"A Josette Yon dans le tendre souvenir de HELENE YON
décédée le 2 Août 1969 à Rouen"
This is Dupré's very last work, composed in August of 1969, for manuals only. Dupré was a close friend of the Yon family. Jean Yon used to drive Dupré between his home at Meudon and St. Sulpice. When Helene, the mother of Jean and his sister Josette died, Dupré was unable to attend the funeral. So he composed this piece and dedicated it to Josette. Dupré didn't want this piece to be published - he wanted it to be available only to the Yon family. It was only in 1995 that Graham Steed received a photocopy of it from its dedicatee, Josette Yon. Soon after that, it was published in 'The American Organist', twenty-five years after the composer's death.
I would like to quote Steed's description of this piece: "...with an inevitable touch of sadness, is full of faith and the hope of immortality." (From "The Organ Works of Marcel Dupré", Pendragon Press, 1999)
Performed by Dragan Trajer on virtual Mutin-Cavaillé-Coll organ of Notre-Dame de Metz.