Guilmant's 'Credo': A Catholic pipe organist's theology of music at the turn of the twentieth century.

摘要

This thesis examines the theology of music of Alexandre Guilmant, a French pipe organist active in Parisian sacred music from 1871-1911, and its impact on Catholic organ music in the first few decades of the twentieth century. As the titular organist of La Trinite church, the Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire de Paris, and the President of Paris' Schola Cantorum (1894), Guilmant contributed to the music Parisians heard during Mass, the techniques organists used to illuminate parts of the rite, and the philosophies his students held regarding their profession as liturgical organists. How, then, did he influence to Catholic organ music? What is his liturgical legacy?;For this study, Guilmant's theology of music is first framed within the musical reforms of the Roman Catholic Church, culminating in 1903 with the publication of Pius X's motu proprio on sacred music, Tra Le Sollecituni. Then, issues specific to French organists are addressed: the restoration of chant completed by the monks of Solesmes, the unification of France under the Roman Rite, and the redefinition of the French organ by organ builder Artistide Cavaille-Coll. Next, primary sources from Guilmant himself (including his compositions, letters, and journal articles) and from his contemporaries reveal the many aspects of Guilmant's approach to his work as a liturgical organist. By putting these works in conversation with contemporaneous papal and popular opinions on liturgical music, this study arrives at the conclusion that Guilmant's theology of music married traditional papal approaches to liturgical music with the possibilities of modern technologies, fresh approaches to composition, and an appreciation for the needs of a contemporary parish. Guilmant used all resources open to him to balance the historic with the modern in an attempt to create the most liturgically appropriate and engaging experience for the listener.;Finally, the reactions of his colleagues and the work of his students confirm that Guilmant's approaches were appreciated and promulgated in the French Catholic and global Christian approaches to music. Whether through the chant-based compositions of his French student Marcel Dupre or the creation of America's Guilmant Organ School, Guilmant continued to impact organists long after his death. His legacy exemplifies one method of response to significant Roman Catholic musical reform and invites liturgical musicians today to reconsider their approaches to their own roles in worship.