Jean-Jacques Grunenwald

Jean-Jacques Grunenwald (born February 2, 1911 in Cran-Gevrier , † December 19, 1982 in Paris ) was a French organist , composer and music teacher .

life and work

Chapelle funéraire in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris

Jean-Jacques Grunenwald was born in Cran-Gevrier near Annecy in 1911 . He studied at the Paris Conservatory, where he received first prizes in organ playing and improvisation (1935, Marcel Dupré ) and composition (1937, Henri Busser ). Two years later, Grunenwald was awarded the important Second Rome Prize (“Second Grand Prix du Rome”) for his cantata La farceu du Mari fondu .

In addition to his musical education, Grunenwald studied at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris, which he left in 1941 as a trained architect. In 1955 Grunenwald became titular organist at St. Pierre-de-Montrouge in Paris. Two years later he began a complete recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ works on 24 LPs (a world premiere recording ), which he completed in 1962. The recordings took place on the Gonzales organ of the cathedral in Soissons .

From 1957 to 1961 he was a professor of organ at the Schola Cantorum in Paris; from 1961 to 1966 he taught organ at the Geneva Conservatory . His students included Jean-Pierre Decavèle, Raffi Ourgandijan and Louis Robilliard . In January 1973, Jean-Jacques Grunenwald succeeded his teacher Marcel Dupré as titular organist at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, a position he held until his death in 1982 at the age of 71. As an organist he played over 1500 concerts worldwide.

The composer Jean-Jacques Grunenwald wrote numerous organ and piano works, as well as chamber music, orchestral works, oratorios, and several important film scores, for example for Monsieur Vincent (1947).

Grunenwald was buried in the chapel of the Fourgeaud family, call virusesque Grunenwald, in the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Compositions

Organ solo

• Première Suite (1937)
• Deuxième Suite (1938)
• Berceuse (1939)
• Quatre Élevations (1939)
• Hymn aux Mémoires héroïques (1939)
• Hymn à la Splendeur des Clartés (1940)
• Variations brèves sur un Noël du XVIe Siècle Je me suis levé (1949)
• Cinq Pieces pour l'Office Divin (1952)
• Fugue sur les jeux d'anches (1954)
• Diptyque liturgique (1956)
• Homage to Josquin des Près (1956)
• Introduction et aria (1956)
• Messe du Très Saint Sacrement (1960)
• Adoratio (1964)
• Sonata (1964)
• Pièce en Mosaïque (Contrastes) (1966)
• Pastoral mystique (1968)
• Oppositions (1976)
• Postlude alleluiatique (1977)

piano

• Prelude (1936)
• La melodie intérieure (1944)
• Fantasmagorie (Scherzo) (1946)
• Cahier pour Gérard: cinq pièces (1948)
• Capriccio pour piano ... (1958)
• Partita (1971)

Piano and orchestra

• Concerto (1940)
• Concert d'été for piano and string orchestra (1944)

orchestra

• Fêtes de la lumière (1937)
• Overture pour un drame sacré (1954)

Various works

• Suite de danses for harpsichord or piano (1948)
• Fantaisie-arabesque for harpsichord (or piano), oboe, A-clarinet and bassoon (1950)
• Sardanapale: drame lyrique en trois actes (1950)
• Variations sur un thème de Machaut for harpsichord (1957)
• Henry Barraud (1900-1997): Te Deum for orchestra , arranged for choirs and organ by Jean-Jacques Grunenwald (1957)
• Psaume CXXIX (De profundis) for mixed choir and orchestra (1961)
• Tu es Petrus for choir and two organs (1965)
• Fantaisie en dialogue for organ and orchestra (1965)
• Sonate de concert for trumpet and string orchestra or trumpet and organ (1967)

Filmography

• 1943: The Song of Songs (Les Anges du Péché) - Director: Robert Bresson
• 1945: Falbalas - His last model (Falbalas) - Director: Jacques Becker
• 1945: The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne (Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne) - Director: Robert Bresson
• 1947: Last Refuge (Dernier refuge) - Director: Marc Maurette
• 1947: Two in Paris (Antoine et Antoinette) - Director: Jacques Becker
• 1947: Monsieur Vincent - Director: Maurice Cloche
• 1949: Docteur Laennec - Director: Maurice Cloche
• 1949: La Route inconnue - Director: Léon Poirier
• 1949: Today's Youth (Rendez-vous de juillet) - Director: Jacques Becker
• 1951: Diary of a country pastor (Le Journal d′un Curé de Campagne) - Director: Robert Bresson
• 1951: Edouard and Caroline (Édouard et Caroline) - Director: Jacques Becker
• 1952: The Truth About Our Marriage (La vérité sur Bébé Donge) - Director: Henri Decoin
• 1952: La Demoiselle et son revenant - Director: Marc Allégret
• 1953: Mina de Vanghel - Directors: Maurice Barry and Maurice Clavel
• 1953: A wonderful love (L'Étrange désir de Monsieur Bard) - Director: Géza von Radványi
• 1953: The Lovers of Toledo (Les Amants de Tolède) - Directors: Henri Decoin and Fernando Palacios
• 1953: The Scarlet Curtain (Le Rideau cramoisi) - Director: Alexandre Astruc
• 1954: Navigation marchande atlantique - Director: Georges Franju
• 1954: Le Chevalier de la nuit - Director: Robert Darène
• 1954: The Renegade (Le Défroqué) - Director: Léo Joannon
• 1956: The Man with the Golden Key (L'Homme aux clefs d'or) - Director: Léo Joannon
• 1957: SOS Noronha - Director: Georges Rouquier
• 1957: Arsène Lupine, the millionaire (Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupine) - Director: Jacques Becker
• 1963: À cause, à cause d'une femme - Director: Michel Deville

bibliography

• Jean-Jacques Grunenwald: organist, compositeur, architecte. L'Orgue: Cahiers et memoirs No. 36 (1986). Paris: Association des Amis de l'Orgue, 1986.
• Xavier Darasse: Jean-Jacques Grunenwald , in Guide de la musique d'orgue , edited by Gilles Cantagrel. Fayard, Paris 1991: 417-419.
• A. Machabey: Portraits de trente musiciens français. Paris, 1949: 93-96.
• Gérard Serret (ed.): Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. Paris, France: G. Serret, 1984.

Web links

• http://www.musimem.com/grunenwald.htm (in French)
• Jean-Jacques Grunenwald in the Internet Movie Database (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Marcel Dupré	Titular organist of the Saint-Sulpice Church 1973–1982	Daniel Roth