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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2024
Madame Marcel Dupré found the only known copy of the 103-page typescript of Widor's “Souvenirs autobiographiques” among her husband's papers after his death on May 30, 1971. In a letter dated December 30 of that year, she related her recollection of it to Gabrielle Guibaud, Widor's niece:
I remember the time when our friend Édouard Monet, cousin of the great painter [Claude Monet], deceased a long time ago, went to the Institute to write the memoirs of your illustrious uncle under his dictation. I also know that this work was interrupted after a certain time, Madame Widor being opposed to its publication. Mr. Monet had indeed given what he had written to my husband, and I promise you that I am going to make a search to try to find these pages. This will perhaps take some time.
The cover to the “Souvenirs autobiographiques,” in the hand of Monet, specifies: “1. This is a complete reproduction of the notes taken, without corrections. It is on this text without any editing that the volume will be constructed. 2. Certain chapters remain that I must do myself, or reproduce certain articles.”
Madame Widor was extremely protective of her husband, and in his waning months worried that he would be “induced to take some imprudent risks, which happens too often.” In addition, she had little confidence in his efforts to make some final revisions to his works, writing to Albert Schweitzer: “I foresee nothing good coming from these alterations.”
Very little information regarding Édouard Monet has surfaced, other than that he was a member and secretary of the Comité de Souscription pour la Restauration des Grandes Orgues du Trocadéro (Subscription Committee for the Restoration of the Trocadéro Grand Orgue). Two letters in the editor's possession, dated March 10 and 11, 1926, list the main committee members: Widor, president; Marcel Dupré, vice-president; Émile-Alphonse Leduc, treasurer; Édouard Monet, secretary; Jean Maciet, assistant secretary. Under Monet's and Maciet's names, they are identified as organists.
At some point, an unidentified person reviewed the typescript of the “Souvenirs autobiographiques,” and added a few handwritten marginal notes as well as a cover sleeve (transcribed below) on which passages are cited to potentially confirm the period of the interviews. However, the specific dates were not researched; I have provided these in brackets:
Original typescript (103 pages)
Souvenirs Autobiographiques de C. M. Widor. †1937
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