Jean-Marie-Hyacinthe Langlais

LANGLAIS, Jean-Marie-Hyacinthe. b. La Fontenelle, Brittany, 15 February 1907; d. 8 May 1991. The eldest of four children born to a stonecutter and seamstress, Langlais became completely blind by the age of three. His handicap and the poverty of his family prevented him from studying music until the age of ten when he obtained a scholarship to study at the School for the Young Blind in Paris where his teachers were René Clavers, violin, Maurice Blazy, piano, and André Marchal, organ. In 1927, he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire, studying organ with Marcel Dupré and orchestration with Paul Dukas. Private organ study was with Charles Tournemire. Early substitute jobs were at...