Alfred Lefébure-Wély

[1] He studied with his father, Isaac-François-Antoine Lefebvre (1756–1831), who had changed his name to Antoine Lefébure-Wely after being appointed organist of the fashionable church of Saint-Roch in the 1st arrondissement.

[1] In 1838 he began a long association with the organ-builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, performing to a huge audience on the new instrument at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.

[4][5] When a new Cavaillé-Coll organ was installed at Saint-Roch in 1842 Lefébure-Wely incurred critical disapproval for playing a fantasia on themes from Meyerbeer's popular opera Robert le diable.

The site says of the composer, "A protégé of the aristocracy, he frequented the bourgeois salons where he often performed with his wife, a singer … and his two daughters who were pianists.

"[2] In 1847 Lefébure-Wely moved to the Église de la Madeleine, exchanging posts with the previous organist, Charles-Alexandre Fessy.

Ambroise Thomas gave the eulogy, in which he said, "Lefébure-Wely has taken his place among the most eminent organists – not only of his time, but of all periods and of all schools!"

)[11] Among 200 compositions Lefébure-Wely wrote works for choir, piano, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra and an opéra comique, Les recruteurs (1861, libretto by Amédée de Jallais and Alphonse Vulpian, 1795?-1829)).

In the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, David Sanger writes, "His organ pieces, many of which have recently become available in modern editions, include pastorales, versets, élevations and communions, which were sentimental, lyrical works, and offertories, marches and sorties, which were louder and more akin to the operetta choruses then in vogue.

Also, even though his contemporaries were unanimous in their admiration for his improvisations, he often seems to have taken the easier alternative, the immediately accessible option, music that doesn't ask any questions.