Procession - "Adoro te"

I had not initially intended to upload a piece for Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday), but had a late change of heart.

I chose this work is it is keeping within my "French theme Holy Week," although this piece is NOT a work for the day. It is Eucharistic, so, that association is true, but the proper processional to the Altar of Repose would be "Pange lingua," and not this.

Louis-James-Alfred Lefébure-Wély (13 November 1817 – 31 December 1869) was a French organist and composer. He played a major role in the development of the French symphonic organ style and was closely associated with the organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, inaugurating many new Cavaillé-Coll organs.

His playing was virtuosic, and as a performer, he was rated above eminent contemporaries including César Franck. His compositions, less substantial than those of Franck and others, have not held such a prominent place in the repertory.

A French government website about Cavaillé-Coll calls Lefébure-Wely an "exceptionally talented dandy who, better than anyone, had grasped the musical potential of the new tones and combinations to create music that was thrilling, renewing, impressive and at times heartrending". The site says of the composer, "A protégé of the aristocracy, he frequented the bourgeois salons where he often performed with his wife, a singer … and his two daughters who were pianists. He was the incarnation of the organ of the Second Empire." Even Gioacchino Rossini, not known for the solemnity of most of his own music, once told Lefébure-Wely, "You are admired more for your faults than your virtues."

In 1847 Lefébure-Wely became organist at the Église de la Madeleine, and of Saint Sulpice from 1863 until his death.

Performed liturgically, this would be done "in alternatum", the organ playing in between the verses of the hymn which are sung to plainsong.

The score is attached below, as well as a number of photos of Lefébure-Wély, the Church of the Madeleine, and of Saint Sulpice.