Eulogy for Marie-Louise Audouin, given after the Requiem in St. Joseph’s, Uitenhage, by Susan Shields, on April 12, 2018.
In 1970 I went to Paris to study piano and to live at the Cite Universitaire – the campus for foreign graduate students. Because of a very providential mistake on my part, I arrived in September, when actually their school year began in October. And “someone – else” still had what I thought was “my” room! That someone else was Marie-Louise. I was duly given another room for the month and was advised to go and meet Marie-Louise. I knocked on the door. “Come in,” she said. As I opened the door, the draft caused the window to fly open. “Well, don’t just stand there. Either come in or go out.” I chose to come in. and thus began our many years of friendship.
After Marie had finished at the Teachers’ Training College in Grahamstown, she taught primary school in Uitenhage, Port Elizabeth, and Johannesburg, while obtaining her various piano licentiates. Then, in order to improve her playing further, she went to Paris to study with Mme. Sophie Svirsky, a Russian emigree. Mme. Svirsky had been a student of Annette Esipoff, the teacher of so many great pianists at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, before the Russian Revolution. After the revolution, Mme. Svirsky was one of those who managed to escape, and during her years in Paris, passed on a tradition of playing with a very clear tone and in long phrases. Marie, with her analytical mind, studied what Mme. Svirsky showed her and figured out exactly how this technique could be reproduced. In prior years, Marie had studied in Uitenhage with May Harper who taught according to the French piano tradition. It was from May that Marie learned the secret of keeping the music moving forward. And so, Marie’s own playing was a happy combination of the two schools of piano playing.
But it was not the technique that made Marie’s music special. Sometimes – not always – but when she really felt like playing, her music had a special radiance that seemed to open up a crack to heaven. She could be playing a Brahms Intermezzo on a mediocre rental piano in her fifth-floor room in Paris, and it sounded more beautiful than anything played in the concert halls. At the end of her life, with fingers so crippled with arthritis that it was a miracle that she played at all, she could be playing Chopin on her ancient upright piano, and her music still sounded like pure gold. God truly gave Marie this very unique gift that I’ve never heard from anyone else, no matter how musically or brilliantly they played.
After her years in Paris, Marie gave concerts all around the Eastern Cape and started a music school. Many of you know Aunty Marie as teacher who was able to impart successfully to students what she herself had learned. This talent is actually quite rare among musicians. For years, she had an incredible percussion band that gave her piano students a chance to work together in an ensemble. Scattered all over South Africa and around the world are her former piano students who learned to play beautifully, thanks to Aunty Marie. In her last ten years, she recorded for home-made CD’s so that she could share her playing with her friends. It was really a privilege and a blessing to know someone to whom God gave such special gifts and who shared them so generously with anyone ready to listen or to learn.
Despite her increasingly poor health, Marie continued her teaching with the same level of commitment and devotion, semester after semester. And in fact, the Christmas concert of 2017, by all reports, was the “best-ever.”
Susan
21st April 2018
Dear Marie I am going to miss you so much.. No more sms's expressing our thoughts on the current Protea performance, rugby scores and particularly the results in the Hong Kong Sevens. I loved having you with me in the month of December. Many milkshakes and the wonderful Chinese Restaurant on New Years Eve.
RIP dear Marie-Louise
Much love Jenny (Sister-in-Law)
jennifer
8th April 2018
Aunty Marie how would we do justice to such a unique human being in more than one sense. She was such a passionate and committed person and would challenge everything you did that in her eyes were not correct. I thought that aunty Marie was immortal. She was such a strong person but at the same time very sensitive. She started to teach my fifth child this year. Little Leila 7 years old. We had it all planned out that aunty Marie would at least teach for the next 5 to ten years still. She had an amazing gift to bring out the best in each child. My heart nearly broke today when Leila asked "when am i going back to piano". She can't wait to go back. She also said "mommy, you don't have to sit by me for the next seminar", that is how confident she had become in such a short space of time. I could not tell her that aunty Marie passed away. It was such a sad moment. I had to hide it from her. The effect that aunty Marie had on our family. She made me believe that each one of the five is musical and talented but in my heart I knew it was her hard work and magic that she had with children. She could turn any child into a musician. On a personal level we have grown close over the years and every day after a lesson she would come to the car and give feedback of the lesson she had and encourage my children. The children became so driven and self motivated that it added to all the other aspects of their lives. We would have our seminars to critique the children but she would use that time to build the children instead of breaking them.
Sometimes she would come across harsh and strict but underneath she had the softest heart. She loved her faith and would fight for it. She did not hesitate to stand alone and firm in what she believed to be true. When she realised that my children were not receiving the best cathechist classes she offered to teach them. She did so without wanting any favours in return. My children loved every minute of those
classes. She use to go with me to concerts, choir festivals and competitions. If the standard was not to her liking she would comment loud and not always realise that
people could hear her. I would tease her and tell
her that I am not going to take her anywhere with me anymore. We would have a great laugh. She was a perfectionist when it came to music and planning for her music concerts at
the end of the year. How empty our lives will be
without these quality high standard concerts. It was a sad and blessed experience to have been at aunty Marie's sick bed a day before she died. I could spend a few precious moments with her
thanks to the family that allowed me to see her
because the doctors told me that I was not allowed to see her. Visits were limited to family members only at the moment I arrived. Thank God my last words to her were. "Aunty Marie,
we all love you" she squeezed my hand so tight.
That was the last time I saw aunty Marie alive. She will be greatly missed by my family. She will leave a void that will never be filled by anyone else. In my heart she is not replacable. May you dwell amongst the Saints in heaven, aunty Marie. You will remain forever in our hearts. You have been taken away from us too sudden and unexpected. You still had so much to offer. We will never completely understand the ways of God. Let us move forth in our lives living your legacy of total committment to what we undertake in our lives. We all love you aunty Marie. May your soul rest in peace.
The Labercensie family.
Gail
6th April 2018