Postlude pour l'office de Complies

The case of Jehan Alain is one of the great what-ifs of classical music. Had he lived more than his twenty-nine years — in 1940 he was gunned down by advancing German soldiers, but not before taking out sixteen of them — who knows what sort of music he might have written? As it is, his output is a gift to organists: he combines twentieth-century harmonic language with influences of plainchant, chansons, jazz, and oriental dance, all with a very French ear for colors. (The house-organ built by his father Albert is an odd little instrument, indeed. But what mutations!)

One of my favorite Alain works is the Postlude for the Office of Compline, which he wrote while on retreat at the Abbey of Valloires in 1930. The piece is a dreamy series of chords — almost static, at first — over which is laid several quotations of chant. (One presumes that Alain originally heard the chants performed in a Solesmes style; they certainly aren't metrical in the composition. Indeed, the snippets of chant in the piece bear little rhythmic relation to the accompaniment, which makes the piece rather more difficult than it sounds.)

Listen: Postlude pour l'office de Complies
This is a live performance on the Letourneau instrument at the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani, performed by W. Dudley Oakes. (I would provide a link so that you could purchase the CD, but the abbey, where I bought it, does not appear to be selling it online.)

We hear portions of the following melodies: Miserere mei, Domine; Te lucis ante terminum; In manus tuas; Salva nos, Domine; and finally the minor doxology, with some repeated amens. I suspect that there's an essay to be written regarding Alain and the "Cistercian aesthetic", one characterized by simplicity, utility, and yet great beauty.

"In our time we are tired of lofty discourse. The public is not so stupid. Do not insist on musical evidence. Avoid commonplaces. Be brief." — Jehan Alain

Other links:

• An Order for Compline (Book of Common Prayer)
  
• Pre-Reform Order of Compline (Roman Catholic)
  
• Some free Alain scores
  
• Cistercian architecture, a fine introduction to Cistercian aesthetics