Music Notes for Sunday, January 5, 2025

Prélude sur l’Introït de l’Épiphanie (Opus 13) – Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986)

 

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This Sunday’s organ prelude in church, the Prélude sur l’Introït de l’Épiphanie (Opus 13) of Maurice Duruflé, dates from the early 1960s. It is one of this composer’s less well-known works and appears in a volume of compositions (Orgue et Liturgie) assembled and prefaced by the French musicologist Norbert Dufourcq. Each of the préludes in the volume is based on a plainsong introit. Duruflé’s Prélude is on the introit for the Feast of the Epiphany, ‘Ecce advenit dominator Dominus’.

The piece forms a postscript to Duruflé’s Four Gregorian Motets, and it was premiered along with them at a concert in Paris in May 1961. Soft sparkling mixtures and a pungent solo trumpet celebrate the arrival on earth of the King of Heaven: ‘Behold, the Lord our Ruler comes …’ The composer has carefully set the Gregorian rhythmic patterns resulting in a series of bars of irregular length and music which simply flows.

Gerald Harder