais” because they are braggarts,29 but they say they have “a drop of oil” when referring to their oil wells.
From a subsequent letter to her parents, undated:30
I look forward to California, which should be a bit like Provence. As far as comfort goes, I lack nothing. I have managed to buy myself such a variety of things that are comfortable and… synthetic… For my meals, I choose a lot of fruit juice and, often, grilled steak (so much for Lent!), which I sometimes have served in my room to avoid the racket [of restaurants].
I have one reception after another [to attend]; it’s hard for anyone to imagine. But, when I tell them I am doing a complete tour of the United States, alone, you could knock them over with a feather.
In California, according to the Belgian newspaper article, Demessieux performed in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco.31 Undated reviews preserved in her scrapbook indicate she performed in San Diego at First Presbyterian Church, this time her “Program No. 1” (with the piece by Franck being his Choral No. 3).32 Ellis gives March 8, 1953, as the date of a recital at Oakland’s First Methodist Church; this suggests that “San Francisco” of the Belgian article was really the nearby city of Oakland.33
That same publication chronicles what happened after California: Demessieux performed in Bloomington, Indiana, followed by Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The latter recital, according to a review preserved in Demessieux’s scrapbook, occurred on March 17, 1953, and was sponsored by the Brantford branch of the Royal Canadian College of Organists at Brant Avenue United Church.34 There she performed her “Program No. 2.”
From Brantford, Demessieux returned to the U.S. east coast where she had begun her tour. A letter to her parents notes two extra-itinerary recitals performed prior to March 21, 1953, one in Rochester, N.Y. on an unspecified date, and another in Glens Falls, N.Y. on March 20. A third “extra” recital to come is also mentioned in the letter: this must have been her March 22 return engagement at Central Presbyterian Church in New York City.
Glens Falls, New York, 21 March 195335
I have given two extra recitals: an inauguration in Rochester, with the Bishop presiding; yesterday evening’s in Glens Falls on an [organ of] “more than 100 stops”;36 a third extra will be in New York tomorrow under the auspices of the [French] Ambassador. [Playing] three different programs.
Of course, I spend my nights in sleeping cars [on the train]; fortunately, very comfortably. But this is a minor part of the process… [In general,] I am so exasperated by material things…
I wrote a long letter to Father de la Motte, which gave me more pleasure than those I have still to do.
The program for Demessieux’s March 22, 1953 return to New York’s Central Presbyterian Church included not only three works from her “Program No. 2” (Handel’s G-minor Concerto, Dupré’s “The World Awaiting the Savior,” and her own chorale prelude on “Ubi caritas”); it also introduced works not previously played on the tour. These were Dupré’s arrangement of the Overture from Bach’s Cantata No. 29, the Fantasia on “Ad nos, ad salutarem” by Liszt, and her own “Étude in Thirds” from Six Études.37Virgil Thomson wrote of this recital:
. . . Accustomed, no doubt, to compensating for the acoustical lags and other echoing characteristics of France’s vast cruciform churches, all stone and glass, she employed to great advantage in the smaller but similarly reverberant walls of the Central Presbyterian a staccato touch for all rapid passage work involving bright or loud registration. This device kept the brilliance clean, and its contrast with the more sustained utterance of broader themes gave a welcome variety, a contrapuntal dimension. We are not used here to so dry an articulation, to so striking a clarity in organ playing. I must say that the fine brightness in the organ she was playing on aided the artist, as a good French organ also does, to avoid the muddy noises that so often pass for serious organ execution.38
From a letter to her parents:39
23 March 1953
Recital number 2 in New York yesterday evening was truly a consecration. Standing-room only was allowed for some while others had to be turned away. The feverish atmosphere of grand evenings.
Ellis describes the March 22 concert at New York’s Central Presbyterian Church as the final recital of Demessieux’s 1953 tour.40 However, Boston newspaper reviews preserved in Demessieux’s scrapbook document that on the evening of March 23 she performed at the invitation of the Boston chapter of the AGO. The venue was Boston’s Symphony Hall, and her repertoire consisted of “Program No. 1,” including Franck’s Choral No. 3 and an improvisation on a theme submitted by Carl McKinley.41
The New York Herald Tribune article of February 1, 1953 had reported that the tour was to consist of 25 concerts; of these I have given details concerning 19, three of which were extra to the original itinerary. The high number of concerts scheduled for the period February 2 through March 23, 1953 would suggest an average of one recital every two days. In that case, it is no wonder that Demessieux spent many of her nights sleeping on trains.
After Demessieux’s return home to France, to her sister Yolande:42
8 May 1953
After the U.S., I had to leave almost immediately again for Ireland and England, not without having rushed to Liège between times for my classes.43
Second Transcontinental Tour of North America: February–March 1955
From Demessieux’s travel diary:44
Friday 28 January 1955
Left Paris this morning; [then] Le Havre at 2:00 PM on the [ocean liner] Liberté, just like two years ago. Beautiful weather.
Life on board is getting organized: they’re opening the library, posting activities, etc. I’ve taken a deckchair near the bridge, reserved a table for one from where I can see people without suffering their conversation. Even my cabin is private: exclusively for me. In this way, I will manage to lead, for five days, an untamed (or vegetative!) life during which I expect a good rest. Posted two letters and a postcard from Southampton. [Here] I’m intentionally avoiding commentary on my “departure” so as not to mix meaningful things into the “chronicle” that I will compile quickly each day as a travel diary.
[2] Saturday 29 January 1955
Seasick. Wild sea, portholes closed with shutters. The second sea sickness of my career! Skipped the captain’s cocktail party; did manage to eat a little this evening.
Sunday 30 January 1955
A very sick abbé on board was nevertheless able to say Mass. [I] was able to go down to the dining room. This evening, the sea raged anew. I exhausted myself by reading, to forget where I’ve come from, where I’m going. I was introduced to a composer: Devèze (?) Varèse (?).45
Wednesday 2 February 1955
After two stormy days. I was able to overcome sea sickness but could scarcely stay standing. Yesterday, though, I was allowed free access to the rear bridge, twice; I was able to see at close range a sea that had become green, foamy, and huge; heard the wind in the ropes, like an enormous plein jeu,46 helping the boat battle the waves. A marvel of the elements equal (at last!) to the human soul. Consolation, peace, amidst the raging.
Thursday 3 February 1955
Difficult landing in New York: the port frozen. 17 degrees below zero. Saw [the impresario Henry] Colbert at the harbour. Good hotel on 57th Street (Great [3] Northern). Considerable delay.
Thursday 4 February 1955
Day of paperwork with Colbert and [Liliane] Murtagh.47 Papers, schedules, tickets, reservations, contracts, programs to modify, last-minute engagements to discuss, finances. Launch of a grand tour: head = power station. They put everything in your hands; everything is ready, except what is to follow. Up to you to organize yourself, know how to file the smallest piece of paper, to forget nothing. You are responsible for trains missed, schedules changed. You must not get the wires of your “station” crossed. You can leave. Bon voyage.
Play well? That’s up to you.
Worked for two hours at the organ.
Saturday 5 February 1955
Left this morning for Glens Falls, [a] small city, charmingly situated. White houses in the forest I was acquainted with.48 Deep cold. The Hudson completely frozen over, with no puddles. I was tired, but rediscovered [4] how comfortable the trains are: remarkable.
Brought by car from Fort Edward, I [then] had to wait until 7:00 in the evening to work, due to the organizers. A long walk relaxed me. I was late to bed.
Huge, ugly organ. “A lemon” [“Un fromage”]! the resident organist said to me.49
Sunday 6 February 1955
First recital. A large crowd.
I had arisen rested; but… snow! Obviously milder weather. No desire to go out, slip, [or] catch a cold; I reluctantly forsook Sunday Mass. Also [forsook] the Lake George waterfalls, where they were to take me.50 Worked again before the recital, this one at 4 PM.
Demessieux’s 1955 Glens Falls program (hereafter called “Program No. 1”) consisted of:51
- Bach, Toccata in F major and “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” [probably from the Orgelbüchlein]
- Handel Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major
- Franck, Choral No. 2 in B minor
- Widor, Allegro (Sixth Symphony)
- Berveiller, Intermezzo (Suite)
- Demessieux, Triptyque
- improvisation on a submitted theme
Sunday 6 February 1955, continued:
This evening [after the recital,] I left the hotel with a Black man by taxi as far as the busses, where I took one that got me to Albany at about 11:00 PM. There, I got on a Pullman [sleeping car on a train] and went to bed, not without having guzzled a barrel of ice water at the train’s fountain: salvation for recital artists who are dying from thirst after playing!
The snow is melting. The roads looked like streams, or nearly so!… cesspools at any rate. Enormous geysers dousing the bus, whose back end was swerving so strongly at one point [5] that I shouted out to the conductor.
Monday 7 February 1955
Arrived in New York at 7:30 AM (the train had been in the station since 4:00 AM [le train était en gare depuis 4h.). Groggy after a heavy sleep, it was hard to pull myself from my lower [bunk], only to find a deserted, damp platform.
But I was able to check in to my hotel room that morning. Bath, rest. Dropped by C[olbert’s] in the late morning. A little tour of 5th Avenue; beautifully sunny. I asked for directions at Cook’s [travel agency], went into the cathedral. I would have liked to push on to the Empire State [Building] and go up; no time; this was not yet the day.
Worked after lunch.
Received a telephone call from Van Wyck, [who is] in N.Y. for a few days.
In the evening, recital. A crowd.
Demessieux’s 1955 recital at Central Presbyterian Church (hereafter called “Program No. 2”) consisted of:52
- Bach, Fantasia and Fugue in G minor and “Liebster Jesu, wir sind hier” [probably from the Orgelbüchlein]
- Buxtehude, Fugue in C
- Handel, Concerto No. 10 in D minor
- Schumann, Canon in B minor
- Franck-Berveiller, Rédemption: Interlude symphonique
- Vierne, Scherzo (Sonata No. 2)
- Demessieux, “Paix” [Sept Méditations sur le Saint Esprit]
- Messiaen, “Dieu parmi nous” [La Nativité du Seigneur]
Monday 7 February 1955 [continued]
Afterward, I was treated as an exotic animal [bête curieuse]. Men look at you a certain way, women in another. A disreputable looking group of the latter offered me a handful of flowers, taking me by the waist. No one was likeable. The Colberts did not even come! I returned alone, driven back by [6] Giles53 and, for obvious reasons, I brooded and read until quite late.
Thursday 8 February 1955
Drudgery in Philadelphia. Dinner with Mr. Kohn of Vogel Associates (Elkan-Vogel),54 20 minutes away by train. They kept me on to meet “some friends” who arrived late; they took me back to the station and I returned alone at 11:00 PM.
Saw Van Wyck this morning, cordial, gentlemanly. Next, spent time at Colbert’s where they strongly insinuated that V. W. would lay claim to a stake concerning my two tours of [North] America. They insisted [even] when I responded that V. W. has always declared himself to be disinterested in this subject. I left, disgusted, all my joy at running into a friend dampened.
Saw the organ for a half hour.
Wednesday 9 February 1955
Lunched with Mrs. Vogel and Mrs. Kohn. Positively influenced by the house of Durand regarding me.
Worked. Good recital, a crowd, organ of several divisions according to the American formula.55 After the recital, [the] usual, interminable parade of audience members, [7] small, fancy cakes, etc.
Thursday 10 February 1955
Harrisburg. Arrived at lunch time and played in the evening; had to use subterfuge to avoid a “lunch,” a “dinner,” a stupid television “appearance” placed during the only time I could rehearse, a visit to the city, etc. By these means, I was able to work for three hours, the organ being, moreover, in a bad state, the combinations refusing to function.
Finally, the recital,56 where my relationship with the audience was particularly good.* Afterward: an interminable and uninteresting [receiving] line: introduced, one by one, to each person, who knows only to say to you, “I enjoyed your recital very much.” Thank you.57 You could play like a nitwit—it would be worth the same.
* While playing, I suddenly thought to myself: “If it were necessary to give this up, I could never.”
Friday 11 February 1955
Left at 7:00 in the morning [only] to learn at the station that the train for New York was two hours late—and [I had] a connection to make! I took a train for Philadelphia where I barely caught another train for [8] New York where, finally, I again found one for Syracuse after having telephoned Colbert. Sudden, extremely violent, snowstorm. Having sent word by telegram, [I] was met at the station in the evening.
Saturday 12 February 1955
Recital at Syracuse University; excellent organ: only three manuals [and] in classic style (1950), the new trend.58 Success, but a small crowd due to the weather. Tremendous snow, tremendous wind whose torrential noise dominated everything.
The university (the charm of American universities) being situated on a hill, the car that drove me declined the challenge, started to go adrift, and stopped sideways in a snowdrift. They led me on foot, strongly supported amidst eddies of powdered snow and wind that took one’s breath away. In boots and a suit, I changed in the dressing room.
Presently I am waiting, in the hotel lounge, for my train to Texas (on time); [the trip will take] one night, one day, [9] another night, and another morning.
Kind people who are respectful of my rest and my work.
There is smallpox in this city; entire sections of the university as well as the schools are closed.
Some splendid jazz heard in the hotel.
Monday 14 February 1955
Arrived in Houston, the “richest city in Texas,” after two days on the train. Here, marvels: balmy air, sun, bird calls, green trees. An abrupt, but happy, transition. Breathe! Breathe!
Saturday evening, having been driven to the station for the expected hour, I noticed that the train was to be an hour and a half late. Nighttime wait in the lounge among some dirty and tired travellers—the same kind of people who get food hampers—while the floors were given over to the cleaners. Difficult struggle against sleep! A “cafeteria” [was] open, [so] I went to have a piping hot coffee among workmen on their break. Finally, [walked] the length of the deserted platform, thick with ice, before being welcomed by a Black steward at the [10] carriage door.
On Sunday: physically and somewhat mentally exhausted! My birthday [February 13]—down in the dumps. Frightful weather. Changed trains in St. Louis: 3½ hours late. Again, a comfortable roomette, a restaurant.
This afternoon [Monday in Houston], things are going better. A woman came to meet me at the station. I shut myself away for an hour in the hotel, read the mail, tried to find myself again. Then I went out to get some air and walked straight ahead for another hour. Returned by taxi. I rang the church in vain, tried without success to telephone the organizer.
Evening, at 7:30, I ordered my dinner in the room; right then, it was proposed I see the organ. I was trying to beg off, but at their insistence, I put up with eating my soup and beefsteak cold two hours later.
Tuesday 15 February 1955
Quiet day. Declined lunch. Work, rest, recital, reception.59 Cold people. Good audience.
Two excerpts from a letter to Yolande:60
15 February 1955
This tour is going along the best it possibly can, which is to say, exactly like last time, with added experience…
. . .
What they call “little indulgences” (invitations, dinners, receptions) are not really offered for my pleasure, but only because they have to be done, without taking into account… my fatigue. As for smiling, this is the most tiring thing: it is required constantly, so I do… It is “the others” who benefit from my smiling, [and] I have nothing left for myself, for one cannot remain constantly over–extended… It is “the others” who are indulged… and I earn my money by a thousand efforts beyond those of playing…
Wednesday 16 February 1955
Morning train. Houston. Fort Worth. I was met at the station and invited to lunch.
[11] Marvelous sun. Alas, American women only like the shade; dubious atmospheres. Also, I once again take note of the blinds, the completely opaque curtains on the windows, the indirect electric light, the colours saffron, old red, and dark green, the “dance music” of a theatre organ: it’s enough to make you sick.
[Texas Christian] University is miles away; my very small hotel, on a road between the city and the university. Impossible to go out walking. Saw the organ.61
Dined at [the hotel] (no restaurant, but a cafeteria that could be charming with a companion…). The men brazenly peer at you!
Thursday 17 February 1955
Worked for three hours in the morning. Afternoon, mail. I am pooped! [Je suis poupée!] Dined at the home of the organist and his wife. Young married couple living in a single-storey, wooden house: a single room, kitchenette, bathroom. No car. Poor people, for this place! Infinitely kind. The husband, who has secured a grant, wants to come work in Liège next year.62 I helped make [12] supper, wearing an apron.
From a letter to her parents:63
17 February 1955
It’s pleasant to find a letter upon arriving in each city. Do you know that my recordings are known everywhere?… I am delighted… I always had the notion of the importance of [making] recordings.
Leaving here, I’m going to be on one heck of a journey, a heck of a journey, again!64 The [Pullman] roomette is terrific because one can closet oneself for the entire journey if one wishes, in front of loads of buttons for automation: air conditioning, ventilation, lights, hot and cold water, ice (for drinks), paper cups, napkins, soap...
Friday 18 February 1955
Morning in bed; aching all over! Afternoon, the usual work.
Recital* in the evening, lots of people, success, two encores.65 Reception. Suitcases. As usual, got to bed around one o’clock, not without having drunk two cups of coffee, a glass of beer, and two glasses of water one after the other!
*Again while playing [it occurred to me that I could never give up performing]: “Of course, I am alone in realizing this.”
Saturday 19 February 1955
Breakfast at the home of the organist, with a loaned car.66
Train at 9:30 AM for California. Roomette, restaurant. Slept the entire morning. No more feeling down in the dumps! Will arrive tomorrow, late afternoon.
[Saw] Texan deserts, dotted with [oil] wells. Chasing the sun setting slowly in front of the train. Sky without a shadow, linear horizon. No more roads. A path [Une piste].
From an undated letter to her parents:67
Pasadena
… I have finally reached the Pacific coast. We are, thus, separated by 12,000 kilometres or, at any rate, an interval of 9 hours . . .
There were lots of people at the recital in Fort Worth. Very good reviews.
Left Texas Saturday morning… Crossed two deserts: that of Texas—flat, very “burned ground”; that of Arizona—rockier, with gigantic, barbarous prickly pear [cacti] sticking up every now and then like ghosts.
Finally! California: very Provence exagérée, with its extraordinary sunsets, violet mountains, orange trees, flowering mimosas, camellias, palms, and fountains. The air is fresh despite the heat . . .
On a slant, on the next diary page:
… The second tour’s travel diary ends here, for lack of time. Will the third “diary” [for the next tour] make it to the end?…
Though Demessieux spent time in California, there is no record of her formal engagements there during the 1955 tour, or of any recitals played between February 18 in Fort Worth and February 28 in Seattle. This suggests that the time in California was vacation. During that time, Demessieux nonetheless showed off her skills as an organist, albeit in an academic setting.
From a letter to her parents:68
2 March 1955
Guess what! I spent a day with Darius Milhaud and his wife at Mills College (San Francisco) where I played for the students and professors. Milhaud having asked for one of my works, I played my fugue, which pleased him very much. Then he gave me a “learned” theme on which I improvised another fugue: he was amazed, saying that he has never seen improvising equal to it…
He and his wife [were] so kind, wanting me to rest, to unwind. They live on the grounds of the college, which is like a little city, in a single-storey house that resembles ours in Aigues-Mortes, isolated on a hilltop, surrounded by woods and flowers. D. Milhaud gets around in a wheelchair… It was he who welcomed me, asking me right away if I knew that [Paul] Claudel had died.69
For dinner, they had invited an excellent organist, a student of Jean Langlais. There was also a composer.70 Unaffectedness, spontaneous affinity, [and] at last, wit…
I left them early the next morning, not without regret. They made me promise to visit them again, in Paris, where they will be in September.
Having left California, on February 28, 1955 Demessieux performed at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington, where her recital was similar to “Program No. 2,” but with Bach’s Toccata in F major in place of the Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, exclusion of that program’s piece by Schumann, and addition of Berveiller’s “Intermezzo” (from Suite).71
According to Laura Ellis’s research, following Seattle on February 28, Demessieux’s 1955 concert tour continued with recitals in the American Midwest, including one at Milwaukee’s Ascension Lutheran Church (date unknown).72 Then, in Chicago on March 7, she performed at St. Peter’s Catholic Church, at the invitation of the Chicago Club of Women Organists, a recital that was essentially her “Program No. 2.”73
According to a press clipping preserved in her scrapbook, on the afternoon of Saturday, March 12, 1955 Demessieux performed in Boston’s Symphony Hall. This was a recital sponsored by the Music Commission of the Archdiocese of Boston, in collaboration with the Diocesan Seminary Choir under the direction of the Rev. Russell H. Davis. For this occasion, Demessieux combined the pre-twentieth-century repertoire from her “Program No. 1” with four of her Twelve Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes appropriate to Holy Week and Easter—“Stabat Mater,” “Vexilla Regis,” “Hosanna filio David,” and “O Filii et Filiae”—the themes of which were intoned by the choir. Her improvisation was based on the familiar “Tantum ergo” chant, and she played as an encore her “Étude in Thirds” (Six Études).74
Then on March 15, 1955 Demessieux performed at a cathedral in Washington, D.C. her “Program No. 1” with Liszt’s Fantasia on “Ad nos, ad salutarem” in place of the Widor and the twentieth-century repertoire.75
While touring the midwestern and eastern U.S., Demessieux brought her parents up to date concerning her time spent in California back in February.
From a letter to her parents:76
17 March 1955
I’ve seen some marvellous things in California. By car, I traveled through forests of sequoias and redwoods—giant trees, 2,000 to 4,000 years old! I saw real blue birds, [and] parrots. Then, along the Pacific coast, I saw, on the rocks, a colony of elephant seals, barking almost like dogs. Finally, in the four seasons chapel, I played among the enormous banana trees and orchids of all kinds.77
… Travelling so far away, one is led to reflect deeply and to appreciate all, whatever it may be, for its true value…
It’s this collection of hidden virtues in which I was raised that saves me from frightful banality and pettiness… This also makes me judgemental… and it’s not always amusing!…
Returning to the Midwest, Demessieux performed three recitals in short order. On March 18, 1955, she played on the 1927 Skinner organ at the Toledo Museum of Art a program that again included the Liszt Fantasia on “Ad nos, ad salutarem.”78 According to a review preserved in her scrapbook, on Sunday, March 20 she performed her “Program No. 1” at First Evangelical United Brethren Church in the vicinity of the cities of Westerville and Columbus, Ohio.79 Ellis also notes that on March 21 Demessieux played in Buffalo, N.Y. at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church.80
Demessieux’s 1955 tour concluded with a recital at St. John the Divine in New York City for which no program seems to have been preserved.81
Finally, Demessieux took the time to reflect briefly on her overall travel experience as an international organ recitalist in an undated letter to her sister.
To Yolande, after Demessieux’s return to France:82
I will send my reviews from the United States… They are very good.
Extremely tiring journey—as hard for the morale as for the body in a country so different from Europe. The life of an artist is hard, too, because it’s necessary not only to work but also to “represent,” endure interviews, constantly share general ideas about French art, be hosted...
I encountered Charles Munch in Boston…83
Amidst so many things, my health has held up!
Third Transcontinental Tour of North America: January 31–March 1958
According to a letter dated November 15, 1957, written in Paris to Yolande, that autumn Demessieux dealt with a constant stream of files and long letters to and from the U.S.; she was set to leave on January 22, 1958, not to return until Easter.84 Her third tour would be different in that one of her students, Claudine Verchère, accompanied her to assist in handling mundane aspects of the tour.
Demessieux began her 1958 travel diary, writing in the same notebook as she had used in 1955, after arriving in New York City. Beneath the heading “Troisième Tournée aux États-Unis (Janvier-Mars 1958)” she added a subheading, “Concise summary of daily life on tour.”
[1] Concise summary of daily life on tour
Arrived in New York January 27 by the Queen Elizabeth [ocean liner], accompanied by my student Claudine Verchère [C. V.] as secretary. Colbert was waiting for me on the quay.
Very good hotel, the New Western, on the corner of Madison and 50th Street. [We] have 8 large suitcases.
28–29 January 1958
In touch with the office of Colbert-Laberge; [am] breaking in C. V. I worked at the Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue;85 took a walk, [then] rested. It is beautiful and mild outdoors.
The idea of being assisted in the myriad of practical details of a tour is seems to me of amazing benefit.
[Squeezed between lines:] I bought myself a camera and played around with it.
Thursday 30 January 1958
Sitting for a photographer at the organ of St. John the Divine. In between, I tried out my Te Deum, inspired by this organ, and to my relief, it’s what I’d imagined.86
[Squeezed between lines:] With sorrow, learned of the death of [G. Donald] Harrison of Skinner [Organs].87
The same day, arrived at Glens Falls. Astonishing weather conditions: the Hudson [River] is as frozen as an [2] ice floe. Heavy snow in Glens Falls, but sunny. Hotel exquisitely decorated. Ate at drugstores [lunch counters].
31 January 1958
Rehearsed peacefully [at First Presbyterian Church in Glens Falls]. [The] organist [is] a Dupré student, very nice.88 He is working on my Six Études [and] J. B[erveiller]’s Cadence.
Dined at the hotel [in] very stylish, calm surroundings. The manager greeted me at my table; [as did] several people who will be at the recital. My portrait in the hall.
Good recital. My interpretation commanded respect. The audience, extremely taken, its silence “impressive” (as Claudine V. would say). Personal satisfaction. 900 people. Five-manual organ, lacking mixtures. Beautiful foundation stops. Reeds imported from Cavaillé-Coll.89 Tuned by the [church] organist. The ensemble sounded quite good. One horror: the GO [Great manual] coupler coupled to itself at the fifth!
Demessieux’s Glens Falls program (hereafter, “Program No. 1”) consisted of:90
- Bach, Overture (Cantata No. 29), and Fantasy in G major [BWV 571]
- Mozart, Fantasy No. 2 in F minor
- Clérambault, “Basse et Dessus de Trompette” [Suite du premier ton]
- Liszt, Prelude and Fugue on B-A-C-H
- Demessieux, “Attende Domine” [Twelve Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes]
- Messiaen, “Transports de joie d’une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne” (L’Ascension)
- Improvisation on a submitted theme
Saturday 1 February 1958
Took a taxi back to Fort Edward [N.Y.]; snow and sun. Train halted on its route. [We were the] only passengers. They thought I was Canadian. Transferred again in Albany, sandwiches [eaten] on the dirty station benches. Returned to New York.
Sunday 2 February 1958
Viewed photo proofs. Heard Mass [3] at St. Patrick’s. Instead of leaving for Newark at 5:00 [PM], proposed 6:00. Visited the Empire State [Building] for the second time in order to take photos. Quick lunch at a restaurant. No one in New York on Sunday except on the 102nd floor of the Empire [State Building].
Arrived in Newark to repeated and panic-stricken telephone calls from Miss Murtagh, who had been informed that I was not there “in time.”91 She scolded me like a little girl at the other end of the phone. Very self-possessed, I calmed her down and made it clear to her that I always do what I want. By the way, C. V. could hardly believe all this, as usual. Fortunately, she has a lot of backbone, good character, and withstands misadventures well.
Worked until 9:00 PM (the time suggested by the organist). Upon my return to the hotel, the restaurant was closed. They vaguely indicated which way to go, and we ended up in a café filled with Blacks and Asians, with two women of the same type. They served us very graciously. I was on the verge of depression… and C. V. could not believe her eyes [4] at this Bohemian [life] consisting of climbing and descending the entire social ladder in one fell swoop. It’s the touring life. Murtagh Colbert said of virtuosos: “surrounded by too many, or too much alone.” This evening, I clearly heard gunshots more than once, from somewhere about 200 metres away. Brr…
C. V. is using the typewriter in the neighbouring [hotel] room.
The [church] organ, a 1930 Austin, is horrible, heavy, [a] theatre [organ].92 It’s what Dupré liked, unfortunately.
Monday 3 February 1958
In very good form [for the] recital.93 Audience very enthusiastic, keyed-up. Applause. Photos. Never-ending reception [line]: the entire hall paraded by. C. V. made me sit down; but it’s unbearable to see people leaning over you as they parade by! I rejected my chair, asked for a cup of coffee. After an hour, managed to slip away [filer à l’anglaise]94 with the organist’s help.
[Earlier] in the day, had lunch, then slept two hours. Worked three hours.
At the hotel [after the recital], unwound. It was snowing and there was an even icier wind. C. V.’s big suitcase would not shut; we bound it with straps.
[5] Tuesday 4 February 1958
Morning departure. The agency made a mistake: the Newark–Philadelphia ticket missing. Murtagh informed of this 2 days ago. They came too late to get us, in a scramble. Snow, wind. But in perfect health! Fell asleep at 3:30 [AM] (9:30 in Paris…).
In Philadelphia, lunched with Vogel, Kohn (his associate), Dr. McCurdy,95 etc. Worked. Two hours’ rest in a room at the Warwick Hotel.
Very good recital [this evening], church full.96 Extraordinary silence. Improvised a chorale-paraphrase and fugue on a theme by McCurdy… dark and quite beautiful. The audience followed extraordi perfectly, [with] extreme intensity, and I did whatever I wanted. All very impressed. Unlike the two preceding tours, it seemed that my… persona is now (how to say it?) ranked here.
Rested at the hotel, in the lounges, where [overly] friendly Americans accosted us no fewer than five times!… Since there were two of us, this was more amusing, although the Yankee clumsiness was less so…
Train at half-past midnight. C. V. mislaid the tickets; we had [6] to arrange with the ticket collector to make a call to Colbert. At 2:30 in the morning the tickets were found! C. V. was on the verge of tears, and I had the giggles. This time, she understood “everything.” A sleeping-car to Chicago.
Wednesday 5 February 1958
Arrived in Chicago at 3:00 PM. Change of station, checked luggage. A quick ride, then dinner in the “Prudential Insurance” building with the organizer of the March 10 recital. Having gone up to the 40th floor, saw a very beautiful Chicago at night. Sleeping-car at 10:00 PM to Nashville.
This push to Chicago was originally intended for a rehearsal; but the organ wasn’t available!…
Thursday 6 February 1958
Arrived in Nashville around 10:30 in the morning. Found the organist wandering in the station, luggage arriving generally on the other side: basic logistics always difficult!
Rehearsed for one hour. University a long way out.97 Organ in a bad state: one octave of the Pedal gives you the choice of a trumpet on the C-sharp, the flute on D, the principal chorus of the Positif on D-sharp!! But by simply grazing the [7] keys, you have some chance of only getting various foundation stops. Lunched [at a] drugstore. Rehearsed again. But I was so sleepy that I went back [to the hotel] at 3:00. Very good hotel. I wrote a letter… then set about some urgent sewing. At 6:00 PM, tea, toast, sandwiches.
Finally, the recital. Audience of Black students, very distinguished.98 Applause; they cheered and stood. The required reception, the quasi-obligatory speech and response. Very impressed by my improvised prelude and fugue. They insisted upon my speaking about my European tours…
In the evening, noticed that the typewriter is no longer working. Must get it repaired!
Friday 7 February 1958
February 1958.
Got up late. Rested while C. V. got the typewriter and the suitcase repaired.
Two hours of shopping. Found a Horowitz record. Suitcases [packed], dined at the hotel where we were given a room with television for the evening. [At] midnight, departed [this time with] lower [bunks], [and an] arrangement of curtains;99 suitcases everywhere. Mad giggles of C. V. whom I left to her own devices; [8] I withdrew into my tent and “buttoned” my door. Heading for St. Louis.
Saturday 8 February 1958
Arrived in St. Louis at 8:00 in the morning. The organizer was at the train station and immediately whisked me away to record an interview that would air on the radio at 4:00 PM. No time to stop at the hotel. Not having foreseen this, I did not get breakfast, nor did C. V.
February 1958
The interview was fine, but I categorically refused [to sit for] the usual journalistic–style photo, and referred them to the “official” photos, which I’d already had enough trouble posing for!
Back at the hotel at 11:00 AM, I passed on breakfast and had lunch at noon. Impossible to get time to work [on the organ] today.
The weather is nice, very cold (10 centigrade), with ice and frozen snow. Good long walk in “winter sports” gear; [took some] photos, incognito. It was good! Piping hot coffee upon [our] return. Mail. Dictated letters.
Sunday 9 February 1958
Low Mass at St. Louis Cathedral. Lunch at the home of the organizer, nice. At the University, worked for 2 hours without [9] power due to a short-circuit.
Returned by tram. Terribly cold. Dined in the room. Feeling rested.
Monday 10 February 1958
The day began with a half-dramatic, half-comic incident. During my silent practising yesterday, and as I listened, I was disturbed by another organ sound coming from the basement that kept me from concentrating. So, I thought to stuff my ears with… cotton balls because I did not have ear plugs [boules Quiès]! Then I removed them gently. This morning while showering, I went completely deaf in my right ear, a fleck of paper, swollen with water, at the far end [of the ear canal]. I imagined the recital! Finally, the two [of us], and by means of all sorts of tools, managed to rectify the situation.
Claudine did the shopping, the cooking (a fridge-stove set-up, supplies in the rooms, quite contemporary!). Three-hour practice. Rest.
Recital at Washington University.100 Again, audience very taken. I played J. B[erveiller]’s Mouvement101 for the first time. This was also the first public hearing of my Te Deum.
Demessieux’s program at Washington University (hereafter, Program No. 2) consisted of:102
- Bach, Prelude and Fugue in D major [BWV 532] and “De profundis,” [“Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir,” BWV 686]
- Vivaldi-Bach, Concerto No. 2 in A minor [BWV 593]
- Franck, Pièce héroïque
- Berveiller, Mouvement
- Demessieux, “Rorate cœli” [Twelve Choral Preludes on Gregorian Chant Themes] and Te Deum
- Improvisation on a submitted theme
[10] Tuesday 11 February 1958
Day without incident. Late morning afternoon train for St. Louis Denver. [Had] lower bunks in the train, always fitted out with little curtains and partitions [mâchicoulis]; ladders of all kinds! [We are] at the very rear of the train, where one can see the countryside pass from the rear balcony, as from a “presidential” train. As a result, one cannot keep a standing position and it’s quite a sport to retrieve one’s slippers amid the curtains.
Wednesday 12 February 1958
Arrived in Denver this morning at 8:00. On the platform, the porters were looking for the “French organist.”103 I encountered a reporter, a photographer (again!), the cathedral priest, the organist, then a former Liberation officer and his wife whom I had “married” at St-Esprit in 1945. They piled 6 people and 8 suitcases into an enormous car going to the hotel. The French living abroad, what snobs they are!
Rehearsal, lunch. I returned to put final touches on the Te Deum. Rested, but sleep was impossible. Still, delightful rooms.
Recital from the gallery with cathedral ambience and acoustics. 1,200 people.104
[11] Comic incident: during the “intermission,” the priest climbed to the pulpit to say, “my brothers, so that you can rest for five minutes, you may stand up.” And standing up in their places, people turned to give me polite little smiles; then they sat back down again, and I continued. [Afterwards, an] invasion, downstairs, towards the gallery—very genuine. I asked to stop by my lodgings, then was taken to celebrate at the French consulate (consul: Baron Louis de Cabrol), where snobbism is fierce, but where I found the consul very friendly, especially as he had made the crepes himself. Got back at midnight.
Thursday 13 February 1958
Left Denver at 8:30 AM for the magnificent trip to California.105 Took numerous photos. 27 hours on the train.
Friday 14 February 1958
Arrived in Chico, California under torrential rain! Still, I disembarked from the train in Oroville directly opposite an orange tree and a lemon tree in fruit. Thirty kilometres by car, which seemed to transport us more by air than road; [spent] 10 minutes at the hotel; then [12] rehearsal, rest, and recital in the evening. I note, in passing: little organ with 12 stops!106
Saturday 15 February 1958
Returned to Oroville by car, the roadway surrounded by mimosas, “oaks,”107 olive trees, birds, clearer weather. Arrived at 3rd Street in Oakland. Two delegated young people bravely took on 8 suitcases—and incidentals, because these are increasing, little by little—and shoved these, with difficulty, into an enormous car. Hotel perfectly situated, beside a lake. [Took a] little stroll, the air very mild, the climate refreshing. I rehearsed. C. V. took care of the shopping and the cooking.
Sunday 16 February 1958
Mass in Oakland.* Rehearsal. Recital.108 Unforgettable evening: perfect, intelligent audience, so much so that I dared give my Te Deum as an encore, simply because the organ suited it perfectly, and I so wished to hear it. And I thought, also, that Darius Milhaud might hear about it.109
*[Heard] Gounod’s Ave Maria on the organ, with tremolo and expression box on every 1st and 3rd beat.
Monday 17 February 1958
Left Oakland for Sacramento. The weather was nice. No one met me. [13] Had to find the church, get the doors and the organ opened for me. But, in a ray of sunshine, made it to a particularly beautiful park and played for a long time with the squirrels.
Tuesday 18 February 1958
Rest. Work. Recital in Sacramento.110 Obliged to wear an enormous bunch of white flowers trimmed with ribbon on my dress. I know, I’m having a sulk. Bland audience.*
In the afternoon, bought a little sky-blue rabbit for my godson.111 C. V. thought it so pretty that she went back and bought similar ones, one for her and one for me!
*Dreadful occurrence: the reception after the recital was 25 miles away. Beautiful house and furniture.
Wednesday 19 February 1958
From now on, I travel with 8 suitcases and C., along with three little sky-blue rabbits. Returned to Oakland, beside the lake. Again, damage to the typewriter.
Thursday 20 February 1958
Daytrip to San Francisco before taking the evening train. Glorious weather. Several hours on the beach and the pier. The Pacific [was] full of foam. This evening, San Jose.
Friday 21 February 1958
[In] San Jose, rest, rehearsal. Recital.112 The console is situated [14] in a pit such that the audience can see only my head. This time I did not have a moment of vertigo!
But I did find myself trapped in the “ladies” thanks to a sophisticated door system!
Saturday 22 February 1958
Took the train along the Pacific coast, north to south. Splendid weather, the views likewise. [Took] photos. A few kilometres by car to Pasadena. A rather unexceptional cicerone!113 First-class hotel amid forest and gardens. Very Californian. Mild and refreshing climate.
Sunday 23 February 1958
Mass in Pasadena, three kilometres by foot amid palm trees and flowers. Took a taxi back. Lounged about in [casual wear] during the afternoon, on a chaise-longue in the garden. Rehearsed.
Monday 24 February 1958
February 1958.
Rest, rehearsal, recital.114 For three days, the delegated cicerone had to be put in his place—not, for all that, that he would stay there! I am angry and appalled that the organizers would choose such a person. Following the recital, a senseless [receiving] line of Guild “members,” real numbskulls! The “queue” kept stopping for chatter, and then suddenly realized that [15] I was there as they passed in front of me.
There had been a lunch, organized by the Guild, I believe. Hardly any members, even though a rich industrialist was covering the expense. Without Don’t understand.
Tuesday 25 February 1958
Lounged again at the Sheraton, did some shopping in Pasadena. Then, big evening departure from Los Angeles for Fort Worth, in other words, a night, a day, and another night on the train.
Wednesday 26 February 1958
Day of comfort and staying in one place (if, at 90 kilometres per hour, I can express it this way). Spectacular desert panoramas in New Mexico. Sandstorm.
Disembarked at the El Paso platform, tremendous wind, radiant sun. Train shunting. We were eating sand! The Texan desert. The air conditioning had to be shut off and the ventilation system activated [due to] sand getting everywhere and making it impossible to breathe. I took some photos (7). Once again, the noble Black man is all devotion, keeps watch from afar, and laughs like a child.
[16] Thursday 27 February 1958
Arrived in Fort Worth this morning at 6:00 AM; the time having changed in Texas, that was 4:00 AM in California, 1:00 PM in Paris… On the platform, I realized that my trunk gaped open on one side! We were driven to the hotel, C. V. and me. Water, water!
A good breakfast. Rest. Rehearsal. The weather is very fine, and quite windy. The university is very far away.115 I recognized the hall, which reminds me of Pleyel.116
Friday 28 February 1958
Got up late. Another rehearsal at the university where I had the console positioned, lighting adjusted (since there is some!). Very calm for rehearsing. I was sleepy.
Returning to the hotel, I stretched out, went to sleep, and woke up three times with a start. I frantically got ready.
Grand, evening recital. In the audience, 200 organists from four distant different cities. [Receiving] line in the foyer; no ridiculous reception. A serious-minded milieu—finally!
A crazy old lady apparently telephoned [17] this morning insisting on speaking to me. [She] showed up this evening. I had a narrow escape! Emmet Smith, the organist, was very angry at this.117
Saturday 1 March 1958
Left Forth Worth at 5:00 PM, for two more nights and one day [by train], but with two transfers at Memphis and Atlanta. It was raining and quite cold. I was aching! No matter.
In the evening, in her upper bunk, C. V. grumbled while doing “her” accounts because she “had lost her California.” In return, from below, I tossed her slippers and mine at her, but instead of getting her silence, I got her pillows. So, I ended up bombarding her with everything I could find below. Finally, she shut up, and I could dream in peace…
Sunday 2 March 1958
After this first night, first “unloading” at 7:00 AM on the Memphis platform, [went] in search of a Mass because it is Sunday. Found a church near the station in a… shocking neighbourhood. The priest captured people by swinging around his microphone; people laughed; they were shabby and unclean; [18] chatter between pastor and flock before and after the Mass. Lunched in a little bar.
Departed again. Changed trains again in the evening in Atlanta where the wait was two hours. Left finally for Charlotte, in “lowers” where I managed more than once to fall, seated, into the neighbouring curtains; meanwhile, C. tried to identify the sleepers by the shoes tucked under the beds.
Monday 3 March 1958
Arrived in Charlotte ([North] Carolina) in the morning, much too early. On the platform, a big, strapping fellow in a yellow hat, loud tie, hands in his pockets, bellowed straight away, “Hello!!… How are you?!…” I paused momentarily but—no introductions following—decided to assume that this was the organizer, or a delegate.
I locked myself away until 2:00. Lunch in the room. Rehearsal. I returned and slept. Upon awakening, migraine and dark spots [in my vision]. C. V. had sought in vain to get the typewriter repaired for a third time; [19] she was furious with the hotel [customer] service for giving her false information, furious (suddenly…) with Americans. This gave me so much pleasure that I felt better!
Good concert.118 Noticed once again how this audience can be magnificent at a recital so that everything “works” perfectly [“marche” à fond] and stupid as individuals. Always a receiving line; people burst out laughing, pause, and suddenly realize they are in front of you; then they say a couple of stock phrases to you. To teach them a lesson, I pointedly turned my back. But no one got the message…
In the car that drove me to the recital I was asked what I thought of the “shirtwaist dresses” launched in France!119 Replied that I didn’t yet have an opinion.
Tuesday 4 March 1958
Typewriter finally repaired. Comfortable at the hotel. Woke up at 11:45 AM, feeling completely groggy! [To think that] the organist was vexed yesterday because I refused his lunch [invitation for] today! Took a walk. Rested. Departure at midnight in lower bunks.
[20] (Saw in a hosiery shop a sign indicating a sale in the following manner: “lingerie sale”!!!! And again: “Dresses negligee”!! Clearly, “they” do not have a way with words.)120
Wednesday 5 March 1958
Arrived very early in the morning in Macon, Georgia; the weather sultry and damp but, a little later, very fine. The organist had a lavish white car—seen before—and he is well mannered!
Rested until 5:00 PM, then rehearsed. Interview by a reporter at the hotel, to which I delegated C. V., while I continued to sleep. At the end of the day the carillon of a nearby church ding-donged (no pun intended…)121 … Schubert’s Ave Maria with the accompaniment rendered suavely by a Hammond organ and tremolo, all of it gushing over the city with a meticulously thought-out intensity.
Ate in the room. Found flowers and fruit, [sent] anonymously.
Thursday 6 March 1958
Got up late. Extremely ostentatious American-style lunch at someone’s home. The house: new-look-cinéma.122 A dozen people, [21] three tables in a winter garden. The serving was done by four Black men and four Black women. Swimming pool with warm water nearby. Soft music (!) The last to arrive, I found everyone tipsy with drink. They wanted to hear me on the Hammond organ! When I declined this privilege, the head of the house sat and played a fashionable song. From among all these people, on the evening of the recital I saw no one.
At the recital, a wonderful audience.123 My console being in a pit, they had specially installed a huge, rear–view mirror to allow for following along with my playing. Again, a reception afterwards.
I had to refuse a “midnight supper.” The [host] organist was so intimidated that it became increasingly comic. Before the recital, he was wringing his hands saying, in the manner of Dussurget, “I am so nervous…”124
Friday 7 March 1958
Got up at 11:00 AM, lunched, departed immediately, heading north (on the map) with the most unbelievable transfers [22], including a bus. This evening, lower bunks.
Saturday 8 March 1958
Arrived in Cincinnati this morning, three hours late! The train seemed to be deliberately waiting for the ten bags and two ladies on the neighbouring platform, and it left immediately for Indianapolis where it arrived at 1:00 PM.* Meanwhile, another one-hour difference, necessitating turning back our watches…
Taxi to the central bus station; [a] Black man ran in vain to stop the Bloomington bus, which was pulling away. We had to wait three hours for the next one. Telegrammed the organizer at [Indiana] University, Bloomington. Shopping spree. Hamburger at a drugstore [lunch counter].
Two hours by bus; Bloomington at last. And there… the organizer, Professor of Sociology(!), made a face at me [me fait une tête]!!… A little later, the organist, too, made a nasty face at me [me refait une sale tête] too! I didn’t address another word to them.
Rehearsed in a very “Pleyel-like” hall where I [23] could not hear the organ.125 I’m being lodged at the university, and it’s my turn to make a “face.”
*Black humour: a casket was being driven down the platform, equipped with its baggage tag floating in the breeze, its faded, wilted flowers, the whole [kit] shoved into a postal wagon.
Sunday 9 March 1958
Worked this morning. So tired that I had to forego attending Mass so I could rest—twenty minutes on my bed—before the recital at 3:00.
They refused to move the console, [which is] too close to the edge of the stage. Vertigo! But [I] improvised a symphony (good themes) in 4 movements, one of my better ones.
Next, Claudine V. decided to ask, in retribution, that we be driven by car back in the direction of Indianapolis, where we had a hotel expecting us. They brought to me people who claimed they would take the eight suitcases and all, and the departure was set for 7:00 PM. In the end, the suitcases refused to be easily stowed (we would have had to compromise)… and the female driver returned everything to the sidewalk. The last bus had left. No train to Indianapolis. C. V. fumed at the “boorishness” of Americans, she who liked them so well… [24] Splendid conclusion: it was the nasty little organist with the look of a scoundrel who drove us, with his wife and mother-in-law, in his enormous car which swallowed up the luggage. There was no conversation between the front and back seats.
No dinner. Arrived at 10:30 PM. Impossible to have a sandwich in the room; we had to go back down and find a decent bar near the hotel.
Monday 10 March 1958
Morning departure for Chicago. Re–encountered the charming woman who had been the delegate on February 5. Above all, rediscovered the cathedral [and] the very kind Franciscan Fathers.126 Rested.
At the recital, [there were] people in the gallery, having gotten up there by elevators on both sides of the organ! And again, the Fathers made a racket [with their] whispering (in this English language, in which it is impossible to “whisper”!), standing yet fidgeting incessantly like children, [and] making a huge amount of noise with their big, wooden rosary beads. Obvious inconsistency: I was, still, very happy.127
Tuesday 11 March 1958
Especially happy to arrive in Fort Wayne [Indiana]… the most beautiful organ of the tour, one of the most beautiful that I have [ever] played.128 Very distinguished organizers! Kind and discreet!! A rare marvel. That’s good timing; I was [still] very tired. Stumbling over my notes at the rehearsal, I decided to go and sleep.
Nauseous before the recital.
Claudine V. wanted to bring her syringe: oops, it’s broken[!]129
… There are still four recitals to go before “freedom”: Pittsburgh, New Haven, Ottawa [Canada], New York. But the… machine writing this little diary is, in turn, no longer working.130
Printed recital programs preserved by Claudine Verchère give details of three of these last four recitals.131 The Pittsburgh recital took place on March 16, 1958, where Demessieux performed at Sixth United Presbyterian Church as part of a “Musical Vesper Service.” The recital was preceded by an Invocation and the Lord’s Prayer and followed with an Offertory Prayer and an Offering (towards the funding of the musical vesper services). Demessieux then performed her Te Deum, which was followed by the Benediction.
On March 17, 1958, sponsored by the New Haven chapter of the AGO under the auspices of the Yale School of Music, Demessieux played her “Program No. 2” in Woolsey Hall. A review by Barbara Owen tactfully criticized many of the same aspects of her playing as Frank Cunkle had attacked in Chicago.132 She lauded (faintly) the performance of Franck’s Pièce heroïque: “this frankly romantic war-horse . . . unabashedly performed for what it is and on an ideally suited instrument.”133
Following Claudine Verchère’s scheduled, March 22 departure for France, Demessieux performed an extra-itinerary recital in Ottawa for which no details survive. Then, on March 25, 1958 she concluded her tour by performing at Central Presbyterian Church in New York City as part of their “Evenings of Music Series.” The repertoire was that of “Program No. 1,” to which was added Demessieux’s Te Deum and (the only time on this tour) one of her Six Études, “Study in Thirds” (“Tierces”).134 The printed program did not include an improvisation. However, according to the mixed review by Ray Berry, an improvisation based on themes by Searle Wright was “tacked on to its end,” much to Berry’s annoyance.135
All told, the 1958 tour consisted of 21 recitals given over a period of 54 days. At the end of Demessieux’s return voyage (with the Cunard Steamship Co.), she debarked in Southampton, possibly to fulfill some engagements in England.
Readers who wish to compare their reactions to the diaries and letters from Jeanne’s Demessieux’s North American recital tours to my own are invited to turn now to the next and final chapter. Following that chapter’s commentary, it continues with a summary of Demessieux’s life after 1958, and concludes with an account of her reputation today.
NOTES:
<https://www-oed-com.libproxy.uregina.ca/view/Entry/32959?rskey=jfu8Qx&result=1#eid>, accessed Mar. 16, 2024, a cicerone is “[a] guide who shows and explains the antiquities or curiosities of a place to strangers.”
- The phrase “conflicting sympathies” suggests that following Dupré’s break with Demessieux he spoke negatively of her to concert organizers at the University of Chicago. That Dupré had at one time highly recommended Demessieux to his friend Frederick Marriott is alluded to in diary entries for Sept. 15 and 23, 1944. ↵
