FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 35/4

Lombard, Editions Chantraine (EC 90). The Belgian publisher Chantraine

has performed an inestimably great service in issuing these Cochereau

improvisations which, hitherto, have been available only through audio

recordings. A transcription that captures, note-for-note, all of the

harmonic, rhythmic, and registral subtleties of Cochereau's playing must

necessarily represent a significant tour de force. But in the absence

of an express approval from Cochereau himself, the work of his

transcribers need largely be accepted on faith. As it happens, in the

entire repertory of Cochereau transcriptions (seven titles at present,

and at least five more in preparation), there is one, only, that was

written with the express approval of Cochereau -- the Boléro, as

transcribed by his son Jean-Marc Cochereau. The overall concept is,

very simply, that of a grand solo with an accompanying rhythmic

ostinato in a separate percussion part. Cochereau's result is a

veritable compendium of post-Romantic French harmonic practice. The

melodic "theme" is merely a point of departure, and the ensuing

sectional buildups are often phrased quite independently of the

accompanying four-bar ostinato. (The ostinato, incidentally, is not

the same as in the famous Bolero by Ravel.) Although two snare drums

are specified in the score (with a possibility for additional

percussion, according to Pierre Cochereau's own preface) only a single

separate percussion part is provided.

If the other Cochereau transcriptions do not enjoy the "canonical"

status of the Boléro, should they still be judged on their ex post

facto compositional merits, even if the recordings from which they were

drawn do not necessarily represent Cochereau's finest work? Cochereau

never lent much approval to any of these recordings, and may not

have had much choice. . . .

In the Berceuse à la mémoire de Louis Vierne, Cochereau employs,

rather freely, the melody "Dodo, l'enfant do" which Vierne used in his famous

Berceuse from the Pièces en style libre. This 6 1/2-minute Adagio breathes a

hyper-Romanticism that is, at once, both ecstatic and suspended in

time. Frédéric Blanc's transcription is alive in every measure.

The same cannot be said for the Neuf Pièces Improvisées, a Baroque

affair consisting of Kyrie, Petit plein-jeu, Offertoire, Tierce en

taille, Voix humaine, Cromorne en taille, Flûtes, Basse et dessus de

trompette, and Grand plein-jeu. Are these pieces a significant

contribution to the repertoire? Cochereau himself probably would have

roiled at the thought. Are they a testimony to Cochereau's strength as

an improvisor in the French Classical style? Insofar as the sound

itself is essential to that style, there no question as to the

authentic "sound;" but it is painfully apparent that these

improvisations were in no way conceived to withstand close

compositional scrutiny. Joulain's transcription aspires to impart not

only Cochereau's text, but also his manner, and this gives the entire

score the appearance of certain 19th-century German "instructive

editions" of 17th-century music, with their long-drawn phrase markings,

irregular time-signatures, written-out agréments, and other impediments

to easy reading.

The Variations sur un Noël is one of the longest transcriptions in

the series thus far, but the dozen variations are brief. . . .

sur un Noël, there is a temptation to draw comparisons, since both

works are in D minor, but Cochereau's artistic independence is quite

pronounced. For one thing, strict variation technique is rarely

observed, and the theme, "A la venue de Noël," is something that

Cochereau takes or leaves as he pleases. There is no fugue, and only a

single "Canon" (which, curiously, the transcriber has reduced from six,

to five voices). As always, Cochereau's harmony is magnificent, and

his exploitation of the colors of the organ is ravishing. The

movements are entitled Grand plein-jeu, Flûtes, Nasards, Tutti, Chamade

(2' Chamades in double-pedal), Fonds, Scherzo (8, 2 2/3, 2'), Canon

(Fughetta, on the reeds), Fileuse (Flutes and Bourdons), Fanfare (Reeds

16, 8, 4'), Adagio (sustained chords under a 4' pedal, with a

pointillistic upper line for Tierce and Larigot alone), Trio, and

Final. The inspiring transcription by François Lombard includes a

table (compiled by J.-M. Cochereau) proposing precise registrations as

used at Notre-Dame, but otherwise, registrations (and a few other

logistic indications) have been adapted to accommodate more typical

instruments.

If the impact of these editions were only to preserve the work of

one of the great improvisors of our time, that, alone, would be a

masterstroke. But the project will also serve to call attention to an

important and overlooked genre that must, inevitably, broaden the scope

of the existing written repertoire.

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