Marcel Dupré - Lamento, Op. 24

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• published: 04 Jan 2012
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"The death of a three-year old child inspired Marcel Dupré to compose what may be the saddest piece he ever wrote. In 1974 I asked Madame Dupré if she could provide any more information that is contained in the dedication, "To my dear friends Mr. and Mrs. A. Henderson of Glasgow, in memory of their dear child Donald." Mr. Henderson was professor of music at Glasgow University; some of his organ music was published by Bailey and Ferguson. That was the extent of my knowledge till I received Madame Dupré's letter of March 18, 1974, which read as follows: 'Mr. and Mrs. Arthur [sic] Henderson were great friends, and were our hosts each time we went to Glasgow. Donald, their only child, was an adorable little boy, most intelligent, who died of meningitis when he was three years old. It was his father who asked Marcel to compose a memento in his memory. Marcel played it first in the Chapel of the University in Glasgow. Then Mr. and Mrs. Henderson came to Meudon, as they wanted to hear the piece played on Marcel's organ. The first lighter theme was inspired by the memory of the child and the second one expresses the grief of the parents.' Actually the themes are the reverse of what Madame Dupré wrote, but she was then in her 90th year, and the piece was written in 1926, when Dupré was 40. It was published two years later by Leduc. A fairly large instrument is needed to do this piece justice, but it could be played on most two manual organs. It beings in pp in B-flat minor with sustained chords for left hand and Pedal. The pedal plays bare fifths, Bb and F; the accompanying harmony follows a beat later on the Choir organ. Against this background, sixteen bars of dirge-like melody is developed on the Swell Oboe in the alto register and then repeated an octave higher on the Voix céleste, duplicated two octaves below in the Pedal. The opening section, forty bars in all, concludes in the original registration with the Oboe, and this, perhaps, expresses the parents' grief. Now follows a passage of twenty-seven bars in D major, to be played slightly faster, first on manuals alone, and then with Pedal, registered for the Swell Bourdon 8', with Pedal 16' and 8' coupled. This is the lighter theme, relating to the child. At bar 68 the development beings, and over the next thirty-five bars a crescendo is made to full organ, followed by six bars of pp and a long pause. First the Pedal duplicates the melody three octaves below, and then, four bars later, follows the soprano melody in canon for a few bars. A direction to add the Swell reeds in bar 86 is ambiguous: it looks like a manual change, but both hands should remain on the Great. After the swell box is opened, the climax at bar 94 calls for all the resources of the instrument. The Great reeds and mixtures should be added where the fff is indicated. The pause on the third beat of bar 103 creates a powerful effect: it is the musical equivalent of a grave stone in the form of a broken column. The rising seconds which follow the pause echo the last two chords on full organ, and are followed by four bars in which the Pedal and the Choir organ play the accompaniment figure from the opening, but the solo melody is no longer present. Another and much longer pause closes the development. The second theme now returns in B-flat major on the Voix humaine for twelve bars alone, and for another fourteen bars with the addition of a 16' Bourdon, where the theme of grief makes its last appearance." -- Graham Steed: The Organ Works of Marcel Dupré, Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, New York 1999, pp. 38-39 Performed by Dragan Trajer on virtual Mutin-Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame de Metz.