3 Jeanne Demessieux as Organist of St-Esprit during the period 1933-1944

This morning, I accompanied both masses,
at 10:00 and at 11:30.
This was the last time before summer vacation.
—Diary entry of July 8, 1934

This chapter focuses on Demessieux’s first decade as titular organist of St-Esprit. In total, she served for 29 years, until 1962, when she accepted the titular organist’s position at La Madeleine.

Thirty years earlier, when the Demessieux family moved into Paris’s twelfth arrondissement in the autumn of 1932, a new Catholic parish was in the process of being established in their neighbourhood. Named Église du St-Esprit (Church of the Holy Spirit), its building at the corner of rue Cannebière and avenue Daumesnil had been under construction since 1928.¹ In 1933, twelve-year-old Jeanne Demessieux—because she played the piano and lived in the vicinity of St-Esprit—was called to play for its services.² The building’s sanctuary then still under construction, services were being held in the crypt of the church, and the instrument she played there was a harmonium.³ Meanwhile in 1933, two organs were planned for the new church: a grand orgue (great organ) and an orgue de chœur (choir organ).⁴ Their designs were by the organist-composer Albert Alain (1880–1971), father of the famous Jehan Alain.⁵

The organ of St-Esprit

When the sanctuary of St-Esprit opened in 1934, a side gallery contained the planned orgue de chœur, constructed that year by the firm Gloton-Debierre.⁶ It had fourteen stops distributed over two manuals, two pedal stops derived from manual I, and electric action. Due to a lack of funds, the grand orgue that had been designed to deliver the full range of organ music appropriate to worship services was never built, however. As will be shown later in this chapter, Demessieux served St-Esprit by performing not only music suited to an organ of limited resources, but also repertoire meant for a three-manual organ with independent pedal.

The St-Esprit organ’s original specification was:⁷

The firm that built the organ, Gloton-Debierre, had been headed since 1919 by Georges Gloton. In an article describing organ building in 1930s Paris, Marc Hedelin singled out Georges Gloton for the quality of his instruments and the St-Esprit organ as an example of their excellence.⁸ Hedelin also pointed to this organ’s mixture stop (the 3-rank Plein jeu) as an instance of the growing importance of mixtures in organ building in twentieth-century France, and to placement of the mixture on the Récit rather than on the manual called Grand-Orgue, as typical of medium-size Paris organs of that decade.⁹

The choices of stops for the St-Esprit organ arguably bear a resemblance to those of the most famous organ designed by Albert Alain, the instrument that, beginning in 1910, he gradually built for his home. In its original plan, Alain’s organ had three manuals—Grand-Orgue, Positif, and Récit—and an independent Pedal division. The following chart compares the specification of the St-Esprit organ with that of Alain’s home organ as originally designed by indicating correspondences in green.

A comparison of the two instruments reveals that, in all, ten of the fourteen stops chosen for the St-Esprit organ were also included in the original plan of Albert Alain’s home organ. Specifically, manual I of the St-Esprit organ is identical in its make-up to that of Alain’s home organ, except that it features an additional 8-foot stop. Manual II of the St-Esprit instrument, like manual II of Alain’s home organ, has a Cor de nuit 8 and a Nasard 2²/₃. Manual II of the St-Esprit organ also boasts, like manual III of Alain’s home organ, two string stops (Gambe and Voix céleste), a 3-rank Plein jeu, and a Trompette 8.

Among stops missing from the St-Esprit instrument are the independent pedal stops and two features of the upperwork on manual II of Alain’s home organ—the latter being the 2-foot stop and the 1³/₅-foot mutation.¹⁰ A 2-foot stop would have added further clarity to a polyphonic texture. A 1³/₅-foot mutation (a Tierce in French) would have served to add color to a combination of other stops, thereby producing the effect of a solo stop sometimes called for in the registration of French Baroque organ music.¹¹

Notable additions to the St-Esprit organ are reed stops at 16-foot and 4-foot pitch levels, joining the Trompette 8—these stops could add power to a homophonic texture.

Lacking independent stops for its pedal division and lacking on manual I a complete principal chorus (stops at all pitch levels), the St-Esprit organ was, from a present-day point of view, more suited to performing homophonic than polyphonic music, that is, more suited to Romantic-era than Baroque-era music. For performance of nineteenth-century repertoire, Demessieux could choose from the following:

1) manual I’s three 8-foot ranks and one 4-foot rank, which together create the French-Romantic registration called fonds.

2) manual II “under expression,” enabling decrescendo and crescendo.

3) a choice of quiet 8-foot stops on manual II. Specifically, Demessieux could select from either of two string stops for homophonic music (Gambe or Voix céleste), or a quiet foundation stop having somewhat of a horn sound (Cor de nuit) that could serve either as a solo or accompanying stop.

For performance of a polyphonic piece by Bach, Demessieux could have created a principal chorus on manual I by coupling manual II’s Plein jeu to manual I’s Montre 8 and Prestant 4, and then coupling both manuals to the Pedal with Soubasse 16 drawn.¹² The compromise was that the lack of an independent principal chorus in the Pedal decreased the polyphonic independence of the pedal part. Concessions would also have to be made to perform a piece from the Baroque era that required one manual for soloing a melody and one for a homophonic accompaniment, as for example, Bach’s “O Mensch, bewein’ dein’ Sünde groß” from the Orgelbüchlein. Ideally, the ornate melodic line of such a piece requires a solo stop characteristic of an early eighteenth-century organ such as a cromorne or cornet.¹³

Organ music performed for services

An impression as to what music Demessieux typically played during services at St-Esprit can be formed by examining running lists she kept from 1937 to the beginning of 1944. For the years 1937 through 1939, she tracked only services on some special Sundays and out-of-the-ordinary occasions. The following lists have been selected to exemplify where in a service Demessieux played, and what was typically played during those years:¹⁴

These sample lists identify the three types of Sunday service for which Demessieux played: 10:00 AM Mass, 11:30 AM Mass, and Vespers in the late afternoon. In Demessieux’s diary of 1940–1946, only the earliest Sunday service is described as High Mass, meaning its liturgy was sung throughout; therefore, the 11:30 AM Mass must have been spoken, rather than sung.¹⁵ A spoken or “low” Mass provided much more opportunity for solo organ music. François Sabatier notes that during a low mass organ music began with the entrance piece and might cease only during the sermon, the Elevation, and before the final Benediction.¹⁶ According to Joachim Havard de Montagne, 

in certain churches, for “low” masses, which is to say not sung, the organ played nearly without interruption during the course of the mass, clearly going beyond its normal function. These were referred to as “recital-masses.”¹⁷

Reflecting this, Demessieux listed the music she performed for the 11:30 Mass on Christmas Day 1937 under the heading “Recital.”

These sample lists also emphasize that during the period 1937–1939 the single composer most frequently performed was Bach. Demessieux’s other repertoire for service playing was typically nineteenth- and twentieth-century French organ music, with occasional representation of other composers. Franck’s Choral in A minor and Dupré’s Le Chemin de la Croix, stand out for being works that were conceived for a three-manual instrument, adapted by Demessieux for performance on two manuals.

For the period December 1940 to January 1944, Demessieux listed every Sunday morning on which she played at St-Esprit and specified what she performed (most often only for the 11:30 Mass). Examples are:

Overall, these samples of Demessieux’s lists from the 1930s and 1940s show some of the range of both repertoire and improvisational forms she played at St-Esprit. In her lists for December 1940 to January 1944 as a whole (though not shown above), the composer most often represented is once again Bach. This suggests Demessieux agreed with Dupré that the German composer’s music was the foundation of all organ-playing, and that Bach’s chorale preludes were as suited to Catholic as to Protestant services. For comparison, here is a program Demessieux recorded in her notebook after hearing Dupré perform on a Sunday morning at St-Sulpice:

Surveying Demessieux’s complete set of lists, what further observations can be made about the period 1940–1944 as far as her approach to repertoire selection is concerned?

• The composer’s name that occurs second-most-often is Dupré, reflecting Demessieux’s loyalty to her teacher and mentor during these years.

• Otherwise, she included large-scale works by Liszt and Franck, movements from Handel concertos, and a sprinkling of pre-Bach organ music.

• The improvisational forms Demessieux used during this period include all those that Dupré specifies in his treatise on improvisation as being appropriate to Catholic worship services:¹⁸

• prelude
• fugue
• choral (e.g., choral canonique, choral orné)
• toccata
• variations
• passacaglia
• symphonic movements: singly, in pairs, or all four.

• Demessieux also indicated two exceptional titles for an improvisation: fantaisie and poème symphonique (one instance of each appears in the lists from 1940–1944).

• Where Demessieux named the theme upon which she improvised, it was typically a plainchant, or, if she also played a Bach chorale prelude that morning, she sometimes improvised on the same German hymn tune. In other instances that an improvisation was indicated, she jotted down, beside her description of it, a theme of her own invention, or one proposed to her by someone visiting her organ gallery.

As outlined above, Demessieux’s record of music played at High Mass at St-Esprit lists what she performed during the Entrance, the Offertory, and as the Recessional, and occasionally what she performed during the Communion. But Demessieux could arguably have played at other points during a sung mass as well.

First, in his treatise on improvisation, Dupré lists the Entrance, Offertory, and Recessional as the only liturgical actions that allow performance of a piece involving some development. In addition, he lists three other moments the organ may be required to perform something short—Gradual and Elevation, as well as Communion.¹⁹

Second, as is also explained by Dupré, and noted by François Sabatier, in the period between the wars (as in the nineteenth century and prior), French organists are said to have performed “versets” in alternation with the choir’s plainchant.²⁰ In this procedure (alternatim), the singing of specific passages (versets) in the Ordinary of the Mass, and chants prescribed for Vespers, was replaced by a short organ setting, typically improvised, of the plainchant melody. In the diary of 1940–1946, there is one place where Demessieux notes that, at Vespers at St-Esprit, she “created some versets, responding to the hymn.”²¹ However, Demessieux’s repertoire lists do not tell us whether during High Mass at St-Esprit substitution of organ versets at specific points in plainchant performance was the norm. Only one intriguing entry, under the heading 1937, suggests this practice:

The following questions arise from Demessieux’s note in the far right-hand column: Did she regularly play in alternation with the St-Esprit choir during the singing of certain portions of High Mass? Why was the harmonium used for this Holy Saturday service?

I asked these of the current organist of St-Esprit, Hampus Lindwall.²² According to what parishioners old enough to have sung in the choir during the time of Demessieux have told him, plainchant was, indeed, sung in this style. Therefore, this may have applied to all sung Masses as well as Vespers. Writing in 2022, Lindwall said that the harmonium had only recently been rediscovered in the crypt of the church: it appears to have been there all along. He also noted the possibility exists that—even after the church’s main space came into use—smaller celebrations continued to take place in the crypt in times gone by. He could not say for sure, however, whether these were accompanied by the harmonium. Nevertheless, Demessieux’s note concerning Holy Saturday in 1937 suggests that use of the harmonium, presumably for services held in the crypt, was the case, at least on occasion.

To recapitulate, in Chapter 1, I explained how exceptional it was that the young Demessieux was able to study in Paris; in Chapter 2, I described what it was like for her to study specifically at the Paris Conservatory. This chapter has focused on the organ and music she played at the Church of St-Esprit. It is time now to turn to Demessieux’s own descriptions of her activities, beginning with her diary and letters of 1932–1940.

NOTES: