Biography of Jean Langlais

Jean Langlais: The Man and His Music

Ann Labounsky
Foreword by Allen Hobbs

Jean Langlais (1907-1991) was among the foremost French musicians of his time. He was the successor to the musical tradition established by César Franck and, like him, was organist at the church of Sainte Clotilde in Paris. Though blind from early childhood, he became one of the most celebrated touring virtuosi of his time, his legendary recitals always concluding with an improvisation upon a submitted theme. Langlais wrote a body of music for organ second in extent only to that of Bach, and his compositions for organ remain widely played. This biography by one of his favorite pupils examines both his life and music.

1-57467-054-9, 392 pp, 18 b/w photos, 1 b/w illus., 43 music examples, 6 x 9", hardcover, © 2000

Published by Amadeus Press, Pompton Plains NJ

Available from:
Amadeus Press
Organ Historical Society
Amazon.com

This book is available in braille and audio versions through the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS), a service of the Library of Congress. These versions may also be available through some local libraries.

Readers' Comments

"I just finished reading your book -- at 5:30 a.m. this morning!

"Thank you again for sending it, inscribing it and most of all for writing it! As you wrote at the end of the book, your hope was that those who didn't know Langlais would come to know him vicariously through the book...and I truly feel that I have.

"Perhaps the biggest 'take away' for me was gaining a much fuller understanding and appreciation for the complexities of playing the organ -- surely the most daunting of all instruments! (Remember, I am a flutist!) I have always believed this to be so; your book served to further educate me on why! I also appreciated the thoroughness of your research and notations. Your sensitivity and candor about Langlais' complex personality and genius were both objective and loving.

"My appreciation for my own church's commitment to sacred music and more specifically to maintaining an organ and sustaining funding for an organist has been heightened tremendously as a result of reading the book and attending Langlais Centennial lectures at the University of Texas at Austin in January 2007. The impact of Vatican II and what appears to be the alarmingly imminent extinction of the Ste-Clotilde traditionalists, as you so eloquently write about in the book, has really 'sunk in.'

"Thank you again for expressing your devotion to sacred music and Langlais' exceedingly prolific contribution to it in his biography. It's truly a 'great read' and a book I will refer to again and again."

— Sylvia (Forshaw) Simpson, Austin, Texas
 

Reviews

"The intimate, sometimes anecdotal biographical portrait is a welcome addition to the store of knowledge about 20th-century French music as a whole and this important figure specifically."

— Choice

 
"Music fans in general will enjoy reading it; organists will love it, and with good reason. This is an absolutely splendid effort."

— Donald E. Metz, American Record Guide

 
"The book is hard to put down and is readable at a sitting or two."

— Haig Mardirosian, The American Organist

 
"A hard-to-put-down history of this fascinating musician . . . No organist should miss reading this fascinating study by Labounsky of one of France's exciting composers and performers. Highly recommended."

— Frederick James Kent, Penn Sounds, Spring 2001

 
"This is an authorized biography, so full of details that it seems as if the writer could tell us what happened every day. This is a very fine book with a nice sense of flow and clarity. The author beautifully weaves together Langlais’s compositional techniques, his teachers, travels, the musical life of Paris, and the details of a fascinating personal life. Very highly recommended."

— Pastoral Music

 
"An achievement we should all be delighted to read."

— The Organ, Vol. 79 No. 314

 
"Labounsky’s is the first comprehensive study of [Langlais] in English."

— Benjamin Van Wye, Notes

 
"This work contains many riches."

— Lawton Posey, Reed Organ Society, May 28, 2001

 
"An exhaustively researched biography of a grand virtuoso of twentieth-century music."

— Willis M. Buhle, The Midwest Book Review

 
"This engrossing work is the product of thorough research. . . . Professor Labounsky has constructed a definitive biography that will enthrall and instruct organists, musicologists, and music historians for many years ahead."

— James B. Hartman, The Diapason

 
"A volume which should be on the bookshelf of any organist remotely interested in any of the aspects of life which went to produce the phenomenon that was Jean Langlais."

— Organists' Review (U.K.)

 
"This biographical study by Labounsky, a Langlais protegee and chair of organ and sacred music at Duquesne University, delves into all facets of his personal and professional life."

— Library Journal