Alexandre GUILMANT

The name Guilmant remains intimately linked to the organ, and particularly Cavaillé-Coll’s instruments. Trained by his father, an organist, in his native town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, he honed his talents in Brussels with Lemmens, in 1860. He rapidly became a renowned concert performer, admired for his virtuosity, his impressive knowledge of the repertory and the originality of his improvisations. Frequently in demand for organ inaugurations, he took part in those of Saint-Sulpice (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1868), where he played on Cavaillé-Coll organs, which were also the instruments at La Trinité, where he became organist in 1871, and at the Trocadéro, where he was resident organist from 1878. His tours took him all over Europe and, on three occasions, to the United States. A founding member of the Schola Cantorum with Bordes and d’Indy, he took over from Widor at the Paris Conservatoire, where he taught organ from 1896 to 1911. Although his catalogue included both religious music and a handful of chamber pieces, it was largely dominated by his instrument of choice, which he exploited from every angle: works with orchestra (including two symphonies), eight sonatas, genre pieces, transcriptions, liturgical pieces, and teaching anthologies. In addition, he also wrote compositions for harmonium, revealing his desire to reach a wide audience without neglecting intimate piety or the fashionable sociability of the salon. His language, firmly rooted in tradition, contains hints of modality, chromaticism and non-functional sevenths, showing that Guilmant was alert to contemporary trends.