Gaston Gilbert Litaize (11 August 1909 - 5 August 1991) was a French organist and composer. Considered one of the 20th century masters of the French organ, [1] he toured, recorded, worked at churches, and taught students in and around Paris. Blind from infancy, he studied and taught for most of his life at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for the Blind).
Litaize was born in Ménil-sur-Belvitte, Vosges, in northeast France. An illness caused him to lose his sight just after birth. [2] He entered the Institute for the Blind at a young age, studying with Charles Magin, who encouraged him to move to Paris [3] and study with Magin and Adolphe Marty at the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, which he did from 1926 to 1931. Concurrently, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris in October 1927, [3] studying with Marcel Dupré and Henri Büsser, as well as privately with Louis Vierne. [4] Over the course of six years, he won first prizes in organ, improvisation, fugue, and composition, as well as the Prix Rossini for his cantata Fra Angelico. In 1938 he finished second to Henri Dutilleux in the Prix de Rome, said to be the first time that a blind person was accepted in the competition; [5] subsequently he asked Dutilleux many times to compose for the organ, but nothing came of it. [6]
He began working as organist at Saint-Cloud in 1934, and after leaving the Paris Conservatoire in 1939 he returned to the Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles to teach harmony. In 1944 he began a thirty-year directorship of religious radio programs, where he oversaw five weekly broadcasts. He took up a position in 1946 at St François-Xavier, Paris, where he remained the organist until his death. In 1975 he retired from the radio and began teaching organ at St Maur-des-Fossés Conservatoire, where he "gained numerous disciples." [7] He died in 1991 in Bruyères, Vosges.
As a performer, Litaize toured France, western Europe, the United States, and Canada. His first American tour was in the autumn of 1957. [8] His recording of the Messe pour les paroisses by François Couperin on the organ at Saint-Merri [9] earned highly positive reviews, called "admirably recorded" in The Musical Times [10] and a "fine, sensitive performance" in Music and Letters. [11] Unusually, he elected not to use notes inégales in the performance, [11] although he was very interested in researching "old" music. [12] His improvisations were called "shattering displays" and compared favorably to Dupré, Demessieux, Cochereau, and Heiller. [13]
Litaize was highly influential on generations of French organists. He inspired Olivier Latry to choose his career:
At 16 I won piano first prize ... and I thought I might continue piano studies at the Paris Conservatoire. ... However, I decided to play the organ, choosing Gaston Litaize at the CNR de St-Maur-des-Fossés as my teacher as I had heard him give a very exciting recital at the Cathedral of Boulogne-sur-Mer. It was this that confirmed my desire to play the organ. [12]
He also taught organ to several notable organists, including Antoine Bouchard, [14] Theo Brandmüller, [15] Olivier Latry, Françoise Levechin-Gangloff, Kenneth Gilbert, Jean-Pierre Leguay, and René Saorgin.
Norbert Dufourcq summarized Litaize's compositional style: "Litaize inclines ... to restlessness and gloom, but his idiom is virile and glowing. He is a fine melodist and skilful polyphonist." [16] A review of Litaize's Douze pièces in The Musical Times was generally negative, however, finding the music dry and calling Litaize a "virtuoso writing for virtuosos". [17] Archibald Farmer wrote that the Préludes liturgiques were "clever, interesting, often good, and always modishly French." [18]
Litaize was involved with experimental music; soon after the inception of musique concrète he was asked to write a piece for African xylophone, four bells, three zanzas, and two whirligigs, which Pierre Schaeffer fragmented and reformed into Étude aux tourniquets in 1948–9. [19]
Maurice Gustave Duruflé was a French composer, organist, musicologist, and teacher.
Jehan-Aristide Paul Alain was a French organist, composer, and soldier. Born into a family of musicians, he learned the organ from his father and a host of other teachers, becoming a composer at 18, and composing until the outbreak of the Second World War 10 years later. His compositional style was influenced by the musical language of the earlier Claude Debussy, as well as his interest in music, dance and philosophy of the far east. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Alain became a dispatch rider in the Eighth Motorised Armour Division of the French Army; he took part in the Battle of Saumur, in which he was killed.
Pierre Eugène Charles Cochereau was a French organist, improviser, composer, and pedagogue.
Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux was a French organist, pianist, composer, and teacher. She was the chief organist at Saint-Esprit for 29 years and at La Madeleine in Paris starting in 1962. She performed internationally as a concert organist and was the first female organist to sign a record contract. She went on to record many organ works, including her own compositions.
Pierre André Labric is a French organist, pedagogue and composer.
Olivier Jean-Claude Latry is a French organist, improviser, and composer. He is professor of organ in the Conservatoire de Paris.
Jean-Jacques Charles Grunenwald, also known by his pseudonym Jean Dalve, was a French organist, composer, architect, and pedagogue.
François Daniel Roth is a French organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He was titular organist from 1985 until 2023 at the church of Saint-Sulpice in France's capital, Paris, alongside Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin, and as of February 2023, will remain as emeritus titular organist.
Thierry Joseph-Louis Escaich is a French organist and composer.
Jean-Pierre Leguay is a French organist, composer and improviser. He studied with André Marchal, Gaston Litaize, Rolande Falcinelli (organ), Simone Plé-Caussade (counterpoint), and Olivier Messiaen (composition), before serving as titular organist at Notre-Dame-des-Champs, Paris from 1961 to 1984. In 1985 he was named a titular organist at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, alongside Olivier Latry, Yves Devernay and Philippe Lefebvre.
Yves Marie-Édouard Devernay was a 20th-century French organist, improviser and composer.
Adolphe Alexandre Silvain Marty was a French organist, improviser, composer and music educator who was blind for most of his life.
Albert Paul Alain was a 20th-century French organist and composer.
Henri Jules Joseph Nibelle was a French organist, choral conductor and composer.
Denis Comtet is a French organist, pianist, choral conductor and conductor.
Jeanne Angèle Desirée Yvonne Joulain was a French organist, concertist and music educator.
Noëlie Marie-Antoinette Pierront was a 20th-century French organist, concertist and music educator.
Jean-Baptiste Marcel Éloi Bonfils was a 20th-century French organist, music educator, musicologist and composer.
Éric Maurice Lebrun is a French composer, organist, musicologist, and author.
Henri-Franck Beaupérin is a French organist and improviser.
References are from Gilles Cantagrel unless otherwise noted.
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