Pascale

Marcel PAPONAUD (Rive-de-Gier, Loire, 1893 - Lyon, 1988) was born July 25, 1893. He studied at the Conservatoire in Lyon, then eventually at the Paris Conservatoire, where he Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) and Charles Tournemire (1870-1939) who were his teachers. Mobilized during the Great War, he participated in the battles of Somme and Verdun, and received the Croix de Guerre. Orchestral conductor of the 28th division, he led concerts of French music in Metz (Moselle), Strasbourg (Bas-Rhine) and Sarreguemines (Moselle), the first since the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine to the German Empire.
In 1917, George Martin Witkovski, organist of the Sanctuaire Lyon was called to the organist position of the Salle Rameau and the office of the Société des Grands-Concerts, but it was not until the end of the war that he was able to take office. After Witkovski’s departure, Paponaud became organiste titulare for forty-two years (1919-1961) during which he gave (among other things) the Lyon premiere of Francis Poulenc’s (1899-1963) Concerto for organ in 1943.
In 1920, Marcel Paponaud also became organist titulare of St. Bonaventure, and in 1934 succeeded Valentin Neuville as professor of organ at the Lyon Conservatoire, marrying one of his students, Yvette Dufour. Renowned concert organist, he began interpreting the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), giving in Lyon no less than forty-seven concerts. Suffering from ill health, he retired after 1970 and died April 17, 1988, leaving several pieces for organ, organ and voice, and a suite for piano.

This piece is a short work from the series "Orgue et Liturgie", a Communion piece for Easter