LDV153.7

51 ANDRÉ ISOIR How did you come to music? I came to it rather late: before the age of fifteen, musicwithout words attached leftme completely cold – I couldn’t understand howanyone could be interested in it. Then I played the trumpet in the wind band of my home town of Saint- Dizier, which at least gave me the opportunity to learn the treble clef . . . Later my father, who conducted the church choir, was lent a small harmonium by the parish priest to help him in rehearsals. It was on that instrument that I learnt the bass clef, entirely by myself, and it all started from there. No piano? No, just that little harmonium, at least to start with. So I never had any theory lessons, and that did me no harm at all. It’s true that I played the piano fairly seriously later on, but it was never really my instrument. On the organ, the four-octave range doesn’t encourage one to work on the hand-shifts that are the basis of piano technique. The two techniques, though very different, complement each other very well. But you can play the organ perfectly well without ever having a go at the piano. You say you didn’t like ‘music without words’. So what did you listen to? French chansons. France Musique and Radio Classique didn’t exist in those days and it was non-stop Radio Luxembourg. Then one day I discovered a programme presented by Jean Witold called ‘Cantatas at St Thomas’s’. I was utterly rooted to the spot in front of the wireless as I listened to this sublime music. In fact it was the first time I had heard music by Bach, and I was completely captivated.