Louis Vierne Is a BAMF (and Proof That Organists Are Metal)

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+ 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). +

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+ 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 + and 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. +

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+ 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. +

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+ 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 + 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. To this day, no rock band has ever been so metal. +

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+ 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. +

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+ 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. +

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+ 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). +