Louis Vierne was born in
Poitiers on 8 October 1870, When Vierne's mother died on 25 March 1902, he moved to a larger flat on Rue ses Saints-Pères. A second son, André, was born on 6 January 1903, and a daughter, Collette, was born on 5 January 1907. In 1906, a street accident in Paris caused him to badly fracture his leg, and it was briefly thought that his leg would need to be amputated. The leg was saved, but his recovery, and the task of completely re-learning his
pedal technique, took a half a year. Vierne obtained a divorce on 4 August 1909, citing the infidelity of his wife. While she became custodian of the younger children, Jacques remained with his father. Vierne taught, as an assistant, at the Conservatoire for nineteen years, where his students included
Joseph Bonnet,
Nadia Boulanger,
Marcel Dupré and
Henri Mulet. He was expected to succeed Guilmant as head of the organ class, but instead,
Eugène Gigout was appointed, succeeded in 1926 by Dupré. Vierne taught at the
Schola cantorum from 1912. His students uniformly described him as a kind, patient and encouraging teacher. Among his pupils were
Augustin Barié,
Edward Shippen Barnes,
Lili Boulanger,
André Fleury,
Isadore Freed,
Henri Gagnebin,
Gaston Litaize,
Édouard Mignan,
Émile Poillot,
Adrien Rougier,
Alexander Schreiner, and
Georges-Émile Tanguay. In the summer of 1913, he was awarded two medals from the Salon des musiciens. With the outbreak of
WW1 in 1914, Vierne's son Jacques, still a minor, wished to enlist in the military. Louis Vierne signed the necessary dispensation. Vierne went to
Switzerland in 1916 for
glaucoma treatment, expecting to be away for only four months, with Dupré deputy organist at Notre-Dame, but due to complications, he returned four years later. In May 1917, Jacques was transferred to the 44th Field Regiment as a driver. He committed suicide on 12 November 1917 in Prosne in the
Marne. Vierne composed the
Piano Quintet, Op. 42, in commemoration. His brother
René died at the front on 29 May 1918, remembered in
Solitude, a poem for piano. Vierne returned to Paris in 1920. A year later, he met Madeleine Richepin, a young singer for whom he set poems by Baudelaire (''Poème d'amour
) which they performed in concerts together. In June 1922, he toured Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1924, he toured England and Scotland, and played in Lyon and Brussels. In 1927, he undertook a U.S. tour of three months with Richepin. In 1928, they spent the summer at a castle in Angers, where he composed Les Angélus
, orchestrated Poème d'amour
which they premiered in Paris on 1 March 1930), and began his lyrical drama Antigone''. After the death of
Vincent d'Indy and the conflicts that followed, he left the Schola cantorum for the
César Franck School in 1931. The government of
France made Vierne a
Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 1931. == Death ==