The Leicester Evening Mail (25 April 1925) reported that “M. Louis Vierne, the renowned organist of Notre Dame Cathedral…is shortly to give a recital on the magnificent organ at Hinckley Parish Church.” The organ that he played was installed by Norman & Beard in 1908, replacing an earlier instrument by George Pike England dating from 1808. The new instrument had three manuals, thirty-seven speaking stops and more than 2000 pipes. The action was pneumatic, connected to the detached console - on the south side of the chancel - by many miles of lead tubing.
The recital, on Sunday 3 May 1925, was well attended, with more than 1200 in the church and many more listening from the churchyard. Vierne gave a varied performance, which lasted for an hour and a half. The programme included J. S. Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (BWV 542), two Bach chorale preludes and the Prelude, Fugue et Variation, op.18 by César Franck. The now largely forgotten Carillon de Saint-Paul d’Orléans and the Angelus du Soir (Méditation) by Adolphe Marty were heard as well as the Allegro cantabile, Adagio and Toccata movements from Widor’s Symphony No.5. Vierne did play some of his own music, including the Légende, the Berceuse and the Marche funèbre all from Book 2 of Vingt-quatre pièces en style libre. In conclusion he gave an improvisation on the tune Veni Emmanuel, from the hymn O come, O come Emmanuel. The vicar, the Rev. C.L. Mathews, presided over the recital and a retiring collection of more the £40 was taken. This, at 2023 rates, would be more than £1800!
The genesis of Les cloches de Hinckley is a mix of fact, fiction and legend. One version of the story suggests that Vierne and his “assistant” the soprano Madeleine Richepin were staying in a hotel opposite St Mary’s Church, probably The George (now The Bounty). The composer protested that the chime, which he imagined sounded every fifteen minutes, disturbed his rest. Another testimony suggested that he was staying, along with his “muse” at the home of the one-time organist at Hinckley, Paul Rochard, a distant relative. This doesn’t quite ring true as, at the time of his visit, Rochard was organist and choirmaster at Kendal Parish Church and music master at Kendal Grammar School, some 200 miles north of the Leicestershire village. On the other hand, it is quite probable that Vierne visited Hinckley at Rochard’s invitation. The village would not have been an obvious choice for the maestro to visit on a “grand tour.” And maybe Rochard was there for a visit.
A webpage (now archived) dedicated to the bells of St Mary’s Hinckley explains that the original five bells installed in 1662 were replaced by a peal of eight bells in 1908. The chiming system was installed in 1792/3 and operates like a musical box. It is set up to play eight tunes, one for each day - plus an extra one for Sunday - automatically changing over at midnight. If Vierne arrived on the Saturday, he would have heard St Thomas, ‘Now my Tongue the Mystery Telling’ if he were in bed early, and Aurelia (The Church's One Foundation) by S. S. Wesley in the wee small hours. If it was a Sunday night stopover, he would have caught ‘My God, I love thee’ from Handel’s Solomon as the programme also changed at midday on the Sabbath. The website insists that despite Vierne’s protestations, the chime was a little less regular, sounding every three hours. It is unlikely that any of these three tunes have been used in the first presentation of the theme in the pedals at bar eleven of the score. Equally improbably to have been derived from the Hinckley carillon is the descending scale of E major heard twenty-eight times before the work’s ffff conclusion.
However, the tale continues. The following day, Mlle. Richepin asked her “companion” to consider using the carillon theme as the basis of the piece. This story suggests that he set to work immediately and committed the music to manuscript paper whilst travelling by train to Tenbury Wells, where he was due to give another recital. Conversely, the facts are more prosaic: according to Vierne’s biographer Rollin Smith (Louis Vierne Organist of Notre Dame Cathedral, Pendragon Press, Hillsdale, N.Y.1999) the entire Suite No.4 was composed much later in Bagnères-de-Luchon, Haute-Garonne in Southwest France during July and August 1927.
The Quatrième Suite, op. 55 has six movements, the best known of which are Naïades and the present piece. Les cloches de Hinckley was dedicated “à mon ami J.W. Iberson” an amateur organist who had studied with Widor and was then residing in Sheffield.
Postscript: As I was putting this article to bed, I found a reference on an internet forum. The contributor suggested that Vierne’s theme was taken from the tune played on the carillon on Friday (until midnight) which was the Sicilian Mariners Hymn (also used for the German carol ‘O du fröhliche’).” Certainly, there are a couple of three note phrases which are vaguely suggestive. But this posits a longer stay at Hinckley for Vierne and his “amoreuse” than first imagined. But perhaps he needed a day or so to practice…
With thanks to the Glasgow Society of Organists Journal where this essay was first published.
No comments:
Post a Comment