Fourth Cover

      In this fluent text about the Six Études for the organ, by Jeanne Demessieux, Domitila Ballesteros provides the reader with a wide and precise vision about many questions which are relevant not only for the musicologist, but for the organist and the educated music lover. The author demonstrates that the Study, initially a piece aimed at solving a given problem in the piano technique, had its poetical concept enlarged starting with Chopin and Liszt, ending up to become a concert piece. Thus, in view of its origins, the Study constitutes an eminently idiomatic genre. How could, then, elements which were specific of the piano be transposed to the organ technique, being the organ an instrument with so many particular characteristics? That is the question Domitila Ballesteros answers to us, in light of her basic thesis shared, by the way, by Marcel Dupré, Demessieux's teacher, that the command of the piano technique would be essential for the modern organist. Upon assimilation of that technique, it could be expanded to the needs of the organ.
      These questions, as well as a few others in parallel to them, are discussed in a clear and well documented manner, with enriched musical examples, in light of Demessieux's creative Six Études for the organ. This creative six piece collection for the organ, deserves from Ballesteros a discerning analysis, from the formal and interpretative points of view. As the author affirms, the Études might not be an original work, under the chronological point of view, but they certainly mark a fundamental moment, as the epitome of the Modern French School of Organ.
      "Jeanne Demessieux's Six Études for Organ and the Piano Technique" is a book that reveals to us an exciting story, a delicate composer and a remarkable researcher.

Ricardo Tacuchian
Conductor and Composer
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