DURUFLE, MAURICE  BIOGRAPHY

The French organist and composer Maurice Duruflé was a pupil of Tournemire and Gigout and enjoyed a career as an organist both in Paris and in numerous concert tours abroad, a representative of the French tradition of organ-playing and composition inherited from his teachers, and from the example of Guilmant and Vierne.

Organ Music

Duruflé's organ music includes a Prélude, adagio and choral varié on the Veni Creator Spiritus, a Suite and a Prelude and Fugue in memory of the composer and organist Jehan Alain, killed in action in 1940.

Church Music

Duruflé's best known work is his Requiem, music firmly founded on Gregorian chant in its melodic material and treatment of the liturgical text. He also left a number of motets and a Mass setting.