Maurice Duruflé

Maurice Duruflé was born in Louviers, near Rouen in Normandy, on 11 January 1902. From 1912 to 1918 he attended the Schola Cantorum at Rouen Cathedral, studying piano and organ. In 1919 he moved to Paris, worked with Charles Tournemire, and later became his deputy at Ste-Clotilde.

He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1920 and, between 1922 and 1928, took premiers prix in organ (with Eugène Gigout), harmony, fugue, piano accompaniment and composition — the last with Paul Dukas, who, with Tournemire and Louis Vierne, left a deep mark on his music.

In 1930 he was appointed organist of St-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris, a post he held for the rest of his life. That same year his Prélude, Adagio et Choral varié sur le thème du ‘Veni Creator’, Op. 4, won first prize from the new Association des amis de l’orgue. From 1929 to 1931 he also deputized for the ailing Vierne at Notre-Dame.

Publication of the Suite pour Orgue, Op. 5, in 1934, and of the orchestral Trois Danses in 1939, strengthened his standing as a composer. He gave the world première of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto in 1938. After deputizing for Marcel Dupré in the Conservatoire organ class in 1942, he became Professor of Harmony there in 1943, remaining until 1969.

After the war the Requiem, Op. 9, confirmed his reputation. Tours of Europe, the UK, the USSR and the USA, and recordings with his wife Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier, extended his fame as a recitalist. A car accident in 1975 largely ended his concert and church playing. He never fully recovered and died in Paris on 16 June 1986.