Prière

This is the second in my week-long "Music for Dreamers" series. :-)

Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer, best known for his operas and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death. Born to parents who were music teachers, he was already an experienced pianist and violinist by the age of 10. In 1828, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Jean-François Le Sueur (who also taught Berlioz) while at the same time taking piano lessons privately from the famous virtuoso Frédéric Kalkbrenner. In 1832, he won the Conservatory's prestigious composition prize, the Grand Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel to and study in that city for three years. Most famous for his operatic career, in 1856 he acquired a professorship at the Conservatoire, where he taught, among others, Jules Massenet, one of the few French composers of the younger generation whose music interested him. He succeeded Auber as director of the Conservatoire in 1871. Baffled by the musical unconventionality of César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, and certain other Conservatoire colleagues, he nevertheless was rather well liked as a man, even by those who found his output old-fashioned.
So, while he may have been an old fuddy duddy, at least he was a NICE old fuddy duddy, which, given the nature of the music business IS saying something!

"Prière" is the only organ work that I have ever found by Thomas. I suppose you would say that it is "typical of his style", as it features a simple, but very sincere, long-spun tune, played above sustained chords in the left hand, and the steady "thumping" of the pedal on each of the three beats in the measure. The piece may be simplistic or even "shallow" to some, but I think entering a huge, dark church, and hearing this music played upon the great organ, could make a profound and even hypnotic impression upon the listener.