Jehan Alain

about

Jehan Ariste Alain (February 3, 1911 – June 20, 1940) was a French organist and composer. Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the western suburbs of Paris. His father, Albert Alain (1880-1971) was an enthusiastic organist, composer and organ-builder who had studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne. Jehan received his initial training in the piano from Augustin Pierson, the organist of Saint-Louis at Versailles, and in the organ from his father, who had built a four-manual instrument in the family sitting room. By the age of eleven, Jehan was substituting at St. Germain-en-Laye. Between 1927 and 1939, he attended the Paris Conservatiore and achieved First Prize in Harmony under André Bloch and First Prize in Fugue with Georges Caussade. He studied the organ with Marcel Dupré, under whose direction he took first prize for Organ and Improvisation in 1939. His studies in composition with Paul Dukas and Jean Roger-Ducasse won him the Prix des Amis de l'Orgue in 1936 for his Suite for Organ Op. 48, Introduction, Variations, Scherzo and Choral. He was appointed organist of Saint-Nicholas de Maisons Lafitte in Paris in 1935, and remained there for four years. He also played regularly at the Rue Notre-Dame-de-Nazareth synagogue, where the only known recording of his playing – a six-minute improvisation – was made in 1938. His short career as a composer began in 1929, when Alain was 18, and lasted until the outbreak of the Second World War ten years later. His output

top songs

albums

Alain: Organ Works

Alain: Organ Works, Vol. 1

Alain: L'oeuvre pour orgue (The Complete Organ Works)

J. Alain: Complete Organ Works

The Art of the Chorister

Alain: Oeuvres pour piano

ALAIN: Organ Works, Vol. 2

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Jehan Alain : Oeuvres instrumentales et vocales, vol. 2

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Evensong Live 2015

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Alain: L'œuvre pour orgue, vol. 1. Litanies, Trois danses, Intermezzo (À l'orgue de la cathédrale Saint-Christophe de Belfort)

Fagius, Hans: Organ Favourites

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ALAIN: Organ Works, Vol. 1

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