Rolande Falcinelli was born in 1920 in Paris. Her mother was a painter and her father a chemist. She entered the Conservatory in 1932, and studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition. Further piano studies, however, were interrupted by the war. Following advice from her composition professor, Henri Büsser, she began studying the organ – at first under Gaston Litaize, then under Marcel Dupré from 1941. She won a first prize in 1942, the same year she was the runner-up for the Second Grand Prix de Rome, won the Halphen Prize, and won the Rossini Prize for her oratorio La Messiade. By that time, she had already composed fifteen-odd works – mélodies, piano pieces and pieces of chamber music – and tried her hand at orchestration. In 1941, she also wrote her Tryptique, op. 11, for organ, which marked the beginnings of an exceptional body of work for the organ – a reflection of her powerful imagination and phenomenal virtuosity: her four Poèmes-Études, op. 26 (1948-1960) are among the most difficult works for organ. She followed these up with her great cycles for organ, La Cathédrale de l’ Âme, op. 39 (1962-1972), Prophétie d’après Ezéchiel, op. 42 (1959-1966), and Sermon sur la montagne, op. 46 (1971-1972). She expressed her interest in traditional Persian music through Mathnavi, op. 50 (1973), Miniatures persanes, op. 52 (1974), and Azân, op. 61 (1977) for flute and organ, which along with fifteen or so other works illustrate her ability to pair the organ with other instruments. Her oeuvre comprises seventy-four works, composed alongside an international performing career, her role as organ-master of the Sacré-Cœur beginning in 1946, and her teaching: in 1954, she succeeded Marcel Dupré as the organ professor of the Paris Conservatory, where she remained until 1986. In 1954, she married German radio producer Felix Otto. Their daughter, musicologist Sylviane Falcinelli, was born in 1956.

– Florence Launay –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]