32 Facts About Louis Vierne

Louis Victor Jules Vierne was a French organist and composer.

Louis Vierne toured Europe and the United States as a concert organist.

Louis Vierne was born in Poitiers on 8 October 1870, the son of Henri-Alfred Vierne, a teacher, who became a journalist.

Louis Vierne was editor-in-chief of the Journal de la Vienne in Poitiers, where he met his future wife, Marie-Josephine Gervaz.

When he was only two years of age, he heard the piano for the first time: his neighbor played him a Schubert lullaby, and after he had finished young Louis promptly began to pick out the notes of the lullaby on the piano.

At age six, Louis Vierne underwent an iridectomy in both eyes.

Louis Vierne was then able to distinguish shapes and people, and could read large letters.

Louis Vierne took piano lessons with Madame Gosset in Lille, where his father worked for the Lille Memorial.

Louis Vierne was impressed when listening to Cesar Franck playing the organ in 1881:.

Louis Vierne was accepted as a student of the institution in 1881.

Louis Vierne studied harmony privately with Franck, and attended classes at the Paris Conservatoire, admitted as a full-time student in 1890.

Louis Vierne became his assistant in the organ class and as organist at Saint-Sulpice.

Louis Vierne was awarded first prize in the organ class of the Conservatoire in 1894.

Louis Vierne remained assistant to Widor in the organ class, and to his successor Alexandre Guilmant from 1896.

In July 1898, Louis Vierne was godfather at a baptism, and Berthe Arlette Taskin the godmother.

Louis Vierne was born in 1880, and was a contralto singing who had worked with her father, the baritone and teacher at the Conservatoire Emile-Alexandre Taskin.

Louis Vierne proposed to her on 18 July, and they got married on 20 April 1899.

On 21 May 1900, Louis Vierne won the competition for the position of titular organist at Notre-Dame de Paris.

Louis Vierne held the post until his death in 1937.

Louis Vierne eventually undertook a transcontinental concert tour of North America to raise money for its restoration.

When Louis Vierne's mother died on 25 March 1902, he moved to a larger flat on Rue ses Saints-Peres.

Louis Vierne obtained a divorce on 4 August 1909, citing the infidelity of his wife.

Louis Vierne taught, as an assistant, at the Conservatoire for nineteen years, where his students included Joseph Bonnet, Nadia Boulanger, Marcel Dupre and Henri Mulet.

Louis Vierne was expected to succeed Guilmant as head of the organ class, but instead, Eugene Gigout was appointed, succeeded in 1926 by Dupre.

Louis Vierne went to Switzerland in 1916 for glaucoma treatment, expecting to be away for only four months, with Dupre deputy organist at Notre-Dame, but due to complications, he returned four years later.

Louis Vierne committed suicide on 12 November 1917 in Prosne in the Marne.

On 2 June 1937, Louis Vierne gave his 1,750th organ recital at Notre-Dame.

Louis Vierne completed the main concert, which members of the audience said showed him at his full powers, playing his "Stele pour un enfant defunt" from his Triptyque, Op.

Louis Vierne read the first theme in Braille, then selected the stops he would use for the improvisation.

Louis Vierne suddenly pitched forward, and fell off the bench as his foot hit the low "E" pedal of the organ.

Louis Vierne lost consciousness as the single note echoed throughout the church.

Louis Vierne had an elegant, clean style of writing that respected form above all else.