Three works, three worlds, three journeys. Each is related in scale, density, in the tortuous nature of the journey it undertakes, and in its joint desire for action and contemplation; each is rooted in its need for space and time, and in its desire to take on a substantial journey, a quest, a conquest.
Listening to them, one might well consider these works as a large-scale trilogy. However, the idiomatic nature of each instrumental setting, and the specific principles, which are followed in each composition, emphasise the three different approaches.
All three pieces belong to a group of large scale compositions, which are written without separate movements yet each with a unified trajectory which undergoes multiple twists and turns.
Jean-Pierre Leguay was an organ student of André Marchal, Gaston Litaize and Rolande Falcinelli. He studied counterpoint with Simone Plé-Caussade and composition with Olivier Messiaen, before becoming titular organist at Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Paris from 1961 to 1984. In 1985 he was appointed titular organist at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. He has won numerous prizes for organ, improvisation (on the organ and piano) and composition.
Internationally recognized as a concert organist, composer and improviser, not only at the organ and piano, but also in a group, Jean-Pierre Leguay pursues his three-fold career in France and abroad, throughout Europe, Canada, the United States and Asia.
He became a “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” on 1 January 2013.
