Jehan Alain

Jehan Alain in 1938

Jehan Alain (1911-1940) was a French composer and organist.

On June 20, 1940, Alain was killed during the battle of Saumur. He was awarded with the Croix de Guerre for his bravery.

Jehan Alain is remembered as one of the first composers to write music suited for the new organs created by the neo-baroque Orgelbewegung movement. He was influenced not only by his studies in counterpoint and composition but by music all around him including Gregorian chant, jazz, and music from around the world.

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Works

Two catalogues of Jehan Alain's works are used: the JA Catalogue compiled by the composer himself, and the AWV Catalogue.

Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin

Alain's work, also called Variations Sur "l'espoir que j'ai d'acquérir votre grâce". Chanson de Clément Jannequin, is mistakenly titled, as it is based on a work that is anonymous.

Jehan Alain had access to a 19th-century book Échos du temps passé compiled by Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin which contained a piece under this name attributed to Clément Jannequin. This piece transforms the piece into a solo aria with piano accompaniment which is almost identical to the first variation (theme) in Alain's work.

This chanson is found in two publications by Pierre Attaingnant, one in 1529 (in parts) and another in 1531 (reduced to tablature score), both without a composer's name. The attribution to Jannequin is due to a musicological error by Weckerlin, as in 1529 the piece is placed immediately after another work attributed to Jannequin. Previously, musicologists assumed that anonymous pieces found after a piece with a composer's name were all written by that composer; however, this is now known to be an outdated assumption that is not always true.^{[Citation needed]}

Smaller Works

Berceuse sur deux notes qui cornent

Alain's earliest known organ work was written in 1929, a Berceuse based on the held notes c# and d#. This was inspired by an instance in which these notes ciphered on the Alain House Organ.

This piece was interpreted by Helga Schauerte as an example of Alain's Humor und Einfallsreichtum (=resourcefulness) as a reaction to the circumstances of his life (such as the cipher in the organ), how he managed to translate these life experiences into the atmosphere of his music, and how his composed music was closely tied to improvisation.

Christe eleison/Amen

Two improvisatory fragments titled Christe eleison and Amen, found in a manuscript in the Alain family collection, were included in the afterword of the Leduc organ works in 1943 but omitted from later editions.

Christe eleison

Amen

Complainte a la mode ancienne

In 1932, Jehan Alain composed a 16-measure organ piece titled Complainte a la mode ancienne, pour que Poucette joue l'orgue de Valloires (on two staves, including fingering indications) for his sister Marie-Claire, who was six years old at the time.

The piece is written in the style of a Renaissance song in two voices. It is not known wether the melody is original or if it is based on an older piece, such as in Variations sur un thème de Clément Jannequin; parallels have been drawn between the construction of the melody in both pieces. The piece was published in Cinq Pieces Faciles pour Orgue ou Piano by Leduc in 1987.

Sources

Manuscripts in F-Pn

The following manuscripts of Alain's works are found in the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris.

F-Pn Ms-	Title	Notes	Ref.
8650	Grave
8651	Berceuse
8652	Suite pour orgue	Fragment of first movement
8653	Tarass Boulba
8654	Piece d'orgue	Also called Petite Piece
8655	Prelude et Fugue
8657	Lamento

See also

Gerald Woehl Organ, St. Remigius, Viersen, dedicated to Jehan Alain.

Bibliography

Alain, Marie-Claire, "Notes critiques sur l'oeuvre d'orgue de Jehan Alain". Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 2001.

Jehan (Ariste) Alain, "Guillard, Georges," in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, eds. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), Volume 1: 268-270.

Hafner, Wilhelm, Das Orgelwerk von Jehan Alain (1911–1940) und sein Verhältnis zur Französischen Orgelmusik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Collection D'Études Musicologiques Sammlung Musikwissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen: Band 92. Baden-Baden: Verlag Valentin Koerner, 2000.

Schauerte, Helga, Jehan Alain (1911-1940) Das Orgelwerk: Eine monographische Studie. Kölner Beiträge zur Musikforschung 137. Regensburg: Gustav Bosse Verlag, 1983. ("Schauerte")