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Music
Life
Born in 1850 in Uffholtz (Upper-Rhine), Aloÿs Claussmann studied in Eugène Gigout’s class at the Niedermeyer school, where he won the first prizes in organ and piano. In 1872, he was awarded a honorary prize from the French ministry of fine arts. The following year, he was appointed organist of the cathedral in Clermont-Ferrand, a city where he was to spend his whole career as a composer and musician. In 1909, he founded the music conservatory there, which he directed until his death in 1926.
Although he composed extensively for the piano (he was an excellent pianist), as well as chamber and vocal music, the major part of Claussmann’s work was devoted to the organ. He left a repertory of about 350 pieces, all belonging to the post-romantic period which he celebrated with luminosity and sensivity. His work is a tribute to the instrument crafted by Cavaillé-Coll, from which he was able to draw out the ample, warm foundation stops, the powerful, generous reeds, and the dark, dense romantic mixtures.
Claussmann succeeded in creating a perfect synthesis of German and French organ music, an achievement likely rooted in his alsacian background. Although the influence of Franck and Schumann is clear, the originality of his music is beyond question. Whether it is meditative, even verging on the nostalgic, heroic, or harmonically audacious, Claussmann’s music is always perfectly crafted, with opposing keyboards that are like echoes of the orchestra’s different sections.
The pieces recorded here were composed over a thirty-year period. There is little evolution in the musical language. Claussmann was above all faithful to a school and a style, preferring not to follow fads and trends, not to be original at all costs. He was a man who liked a job well done, whether it be in major pieces, or in more modest ones composed for liturgy. He cherished strongly architectured writing, which did not prevent him from discarding certain rules and occasionally using subtle modulations or unusual harmonies, nor to forsake modesty now and them to indulge in a wave of romanticism. Claussmann could have easily enjoyed a Parisian career but instead, chose to contribute to the musical flourishing of a provincial town, as both a musician and a teacher.
As is it written in the Proverbs, "who goes rightfully goes safely, who follows a tortuous path will be unmasked".
His works, along with those of other composers like Marie-Joseph Erb in Strasbourg, Emile Bourdon in Monaco, Edouard Commette in Lyon, Canon Fauchard in Laval to name but a few, helped to forge a missing link between Parisian organ music, which was renown and praised, and the more discreet yet undeniable contribution of provincial masters. This led to the development of a language that has made the reputation of the French organ school.
From the booklet of Herve Desarbre’s CD "Aloys Claussmann". See http://www.desarbre.com/; http://www.desarbre.com/pages/page39.html.