Damin Spritzer - Organ Music of René Louis Becker, Vol. 1 - 3 (2011 - 2017)

René’s father, Edouard Becker (1838-1895), was a prominent organist from Bischheim, Alsace, who served as the organist for Chartres Cathedral and the Strasbourg Cathedral in the 1860s and 1870s. René was the second-to-last child in the large family, taught first by his father and then formally trained at the Strasbourg Municipal Conservatory of Music from 1896-1904: piano with Ernst Münch and Fritz Blumer (a student of Franz Liszt), harmony with Carl Somborn (a student of Joseph Rheinberger), and organ with Adolph Gessner.

In 1904, Becker immigrated to America to join his older brothers Lucien and Camille in St. Louis, Missouri, where they established the Becker Bros. Conservatory of Music in 1905. From 1905-1910, René was listed as an “Instructor of Music” at St. Louis University, where he taught piano-forte. He also taught Gregorian Chant at Kenrick Seminary in 1906-8 and 1910-1911. On May 3, 1910, he married Angela Landzettel, who was also an accomplished musician and a published composer. During the nine years René lived in St. Louis, 59 of his compositions for organ and/or piano are known to have been published. In addition to teaching and his work as a church organist, René performed frequent concerts in the St. Louis area, most often as an accompanist, according the concert programs in the family scrapbook. The performances, whether they took place in “Becker Hall” or in other venues, nearly always featured many collaborators: violinists, vocalists, organists, and pianists.

He moved to Belleville, Illinois, in 1912 where he was the organist for St. Peter’s Cathedral from 1912-1915. During his tenure, the Estey Organ Company installed op. 1093 in the Cathedral in 1913. While in Belleville, nearly 50 more of his compositions were published.

In 1915, the Becker family moved to Alton, Illinois, and remained there until 1930. René continued to teach and compose and was the organist at Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral, publishing nearly 100 more compositions during those 15 years in Alton. The cathedral organ was an 1893 Hook & Hastings, op. 1569 of two manuals and 27 registers. Sadly, on July 21, 1949, a powerful lightning bolt struck the steeple of the Cathedral and destroyed the organ.

In 1930, they moved again and René became the first organist at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit, Michigan, remaining there until 1942. The organ at the Cathedral today is still the same as then: Casavant Frères op. 1114 installed in 1925, with three manuals of 61 keys, a 32-note pedal board, and 50 stops. Between 1931 and 1947, only eight more compositions were published (more than 300 works in manuscript, written throughout his entire career, remain unpublished to this day). The Great Depression was not kind to the music publishing industry: many of René’s submissions during those years were rejected by publishers for economic reasons.

After 1942, René moved to St. Alphonsus Church in Dearborn, Michigan, where he served as organist until retirement in 1952 at the age of 70. Records of the Austin Organ Company indicate that their instrument at St. Alphonsus was of 30-stops and had been installed in 1929, with three manuals of 61 notes each and a 32 note pedalboard. René’s retirement was caused by complications and suffering from the Parkinson’s disease of which he died on January 28, 1956 at the age of 74.