Charles Tournemire’s (1870–1939) L’Orgue Mystique is a cycle of solo organ pieces composed for use in the Roman Catholic liturgy. It is subtitled: “51 Offices de L'année liturgique inspirés du chant grégorien et librement paraphrasés” (“51 Offices of the liturgical year inspired by Gregorian chant and freely paraphrased”). Each office is approximately fifteen minutes in length and consists of five pieces based on the Gregorian Propers for the day: Prélude a l’ Introït, Offertoire, Élévation, Communion, and Pièce terminale, using nearly three hundred chants.
This essay provides historical background for L’Orgue Mystique, including a short biography of Tournemire and the place of L’Orgue Mystique in it, a brief history of liturgical music in France, an overview of the Solesmes method and Tournemire’s adaptation of it for use in L’Orgue Mystique, and a description of the Cavaillé-Coll organs that Tournemire had in mind when composing L’Orgue Mystique. It also provides a guide for performers of the work, including copies of all the chants Tournemire used, their English and French translations, and descriptions of Tournemire’s use of each chant, for performers’ reference, in order that they may make informed decisions in playing L’Orgue Mystique.