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      53hornet ➙ Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal)
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    <article>
      <h1>Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal)</h1>

      <p>
        Louis Vierne is a certifiable badass organist from the end of the 19th
        and early 20th centuries. He was born blind and had to have surgery to
        be able to distinguish shapes and objects. Did that stop him from
        playing the one instrument that literally requires you to distinguish
        hundreds and hundreds of small objects from each other? Nope, he just
        did it (and he learned from Cesar Franck, another great organist).
      </p>

      <p>
        In 1906 he got hit by a car and the doctors said they might have to
        amputate his leg. Did you know you play an organ with both your hands
        <em>and</em> both your feet? Well you do, and Vierne just re-learned how
        to play with his feet after the accident. Because nobody tells Louis
        Vierne no.
      </p>

      <p>
        And because he's a badass, Vierne went on to become the official
        organist at the Notre Dame in Paris, a position he won by competitively
        dunking on numerous other musicians. He considered this his greatest
        achievement, and what Louis Vierne says goes.
      </p>

      <p>
        In one final act of badassery, he carried out his lifelong dream: to die
        while playing at Notre Dame. In 1937, to a full recital hall in Notre
        Dame, he was giving his 1,750th performance and actually
        <em
          >had a heart-attack while playing and died at the console, and keeled
          over so that the low "E" played until they removed his body</em
        >. To this day, no rock band has ever been so metal.
      </p>

      <hr />

      <p>
        Alright, so without the decoration, Louis Vierne is my favorite Organist
        and composer from the period. The organ is, in my opinion, the coolest
        instrument on the planet. It's the biggest, the loudest, and the most
        impressive. It's also got the most wide and interesting array of sounds,
        like having an orchestra at your fingertips. Vierne made some of my
        favorite music for the organ (music that my lowly organ skills will
        never let me play). He's also, obviously, pretty badass.
      </p>

      <p>
        In truth, I think all organists are pretty cool. They play a cool,
        complicated instrument that really sounds like no other. They also play
        with their hands and their feet. Someone once said when a musician mates
        with an octopus, an organist is born. Come to think of it, Davy Jones
        plays the Organ and he's pretty cool. Coincidence? I think not.
      </p>

      <p>
        If you get the chance, give Vierne a listen, you can look up his work on
        YouTube or a Pandora Radio station in his name. Look especially for
        Symphony No. 1 for Organ in D Minor, Op. 14. That's the first song I
        heard of his live (and in my understanding is the one he was playing
        when he died).
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