Suite Liturgique - Pierre Cochereau (1962/64) - transcribed and played by David Briggs

Suite Liturgique - Pierre Cochereau (1962/64) - transcribed and played by David Briggs at the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York

Pentecost, 1964:
Entrée

Assumption, 1962:
Offertoire
Elevation
Communion (1)
Communion (2)
Sortie

I’ve loved the improvisations of Cochereau since I was a nine year old choirboy at Birmingham Cathedral, when John Pryer the Assistant Organist (himself a brilliant improviser) lent me an LP called 'L’Extraordinaire Pierre Cochereau'. I remember I simply couldn’t stop listening to it. Fifteen years later, starting in 1986 and eventually lasting 11 years, I started a long project of transcribing many of Cochereau’s famous improvisations from Notre-Dame, primarily to sharpen my own aural skills and also to find out in much more depth about what made Cochereau’s harmonies and structures so unique and so wonderful. During Covid it's been wonderful to have the time to re-immerse myself in the Cochereau forensic trail again, for the first time in 20 years.

These completely amazing improvisations were actually mainly created on the 1862 Cavaillé-Coll console. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in possession of these original Assumption 1962/Pentecost 1964 reel-to-reels (unless anybody on YouTube knows different!). They were given me about 20 years ago by Fred Tulan, a friend of Pierre’s in California, and I've now transferred them onto mp3. They are blisteringly exciting - he was only 38 and completely 'on fire'! I’ve assembled them into a 6 movement ‘Suite Liturgique des années soixante’. You can already sense the unique and completely symbiotic relationship between PC and the super-charged Notre-Dame Cavaillé-Coll, even on a rather crackly mono reel-to-reel. I love the first chord of the Entrée, where someone only just managed to find the record button just in time. Actually the music is sometimes not million miles from Tournemire - especially the Pentecost 1964 Entrée: and the 1962 Finale is really incredible, with an unstoppable tidal wave of rhythm and kinetic energy. Cochereau certainly knew his Prokofiev. The slow movements (Offertoire, Elévation, Communion) are beyond gorgeous, especially in terms of harmonic generosity and consummate poetry. In this video you’ll be able to follow the new transcription on a PDF in a split screen, so it's possible to observe what was going on in this genius' mind.

I wonder what Cochereau would have thought of someone sitting in Bar Harbor, ME and NYC and writing his improvisations down on a computer, three notes at a time, 58 years later? With Garageband software, it's now possible to slow the original down to 10% tempo, without changing the pitch, so now there's no excuse to get anything wrong, if you listen enough times . The process took about the same amount of time as it did back in the 90’s: about 4 hours for one minute’s music. The whole issue of the ethics of transcribing what were created as improvisations is something which I have thought long and hard about, over the years. I hope that, with hindsight, he would approve. Cochereau himself hated compose, probably because he had neither the time nor the inclination. He also once said he didn’t want to be thought of as a second rate Debussy or Ravel, Duruflé or Dupré. Be that as it may, I think it’s undeniable that Cochereau actually had his own unique and distinct post-impressionist language, which flourished to its full extent when he was improvising, and especially at Notre-Dame. Transcribing the music gives a greater insight to the marvels of this rich language. When I asked this question to Marie-Pierre, his wonderful daughter who is a brilliant professional harpist, her reply was very moving. “David… he would have been amazed that anyone could have loved him so much”.

So here are the reconstructed improvisations, which I recorded a couple of weeks ago here at SJD, using the Walker Technical Company Digital instrument which we are using in the aftermath of the fire on Palm Sunday 2019, while our famous Aeolian-Skinner is being restored.

To finish, I’d really like to ask for some help about the penultimate chord of the Sortie. The final 5-chord cadential progression, reminds me of the spine-tingling qualities of the end of Dupré’s 'Le Monde dans l’attente du Sauveur', or the A flat 'Prelude and Fugue Opus 36'. First an Eb minor, then a submediant C flat major, the third chord is a complete stroke of genius (and ecstatic C major, like the sun suddenly appearing from behind a thundercloud), and then we have the quandary of the penultimate chord. I’ve listened to it literally 100’s of times but I’m not completely convinced I’ve caught all the ingredients yet. If there is anyone with a particularly keen ear, I’m open to additional forensic suggestions! It’s such a dense riot of harmonics and polytonal mischief.

One thing is for certain, though - this music is SO amazing … and so worth the huge labor of love involved in recreating it.

Видео Suite Liturgique - Pierre Cochereau (1962/64) - transcribed and played by David Briggs канала David BRIGGS