Louis Vierne’s Symphony No. 6 (his last organ symphony) was completed in July 1930 in Roquebrune, in the south of France, and published by Henry Lemoine in 1931. Maurice Duruflé gave the first performance in 1932 on the organ of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The OrganScore edition was made from the original edition (Louis Vierne, 6e Symphonie pour Orgue, Editions H. Lemoine 1931), on which a number of corrections were necessary. Most corrections have been identified by various pupils or friends of Vierne, and compiled by Rollin Smith (Louis Vierne, Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Pendragon Press , Hillsdale, N.Y., 1999). The autograph manuscript, donated by Marie-Madeleine Chevalier-Duruflé to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, was also consulted as an additional source when considering certain editorial decisions and corrections.
Page turns have been reduced in number and, as usual, placed at suitable points. However, it was sometimes difficult to find places where one hand would be completely free. Thus, in the first movement, we had to content ourselves with mere breathing points (pages 5 and 7). These two page turns are nonetheless necessary. Thanks to them, the section from bar 82 to the end, which is particularly dense, highly polyphonic and, as often in Vierne, heavily laden with accidentals, can extend over five pages while remaining easily readable.
The same applies to the ‘Final’. Two page turns (pages 27 and 29) correspond to breathing points, but neither hand is free for long enough. In concert performance, it will therefore be preferable to have an assistant turn these pages.
Content/Inhalt:
p.1 : I – Introduction et Allegro
p. 10 : II – Aria
p. 14 : III – Scherzo
p. 20 : IV – Adagio
p. 25 : V – Final