Jean Langlais

Jean François-Hyacinthe Langlais III[a] (15 February 1907 – 8 May 1991) was a French composer of modern classical music, organist, and improviser.

From there he progressed to the Paris Conservatoire, obtaining prizes in organ and studying composition with Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas.

[6] Langlais died in the 15th arrondissement of Paris at the age of 84, and was survived by his second wife Marie-Louise Jaquet-Langlais and three children, Janine, Claude and Caroline.

[7] Langlais' music is written in a highly individual eclectic style, venturing well beyond what might be expected of mid-twentieth-century French music, with rich and complex harmonies and overlapping modes, sometimes more tonal than his contemporary, friend and countryman Olivier Messiaen, sometimes related to his two predecessors at Sainte-Clotilde, Franck and Tournemire, but sometimes also employing serial techniques and often exhibiting an earthy, Celtic folkiness which owes not a little to Bartók: "Il y a toujours des artichous dans sa musique"[This quote needs a citation] as one early reviewer wrote.

Owing to his blindness, Langlais's method of composition involved him thinking about the work in every detail over a long period, and only then writing it down in shorthand Braille.