"Incantation pour un jour saint" and "Chant de paix"

There are two contrasting pieces :
- Incantation pour un jour saint at 0:00
- Chant de paix at 5:01, to "wash" ears and brain after the turmoils of the Incantation :-)

The powerful "Incantation pour un jour saint" was written for the Easter Vigil and is based on two gregorian songs used during this service (indicated on the attached scan with the first page of the score) :

- Lumen Christi 0:00 (and not Beethoven's 5th :-) :-)) : the church is first in the darkness and while the candles are lit, the priest sings "Lumen Christi" and the assembly answers "Deo gratias", all that 3 times ;

- the "Litanies des saints" 0:44.

In the first part of the piece, the two themes alternate. The second part (from 3:25) is a kind of a frantic toccata and the piece ends with a last quotation of Deo Gratias. Curiously, whe can hear at 4:36 a bar which is - IMHO - an exact quotation of a bar from "Fantaisie de l'Epiphanie" by Tournemire, who had beenLanglais' teacher : probably a tribute or a joke, or both ....

"Chant de paix" 5:01 is - not surprisingly - a very calm piece where the theme is sung bay a 4' flute at the pedal. It is dedicated to a former Langlais' pupil, Claire Boussac. Langlais wrote about her "Her personality was so calm and serene that I wrote this piece for her".