Thomas Chase

“Controlled Abandon: The Enigma of Marcel Dupré”

20 September 2007

The talk dealt with the life and music of Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), “the French organ virtuoso, composer, and pedagogue whom Olivier Messiaen described as “le Liszt moderne.” It focused on Dupré as bridge between the late Romantic tradition that he inherited from his teachers Widor and Guilmant and the post-romantic aesthetic of Messiaen, Demessieux, Falcinelli, Grünenwald, and Guillou, all of whom he trained as virtuosi and composers in their own right.

The talk was illustrated with photographs, excerpts from Dupré’s published compositions, and sound clips of those excerpts played in various concert halls and cathedrals in France, England, and North America.

A graduate of the University of Regina, Thomas Chase received his PhD from Glasgow University in Scotland, and holds the diploma of licentiate (LTCL) in organ performance from Trinity College of Music in London. Dr Chase’s fields of interest include linguistic approaches to literature and the questions of linguistic correctness and linguistic imperialism. He also maintains a strong scholarly interest in French organ literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

He is the author of The English Religious Lexis (1988), the co-author of a chapter in Meaning and Lexicography (1990), and the co-editor, with Ken Mitchell and Michael Trussler of The Wascana Anthology of Short Fiction (1999). He has published articles and reviews in The Journal of Literary and Linguistic Computing, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Canadian University Music Review, Choir & Organ, Organists’ Review, The American Organist, and other journals.

His playing, including live improvisation, has been broadcast on CBC Radio, and he has performed and lectured widely, including appearances in Vancouver, Quebec City, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In August 2005 he was appointed to a two-year acting term as Dean of Arts, followed by a full term as Dean ending in 2012. The Royal Canadian College of Organists honoured him in 2004 with the diploma of Fellow (FRCCO) honoris causa in recognition of “his outstanding contribution to organ music as a performer, scholar, and visionary.”