Trois Pièces, IJJ 20

Marie-Alphonse-Nicolas-Joseph Jongen (14 December 1873 – 12 July 1953) was a Belgian organist, composer, and music educator. His name is correctly pronounced with a "hard j" - like a "G" with the two syllables receiving equal stress. He was born in Liège, where his parents had immigrated from Flanders. On the strength of an amazing precocity for music, he was admitted to the Liège Conservatoire at the extraordinarily young age of seven, and spent the next sixteen years there. He won a First Prize for Fugue in 1895, an honors diploma in piano the next year, and another for organ in 1896. In 1897, he won the Belgian Prix de Rome, which allowed him to travel to Italy, Germany and France.

In 1902, he returned to his native land, and in the following year he was named a professor of harmony and counterpoint at his old Liège college. With the outbreak of World War I, he and his family moved to England, where he founded a piano quartet. When peace returned, he came back to Belgium and was named professor of fugue at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels. From 1925 until 1939, he served as director of that institution; 14 years after leaving the directorship, he died at Sart-lez-Spa, Belgium. From his teens to his seventies Jongen composed a great deal, but today, the only part of his oeuvre performed with any regularity is his output for organ.

He was organist of Saint Jacques Eglise, Liege for a time.

Trois Pièces, IJJ 20 were composed in 1908 and published by Schott in 1909. They were originally intended for harmonium, but translate fairly well to the organ. The three movements are Prière du Matin, Angelus, and Prière du soir. The intent was to create a sacred musical day with prayers in the morning and evening, divided by the Angelus at noon.

When I first downloaded these, I thought I could "make more of them" in terms of "organizing them," but these are sort of set in terms of being for the harmonium.

The score and a number of interesting photos are attached.