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+<?php
+$title = "Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal)";
+if (isset($early) && $early) {
+ return;
+}
+include($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/includes/head.php');
+?>
+
+<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).
+</p>