DUBOIS: Marche des Rois Mages, played on Mustel harmonium

THEODORE DUBOIS (1837-1924) studied at Reims Cathedral, and later at the Paris Conservatoire, winning the Prix de Rome in 1861. He served as choirmaster at the churches of La Madeleine and St. Clotilde in Paris, before succeeding Camille Saint-Saëns as titulaire at La Madeleine from 1877 to 1896. He taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1871, and was Director there from 1896 to 1905. He composed this “Marche des Rois Mages“ in 1886, while working at La Madeleine. The piece was published in 1899 in a set of “Douze Pièces pour orgue ou piano-pédalier,“ dedicated to his colleague Eugène Gigout, organist at St. Augustin. Although scored for pipe organ, the pedal part is so incidental that the piece is easily played on the harmonium. The sustained high B represents the Star that guided the wise men (the Magi Kings) to the Holy Family in Bethlehem. (There is a story that Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, who had built the organ at La Madeleine, walked in to the church one day when Dubois was composing or rehearsing this piece; he heard the high note and presumed it was a cypher—the result of a stuck valve or mechanism within the organ. He rushed up to the organ loft to find Dubois playing calmly, with a key weight on the top B of the Swell manual!) The instrument heard here is an art-harmonium built by the Mustel firm in Paris, their # 470, dated 1887, and # 4321 in the Reed Organ Society database. This video is part of an hour-long concert, live-streamed from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California. Performed by Michael Hendron, recorded 18 October 2020.