Organists Pay Homage to the Composer Jean Langlais

Students of Joyce Jones, Baylor University's Joyce Oliver Bowden Professor of Music and Organist-in-Residence, will present a recital featuring the organ works of French composer Jean Langlais at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 14, in Markham Organ Studio, located in the Glennis McCrary Music Building.
Langlais, who has been blind since infancy, studied organ with Marcel Dupré and composition with Paul Dukas. Though most of his works were for organ, he also wrote a substantial amount of choral pieces, as well as orchestral and chamber music. He died in 1991 at the age of 84.
The Baylor recital will consist of eight organ pieces.
Tracie Gray will perform the "Canzona on 'Adam's Fall' " from the "Folkloric Suite" of 1937. Laura Richling then will play the "Prélude a la messe Orbis Factor," which dates from 1956. Langlais composed his "Suite brève" in 1947, and from that set Lisa Johnson will offer "Dialogue sur les mixtures."
Organist Michael Mucciarone will present the "Prélude au Kyrie" from Langlais' "Homage à Frescobaldi," after which Michael Conrady will play "Epilogue" from that same 1952 set.
Joanna Elliott will perform two works by Jean Langlais--his "Chant de paix" from "Neuf pièces," which dates from 1943, and then a piece from three years after that, "Fête."
The recital will conclude with organist Rebecca Ward performing three movements -- "Prélude," "Improvisation," and "Acclamations" -- from a 1947 composition by Langlais, "Suite médiévale."
This program, titled "Organ Music of Jean Langlais," is a joint presentation of the Baylor School of Music and the Central Texas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Baylor School of Music at 755-3991.