Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathedrale de Soissons

Maurice Duruflé's Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons played on the 1865 Cavaille-Coll organ of St Etienne, Caen.

Duruflé's Op. 12 fugue was composed in 1962 and dedicated to Canon Henri Doyen, organist of the Cathedral at Soissons. The theme is taken from the cathedral's clock chimes, and is treated in various different ways, inexorably building towards a toccata-like texture before reaching its climax with two striking minor chords at the end.